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Aviation History
1949
1949 - 0873.PDF
57° FLIGHT MAY I2TH, 1949 The Asymptotic Bomber followed American practice based on nigh speed and highwing-loading, rather than the British characteristics of lighter wing-loading giving fast climb for rapid interception and agilemanosuvrability upstairs, as exemplified in the D.H. Ghost- Vampire. The latter can climb to 40,000 feet in about8 minutes and still do most of its fighting from there on, up to well over 50,000 feet, since its service ceiling is higher than56,000 feet. It is hard to believe, then, that a Russian counterpart of this type of defensive wt apon would have muchtrouble in knocking down such a ponderous target as the B-36, however heavily the latter might be armed We fancy-that our American friends are prone to underrate the height of the IronCurtain. An odd news-commentary that meshes into the discussion at this point is the announcement that the North American F-86A Sabre will be manu- factured in Canada for the R.C.A.F. under a Government licensing agree- ment with the manufacturer. Current 3OO indications are that Canadair will be given an initial contract to build 100. The oddness, to this writer anyway, is why the Canadian Government—still presumably, a member of the British Commonwealth — should select an American fighter (admittedly the world's fastest, but not automatically the best) in preference to, say, Ghost- Vampires built at de Havilland's Toronto plant. Apart altogether from the technical merits of the case, this sort of deal strikes us as unfair to people in the land of austerity, since it obviously does not bring home the Canadian bacon in return for British skill and (dare kuse say?) intestinal fortitude. Boost by Jet But to return to the B-36. The latestattempt to keep this heavyweight in the ring is the piston-cum-jet B-36D,now under flight-test at Convair's Fort Worth plant. This composite mixture—a potion popular only in America— now sprouts the addition of four Q I 100 RANGE (miles x 1.OOO) Fig. 2. Gross weight versus range. Bomb- load : WB = 10,000 Ib. Allison J-35 (4,000 lb s.t.) jet barrels suspended well outboardon wing stalks, apparently in an effort to boost the sluggish take-off and for use in combat emergency. (Production B-36DSwill be equipped with the G.E. J-47 5,000 lb s.t. turbojet.) Since the top speed at the target weight is likely to be Mach-limited to about 460 m.p.h. at 35-40,000 feet (M = o.7o), with the J-47 jets, it will still be no match for the modern strato-spheric jet-interceptor patterned after British design practice. The gross weight of the B-36D is reported close to 360,000 lb,which means that the fuel tankage is still rising. We also suspect that the take-off load factor is not to be whisperedabroad. This barnacled decapod is one more reminder to the Ameri-can taxpayer that the U.S.A.F. is still riding its favourite hobby-horse in high pursuit of the public purse. Indeed, aswe write, a further batch of 39 has just been ordered. This follows by one week a previous order for 36, bringing the totalnow ordered up to 170, of which about 60 have been delivered to date, with current production at an average rate of oneper week. All the signposts indicate that the U.S.A.F. in- tends to standardize on the B-36 as its long-range strategicbomber to the exclusion of everything else now over the horizon. Psychologically, we suspect that the top militaryplanners of the Air Force, having got themselves deeply " sold " on this project, now haven't got the nerve to puilout. Technically, we think the Air Force strategists are tryingto buck the law of diminishing returns—a principle which holds good in engineering as well as economics. Indeed, onemight well look upon this cherished dream of the ultra-long- range bomber as an illuminating study in asymptotic weight-lifting—the last few thousand miles on the range chart (Fig. 2) are fantastically out of proportion to the effort ex-pended. All this straining of the camel to carry a gnat may possibly be justified if the atomic football can be lofted overthe goal line with any reasonable certainty (say. even 50 per cent) ; but to this observer, the evidence is largely against it.Just in passing—since we have introduced the sportive element—one of our tame scientific friends tells us that theestimated atomic explosive charge of the A-bomb works out at around 30 lb and its size is roughly t-iat of a football ; alsothat calculations indicate that each bomb costs approximately one million dollars; that production is probably at thu rate ofone a week, based on three plants each operating at a rate oi one rnillion kilowatts producing two pounds oi fissionablematerial a day; and that the current stockpile is anywheie between 100 and 200. Our own slide-:ule is not long enoughto check these figures, so we pass them along with reserva- tions.A long career in engineering, plus middle-aged experience of genus homo, has taught us that technical merit must often""- play second or even third string to political and psychological dynamics—a situation which is particularly true in the U.S.A. at this time. Politically,as we have hinted earlier, there are , clear signs of an influential Democraticdarky in the Washington woodpile, while a strong psychological motive isthe intense inter-service rivalry between the Air Force and the Navy, especiallyover this question of A-bomb delivery. Boost on Paper Psycho-political motives play adominating role in national and inter- national affairs just the same as theydo in more personal relationships; hence the Air Force having publicly told theworld that '' with the B-36 operating at 40,000 feet it can now reach 70selected targets in Russia without much interference," it must now per-force try to measure up to its own boost gauge. Accordingly, during the nextfew months we may expect to see a tremendous drive by the U.S.A.F". tobolster an aggressive case for the B-36. Perhaps the crowning jest of this per-formance so far is the news that Goliath will now be christened The Peacemaker.Let none say that, after dressing up the A-bomb as the New World dove ofpeace, our American friends are lacking in the more subtle brands of humour. Obviously, in such circumstances,the technical merits of the case are masked by the purple patches of theService publicity blurbists, each intent on catching the public ear and the Congressional vote for the biggest dollar. Also, thetechnical observer senses the dilemma of Service chiefs in know- ing—or rather in not knowing—which way to jump in the newjet Air Age now opening up the latter half of the twentieth century. The rival merits of turbojet and turboprop still con-fuse the designer's canvas and when Wright Field swings back from one side of the pendulum to the other, and then backagain, progress on the pure jet bomber is bound to be slowed up and the piston-engine to take another deep breath. To confuse the militarists still further two other moves arenow in play on the global chessboard. These are the strategic implications of forward bases on friendly soil and the techniqueof aerial refuelling. The former may be seen in the Atlantic Alliance, while the pioneer work of Sir Alan Cobbam hasfinally paid off with the globe-girdling liight of the B-50 Lucky Lady-II a few weeks ago. Both these events presage the pass-ing of the ultra-long-range bomber and a return to sounder range economics of the order of 6,000 miles. Although this maydampen the intoxicating and costly vision of the long-range bomber operating only from American territory, it makes bettersense in the political sphere and reintroduces a note of reality into the technical picture. Perhaps we have said enough for the moment to show thatthe ultra-long-range piston-engined bomber is at least a doubt- ful basket for the carriage of an atomic egg to the target.Furthermore, such additions or revisions as supplementary turbojets or piston-turbo compound engines cannot be seriouslytreated as anything other than temporary stop-gap solutions to save the vast amount of effort already expended on the world'sbiggest pre-jet airframe. To this writer they look like power- plant patches on the B-36's breeches, for the jet engine haspractically obsoleted conventional airframe conceptions. In our next article we hope to show how the airframe must mea-sure up to the imagination of the genius who gave us the new. power-plant. " • ,8 Z y' \ ^— t Kmre —», i \ > t 17 ••/• N / 1 #1 / / ECONOMIC-- RANGE t - - HI r MAXIMUM RANGE- I 10 i1 1 17
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