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Aviation History
1950
1950 - 0993.PDF
FLIGHT, 25 May 1950 Chilbolton, is: May 18th, Manston; May 19th, Istres and Tunis; May 20th, Castel Benito, El Adem; May 2ist, Cairo; May 24th, Beirut; May 26th, Damascus; May 28th, Baghdad; June 2nd, Teheran; June 7th, Baghdad, Damascus; June 8th, Ankara; June 13th, Athens; June 15th, Brindisi, Rome; June 18th, Nice (or Istres), Manston. Now in production for the Royal Navy, the Attacker has a maximum sea-level speed of 590 m.p.h. and a service ceiling of 48,500ft. The built-in armament is four 20-mm Hispano guns with 624 rounds of ammunition, and provision is made beneath the wings for two 1,000-lb bombs and four 300-lb rocket projectiles An ejector seat is fitted and the cockpit is pressurized to give a differential of 3J Ib/sq in. During 1947 an Attacker completed initial deck-landing trials aboard H.M.S. Illustrious and gave great satisfaction. The followingyear a similar aircraft, carrying the equivalent of full military load, averaged 564.88 m.p.h round the international 100-kmclosed-circuit course. Although developed from the Viking iB, the Valetta is a heavier and more powerful aircraft, the normal all-up weight •jeing 36,500 lb. At this weight the take-off to 50ft is 1,050 yards and the landing distance from the same height 925 yards. Cruising at J0,000ft, the Valetta has a still-air range oi 1,580 miles. Provision is made for operation in the following roles: trooper, freighter, paratrooper, glider tug, supply-dropper and ambulance. A gross stowage space of 1,563 cu ft is available in the freighter, and the trooper variant carries 36 men, facing aft, on each side oi a central gangway. A civil version has a disposable load of 12,715 lb. -' .« : BQMBER C BLEB RATIO NS- I 1 The Pathfinder Dinner, a Night at the Albert Hall and a "Saturation Raid" on london THE Pathfinder Association Dinner at the DorchesterHotel, London, last Thursday spearheaded two majorBomber Command "ops."—the great gathering at the Albert Hall on the following night and the more personal series of reunions in London taverns on the evening after that. This, of course, was as it should be, and the dinner afforded an opportunity foi some distinguished R.A.F. officers and others to voice their opinions on problems besetting the Service generally and Bomber Command in particular. Viscount Rothertnere struck an appropriately challenging note by declaring that if the politicians tried to abolish Bomber Command they would have a menace on their hands greater than the Russian threat. To create a defensive bastion alone was defeatist. The future of peace and of this country was, to a great extent, dependent on the R.A.F., supported by the U.S.A.F., and every part of the Service, he insisted, must be kept alive. Air Chief Marshal the Hon. Sir Ralph Cochrane compli- mented Viscount Rothermere on " ably expounding the Air Staff doctrine! " Sir Ralph summed up present problems in a sentence—high thinking and low living. The Service, he said, was not envious of well-paid civilians, for the more such people earned, the more money became available for the R.A.F. Sir Ralph recalled the development, by Bomber Com- mand, of the art of precision bombing by night, the results of which bore comparison with anything by day. With this he believed General Ackerman, U.S.A.F., who was among the guests, would agree. A vast amount of thought had been directed to material and technical developments—sometimes he thought there was too much thinking in these directions. He himself agreed with Pericles, who, when difficulty was ex- perienced in balancing the national budget and a new mark of shield was not forthcoming, announced: "We trust not in material equipment but in our own good spirit for battle." The next war would start not with 1,000-bomber "bludgeon raids," but with a rapier thrust. 1 Air Marshal Sir Robert Saundby spoke of Bomber Com- mand's epic battle, the drain on their aircraft and manpower, when these were needed for other Commands, and their high casualties—the highest of any Command. He disclosed, inci- dentally, that in the 1914-18 war he was a pilot'in the same fighter squadron as "Doc" J. C. MacGown, who was in the chair that evening. Air Marshal Saundby also recalled that one of Air Marshal Harris's most remarkable achievements was the outcome of eighteen months in Washington, after which the Americans, although they had "been kicked heavily in the pants by the Japanese," gave priority to the European war. Morale, Sir Robert said, was never one of Bomber Command's worries, but bad weather, which kept crews too long on the ground. . •.;:'• Air Marshal Sir Hugh Lloyd mid that Bomber Command in wartime had set the pace, and the post-war Bomber Command would be eternally grateful. "Compared with the jobs we are flying to-day," he said, "flying in the Canberra is like sitting at home by your fire, with no vibration, no noise or fuss—no nothing." By comparison, the Lincoln was like a noisy, popular public bar on pay-night. Air Marshal Lloyd spoke of the great build-up in wartime, resulting from which hun- dreds of aircraft carried thousands of tons of bombs to destroy one city. To-day it was a matter of one aircraft, one bomb, one city. We would not, he said, strike the first blow ; there- fore it was vital that we should be capable of instant reprisal, so terrible in effect as to deter any enemy. Mr. Guy Schofield, editor of the Evening Netvs, proposed the toast of the Pathfinder Association and other organizations working for the benefit of the Royal Air Force. The State, he said, could not meet all that was required in the way of socialand welfare activities. However highly concerned, the State was detached, aloof, formal, whereas the approach must beintimate, informal and warm. Dr. J, C. MacGown spoke of the unique nature of the Path-finder Association, which, he said, had found jobs for over 500 ex-Servicemen, largely through the medium of personalletters of introduction to firms. More money was required so that more good could be done. Air Vice-Marshal Don Bennett, styling uimself "the chiefsprog civilian" present, hoped that General Ackerman would understand when he asked that America should not be allowedto destroy Bomber Command. Air Marshal Sir Richard Peck described the Pathfinder forceas a truly noble order of chivalry. He asked that when officers came off the active list they should give all help toexisting organizations, for these, as he said, were knit up with the defence of the country. He was a little afraid of a race of"weighing machine" youths—standing inert, solemn and pompous until two boots were firmly applied to their base. W/'C Michael Birkin proposed "absent friends." The skill and charm of the entertainers at the Bomber Com-mand Night in the Albert Hall on Friday was of a very high order; nevertheless, we suspect, none (not even Miss Liz-beth Webb!) struck such a responsive chord in "Bomber" breasts as Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir Arthur T. "Harris,a recording of whose message was broadcast. This was a characteristic straight-from-the-shoulder effusion; three pas-sages follow: "I am sorry indeed not to be with yon to-night, but I am glad to hear that this reunion is now likely to becomean annual event and that, therefore, further opportunities may arise. Don't think that I have forgotten you or that I willever forget all that you accomplished, or the awful conditions under which you achieved so much . . . You enormously les-sened the tasks of our armies, you directly saved lives of at least a million soldiers at the cost, far too often, of your own.You finally rendered the enemy incapable of all movement, except retreat or rout on every front ... As you know, someof the long-haired gentry placed the destruction of bricks and mortar (and German bricks and mortar at that) at a higherpremium than the million or more lives of Allied soldiers and of occupants of concentration and slave labour camps—whichlives you saved by shorteaiing the war and smoothing the paths of the armies." The following night, from all over the country and all partsof London, the '' Bomber toys '' closed in on their designated rallying points. On this occasion the entertainment was of amore intimate character, and from what we saw of it could hardly be measured—even iu pints. RALLYISTS BRAVE BRITAIN'S WEATHER A LTHOUGH the weather last week-end could hardly have A been considered propitious for an international air rally, the extraordinary fact remains that a total of 34 aircraft (all single-engined) succeeded in reaching Sherburn-in-Elmet on Saturday, having started from countries as far away as Algeria. Sweden, Switzerland and Finland. Most of the aircraft had landed at Lympne the previous afternoon, and on Saturday morning, bv dint of courageous navigation, often under very low cloud and in poor visibility, they managed to slip into Sherburn by mid-day. One very interesting visitor was a 1929 Junkers, flown by Major Bremer from Finland. The party was greeted by the Mayor of Leeds at a civic reception in the afternoo«ifcnd subsequently entertained at a banquet at Harrogatc.
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