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Aviation History
1950
1950 - 2110.PDF
FLIGHT, 7 December 1950 FIGHTER ARMAMENT . . . down no fewer than 25 B-17 bombers during a single attack.High-ranking U.S.A.F. officers stated then that it would have taken the Allies three years to develop a comparative fighter.The advice given to Allied bomber pilots was to let the Me262 approach to as close as 1,000 yards, and then to turn sharply, sothat the interceptor would be in front of the bomber, and thus harmless. The inference is obvious. Originally, the 30mm Mauser MG.213 shell-gun was to havebeen installed—a far superior weapon of unequalled performance among automatic guns—and the rocket missiles were to havebeen fired with the automatic launcher mentioned before; in addition, the fully automatic type EZ./42 sight was to have beenemployed. As it was, insufficient equipment of this kind was available for the operational trials. In spite of these serious shortcomings, the new equipment metwith amazing success. Combat statistics covering the period February-March, 1945, proved that for every Luftwaffe fighterlost no fewer than seven-and-a-half Allied bombers had been destroyed—i.e., an increase of more than 650 per cent in effect. Never before had any change in armament produced such aconvincing improvement expressed as a victory-to-loss account. During the same period, incidentally, the account remainedsteadily at 1:1 for Luftwaffe Fw 190 interceptors equipped with 20mm guns. What these comparisons really imply is best understood byreferring to Mr. Churchill's appreciation of the early successes of R.A.F. fighters in France during the Dunkirk evacuation(May, 1940). During this period the British victory-to-loss account reached three or even four victories to one loss, operatingagainst obsolescent Ju87 dive bombers and bombers having no fire-arm defence. Mr. Churchill considered this air-combatbalance highly gratifying and most encouraging. During the Battle of Britain the (corrected) victory-to-loss account wasactually 1.9 to one loss. On the glorious September 15th, 1940, 537 the account was 1.4:1, i.e., 56 Luftwaffe bombers shot downagainst the loss (complete write-off or missing) of 40 British fighters. The import of the 1945 improvement of the Luft-yaffe interceptor equipment may, hence, be appreciated. The main reason for the Germans' undeniable operationalsuccess in 1945 was, clearly, the employment of the R.4/M rocket which, still far from being fully developed and possessinga high dispersion, proved to be operationally superior to rapid- firing shell-guns. Consequently, all the later projects of the Luftwaffe were torely on the use of this weapon. The "Volksjager" Hel62 was to have 60 R.4/M rockets in addition to two or three 30mmguns; and the same armament was to be provided for the Me263 Komet tailless interceptor with rocket propulsion. Also,the half-expendable Natter rocket-propelled interceptor was to have thirty R.4/M missiles (to be fired in a salvo) as its solearmament. A jet fighter with two 55mm Mk.112 shell-guns was readyfor comparative operational trials, but found no further use. The armament employed was the latest automatic shell-gun,specially developed to serve as a standard weapon for air use as well as for ground duty as light A.A. Characteristically enough, Me262 twin-jet fighters armedsolely with 30mm shell-guns gave a far less satisfactory account of themselves in air combat, although up to six guns wereexperimentally installed and used in operations. To-day, it appears that Me262 fighters are being built inRussia, under a different designation, and having more power- ful and more reliable turbojets utilizing British experience.Armament with 30mm shell-guns follows the Luftwaffe example, and the guns themselves are of German design. In other Sovietfighters, too, the use of German 30mm guns has been reported. The weapons were actually in mass production at Poznan whenthe Russians entered. As regards rocket missiles, the Russians have never lagged far behind the Germans, and a substantialnumber of German experts are now working for them. (to be continued) TRANSATLANTIC ANNIVERSARY An International Occasion : Prestwick's Annual Celebration EACH year the anniversary of the commencement of trans-atlantic air services into Prestwick is celebrated by adinner at the Airport Hotel, and the occasion has already become one of the outstanding annual social events of this kind.A new high standard was established in this tenth anniversary year when, on November 29th, Scottish Aviation, Ltd., werethe hosts to a large international gathering, and the speeches all bore witness to the enthusiasm felt for commercial aviation.A large number of those present were pilots of this or the previous generation, and, as would be expected on such anoccasion, many had operated across the Atlantic, especially during war-time. His Grace the Duke of Hamilton and Brandon, G.C.V.O.,P.C., A.F.C., in the chair, proposed " The Occasion." He asked the guests to drink to the health and prosperity of NorthAtlantic passengers and air services. "International Aviation" was the toast of Brig. Gen. J. W.Wood, newly appointed United States air attache (General Acker- man officially handed over office three weeks ago, and has nowreturned, with his family, to America). General Wood said no place on earth had played host to so many weary Americanairmen who had flown across the uncompromising Atlantic as had Prestwick. He referred briefly to highlights in the develop-ment of international aviation, mentioning in particular the Air Navigation Convention held in Paris as long ago as 1910. Henamed pioneers in several countries, and remarked that the modern aircraft was the greatest collection of " international nutsand bolts." In conclusion he stressed the significance to com- mercial aviation of the aim stated as early as 1919, i.e., " to pro-vide for the free and innocent passage of commercial transport over the territories of all." The reply came from Mr. V. H. L. Dubourcq, North Atlanticdivisional manager for K.L.M., deputizing for Dr. Plesman. He said that international aviation was still being hampered bythe human mind. He thought, also, that there was too much " nationality and trademark " about airlines for the ideal of inter-national transport. "The British Aviation Industry" was proposed by Sir Wil-fred Ayre, who felt that much value had come from the inter- change of technical and practical commercial knowledge betweenshipping and aviation. His industry and aviation worked to- gether for a common cause—transportation of goods and peoplewith proper economy and with regard to the degree of urgency. Sir Wilfred said he had travelled more than 100,000 miles by air,and wished to pay a tribute to the standard of technical skill embodied in modern aircraft. He thought that in no industrywas the quality of service rated higher than in aviation. It had been studied from a completely new angle, and the con-clusions applied. He ended with an appeal that young men should be stimulated and encouraged to undertake industrialleadership: if this were done our successors would have no cause to be ungrateful. Replies to this toast came from a manufacturer and an opera-tor, respectively Mr. W. T. Gill, C.A. (Rolls-Royce, Ltd.), this year's president of the S.B.A.C, and Mr. Peter Masefield, M.A.,F.R.Ae.S., chief executive of B.E.A. Mr. Gill spoke of his special interest in Scotland, and went on to say that the aircraftindustry would not flatter itself that it was as yet a serious business competitor to shipping, but he looked forward to theday when it would be. Referring to the recently announced expansion of the produc-tion of the Rolls-Royce Avon turbojet, he said that his company was coming to Hilling ton again because of the very satisfactoryway such work had been tackled there in wartime. He thought that the British industry was in sight of providing equipmentfor airlines as good as, or better than, that from any other country.- In a lively and humorous speech which pleased everyone, Mr.Peter Masefield managed to make a reference to a variety of both topical and local matters and to the people concerned. Hereferred to Scottish Aviation's work in preparing B.E.A.'s Pionairs, saying that these would be the best version of theDC-3 in Europe. (The first is now completed and about to be delivered.) The final speaker, Mr. J. Murray Watson, M.A., proposed" Our Hosts," tracing the early association of the Duke of Hamil- ton and G/C. D. F. Mclntyre (respectively chairman andmanaging director of Scottish Aviation, Ltd.) in 602 (City of Glasgow) Squadron R.Aux.A.F., and that of the Earl of Selkirkwith 603 Squadron. He mentioned also early associations on the Houston Everest expedition of 1933. He appealed to Mr.Peter Masefield for more Scottish feeder services. It had taken him almost half as long to get from Prestwick to Edinburgh byland transport as it had to cross the Atlantic—including a con- venient diversion, due to weather, from London Airport toPrestwick
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