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Aviation History
1951
1951 - 0145.PDF
FLIGHT, 25 January 1951 93 FORMATION FANTASTIQUE : Circus turn b/ the Cole brothers, flying acrobats, at the 'recent Ail-American Air Manoeuvres at Miami, Florida. They stand astride the top mainplanes of three smoke-streaming Boeing trainers, one of which is upside-down ; despite danger and discomfort, the inverted acrobat provides the piece de resistance by breaking a ribbon stretched a few feet above the ground. HERE and THERE B-36 Over London T ONDON had its first look at a B-36D -"when one of these big bombers flew over the capital at about 1,500ft on the morning of January 18th. As reported on p. 90, six B-36s visited Lakenheath for a few days last week; they returned non- stop to Fort Worth last Monday in 30 hr 16 min. More Fighters for France A CCORDING to the French Air Minis- **• ter, M. Maroselli, six squadrons of Thunderjet fighter-bombers will be in service with the French Air Force by next December. The number of Vampire squadrons, he said, would be increased to 11 (at present there are nine, each with 16 Vampires) by the end of the year and six more would be formed in 1952. Production of the Nene-powered Das- sault 450 Ouragan fighter is now under way, and 162 are on order, together with six " improved " Ouragans—presumably swept-wing Mysteres. U.S.A.F. Turboprop Transport CONSTRUCTION has begun of the^ first turboprop-powered transport for the U.SA.F—the Douglas YC-124B, adevelopment of the C-124A Globemaster II. Power-units for the YC-124B, which isscheduled to make its first flight in the spring of 1952, will be four 5,500 h.p.Pratt and Whitney YT34-P-1 turboprops driving 18ft, three-bladed Curtiss air-screws. With these units, delivering almosttwice the total power of the Wasp Majors used at present, the new Globemaster'sall-up weight will be increased from 175,000 lb to 200,000 lb; payload and per-formance will be considerably improved. As a trooper, it_will be able to carry 200armed men. More Stratojets AT its Tulsa (Oklahoma) factory, the^*- Douglas Aircraft Company is to build Boeing B-47 Stratojet bombers, supple-menting Boeing's own production at Wichita, Kansas. A comparable arrange-ment for expanding jet-bomber production was recently made in Britain when planswere announced for making English Elec- tric Canberras at the factories of HandleyPage, Avro and Short Brothers and Harland. R.N. Helicopter Trials VX7ESTLAND - SIKORSKY S-51 ** Dragonfly helicopters are being operated from a small platform on the 11-knot fleet supply ship Fort Duquesne in Naval trials now taking place in the Channel. The Navy expects to make greater use of helicopters in an anti- submarine role, and the present trials are intended to determine the best methods of operating them from merchant ships in different weather conditions. U.S. Canberras—A Statement MR. JOHN McCONE, U.S. Under-secretary for Air, said in Washing- ton recently that the U.S.A.F. wouldadopt either the English Electric Canberra or the triple-jet Martin XB-51 as a tac-tical bomber—depending on the result of comparative trials. Because of the "Buy American" Act,the U.S.A.F. would be unlikely to place its contract in Britain if the Canberrawere selected. The aircraft would be built under licence by an American manu-facturer—like the Armstrong-Siddeley Sapphire turbojets (to be produced byCurtiss-Wright), which would, incident- ally, be convenient alternatives to the Rolls-Royce Avon turbojets now em-ployed in the Canberra. American sources acknowledge theeffectiveness of the Canberra as a medium bomber, high-altitude night fighter or re-connaissance aircraft. Good take-off and landing characteristics and exceptionalmanoeuvrability will be strong points in its favour during the tactical trials—nowimminent. Aviation Newsreel INSTRUCTION of a Mig-15 over*-* Korea, recorded by the camera-gun of an F-86 Sabre, is shown in a currentedition of British Movietone News (No. 1129, released last Monday). Aviation isfeatured in three of the six items in this edition, which shows, in addition to theMig episode, the arrival of the first B-36s to be seen in Britain (see pages 90-93)and the R.C.A.F. airlift by North Stars from Washington to Tokio. The Januaryr8th edition of Flight, incidentally, com- mented on excerpts from a captured filmof Russian aircraft shown recently by British newsreels. Wind from Water ONE of the two 17ft-diameter fans hasnow been installed in the French 120,000 h.p. wind tunnel at Modane, on the Franco-Italian frontier. Power is pro- vided by a water turbine of the type used in hydro-electric generating plants. Believed to be the only one on this side of the Atlantic capable of testing a full- scale jet fighter to supersonic speeds, the tunnel has a long history. It was planned by the Germans in 1936, and in 1939 they started erecting it in Austria. By 1945, after £8 million had been spent, it was still not complete. When the Americans entered Austria much of the installation
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