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Aviation History
1954
1954 - 0952.PDF
424 An RB-57 high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft for the U.S.A.F. gets off smartly from the Martin airport. Finish is shiny black, with red lettering BUSY AT BALTIMORE Martin Production of Canberras and Other Fine Aircraft FROM the Editor, whose world tour is now well under way, comes news gleaned during his visit to the Glenn L. Martin plant at Baltimore, Maryland. Many readers will recall the articles dealing with the Martin B-57 Canberra which have already appeared in Flight—particu larly those of October 2nd, 1953, and January 15th last. At present the company are producing the B-57A light bomber and the RB-57 reconnaissance variant. The former resembles in essentials our British-built English Electric Canberra bombers, but the power-plants are Wright- or Buick-built J65 Sapphires, and there has been a considerable amount of detailed revision, including the installation of a rotating weapons bay. The two Canberra variants are being assembled at a very credit able rate in the Government-owned, Martin-managed, No. 2 plant at Baltimore, and the Editor was extremely impressed by the output. This is now building up to a peak and could quickly be expanded to far greater proportions. The automobile industry is heavily involved, Buick making the engines, Kaiser the wings, and Hudson the tail. Martins are already turning out over 60 per cent of the wings and will eventually take over wing manu facture entirely. The co-operation existing between English Electric and Martin is a model of its kind, and the Editor instances a nice example. When aileron production ran into trouble, causing a bottleneck, English Electric immediately despatched some ailerons which were straightaway fitted to Martin machines. As was described in our issue of January 15th, aerodynamic modifications, including the complete sealing of gaps in the tailplane and elevator, have post- Arrayed for final ground-testing are nine RB-57s. In the background are P5M Marlin flying-boats for the U.S.N., the rear pair having T-tails poned the onset of buffeting and Mach turbulence and the improvements are now standard on Martin production aircraft. The next Canberra variant to be built at Baltimore will be the B-57B Intruder, which, according to American reports, will have an armament of 20-mm guns and an assortment of other offensive weapons. The crew of two will sit in tandem beneath a long canopy, somewhat similar to that of the Meteor night fighter. This canopy, incidentally, was test-flown on an early British-built Canberra and was illustrated in our issue of October 2nd, 1953. Another innovation on the Intruder will be fuselage air brakes, in addition to the existing finger-type brakes on the wings. The first Intruder has just been completed. The Editor was also very impressed by the production of B-61 Matador subsonic pilotless bombers. These are powered by the Allison J33 turbojet and are becoming operational in Germany. A remarkable form of integrally stiffened sandwich-type construction is used, and now that the factory concerned is completely tooled for production, Matadors are coming off the lines at a great rate (picture April 3rd, 1953, page 426). The main constructional sandwich honeycomb is supplied as a slab from a specialist outside- contractor; this is then cut up with band-saws after which the skin is, colloquially speaking, "wrapped round, stuck on and baked." The number of parts is kept to a minimum and assembly man-hours are very low. Work on the newest version of the P5M Marlin patrol flying-boat is very active. Powered, like earlier Marlins, by two Wright Turbo-Compounds, the new boat has revised front-hull lines and a high T-tail, the latter requiring some 20 per cent less area. Martin have high hopes for the new multi-jet XP6M flying-boat—a very fast patrol bomber and mine-layer, unofficially reported to have four engines, podded above the wing. With Convair, they have developed special handling gear for such air craft, and they foresee complete water-based task forces, both for patrol and transport, and for refuelling submarines at sea. They consider that flying boats could be developed to have a perform ance equal to, or better than, that of the B-52 land-based bomber; and they would be some 20 per cent lighter than a land-based design for the same job. Both the Marlin and the XP6M (which has been given the name "Seamaster") have very advanced hydro-dynamic characteristics, with long thin hulls. FOR WHOM THE BELL TOILS THEN helicopter test pilots stationed at Bell Aircraft Corpora--•- tion's various installations around Fort Worth, Texas, are claimed to have made 7,569 test flights during 1953 without a single instance of damage to aircraft or persons. Total flight- time was 2,074 hours 8 minutes. In 1952, these pilots made 6,631 flights, also without mishap. At the present time, Bell production centres principally on the Model 47 three-seat machine, which is in service with the U.S.A.F. as the H-13 and with civil operators in some 30 countries as well as in the United States. The model 48, an 8-10 seater, is also in production for the U.S.A.F., and the new tandem rotor HSL-1 anti-submarine machine has just been put into production; the first was delivered to the Navy in January. Altogether during 1953, state the company, 5,619 production test flights were made, totalling 1,151 hr 48 min; 1,095 experi mental test flights occupied 565 hr 40 min; and 855 demonstra tion flights accounted for 386 hr 40 min. At the Texas division, 1,157 training flights took place, totalling 775 hr 26 min.
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