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Aviation History
1954
1954 - 2229.PDF
194 PLIGHT FROM ALL QUARTERS Canberra's New Cousin /"COMPLETELY redesigned cockpits and enclosure, air brakes ^ on each side of the fuselage, and new armament, are charac teristics of the "B" development of the Martin B-57 light bomber, a counterpart of the Canberra B-8 introduced to readers in last week's issue. Photographs appear below. / The primary advantage of the new cockpit is greatly improved visibility for the crew of two, who are semed in tandem beneath the beautifully formed enclosure, with/iavigator/radar operator/ bomb-aimer on a higher level than the pilot, in order that he can aid in seeking-out targets. Further improvements have been made to the windscreen, and new anti^fcing, bullet-proofing and anti- fogging arrangements are incorporated. The speed brakes on the aft portion of the fuselage aj€ roughly triangular in shape and open outwards from the reajiinder hydraulic action. When fully operated they move in coordination with the familiar finger-type brakes on each wing. Several advantages are claimed for the new brakes, notably that tbey permit steeper dives, give more speed control during low-kvel operations, and better pilot-control on landing approaches/ A typical under/wing armament load is four napalm tanks and eight 5in rocket^projectiles. Additionally there are eight 0.5in guns in the leading edges of the wing, and a useful internal bomb load, carried in the Martin-developed rotary bay, which allows bombing runs to be made without reduction of speed and without adversely affecting the handling characteristics of the aircraft. B.O.A.C.'s Princess Plans FOLLOWING a week-end visit to the Saunders-Roe factory at Cowes, Sir Miles Thomas has reiterated B.O.A.C.'s pro posal to operate the Princess flying-ho^ffs if and when a suitable new turboprop is available. TJMS engine should enable the Princess to perform economically over a range of 5,000 miles. Sir Miles said that two routeswere under study: from Southamp ton to New York (wh^rfeCapt. H. W. C. Alger had, in 1950, found an ice-free alighting point); and a route to Sydney via Bermuda, Mexico and the Pacific. A 10,000 m.p.h. Bomber A MANNED rocket capable of Mach 14—about 10,000 m.p.h., depending on height—is foreshadowed by Dr. Wake Dorn- berger, the war-time chief of Germany's Peenemunde research station, where the A.4 ("V.2") rocket was developed. Interviewed at Innsbruck (where he is attending the Inter national Astronautical Congress) by Leonard Bertin, Daily Telegraph science correspondent, Dr. Pornberger said that such a rocket would be of the two-stage variety, launched from a mother aircraft of similar design at 80,000ft: At the moment of separation both would be travelling at Mach 5. While the carrier was takfifi back to its base by its pilot, the smaller craft would be rapidly accelerated by its rocket motors to a speed of Mach 14 and-a height of 150,000ft. At such speeds, Dr^Dornberger said, it would be unable to turn, but its residual vej^clty would take it in roughly a straight line to a friendly air bade, possibly nearly 10,000 miles away. Its pilot could drop m>£,500 lb payload of bombs on the way. Photographs of a wooden model (says Leonard Bertin), almost certainly aftered to hide its most secret details, made the machine look like" two tailless delta-winged aircraft of almost identical de sign. The two wings, one QO-Ujrj of the other, gave the impression of a futuristic biplane. The Martin bSfe, subject of a news item above, is a singularly handsome aircraft, not only by virtue of its basic design, but tingly fine fmi/fcind the shapeliness of the new cockpit enclosure. Seen installed are rocket projectiles and napalm tanks. Pointing out that both Dr. Dornberger and his ex-Peenemiinde colleague Krafft Ehricke are now members of Bell Aircraft Cor poration's preliminary-design department (which was responsible for the Mach 2.5 Bell X-1A), the correspondent reports that he learned "from other sources" tha>tne U.S. Government has con tracted for design-studies of the'Mach 14 project; no decision, he says, has been made to buittf it. Forest Warfare /^\N page 203 of this issue are some notes on a major forest- V spraying operation recently completed in Canada. Now comes news of a comparable offensive now being undertaken in England. In Canada the pest is the budwonh, which wreaks havoc in the fir and spruce forests; here it is. the larva of the pine- looper moth (Bulpalus Piniarius) which has been making in creasingly severe depredations in pjjle' forests. Last summer about 120 acres of pine in the forest of Cannock Chase were found to have been completely defoliated. The Forestry Commission accordingly called in Pest Control, Ltd., of Cambridge, and spme 2,500 acres in Cannock Chase- mostly of trees between ^and 45 ft high—are now being treated with Psylortox, a D.T^f. emulsion, which is being sprayed from two of the company**; specially equipped Austers. The pilots are Mr. Henry Johnson and Mr. John Jones. Immediately the operation is cqjnpleted, the two aircraft will begin a similar attack on pins'looper caterpillars which are threatening 3,500 acres of pine forest at Culbin, on the Moray Firth. Competitive Parachuting IN the second World Parachuting Championships, held at St. *• Yan in Southern France from August 2nd-7th, a team of British parachutists found themselves up againt formidable oppo sition. In the final team positions the U.S.S.R. led with 1861.5 points, followed by Czechoslovakia with 1598.5, France with 1581 and Jugoslavia with 1429. The British team secured a total of 1,092 points and Italy was last with 701. The lone American competitor made a personal score of 348.5, giving him an individual position of 21 out of a total of 31 competitors. The individual world championship was won by Fetchichine of the U.S.S.R. with a brilliant score of 672. Second was his team-mate Marutkine with 610.5 and third Clasak, chief of the French Civil Parachuting Centre, with 582.5. Sgt. Moloney of Great Britain was seventeenth with a score of 400.5. Against expert opposition—the Russians, for instance, had trained intensively for a year for the competition—there was little chance of a British win; the Britons had been training for only a month. However, by the end of the competition the Decca blind- dropping technique had proved itself beyond doubt and the British parachutists were steering their G.Q. blank-gore para chutes into the target area with great\ regularity. (A blank-gore parachute is one from which a complete gore, or segment, is omitted to give improved stability.) Next week we hope to publish an account of the Champion ships by Maj. T. W. Willans, captain/dispatcher of the British team, which was made up as follows: F/L. W. H. T. Hay, F/Sgt. H. Wood, Sgt. T. Moloney, Sgt. N. Hoffman, A. J. Har rison; reserves, F/Sgt. D. Sutton and F/Sgt. A. Card. The G.Q. Company's Rapide from which the team jumped was piloted by Sir Raymond Quilter and other team-members were the Decca operator, Capt. P. Huggins, J. Beadle (met. liaison) and Frank Dodds (packer). 1
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