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Aviation History
1955
1955 - 0665.PDF
FLIGHT, 13 May 1955 THE WORLD'S AIR FORCES . . . 663 than any other military aircraft. Equipped to carry nuclearweapons, the F-101 has a range exceeding 2,000 miles; there is also a photo-reconnaissance version.Mention must also be made of the Convair XB-58, the world's first supersonic bomber. A prototype of this 1,000 m.p.h. machineis now approaching completion, and it may fly this year. Another formation which will be of great importance to therevised Air Force is Tactical Air Command (Gen. Otto P. Wey- land, Langley A.F.B., Virginia; 1957 strength: 29 wings). As aresult of steady improvement in the development of tactical atomic weapons, virtually every modern fighter has atomic capability.Certainly it is possessed by every machine in T.A.C., and the Command's striking power is scarcely less than that of S.A.C.itself. T.A.C. is intended for relatively localized missions, but flight refuelling is a standard T.A.C. procedure, employed notonly operationally but also to give the Command global mobility. The chief types used are the Republic F-84F and RF-84F, theMartin B-57 family of Canberra developments and the Douglas B-66 series. All these are atomic-bomb carriers with Mach = 0.9 +performance. Another very important machine to T.A.C. is the Lockheed C-130, which, while acting as the principal logistic sup-port aircraft capable of carrying all a T.A.C. wing's ground gear, will also double as the chief refueller. All the aircraft mentionedare entering service in numbers. Air Defense Command (Gen. Benjamin W. Chidlaw, EntA.F.B., Colorado; 1957 strength : 38 wings) is anxiously awaiting the arrival of supersonic intercepters armed with guided missiles.Until 1953 A.D.C. was equipped chiefly with two-seat machines armed with cannon, but rocket-armed aircraft are now preponder-ant. The standard weapon is the F.F.A.R. (folding-fin aircraft rocket), with a calibre of 2f in, which can be carried by the dozenand fired in salvoes to "blanket" an area of sky as large as a football field. Associated with this weapon is a new type of fire-controlsystem which continuously computes the desired flight-path for the fighter and, by means of an autopilot, causes the fighter to follow it. This automatic radar-directed procedure led to the "collision-course" interception, in which the fighter closes on its target from abeam, fires its rockets at the right point and breaks away. Thewhole interception is controlled by ground or airborne radar, the pilot "sitting-in" as a monitor. A navigator is not needed, althoughone is carried by the long-range F-89 Scorpion. The latter are employed by A.D.C., but are more important outside the metro-politan U.S.A. The chief A.D.C. machines are the North Ameri- can F-86D Sabre, a very fast single-seater carrying 24 rockets, andthe Lockheed F-94C Starfire, a two-seater carrying twice as many missiles. Wings of these machines are based all over the U.S.A.,where they are kept at immediate readiness to investigate un- explained returns picked up by the Continent's radar defence net-work. The latter is already enormous, but the big early-warning stations are not yet all operational; many of the latter are situatedwell out from the coast, in ships or fixed "forts." The radar chains are linked with those of Canada (p. 619). The U.S.A.F.,like the Navy, employs units of high-flying early-warning Super Constellations. The Air Force machines are designated RC-121Cand carry a crew of 32. They can act as fighter-direction centres. By next year it is hoped to have Wings of Convair DF-102s inaction. These are supersonic delta-winged single-seaters, each of which can carry six Hughes GAR-98 Falcon homing missiles. Boththe aircraft and its missile are now almost fully developed, and the combination is expected to prove 100 per cent lethal to anytype of aircraft which could attack America. There are also many day fighters in A.D.C., including F-86FSabres and F-100A fighter/bombers. The latter, the first super- sonic aircraft to enter service with any air force, is in very largescale production and is also being developed to perform specialized roles such as attack and all-weather interception. Most types ofU.S.A.F. day fighters have been armed with six 0.50in guns, but the F-100A and also the F-86K (a gun-armed version of theF-86D) each carry four of the fast-firing M-39 20mm cannon. This gun was battle-tested in Korea with outstanding success,and it has been adopted as a standard U.S.A.F. weapon. For collision-course interceptions, however, the F.F.A.R., or its suc-cessor the Falcon, must be used. It is also appreciated that day fighters have only limited use, and most new designs are beingequipped from the start with radar fire control. The fastest Air Force aircraft of all, however, is a day fighter: the LockheedF-104A, with a tiny straight wing, a high "T-tail" and gun arma- ment. Prototypes of this Sapphire-powered machine have flownand a service-test batch is being evaluated. Air Defense Command has also eyed the v.t.o. intercepterwith more than passing interest. Ryan have, in fact, built a proto- type designated XF-109, which achieves vertical take-off on thepower of a single Rolls-Royce Avon. The U.S.A.F. have not sponsored development of interim turboprop v.t.o. machines, butare waiting for worth-while supersonic prototypes—of which the F-109 may be the precursor. Lockheed C-130A Hercules (U.S. Air Force). Boeing KC-97G Stratoireighters (U.S. Air Force). Fairchild C-119C Boxcars (U.S. Air Force). Douglas C-124C Globemaster (U.S. Air Force). Douglas C-118A (U.S. Air Force). Convair T-29D Flying Classroom (U.S. Air Force). (Below) North American T-28As (U.S. Air Force).
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