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Aviation History
1955
1955 - 1495.PDF
14 October 1955 605 FIGHTING BRAIN: Illustrated for the first time is the Hughes fire- control system o the Lockheed F-94C. Sketches show the sequence of attack: (I) pilot picks up bomber on radar and data are fed to the i'eiCtT!Cir°m^r' Wh!Ch feeds Steeri"9 si9"ah t0 **• P«ofs scope- (2) pilot flies F-94 to place steering dot in centre of reference circle (3) fomputor automatically launches rockets (as rockets are launched an X appears on the scope); (4) as rocket reaches target F-94 automatically veers away. (See pages 620 and 621.) South Pole Airlift THE Tactical Air Command of the U.S.A.F. is planning a major -•• airlift of building material and supplies, totalling some 500 tons, for the construction of a station where civilian scientists will make antarctic Polar observations during the international geo- physical year. The lift is planned for October 1956/March 1957, and the crews participating will be based at Christchurch, New Zealand. Thence they will fly some 2,300 miles over the sea to an ice strip in McMurdo Sound, to be built by the Americans. This strip is some 400 miles west of Admiral Richard Byrd's former base at Little America. Flying from that base, in November 1929. Admiral Byrd became the first man to fly over the South Pole! The distance from McMurdo Sound ice strip to the South Pole is some 850 miles, involving a round trip for aircraft engaged of some 1,700 miles. Moscow-London Invitation TTHE Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation stated on October •* 7th that the Soviet Government had invited Britain to send a delegation to Moscow to discuss civil aviation matters. Accord- ing to a recent Reuter report from Moscow, the subject of the proposed discussions would be the establishment of direct air services between London and Moscow. The M.T.C.A. statement said that the invitation was "under consideration." The New R.Ae.S. President ON Monday last the Royal Aeronautical Society announcedthat Mr. E. T. Jones, C.B., O.B.E., M.Eng., F.R.Ae.S., has been elected president for the year 1956-57. Mr. Jones, who is 58, has been Principal Director of Scientific Research (Air) at the Ministry of Supply since 1949. He was educated at Liverpool University and was a pilot and flying instructor in the R.F.C. and R.A.F. from 1915 to 1919. From 1923 to 1930 he was with the aerodynamics department at the Royal Aircraft Establishment and from 1930 to 1938 with the Marine Aircraft Experimental Establishment at Felixstowe. Shortly before the outbreak of war he was Chief Technical Officer at the Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Estab- lishment, which was then at Martlesham Heath. Soon after the Establishment moved to Bos- Mr. E. T. Jones combe Down, Mr. Jones was made Chief Superintendent, a post which he held until 1947. For the next two years, before taking up his present post as Principal Director of Scientific Research (Air), M.o.S., he was Director of Instrument Research and Development. . -^ Masefield on Shipping ~~1 IN his presidential address at the inaugural meeting of the 1955-56 session of the Institute of Transport in London last Mon- day, Mr. Peter Masefield expressed his opposition to the tendency for British shipping to buy control of independent air companies. "The company with a controlling interest in both sea and air," said Mr. Masefield, "would inevitably face situations in which there was a sharp conflict of interests between sea and air de- velopments. I am convinced that in these circumstances the progress of air transport would not be so rapid, nor so far-reach- ing, as it would if air were entirely independent." We hope to include a fuller summary of Mr. Masefield's important lecture in next week's issue. Canadair Goes Nuclear IT is announced from Montreal that Canadair, Ltd., founded13 years ago, have now entered the field of nuclear industry. Hitherto they have concentrated on the production of aircraft and the development of guided missiles. From Atomic Energy of TARGET NORMAL 5EARCH \ ATTACK FIRE ARTIFICIAL STEERING HORIZON DOT NORMALSEARCH Canada, Ltd., the Government-owned company sponsoring nuclear development, comes the disclosure that the company have been awarded a contract to design and build components for a "swing" reactor, specifically intended to determine the potential of irradiated nuclear fuels for other reactors. Mr. J. Geoffrey Notman, Canadair's president, who was a member of the Canadian group at the Atoms for Peace Conference at Geneva last August, has said that the new contract is relatively small but that his company expects continual growth in the atomic field. The company will design and manufacture nuclear products, analyse nuclear problems for others, and advise on industrial applications of nuclear science. Canadair's parent company, the General Dynamics Corpora- tion, has been active in the field of atomic energy for several years through its American divisions—Electric Boat, who have built two atomic-powered submarines and are building more; Convair, who are now engaged in research on atomic aircraft; and General Atomic, who are pursuing long-term nuclear research. U.A.L. Accident THE most serious accident in the history of United States com-mercial flying occurred on October 6:h, when a DC-4 of United Air Lines struck a 12,000ft peak 80 miles west of Cheyenne, Wyoming, with the loss of all 66 persons aboard. The aircraft was operating a scheduled tourist service from Denver to San Francisco. According to reports, it was 20 miles off track at the time of the accident; and the impact is said to have been only 50 to 75ft from the crest of the peak. First Satellite Contracts LAST week the U.S. Defense Department announced that workhad begun on propulsion, launching and ancillary equipment for the earth-satellite vehicle "Project Vanguard," the U.S.A.'s major contribution to the International Geophysical Year (July 1957 to December 1958). Vanguard will employ three stages. The third stage will reach a final burn-out velocity of some 18,000 m.p.h., and the satellite, of roughly one cubic foot volume, will then settle down in its orbit. This orbit will be elliptical, the nearest approach to the Earth being some 200 miles. A complete orbit of the Earth will take "one or two hours," the vehicle gradually slowing up in the thift
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