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Aviation History
1956
1956 - 0928.PDF
74 FLIGHT FROM ALL QUARTERS Basis for a LuftwaffeL AST Friday, July 6, three major budgets for the future armed' forces of West Germany were passed by the Bonn parliament. One of these was that for aircraft procurement, and Wirtschaftund Sozialpolitik reports that the table given below includes the equipment voted for, although none of the items has yet actuallybeen ordered. * In addition to the items listed it is likely that, under a separateagreement, 380 F-100D Super Sabres will be ordered from North American Aviation; another contract not listed is that forRepublic F-84Fs, for which the Weser plant were recently tooling up. Germany: Unstated number of Nord 2501 Noratlas (a total of137 including those made in France) costing £41.8m, built by the Weser group, Krupp and Flick; 383 Fouga. Magister,£25.25m, by Messerschmitt and Heinkel; 428 Do. 27, £6.59m, Dornier; unstated number of Piaggio P. 149 (with those purchasedin Italy a total of 265), £3,282m, Focke-Wulf. United Kingdom: 68 Sea Hawk, £5.1O5m, Hawker/ArmstrongWhitworth; 83 Sycamore, £5.545m, Bristol; 33 Pembroke, £2.782m, Hunting Percival; 16 Gannet, £2.57m, Fairey; 11Skeeter, £308,500, Saunders-Roe. U.S.A.: 26 H-21, £6.32m, Piasecki; 26 S-58 (H-34), £4.049m,Sikorsky; 5 Albatross, £453,000, Grumman; 14 Model 47G, £390,000, Bell; 14 Model 12C, £380,000, Hiller. Italy: 226 North American F-86K, £58.5m, Fiat; P.149 to total 265 with German production, £1.06m5 Piaggio. France: Noratlas to total 137 with German production, £4.9m,S.N.C.A.N.; 6 Djinn, £78,700, S.N.C.A.S.O. Various: 96 flight simulators, £4.69m. . . American Defence Statements IN a report to the U.S. Senate committee on air power, Mr.Charles Wilson, Secretary of Defence, stated that the U.S.A.F. was not in any hurry to spend the additional $900,000,000 (about£321,426,000) which Congress had just voted. Production of B-52s, he continued, would not be increased beyond the presentlevel (it is steadily rising to 20 machines per month at the moment). Mr. Wilson was speaking after Mr. Eisenhower had signed themilitary budget for the financial year of 1957 for a sum of $34,600,000,000 (about £12,455,000,000). Mr. Charles Thomas, Secretary of the U.S. Navy, addressingthe same committee, stated that his Service's air arm had developed a new anti-submarine weapon which would revolutionize anti-submarine warfare. Defence against submarines, he said, was receiving the Navy's highest, best and constant attention. Theprincipal offensive weapon was the "mobile air base carrier task force." During the last year substantial progress had been madein the sound detection field as a result of which submarines could be located at much greater ranges than before. In case of war theForrestal class carrier would be the principal factor in the control of the seas. The ships represented a 10,000ft runway compressedinto a 1,000ft hull which could move rapidly over 70 per cent of the earth's surface without requiring agreements, paying rent or asking anyone's permission. Altogether 100 modern U.S. Navyaircraft carriers were available. Among more specific details given were the fact that the Chance-Vought F8U Crusader had a speed of over 1,000 m.p.h. The Douglas A3D Skywarrior had a combat radius of 1,500 statutemiles and could deliver high-yield nuclear weapons which could be stored aboard the carriers of the 6th Fleet in the Mediterraneanand the 7th Fleet in the Western Pacific. There would be few important targets in the world which the aircraft now beingintroduced into service could not strike with atomic weapons. The U.S. Navy, however, had no desire to "pre-empt the strategicbombing role of the U.S.A.F." The Talos sea-to-air missile was in production for test firingand would soon be in full production for the fleet. The Chance- Vought Regulus 1 sea-to-sea missile was fully operational fromsubmarines and many other ships and had a 500-mile range. The Regulus 2 was faster and had a longer range. With 40 years ofexperience in the seaplane field, the U.S. Navy was developing a jet seaplane and a "new waterborne attack system concept."The Martin P6M SeaMaster would have excellent low and high altitude performance, could carry "megaton weapons" and couldhit practically any target in the world. Aircraft of the Marine Corps now also had a "significant atomic capability," part ofwhich was deployed in the Far East. New French Radar Station THE French Air Ministry gave details of a new radar station"somewhere in the Vosges mountains" with a range of 450 km (280 miles) and a "ceiling" of more than 25,000 m (82,000ft).Named Epervier, the station is part of France's air defence system within NATO. According to a Ministry spokesman, itwill spot aircraft approaching at 560 m.p.h. 30 minutes away, while still 112 miles from France's eastern frontier. Althoughthe site of the station has not been revealed, the spokesman said it was built 3,280ft up, within a Napoleonic fort. It had beenconstructed in two years and was opened six months ago. -. R.34 Memorial T^O commemorate the flight of the R.34, which thirty-seven-•• years ago today reached Pulham, Norfolk, after achieving the first east to west and the first double crossing of the Atlantic byair, the Air League of the British Empire has obtained the consent of the Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation to the erection ofa memorial at London Airport. East Lothian County Council and the responsible Americanauthorities have also agreed to the fixing of commemorative plaques at the former East Fortune aerodrome, where the airshiptook off on its Atlantic voyage, and at Mineola, Long Island, where it landed in the United States.The Air League, which is assuming the main financial responsibility for the commemoration, will welcome contributionsaddressed to Londonderry House, 19, Park Lane, London, W.I. Twelve Intrepid Aerial Voyagers A CONTEST reminiscent of much earlier (and quieter) days of1 *- aviation took place in Holland recently, when 12 passenger- carrying balloons rose from Nijmegen. They were competing forthe Coupe Andries Blitz, awarded for the only international F AI balloon race. The trophy, given by M. Andries Blitz, a publisher of aviationbooks who died during the war, was won for the third time in succession by Mme. Nini Boesman, who thus retains it. Shecovered the longest distance ever achieved in one of these contests, flying on into the darkness and landing at midnight near Trier,not far from the U.S.A.F. base at Bitburg (approximately 144 miles). Mme. Boesman, who is 37 and a well-known Dutch balloonist,was making her 112th flight. There were two other women com-" petitors, both Belgian, 20-year-old Mile. Andree van Gemert and24-year-old Mile. Jeanne de Bast, who have each made about thirtv ascents. Oldest of these aerial voyagers from Nijmegen was M. GeorgeCormier from France, who is 82 and has achieved over 500 flights Other countries represented in the race, in addition to those alreadymentioned, were Austria, Switzerland and the Saar; and one pilot was a Turk who lives in Belgium. Although the Coupe Andries Blitz has now been won outright,it is thought very likely that the Haagsche Balloon Club will organize another race next year, for a new trophy. SAG/rMR/O precursor of Italy's Aerfer Ariete supersonic light tighter, which is to have a specially developed Rolls-Royce Derwent and a Soar or a rocket as auxiliary power.
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