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Aviation History
1958
1958 - 0183.PDF
FIRST AERONAUTICAL WEEKLY IN THE WORLD FOUNDED 1909 ^^ and AIRCRAFT ENGINEER No 2560 Vol 73 FRIDAY 14 FEBRUARY 1958 Editor-in-Chief- MAURICE A. SMITH D.F.C. AND BAR Editor H. F. KING M.B.E. Technical Editor W. T. GUNSTON Production Editor ROY CASEY Iliffe and Sons Ltd. Dorset House Stamford Street London, S.E.1 Telephone • Waterloo 3333 Telegrams • Flightpres Sedist London BRANCH OFFICES Coventry 8-10 Corporation Street Telephone • Coventry 5210 Birmingham King Edward House, New Street, 2 Telephone • Midland 7191 (7 lines) Manchester 260 Deansgate, 2 Telephone • Blackfriars 4412 (3 lines)Deansgate 3595 (2 lines) Glasgow 26B Renfield Street, C.2 Telephone • Central 1265 (2 lines) New York, N.Y. Thomas Skinner and Co. (Publishers),Ltd. 111 Broadway, 6 Telephone • Digby 9-1197 ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION Home £4 15s Od. overseas £5 0s Od. Canada and U.S.A. $15.00. Second Class Mail privileges author- ised at New York, N.Y. in this issue 196 More About the X-15 199 Pakistan Display 201 Pride of Pakistan 204 Ernst Heinkel 205 - 218 Air Survey Feature:— Economic Development, 205 Vertical Viewpoint. 210 Photogrammetric Mapping, Cameras and Plotters, 214 Geophysical Instruments, 216 Principal Operators, 218 Ironclads and Arrows . . .F OLLOWING publication of J. M. Bruce's book British Aeroplanes 1914-18, the naval amateurs have been similarly rewarded with the issue, by Seeley Service, of Dr. Oscar Parkes' British Battleships. Therein the ironclads, monitors, turret-ships and Dreadnoughts pass in majestic review; and we ourselves are especially interested to note die tenacity of sail (and, for diat matter, the ram also) even after the seal of Admiralty had been set on the steam engine. From the 1840s on into die 1890s bodi canvas and screw were being applied in combination to enhance the seagoing and warlike qualities of die old "batdewaggons"—in picturesque, if hardly shipshape, forms. There was no weapon-system concept in die development of diese vessels; no insistence on steam for steam's sake. Merely a gradual process of integration and of evolution. And we are wondering if some similar process could not yet emerge in die development of military aircraft and missiles. It might be supposed, for example, diat in every aspect of employment die anti- missile missile would prove to be very far removed from the manned fighting aeroplane. Yet the possibility is already seen diat, in order to achieve its maxi- mum kill potential, the "anti" missile may actually form an alliance with the manned fighter. The feasibility of this radier bewildering departure has been expounded by Jim Floyd, Avro Aircraft's vice-president engineering, in an address designed to reassure his colleagues diat "whereas die launching of the Russian sputnik satellites was a very significant event in the annals of aviation, its effect on die Arrow programme should be singularly positive." Mr. Floyd considers that even when die ICBM comes along the Arrow intercepter will be one of die most potent weapons in combating it. "If you diink about it for a minute," he says, "die normal launching platforms for anti-missile missiles are stationary. The Russians can find out where diey are and destroy them. On the odier hand, an airborne missile modiership (which could be die Arrow) can be rapidly moved from one place to another carrying an anti-ICBM missile . . ." It might be imagined that a missile suitable for carrying an anti-missile war- head would prove a formidable load even for the mighty Arrow; but Mr. Floyd had looked into die matter with a "quick specific calculation" on an ICBM approaching at Mach 10 at 200 miles above die eardi. He finds diat if an "anti" is launched from an aircraft flying at Mach 1.5 at 60,0000ft, its dirust need be only about one-third of fiat required for a ground-launched weapon carrying the same size of warhead to a given point in approximately the same time. And dividends would accrue in range and accuracy. ... Missiles and Axes If die manned fighter might yet be applied as an aid to the defensive missile, so might its classic powerplant, the turbojet, find a niche of its own in the missile edifice. We have remarked that the anti-missile might be expected to depart in all respects from the traditional formula of the manned fighting aeroplane; and equally it has hidierto been diought diat the air-breathing turbojet would find its ultimate application in manned aircraft, or in "cruise" missiles of elementary form. But here again we are presented—by Charles G. Dibble of General Electric's Flight Propulsion Laboratory—widi a new and significant possibility; namely, die application of specially developed turbojets for die initial boosting of advanced missiles. Other important missile applications are in prospect. There are people who will not be slow to remark that both Mr. Floyd and Mr. Dibble have pretty expensive battleaxes to grind preparatory to getting diem accepted into die armoury of the future. And indeed they have. But die most rabid concept-planner could hardly deny that their proposals might well affect die evolution of weapons to come—and that the grinding of die axe might defer for many a year the axing of the aeroplane and turbojet.
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