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Aviation History
1958
1958 - 0681.PDF
23 May 1958 Defense PART 3: TO AIRCRAFT PLANTS AND S.A.C. By a Special Correspondent OUR faithful Convair (coping bravely with theadditional weight of masses of literature andpamphlets we had already collected) took us comfortably from El Paso to Los Angeles across NewMexico and California. After the brilliance of the desert it was disappointing to have to await our turn for aG.C.A. landing—above thick cloud, which the Cali- fornians protested was unusual. But it was an objectlesson in traffic control, watching other aircraft in the stack disappear into the cloud below us as their turnfor landing came. We pulled up in neat MATS style on the industrialside of the airport, to be welcomed by a bevy of execu- tives of North American Aviation who wanted to showus the production line of the two-seat F-100F. Before we were taken into the gleaming F-100 shedwe had the inevitable briefing. This time North American pulled out all the stops to tell us that, if theGovernment would find the money, then space flight and satellites were only just around the next cloud. All very stimulatingand a striking lesson in original thinking to our own industry. The F-100F line is impressive. This aircraft North Americandescribe as a "triple-threat airplane" designed to serve equally well as a fighter/bomber, an air-superiority fighter or a trainer.Major Robinson Risner, the man who a year ago flew non-stop across the Atlantic in 6 hr 37 min, was there to tell us aboutthe aircraft which first made the U.S.A.F. supersonic. Then fol- lowed a talk about the X-15, to be flown in a year's time. Wind-tunnel tests are nearly finished and Reaction Motors are getting on well with the liquid-fuel rocket engine. Now North Americanhave started to cut metal for the airframe at the Los Angeles plant, THIS is the third dispatch from a correspondent who is a member ofthe party to which the U.S. Armed Services have given special facilities for inspecting their newest equipment and methods. His previousarticles appeared in our issues of May 2 and May 16. and modification of the B-52 which will launch the X-15 is alsowell advanced. Next day to Douglas, to plod around the DC-8 production linein the shiny new plant at Long Beach and to watch the pre-flight checks of the first "8" to roll out. It has so far cost Douglas some$200,000,000 in payrolls, engineering facilities, tooling and material. Ground testing of the aircraft will very soon be finished, and theflight-test programme will then begin. The company intends to use at least nine production aircraft during C.A.A. certification. From Long Beach to Santa Monica, where Elmer Wheaton,Douglas' chief missile engineer, introduced us to the SM-75 Thor. He thinks that co-operation between U.K. and U.S. missileengineers is going along well. We learned that the Thor could be fired from underground pads, but that in the controversy over"soft" and "hard" sites the former had so far won because of the urgency and their cheapness—or, rather, relative cheapness. Then back to the Convair for the long flight from Los Angelesto Offutt A.F.B., Omaha, Nebraska—via the Grand Canyon, of course, to show us that fantastic jagged slash in the earth's surface.There were none of the usual jet-streams about, so the Convair gave us something like a seven-hour flight. Only four weeksbefore, the same crew and the same aircraft had gone all the way from Los Angeles to Washington in only 8i hours. At Offutt, headquarters of mighty S.A.C., the first aircraft wepassed on the hard standing was a Canberra staging through from Christmas Island. Transport Command Comets on the regularrun to Christmas or even Woomera call at Offutt frequently. General Tom Power was travelling about America and couldnot greet us. But the yice-chief of S.A.C., Lt-Gen. "Butch" Griswold—known to many people in England when he was com-mander at South Ruislip—was a fine host. Interviewed, he denied that any S.A.C. aircraft had ever taken off "prepared tolaunch an atomic weapon." And he made it clear that B-47s or B-52s already in the air when the Dew-Line had reported oddplots had never been sent over the Pole. He expounded a philosophy which I found current among allAmerican's armed forces: that the "mission" is to keep a war from 697 "Designed to serve equally well as a fighter/bomber, an air-superiority fighter or a trainer"—the North American F-100F. starting, and that if there ever is a war then everybody will havefailed in that mission. The day of the manned delivery system will never be over, he told me. Missiles are all very well, butonce the button is pressed you can't bring them back. "There's no provision in any missile for it to change its mind," he said;"as far as the manned bomber is concerned, 'fail safe' is a guaranteed method of getting them back." He gave us some S.A.C. facts and figures. The Command isstarting a big dispersal programme, with a base looking after two or three satellite airfields so that, in the end, the deterrentcapabilities of the Command will be maintained. At present there are 28 medium bombardment wings of B-47s, eleven heavy bomberwings—the three remaining B-36 wings are soon to be converted to B-52s, which make up the other eight—and five recce wings.KC-135 tankers are progressively replacing the elderly KC-97. The B-58 Hustler will soon be in service. What S.A.C. likesis its dash capability—1,400 to 1,500 miles an hour. And the new jet tanker, the KC-135, can reach an altitude and speed compatiblewith the bombers it has to feed. There are big hopes for the latest American air-to-surface missile (what we call the stand-offbomb), the Hound Dog. The earlier Rascal missile is already in service with B-47 wings. The B-52G will carry two Hound Dogs, one under each wing,to be released 300-350 miles away from their target(s). The bomber will also carry a bomb, so that it can press on to yetanother target. The B-70, however, is obviously the apple of the official S.A.C.eye. But it is as yet only a glint—a glint about which we were allowed to know very little.A staff officer told me something about S.A.C. personnel. To get a picture of the typical S.A.C. aircraft commander, 745 officerswere quizzed. Average age, it was discovered, was just over 35 years. Each had over 4,000 hours of flying and more than 12 yearsin commissioned rank. Average time of command of an aircraft was 21 months, and 61 per cent had actual combat experience;they had flown an average of 42 combat missions. It was interest- ing, too, to note their ranks. There were 96 colonels, 306 majors,338 captains—and only five lieutenants. It was discovered that 85 per cent were married, and that each had at least one child. S.A.C.'s accident rate is coming down. In 1950 it was 43 forevery 100,000 hours flown—when the annual total of flying hours was some 400,000. Last year, when 1,250,000 hours were flown,the rate was down to 5 per 100,000 hours. That includes every little scrape and dent to an aircraft on the ground as well asaccidents in the air and on landing and taking off. Basic concept for the use of this massive deterrent force is thateach aircraft would strike from its base. That is because Russia is capable of launching a surprise attack. But in the event of asufficiently long warning period, it might be possible to move some squadrons nearer their targets. To meet this possibility, acomplete fly-away kit of spares is held by all squadrons, to allow them 30 days' operation while cut off from all supplies. The "alert" concept of S.A.C.—explained many times but stillconfused in the minds of numerous people—is simple. It is based on the need for at least one-third of the force to be airborne infifteen minutes from the time of a genuine alert. At the moment that proportion has not quite been achieved. It is likely that, (Concluded on page 70S)
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