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Aviation History
1958
1958 - 0719.PDF
FLIGHT, 30 May 1958 735 The Morrisey Nifty 2000 is one of the types illustrated in "Experimental Light Aircraft and Midget Racers," reviewed here. The Aeronautical Bookshelf Experimental Light Aircraft and Midget Racers, by John Underwood and John Caler. Aero Publishers, Inc., 2,162 Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles 26, California. Illustrated. Price $2.50. THIS collection of 315 photographs of ultra-light aircraft includesexamples from France, Britain, Belgium, Italy, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Canada and the U.S.A. Arranged in no logicalsequence, and with captions of varying detail (in many cases the powerplant is not disclosed), the photographs nevertheless forma fascinating selection of designs both famous and obscure. Per- haps the most strikingly apparent conclusion is the amazingvariety of configurations chosen by different designers to cover the two alternative requirements of economical touring andmidget racing. Certainly the many sleek and fast U.S. midgets will give British racing pilots cause for deep and envious thought.Among the post-war British ultra-lights illustrated is the little- known Britten-Norman BN-1F. The photographs are accompanied by articles on amateur air-craft construction in France, Britain and the U.S.A., a note on the Professional Race Pilots Association, a list of suppliers of plansand kits, and an index. The features on French and British activity, written by a British free-lance writer and a British amateurconstructor respectively, are useful guides as far as they go: a really comprehensive and authoritative review would in each casehave been more appropriate. K. T. O. Russian Aircraft, by John W. R. Taylor. Ian Allan, Ltd , Hampton Court, Surrey. Illustrated. Price 2s 6d. ANOTHER example of the remarkable value offered by Ian Allan intheir "ABC" series. At the price of half a crown, John Taylor has come up with a packed Intelligence dossier on Soviet aircraft,splendidly illustrated with photographs and three-view silhouettes by Dennis Punnett. Here are Bosun and Bison, Faceplate andFitter, cheek by jowl with Fagot and Farmer, Creek and Camel. And for good measure there are articles on "Does Russia Lead?","Soviet Air Organization" and "Civil Aviation in Russia". An excellent little book in all respects. "Low Level Mission," by Leon Wolff. Longmans, Green and Co., Ltd., 6 and 7 Clifford Street, London, W.I. Illustrated. Price 18s. ON August l, 1943, one hundred and sixty-three Liberators of theU.S. Army Air Force attempted to attack the Ploesti oilfields in the heart of Rumania. Fifty-four of them were shot down andscarcely one of the survivors reached home undamaged. Personnel casualties were 440 dead, 54 wounded and nearly 300 prisoners, orinterned in then-neutral Turkey. The result—the flow of Ploesti oil to German industry and the armed forces was interrupted;but "within a few weeks" supplies were greater than ever. This macabre evidence supports the summing-up in this book that theoperation was "the worst catastrophe in the history of the U.S. Army Air Forces." There is material enough here for many debates—about theplanning of the operation, the wisdom of choosing this particular target, the tactics, the personalities of commanders and aircrews,and the marked disapproval shown by the R.A.F. and A.V-M. Sir Arthur W. Tedder (now Lord Tedder), who was then com-mander of the Mediterranean Allied Air Forces. Mr. Wolf tells as completely as he can the story of the Ploesti raid, and of thepolicy, or lack of it, which decided that the Liberators should go ahead, even though this meant taking a large force of heavybombers away from the striking arm of the Allied Air Forces, and losing very many of them and their trained crews. It was a daring raid, the more so because it was doomed todisaster from the moment it was first planned and from the time Mr. Churchill and General Marshall agreed to it in May 1943.General Brereton, who commanded the Ninth Air Force, of which the Ploesti raiders formed a major part, thought that the Liberatorscould fly more than 1,300 miles unescorted and still reach the target undetected and at full strength. Looking back now we mayrecognize that the plan was utterly hopeless. But it is worth thinking more deeply. Ploesti was producing nearly all the oil theGermans wanted. If it was knocked out the German war machine would seize up. With one massive surprise raid it would be possible to stop the war. It is easy to see how the temptation to"fetch it a single powerful wallop" grew, and airmen who were tired of the war anyway might be excused for yielding to it.So intense was the American desire to bomb Ploesti that one raid actually got away, so to speak, too soon. That was in June1942, but it went almost unnoticed among other war news, includ- ing the Battle of Midway in the Pacific. It was little more thana nuisance raid, and it weakened the Americans' hands by warn- ing the enemy. Ploesti's defences of fighters and flak batterieswere strengthened, and when the big raid came a year later the Liberators ran into murderous opposition. Mr. Wolff's book loses none of the drama of the operation. Itprovides an accurate account of what went on in the air as the raiders flew towards their target, and how the formations becameragged, some losing their way. But it is a sad story, for the reader can see that the operation can only fail. As the argumentsand counter-arguments are put forward it becomes appallingly obvious that the bombers will never get through undetected andundamaged. In the light of what we know today, the plans for the raid look utterly stupid, but they were pressed relentlessly forward.The crews were briefed about how to attack the target and how to get away when they had destroyed it. But they did not like theplans. And even then there were no serious second thoughts. The attack on Ploesti was ordered by high policy. Mr. Wolffdoes not heap recriminations on the heads of the local com- manders. Rather he looks upon it—perhaps patriotically—assomething which had to be attempted to prove that it would not work. This does not detract from the heroism of those gallantcrews who took part. It just makes it clear that great measures of effort and bravery were wasted. Ploesti was one of the most difficulttargets of the war; how different it would be today—a sitting duck for a handful of L.A.B.S. bombers. A. C. B. Soviet Sputniks. Soviet News, 3 Rosary Gardens, London S.W.7. Illustrated. Price Is 3d. THE great amount of satellite information which had been writtenand broadcast in the Soviet Union between the launching of Sputnik 1 and that of Sputnik 3 has formed the raw material forthis booklet. The result is a fascinating story, non-technical in style yet containing much of technical interest, and an undoubtedbargain at the price. It was published before the third Russian launching.Beginning with a note on the ideas of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, the Russian pioneer in astronautics, Soviet Sputniks goes on toconsider the various problems involved in launching a satellite. The satellite's orbits, the upper atmosphere and I.G.Y. research,and the approach of space travel are discussed in turn. The illustrations include some of the most useful photographsand diagrams that have been published on the subject—and also two contrasting examples of Soviet cartoons. Causes and Prevention of Corrosion in Aircraft, by T. C. E. Tringham. Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons, Ltd., Pitman House, Parker Street, Kingsway, London, W.C.2. Illustrated. Price 25s. UNPROTECTED metals tend to revert to their natural salts; that is afundamental law of chemistry. The process by which this trans- formation occurs is corrosion, and its prevention is an essentialtechnique of aircraft engineering. In a new book on the subject, Mr. Tringham claims with justification that a knowledge of thecauses and prevention of corrosion is the responsibility of aero- nautical engineers of every status.His book is consequently not a thesis on aircraft corrosion but a practical work for practical engineers; the author explains quitesimply what corrosion is, the forms that it can take and how it can be prevented. A section towards the end describes the tech-niques of plating and anodizing, painting and pre-treatment and methods of non-destructive testing. Other chapters deal in astraightforward manner with stress and intercrystalline corrosion and the insidious effects of fret corrosion and corrosion fatigue, aknowledge of which is essential to the structural engineer. Aircraft and engines in service, in store and undergoing salvage from saltwater are also discussed. Comprehensive in character and adequately illustrated withphotographs of examples of corrosion and protection equipment, Corrosion in Aircraft can be recommended to all who are con-cerned with the engineering of aircraft. A reasonably detailed index is provided, together with temperature conversion andspecific gravity tables—a rather surprising addition, perhaps included to emphasize the practical nature of the work. A. T. P.
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