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Aviation History
1959
1959 - 0263.PDF
118 FLIGHT FROM ALL QUARTERS More Money for U.S. Missiles IN the budget for 1960 which President Eisenhower sent toCongress last Monday, 59 per cent is allocated to defence and related security programmes in which expenditures on missileprocurement, development and evaluation are to rise by more than $800m. Mr. Eisenhower said that substantial progress had beenmade during the past year in accelerating or starting important defence programmes; and the first Atlas ICBM would be atlaunching sites by the end of the current fiscal year [i.e., in June]. The President added: "Sufficient progress has been made on newweapons to permit us safely to eliminate marginal systems and reduce the number of competitive projects." The President said that no more appropriations were plannedfor the Jupiter and Thor IRBMs after 1960 "unless units in addition to those already being provided to the Allies through themilitary assistance programme should later be sanctioned." Thus, by concentrating efforts on more advanced and more promisingweapon systems, the United States hoped to increase the combat power of its forces with a small rise in the total defence cost. Vanguard Airborne :\-^^:,u;:"f:^.;:;•'" AS we go to press it is learned that the Vickers-Armstrongs• Vanguard made a successful maiden flight of 16 min from Weybridge last Tuesday afternoon. The pilot was Jock Bryce. Ministerial Permutations A MOVE from the Air Ministry to the Admiralty, and another•**• from the M.T.C.A. to the Air Ministry, were among the Government changes announced last Friday, January 16. Mr.C. I. Orr-Ewing, until that date Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at Air Ministry, has now moved across Whitehall to theAdmiralty, where he becomes Parliamentary and Financial Secre- tary. Mr. Orr-Ewing is succeeded in his former post by Mr.Airey Neave, who has been Joint Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation and is succeeded inBerkeley Square by Mr. J. A. Hay. Air League Changes AN invitation to become president of the Air League of theBritish Empire has been accepted by the Duke of Hamilton and Brandon. He succeeds Viscount Thurso, who after two yearsin office was compelled to retire in 1958 for health reasons. The League has also announced that Air Chief Marshal Sir FrancisFogany has become chairman in succession to Air Chief Marshal Sir George Pirie. The Duke of Hamilton is chairman of Scottish Aviation Ltd.,and is president of the British Air Line Pilots Association and chairman of the A.T.C. Scottish Welfare Council. Sir FrancisFogarty, who retired from the R.A.F. in 1957, is director-general of the English Speaking Union. Two-stage Atlas T")EVELOPMENT of a second stage for a modified Atlas ICBM *** has been started by Convair-Astronautics, under a U.S. Air Force contract authorized by the Advanced Research Projects Agency. The first-year value of the contract will amount to STRATOSPHERIC SPIES: Below are seen Canberra PR.9 high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft in final assembly. Detail design and manufac- ture is the responsibility of Short and Harland at Belfast approximately $7 million (£2,500,000). Convair-Astronautics willBe responsible for the design, construction and test of the vehicle and all its systems with the exception of the engine. The liquidfuel, high-energy rocket engine will be developed by Pratt and Whitney Aircraft under a separate contract—initially worth$9 million (£3,215,000)—announced last November. At that time it was stated that the use of the high-energy upper-stage vehiclewith an Atlas booster could launch into orbit an Earth satellite weighing several thousand pounds. The director of the Convairupper-stage project will be Krafft A. Ehricke. Instrumental Co-operation 'T'HREE leading instrument companies—Smiths Aircraft Instru-•*• ments Ltd. and its associated concern Kelvin and Hughes Ltd., together with the Sperry Gyroscope Co. Ltd. (BrentfordDivision)—last week announced "an arrangement for collabora- tion in certain major projects for aircraft control and instrumen-tation systems covering all aspects of such enterprises." The companies' statement went on to say that "the uniquetechnical resources and facilities of both organizations, specialists in the design of advanced instrumentation and control equipment,are being applied in the first instance to the development of a flight control and instrumentation system for new British civilaircraft, in particular the de Havilland 121. Proposals are also in hand for similar systems for future military aircraft." For practical implementation of the agreement, an executivepanel has been established at director level (with representatives from both organizations) to direct activities on projects beinghandled. A detailed specification for the D.H. 121 system is now being prepared. There is no financial link-up between the com-panies concerned, and the agreement relates specifically to aircraft. Britain and Astronautics rT"lHAT the Government should give a lead which would enable *- Britain to take her true place in space-flight development wasstrongly urged by Sir Thomas Sopwith, pioneer pilot and con- structor, and Hawker Siddeley Group chairman, in his address atthe annual general meeting in London last week. PLEA FOR A LEAD from the Government in developing a British space- flight programme was made (see news-item here) by Sir Thomas Sopwith when he addressed Hawker Siddeley shareholders last week. On his left is Mr. W. Newell, Group secretary; on his right, Sir Roy Dobson, managing director "As with many scientific advances," he said, "once the break- through has been made we find that what was fantastic yesterday is commonplace today. At present Russia and America are chart- ing the unknown regions of outer space. "I find it very sad that our nation which has been in the fore-front of air power since air power began is lagging far behind in astronautics and the conquest of outer space. We have the brains,and certainly we have the scientific heritage. Many of us have the will. I believe it will be a tragedy if the Government does notgive a clear lead and show its firm determination to enter the space age without further delay." Sir Thomas Sopwith's report on the year's work and financialresults of the Hawker Siddeley Group are summarized on page 126 of this issue.
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