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Aviation History
1959
1959 - 1171.PDF
566 FLIGHT, 24 April 1959 U.S. MISSILE TOUR ... Las Vegas' new convention centre, just completed at a cost of sixmillion dollars.. The building squats like a grounded flying saucer not far from the hotels fringing the famous Strip (or Los Angeleshighway), and inside the centre the last few dollars of the six million were being spent as the final pieces of lush carpeting weretacked in place at the entrance to the vast circular auditorium. In the exhibition hall, too, the atmosphere was reminiscent of Farn-borough, as public-relations men and display organizations rushed to complete the company stands and exhibits. Only four exhibitors from abroad were included in the total ofover 200—Rolls-Royce, Canadair, Lucas-Rotax and Marcel Left, Frank Tollman in R.F.C. "matern- ity jacket" with his chief pilot, Nelson Lomis (the Hun), in front of the D.XII "FLIGHT" PHOTOGRAPHS Below, the DC-8 and the Smith Mini- plane (75 h.p. Continental) built by Paul Wright Below, right, 617 meet the Golden Jet Girls; from left, Devona Hubka, F/L. G. Mullinger, Carolyn McGirr, F/O. C. V. Burkard, Betty Flood, F/O R. H. Wood U.S. Air Force line-up at Las Vegas (F-104A in foreground) and a dose-up showing one of an F-102's six GAR-2A Falcon missiles Dassault. Attendance at the congress, however, was said tocomprise visitors from 47 countries. In the static aircraft and missile park behind the centre, an Atlasand a Thor-Able, or reasonable facsimiles thereof, were the subject of a somewhat peculiar ceremony by way of a pre-opening openingto the congress. Buttons were pressed by the commander of the U.S.A.F. 1st Missile Division and by the president of the AirForce Association, some non-standard raising equipment was brought into use, and the two vehicles rose slowly together fromthe horizontal to the vertical position. "There they are, ladies and gentlemen of the Press," the loudspeakers vibrated withenthusiasm, "the Free World's two major missiles. The Atlas ICBM and the Thor IRBM. You are invited to be among thefirst people to enter a ballistic missile. We think you will find it interesting." Which indeed we did. The invitation referred to Atlas 14A,retired from service after a number of static test firings and now seen to sport a couple of doors in its lower skin. Inside was adisplay of colour photographs of the missile. This display Atlas, we were told, was to go on tour throughout the U.S.A. and wouldbe shown at this year's Paris Aero Show. The Thor-Able had been built from rejected parts and presented to the U.S.A.F. byDouglas Aircraft for public showing. Other missiles on display included Mace, Bomarc and Snarkand there were models of a Discoverer satellite and the Project Mercury capsule. Close to a full-size wooden mock-up of theNorth American X-15 was an incongruous trio—a Sopwith Camel, 1910 Bleriot and Pfalz D.XII, all restored to flying condition byTallman Aviation. Frank Tallman and his senior pilot Nelson Lomis were present in R.F.C. and German Air Service uniforms,as the photograph shows. Around the sides of the missile park were the many-colouredsport and business aircraft and helicopters. Among the helicopters were Army and civilian versions of the Hughes 269A; a Djinn; andan Alouette carrying four SS.ll missiles. The light aircraft included, in addition to the products of the Beech-Cessna-Piperbig three, lesser-known types such as the Morrisey 2150, Bellanca 260 and the agricultural AG-2. The larger aircraft were on show at McCarran Field, the LasVegas airport. Civil transports there included the Douglas DC-8, Convair 880, Lockheed Electra and Fairchild F-27 (a Boeing 707of American Airlines made a brief appearance the following day), and the century-series line-up of fighters showed examples of theF-100D, F-101A, F-102A, F-104A, F-105B and F-106A. Con- siderable interest was displayed in the Avro Vulcan B.ls fromNo. 617 Sqn., R.A.F., while Vulcan crew members displayed an even greater interest in the Golden Jet girls of Continental Air-lines. A Transport Command Comet 2 was also on show. Among the week's flying events the noisiest and most excitingwas to be the firepower demonstration at Indian Springs (45 miles west of Las Vegas) scheduled for Wednesday, April 15, and arehearsal for this took place on the day of the Press preview. The fully packed programme included aerobatics by Italian, Dutch,Chinese and U.S. (Blue Angels and Thunderbirds) aerobatic teams; rocketry, gunnery, LABS and napalm demonstrations byF-lOOs; Sidewinders fired by F-100 at Radop towed target; aero- batic and attack demonstrations by F-lOls, F-102s and F-104s;LABS display by F-105; KB-50 air refuelling exercise; simulated explosion of nuclear bomb dropped by a B-52; and formation fly-pasts by B-52s and the R.A.F. Vulcans. (Continued on page 579)
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