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Aviation History
1959
1959 - 2339.PDF
240 FLIGHT, 18 September 1959 FROM ALL QUARTERS The Russians Hit the Moon A PPROPR1ATELY timed on the eve of the departure of the/\ Soviet Prime Minister to the U.S.A., a Russian probe has •L JL. been impacted on the face of the Moon. Apparently em-ploying hardware similar to that which, on January 2, placed Lunik I (otherwise Mechta) in orbit round the Sun, the new devicebroke new ground in having mid-course guidance. Fired at 1236 hr on Saturday, September 12, the vehicle wasreported at 49,000 miles over New Guinea 24 min later. Its track was rendered visible by a sodium flare emitted after dark on thesame day. The final stage—described as "a gas-filled sphere"— is reported to have weighed 3,324 lb (791b more than that of LunikI) and carried some 858 lb of instruments (61 lb more). Included in this stage was a command-controlled vernier rocket system. Throughout its flight of some 235,500 miles, the instrumentcontainer transmitted strongly on 19.993, 19.997, 20.003, 49.986 and 183.6 Mc/s. During Sunday the signal strength decreased,until after some 33 hours, when the instrument container was very near to the Moon, only the Jodrell Bank radio telescope remainedin contact. At 2202 hr 24 sec all transmissions ceased abruptly, when Jodrell's giant dish was pointing squarely at the moon. Thisis the only independent confirmation of impact, although a Hun- garian observatory claims to have detected a transient cloud ofdust near the Mare Serenitatis, a "sea" towards the north-east lobe of the Moon's face as seen from the Earth, and within thearea predicted by Soviet scientists. The latter had originally given 2201 as the impact time. C.P.A.L.'s Britannia Repeat OrderR EPORTS at the opening of the S.B.A.C. Display that CanadianPacific Air Lines had ordered two more Britannias were con- firmed last week-end. The order, to be completed in October andNovember, will bring to eight C.P.A.L.'s Britannia fleet. The president of C.P.A.L., Mr. Grant McConachie, says thatBritannias have been acquired "for operations on our Polar and Trans-pacific, Trans-continental and other services, because noother aircraft in the world today combines the same qualities of range, economy and airport capabilities with a speed well inadvance of the types of aircraft it replaces. Passenger opinions of the Britannia have been particularly gratifying. . . ." Theaircraft concerned will be Britannia 320s. And Now the Avro 758 LAST week Mr. Krishna Menon, India's Minister of Defence,' announced that the contract between the Indian Government and the Hawker Siddeley Group included an option to manufac-ture in India the Avro 758. This is understood to be a high wing, rear-loading variant of the 748 for the Indian Air Force. According to A. V. Roe, the I.A.F. had always wanted a rear-loader for the parachuting and supply-dropping tasks now per- formed by their Dakotas, but were prepared to accept a numberof low-wing aircraft because these would more nearly meet the as yet unfulfilled requirements of Indian Air Lines. An interimdesign of the Avro 748 also to be built for the I.A.F. will have large side-loading doors in the rear fuselage for aerial dropping. Design of the 758 is as yet in the early stages. Gross weight willbe greater than that of the 748 and the floor will be stressed for 250 lb/sq ft loading. The S.B.A.C. Dinner TN previous years the Flying Display Dinner of the S.B.A.C.•*- has been held on the eve of Farnborough, but this year it was thought an improvement to let the guests see the Show first, thusgiving an opportunity for discussion (and possibly for a little business, as Sir Aubrey Burke, the president, remarked). Reference to particular points from Sir Aubrey's speech, andfrom that by Lord Brabazon, are made in our leading article. "This year," said Sir Aubrey, "for the first six months we wereexporting at the rate of £175 million per annum and it seems certain we shall have another record year. This rate represents£3 8s per annum per head of our population, which is about 50 per cent higher than the figure of our nearest competitor. . . ."Sir Aubrey continued, "British engines are installed in more than MIGRATING to Ceylon, two D.H. Herons were handed over to the Royal Ceylon Air Force on September 10 prior to being flown out to start their new duties. Here two of the visiting contingent, who were the first R. Cey. A.F. representatives to come to the U.K. by air (in a D.H. Dove), talk to de Havilland test pilot Geoffrey Pike at Hatfield Impact speed was approximately 2.05 miles/sec, and there isno suggestion that any form of retro-rocket or terminal guidance was employed. This further underlines the magnitude of theRussians' achievement in effecting an accurate strike within 1J minutes of the predicted time. Even more remarkable is the claimthat pennants emblazoned with the hammer and sickle were "preserved"—in an unstated manner—during impact with theMoon's surface. Lunik II, the official name quoted by Tass, has thus become thefirst man-made cosmic vehicle to reach our nearest neighbour, and is a precursor of more sophisticated devices which in theyears to come will achieve "soft" lunar landings, go into orbit around the Moon and explore several other bodies within thesolar system. All such missions must be made with sterilized vehicles, and in their announcement of the launching, MoscowRadio confirmed that Lunik II had been rendered completely free of any terrestrial germs or micro-organisms. In retrospect it is conceivable that Lunik II could have carrieda timing device to cut off transmission at the predicted impact time, irrespective of whether the package hit the Moon or missed;but nothing that the Russians have done in the past lends credence to this idea. To quote Professor Lovell, Director at Jodrell Bank,"From every conceivable point of view it is quite fantastic ... at Jodrell Bank we have learnt to have the greatest respect forannouncements made by Russian scientists. The information they have given us has always been precise." 50 different types of foreign aircraft, and we are often asked whyit is these aircraft cannot be shown at Farnborough. . . . Natur- ally, as a Society we are sympathetic to this point of view andthe only reason we have not so far been able to permit it is because of the practical difficulty of accommodating about 50 addi-tional aircraft in an already somewhat crowded show. However, it is a matter which we have always got in our minds. . . ." Having summarized some of the year's major achievements,Sir Aubrey concluded, "Regarding the future growth of air travel in all its aspects for passengers, freight and agriculture, you willrealize I am an optimist, and I believe we have only just begun to scratch the surface. We certainly have not done much deepdigging and we have not applied enough quick-growing fertilizer. Nevertheless, I believe that in the year 2009 the president willhave a thrilling account to give of the progress made in the second 50 years of aeronautical development . . . and I am equally surethat the member companies of the S.B.A.C. will have played as important a part in that development as they have done in the past." Helicopter "Wedding Breakfast" "THE final—and very well attended—dinner of the Helicopter*• Association of Great Britain as a separate entity took place in London on Thursday of last week. The toast of the Association was proposed by Mr. Peter Mase-field, president of the Royal Aeronautical Society, of which body the Association is soon to become the Rotorcraft Section. TheAssociation's president, Mr. N. E. Rowe, naturally spoke of the coming "marriage" of the two organizations, but he also took theopportunity to pay tribute to those who had contributed most to
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