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Aviation History
1960
1960 - 0021.PDF
FLIGHT, 1 January 1960 21 Straight and ve I IT seems to be a convention thatmatters pertaining to dire emerg-encies should have frivolous nick- names. For example, abandoning anaircraft is variously referred to as baling out (what was the origin of that termanyway?), lobbing out, throwing it away, and so on. Ejection seats areknown as hot seats or bang seats. Panic button or Oh Crikey switch are namesapplied to many controls, and I once heard Gen Caldara, USAF, call theejection seat-firing mechanism the next- of-kin button. Now I see that astronauts are going tooperate the chicken switch to initiate the escape mechanism of the Mercurycapsule. Some chicken . . . • They certainly have some keentypes at Convair. I have just heard about one of their Fort Worth staff, who flewLiberators during the war, and who (be- cause, I suppose, they won't let himhave a go at the Hustler) has just built himself a Gyro-Copter. So keen is thischap on Convair bombers that he has scrapped the standard Bensen fin andhas fitted a replica of the Hustler's. No doubt Flight Falsies Ltd., someof whose products I introduced the other week, will now be coming up witha new line—Falsie Fins. • A Flight secretary telephoned a British aircraft firm the other day to enquire about the precise spelling of Mr. So-and-so's name. After an inter- val of three hours, a girl rang back to enquire: "Your query about Mr. So-and-so, how do you spell his name?" • According to a Boeing AirplaneCompany news release, four men in the company's advanced design section havebeen selected to be assigned to eight- by-eleven-foot rooms known as "ThinkTanks," where their work and thoughts will be uninterrupted (see picturebelow). Because they are not tied to "productproblems" eight hours a day, the reason- ing goes, they can "initiate research intoany area, constantly seeking out the bridges which will allow them to crossexisting plateaux of scientific knowledge so that products of tomorrow can bebuilt." So now you know what a Think Tank is. Makes you think, doesn't it? Hey, you down there. Don't just sit there— THINK something (see paragraph above) • The remarkable Mr. Leonid I. Sedov, chairman of the Commission for Interplanetary Travel of the Soviet AIRPLANE OR AEROPLANE? Dear Bacon—May I horn into this con-troversy that you have cooked up with die Sunday Express over the words aero-plane and airplane? I have a vested interest in both words, having flown thething they describe since 1915, first an air- plane (1915), then aeroplanes (1916 to1919) in the RFC and RAF, then aero- plane, 1920 (Canada Air Board) and finallyairplanes, USA. In my day, both types had one thing in common—built-in headwinds, which long since have been elimin- ated. Now they all go like hell, and I goby train or boat. I call that the air pil- grim's progress, and it explains why I'mstill alive—after being a test pilot for three years, too. Well, let's be consistent about this aero-air boggle. If an aeroplane (British) why not an aeroport and an aeroline? Why, inEngland, the despised American airport and airline? And when you go outdoorsin the morning to get a breath of air— having slept with your windows closed tokeep out the foggy, smoky, night air— why not get a breath of aero? I've looked this up in Webster's—American—dictionary. And old Web says : "Aero—a combining form denotingair, aerial, as in aerophotography." Of air, Web says simply: "The invisible, odor-less, and tasteless mixture of gases which surrounds the earth." Obviously he is notthinking of the London air—or aero—or that peculiar fug known as air in NewYork subways—or even on Park Avenue, home of carbon monoxide at rush hours.It's not odorless and tasteless, not always invisible. And I've seen your London air,in gobs. Almost solid. On the other hand, we too are incon-sistent, here in the land of the free—and slighdy less free if colored—for we usethe English aerobatics, which Web says is : "Performance of stunts, as nose dives, etc.,in an airplane, glider, or the like." Here Web stubbed his literary toe, for obviouslyaerobatics should be performed only in aeroplanes. If we do them in airplanesthey should be airbatics—right? Webster—this is the old English ances-try coming out, or he's been eating marma- lade by Hartley—has "aeromarine andaeromechanic." He hasn't air mechanic at all, except as two separate words. And yetwe never say aeromechanic. . . . But— I'm still consulting Webster—we have"aeroneurosis—a nervous disorder of aviators characterized by restlessness, painsin the abdomen, diarrhoea, etc." Well, to hell with it—Happy New Year, CY CALDWELL, The Martin Company, Baltimore, Maryland. Academy of Sciences, appeared inWashington, DC, at the annual Ameri- can Rocket Society meeting sporting apair of cuff-links fashioned after the ill- starred U.S. Vanguard rocket. Whentaken outside to look at the Titan ICBM his comment, according to the NewYork Times, was: "Very interesting. What is the scale of this model?" • If ever you go into someone's office to talk about something urgent, only to find him engrossed with half a dozen other people, go into the next door office and ring him up on his internal 'phone. For some reason that imperious instru- ment will command his instant attention. • A B.O.A.C. Comet skipper at40,000ft near Labrador heard a PanAm 707 captain reporting his height as31,000ft. Jokingly he asked the PanAm captain what he was doing all the waydown there at 31,000ft. Immediately the reply came back ".82." • Thought-provoking piece from the MATS Flyer:— "Hardly a flight is ever completed thatone or more crew members doesn't say audibly or inwardly, "What a stupid thingthat was . .. I'll never do that again!' "This is good—not the committing of afoolhardy act, but the fact that an admis- sion was made. This confession of guiltmeans that a conscience is still working and an improvement will be made nexttime. "These 'perfect' crimes against safetyand commonsense are not usually big. For example, a needless thunderstorm penetra-tion, a short-cut check list wherein you forgot the flaps, pushing your luck with aknown bad engine, or easing down just a few more feet after reaching minimaduring an approach. "This little voice of conscience is easy tostifle, and once rebuked begins to unravel like a knitted sweater. When this happens,all limits begin tumbling down and a final picture is usually, at best, a ruined careeror, at worst, a pile of rubble marking an end of a crew and their aircraft. "So, if you still have a conscience, guardit well. It may not always tell you the safest and best method, but it will tell you, in nouncertain terms, when you have violated a basic rule that you have learned to respect.The important thing to remember is: When this witness points its finger, don'tturn your back. No one ever consistently offends his conscience without it having itsrevenge." •• - • : •••••:; • '«*•* >•--."• Our Only Aim Is To Please "It is true that some people think we are doing too much, and that some people think we are doing too little. On the whole, I have sympathy with both points of view, though I do not agree with either."—Lord Hailsham on space research. ROGER BACON
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