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Aviation History
1960
1960 - 0809.PDF
BETWEEN FLIGHTS at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif, are a few of the Northrop T-38 Talon supersonic trainers now being evaluated. The white canopies on the aft cockpits are fitted when the seats are used for instrumentation. At lower left is an N-156F with Sidewinder lAs and 150 US gal underwing tanks. On tow is another—carrying a 2,0001b practice bomb provisional life of 2,000hr, but this is expected to be extendedafter experience. The machine is flown solo only from the right seat. No exactprice has been quoted; but with radio (a standard fitting) £8,500 is a representative figure. •Umbaugh for UK ONE of the most interesting personal aircraft to be built inAmerica in recent months is the Umbaugh U-18 autogyro, des- cribed in our "Helicopters of the World" special issue of May 27.The franchise in Great Britain has been granted to Holman & Co (Engineers) Ltd, of 185 Fordneuk Street, Glasgow SE. Thecompany expect to take delivery of their first U-18 during September. No 111 Sqn Accident A MEMBER of the "Treble One" formation aerobatic team,Fit Lt Stanley Wood, was killed last Friday—during a demon- stration being given to Service officers at RAF Wattisham—whenhis Hunter collided with another in a bomb-burst manoeuvre. The pilot of the other aircraft, Fit Lt Tom Hussey, landed safely onthe airfield runway. This was the first accident the squadron had had in three seasons of display flying, and it came at a time whenthe award of an AFC to the commanding officer, Sqn Ldr Peter Latham, had been announced in the Queen's Birthday Honours.The squadron recently received the Britannia Trophy for its outstanding contribution to aviation during 1959. William Courtenay WELL-KNOWN as an air correspondent, William Courtenay—whose death on June 6 at the age of 64 we record with regret— became interested in aviation when he learnt to fly with the RFCin Egypt in 1917, subsequently joining the RAF in the Middle East. He had previously served with the Army in Gallipoli andSinai, winning the MM at the Battle of Gaza. In 1931 he became aviation correspondent of the EveningStandard, transferring to Kemsley (now Thomson Allied) News- papers in 1938 and retaining this association—as staff man andcontributor—until his death. He served with the AAF (Balloon Barrage) from 1938 to 1940, then was sent on a lecturing missionto the US. He became an accredited war correspondent with the American and Australian forces in the Pacific theatre, remainingthere till the end of the war with Japan. In 1950 he was made an OBE. [The recent death of another well-known aeronautical journalist,Harry Harper, is referred to on page 853.J Jet Fuel and Safety ALTHOUGH experts in the subject would soon have guessedwhat was amiss, an artist's error in one of the graphs illustrating J. W. Rickard's "Jet Fuel and Safety" (page 787 last week) mayhave puzzled the average reader. In Fig 1, "Explosive mixtures for aircraft fuel (equilibrium conditions)," the key should haveshown that the broken lines indicated the rich limit and the solid lines the weak limit. Also, in Fig 2, "435kt i.a.s." should haveread "435kt La.s." PROTOTYPE of the Fiat G.91T. Powered with a Bristol Sid- deley Orpheus, this tandem-seat trainer has been ordered in quantity for the Italian Air Force. Alternative tactical employment is foreseen IN BRIEF Semyon Lavochkin, the Soviet aircraft designer, died suddenly inMoscow on June 9 at the age of 60. He was the holder of four Stalin Prizes for his designs of military aircraft. West Germany now employs over 15,000 people in her aircraftindustry, according to the newspaper Bild am Sonntag. It was added that in two to three years this number will be more than 20,000. The Sikorsky Aircraft Division of United Aircraft Corporation havegranted Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd a licence to manufacture and sell S-61 helicopters in Japan. Annual general meeting of the Astronautics and Guided Flight Sectionof the Royal Aeronautical Society will be held at 4 Hamilton Place, London Wl at 6.30 p.m. on Friday, July 8. SEA TO intelligence authorities reported in Washington recentlythat China now has an air force of 2,000 jet fighters and 500 twin-jet light bombers, all of Soviet design, bringing her total military airstrength to over 3,000 modern aircraft. Capt J. A. levers, OBE, RN, is to be Deputy Controller of Aircraft(Military) at the MoA in succession to Rear Admiral A. S. Bolt. Capt levers is being promoted to rear admiral and will take up his newduties in July. The Institute of the Aeronautical Sciences is holding its annualnational summer meeting, at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, from June 28 to July 1. Gen Curtis E. Le May, USAF Vice-chief of Staff,will be guest of honour and principal speaker at a banquet on June 30. Two parachuting records have been claimed by the Soviet Union.Referring to two jumps made by Petr Dolgov on June 3 and 7, from heights of 12,974m (about 43,000ft) and 14,835m (about 49,000ft),Moscow radio said "these were the 49th and 50th jumps he had done by catapulting"—presumably meaning ejection. In both cases he landedafter 20-25min. J. H. Williams, AMiMechE, AMinstT, who served with the SopwithAviation Co as an apprentice before and after the First World War (in which he was commissioned in the RAF), is retiring on July 9 from thepost of equipment engineer (road services), London Transport, after 40 years' service. At Sopwiths, he was particularly concerned withengines—including the Gnome, Le Rhone and Rolls-Royce Eagle—and flew from Brooklands with the late Harry Hawker, who was then theSopwith chief test pilot.
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