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Aviation History
1960
1960 - 1163.PDF
NO 2681 VOLUME 78 FRIDAY 29 JULY I960 Editor-in-Chief MAURICE A. 8MITH DFC Editor H . F. KING MBE Technical Editor W. T. GUNSTON Production Editor ROY CASEY IN THIS ISSUE From All Quarters 140 Missiles, Men and Mobility 142 Simulating Hunter Emergencies 143 Missiles and Spacef light 145 Polaris 147 The First Man- carrying Aeroplane 151 Straight and Level 153 The Long Reach of Fighter and Bomber Commands 154 The Woes of US Airlines 156 Flight System Survey 158 Sport and Business 159 Variety and Verve 160 Correspondence 161 The Industry 162 Service Aviation 163 Air Commerce 164 I Miffe & Sons Ltd, Dorset House, Stam-ford Street, London SE1; telephone Waterloo 3333. Telegrams FlightpresSedist London. Annual subscriptions: Home £4 15s. Overseas £5. Canadaand USA $15.00. Second Class Mail privileges authorized at New York, NY.Branch Offices Coventry: 8-10 Corpora- tion Street; telephone Coventry 25210.Birmingham: King Edward House, New Street, 2; telephone Midland 7191. Man-chester: 260 Deansgate, 3: telephone Blackfriars 4412 or Deansgate 3505.Glasgow: 02 Buchanan Street, C.I; tele- phone Central 1265-6. New York, NY: Thomas Skinner & Co(Publishers) Ltd, 111 Broadway, 6; telephone Digby 9-1197. © Iliffe & Sons Ltd, 1960. Permissionto reproduce illustrations and letterpress can be granted only under written agree-ment. Brief extracts or comments may be made with due acknowledgement. AIRCRAFT, SPACECRAFT, MISSILES Official Organ of the Royal Aero Club First Aeronautical Weekly in the World Founded 1909 The Double StarP OLARIS. The North Star. The Pole Star. A double star, "the duplicity of which" (the reference book says) "is difficult to see, on account of a wide difference in magnitude ..." A confusing star evidently; and for sheer confusion the Polaris missile promises to turn out to be the mirror image of its heavenly namesake. Only in respect of technicalities—discussed by the technical editor in unprecedented detail last week and this—is America's newly proved weapon system clearly viewed. Strategically—which is politically—Polaris is giving rise to a murky new missile miasma in Parliamentary proceedings. Its adoption will, in the Prime Minister's words, "in due course be discussed by the NATO Council as to whether it is a good or a bad thing militarily to replace in due course the various bomber and other forces by a weapon of this kind." Mr. Macmillan later explained that it had to be considered first, from a military point of view, whether the provision of Polaris or some other missile "about five or six years ahead" was necessary to replace the present tactical bomber force. We have, then, this Lockheed missile, which has already been proved as a seaborne weapon and which could, within months perhaps, be adapted for land- based operation, being held in prospect as a successor to aircraft—notably Britain's TSR.2—which have yet to fly and which cannot possibly be in service for years to come. Moreover, when these eventually do reach service they must reasonably be expected to remain in the front line for at least five to ten years. So whatever the time scale of Polaris development and operational readiness, there is a discrepancy here that is both puzzling and worrying. It is this consideration, we suggest, and not so much the often-expressed concern that the Federal German Republic may be supplied directly with missiles of Polaris type, that calls for immediate examination. The German nuclear bogy is already taking form as the immense constructional programme for the Lockheed F-104G. For, although called Starfighter, this aircraft is a manned nuclear delivery system of great potency. This fact, we observe, has not passed unnoticed in The Guardian, though in ascribing to the F-104G a range "several hundred miles in excess of the 1,200 miles which is the aim of the present Polaris development team," that newspaper's leader-writer appears to have confused range with radius of action. The Seaward Side So much for the landward prospect of this double star in Europe. Britain's own immediate interest is a naval one. The position is that "an urgent study" has been instituted concerning the requirements for British-built submarines capable of carrying Polaris. But it must not be overlooked that the US Defense Department has stated that, although Britain could purchase these missiles, it is hoped that we should fall into line with the proposal that they should be under NATO manage- ment. There is scant prospect, in any case, of our having an operational fleet ballistic missile submarine in operation until 1970, by which time not only the George Washington but the Patrick Henry will have been serving with the United States Navy, with their full complement of Polaris, for some ten years. And they will have been joined by 43 o±ers. The Minister of Defence said the other day that we are not at a point where we need take a decision so far as the Polaris weapon system is concerned. Of the air-launched Douglas Sky Bolt, he said that we were now negotiating a firm agree- ment with the American Government which would ensure us a supply of these missiles "provided that the missile works." He added that he had every confidence that it would work, and we only had to wait some six or nine months to see. It will be a consolation to him during those anxious nine months of gestation that Polaris will be twinkling so propitiously in a sky so dominated by Mars.
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