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Aviation History
1961
1961 - 0511.PDF
2719 VOLU ME 79 THURSDAY 20 APRIL 1961 Editor-in-Chief MAURICE A. SMITH DFC Editor H. P. KING MBE Technical Editor W. T. GUNSTON Air Transport Editor J. M. RA MSDE N Production Editor ROY CASEY Managing Director H. N. PRIAULX IN THIS ISSUE From All Quarters 52O Man in Orbit: Gagarin's Flight 522 Progress in the French Industry 525 Guild Banquet 526 The Long View 527 By Proctor to Ethiopia 530 Weather Flight 532 Shores of Tripoli 534 Bolkow-Klemm in the Air 536 Aero Commander 56OF in the Air 537 Correspondence 539 Flight System Survey 540 Straight and Level 541 Sport and Business 542 Air Commerce 543 Service Aviation 548 Ilitt* Transport Publications Ltd, DorsetHouse, Stamford Street, London, SKI; telephone Waterloo 3333. TelegramsFlightpres London SE1. Annual sub- scriptions: Home £4 15s. Overseas £5.Canada and USA S15.00. Second Class Mail privileges authorized at NewYork, NY. Branch Ofhcts Coventry: 8-10 Corpora-tion Street; telephone Coventry 25210. Birmingham: King Edward House, New-Street, 2; telephone Midland 7191. Man- chester: 260 Deansgate 3; telephoneBlackfriars 4412 or Deansgate 3595. Glasgow: 62 Buchanan Street Cl; tele-phone Central 1265-6. New York, NY: Thomas Skinner & Co(Publishers) Ltd, 111 Broadway 6; telephone Digby 9-1197. © Iliffe Transport Publications Ltd,1961. Permission to reproduce illustra- tions and letterpress can be granted onlyunder written agreement. Brief extracts or comments may be made with dueacknowledgement. AIRCRAFT, SPACECRAFT, MISSILES Official Organ of the Royal Aero Club First Aeronautical Weekly in the World Founded 1908 The Justice of ProgressT IME has done epic justice to the Russian people in their launching of the first unmanned and manned space vehicles, for rocketry and spaceflight are Russian dreams come true. In 1881, while awaiting the day of his execu- tion, Nikolai Ivanovich Kibaltchitch finished a manuscript entitled "Pre- liminary design of a rocket airplane." The circumstances are admirably related in Willy Ley's book Rockets, Missiles and Space Travel. Mr Ley goes on to record the work of the Russian schoolteacher Konstantin Eduardovitch Tsiolkovsky who, almost simultaneously with the German Ganswindt, made the first proposals for a rocket-propelled vessel for ascents beyond the outer layers of the earth's atmosphere. This was in 1895. In the 1920s we find that a Moscow student society was formed with the avowed purpose of advancing space travel. Its name was "World-centre of All Inventors and Scientists," and it was succeeded by the "Group for Investigation of Reaction Motion." These historical facts have been little noticed by the daily Press in their otherwise generous acclamation of Russia's first manned entry into space, the story of which is told in this issue. It is one that has filled all races with the profoundest admiration. Rightly, the popular reports have given much credit to German techniques; but, as we have shown, Russia has long been actively space-minded. Possibly Prof Wernher von Braun was overlooking these facts when—it is reported—he declared that the Russians "did this to impress the African nations." The great adventure of Major Gagarin has, we believe, impressed the white nations equally. The Major's Story The technical achievement itself will remain a monolithic signpost in the progress of mankind. But it is Major Gagarin's own story, we believe, which will afford the greatest inspiration to coming generations. He himself has evidently been inspired by the writings of great visionaries. After his return to Earth he said, "I have read Jules Verne. He wrote, of course, in a most interesting manner. But it has turned out differently in life from his fantasies." One wonders if the Major was remembering that Jules Verne's projectile, of American construction, was launched from the Cape Canaveral area. We believe not, for there is a simplicity and directness about his story which utterly shames some tendentious and cynical comments that came from people from whom one might have expected magnanimity. Perhaps the Russian cosmonaut's account received treatment at the hands of some Tass re-write man. We neither know nor care. The story has the impact of truth and wonder. "I saw for the first time," Gagarin relates, "the Earth's spherical shape. You can see its curvature when looking to the horizon. The view of the horizon is unique and very beautiful. The Earth is of a delicate blue colour. And this transition from the blue to the dark is very gradual and lovely . . . When I emerged from the shadow of the Earth the horizon looked different . . ." He goes on, "When weightlessness appeared I felt excellent. Everything was easier to perform ... I felt fine ... I could have gone flying through space as long as required ... I was full of joy when I touched the Earth." Of Project Mercury Gagarin said: "We shall welcome the successes of the American cosmonauts when they have flown. There is room in space for everybody. But we shall try to be always ahead." This may contain an element of propaganda. It may not be great literature. But it is beyond doubt the literature of greatness.
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