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Aviation History
1961
1961 - 0965.PDF
No 2732 VOLUME 80 THURSDAY 20 JULY 1961 Editor-in-Chief MAURICE A. SMITH DFC Editor H F. KINQ MBE: Technical Editor W. T. GUNSTON Air Transport Editor J. M. RAMSDEN Production Editor ROY CASEY Managing Director H. N. PRIAULXMBE IN THI8 IS8UE From All Quarters 66 Champions at Coventry Missiles and Space-flight Flight System Survey Straight and Level Correspondence Service Aviation Aero Engines 1961 Seen At Tushino Air Commerce 68 70 73 74 75 76 77 98 1OO Hille 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 S1S.00. Second Class Mail privileges authorized at NewYork, NY. Branch Offices Coventry: 8-10 Corpora-tion Street: telephone Coventry 25210. Birmingham: King Edward House, NowStreet, 2; telephone Midland 7191. Man- chester: 260 Deansgate 3: telephoneBlackfriars 4412 or Deanssate 3595. Glasgow: 62 Buchanan Street 01; 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 in IMS Sorting: Out Tushino E shall not apologize for reverting to the great Tushino display, our first appraisal of which, last week, was especially well received as we printed exclusively a clear ground view of Mil's giant flying crane. Among journalists, this sort of one-upmanship in the coverage of Soviet displays is pardonable, and adds a particular zest to life. The collation and interpretation of all procurable pictures and reports is a task that presents a very real challenge if readers are not to be misled by bogus identifications and entrapped by the pitfalls and labyrinths that beset intelligence work of this kind. Not the least of the hazards is in the conferring of designations. The NATO system of nomenclature, which provides much innocent merriment for East and West alike, is very well in its way, but invites abuses that can bedevil objective discus- sion. How many times in recent days one has heard such exultant cries as "See, the first photograph of a modified 'Fishpaste C," or "I always knew that 'Basher' was really 'Bouncer' with a kinked trailing edge." An attempt to sort out the new Russian aircraft, while governing speculation with prudence, may therefore be helpful. First, on page 98, we show an aeroplane which amazes by its inordinately —indeed fantastically—long nose. This type may be a long-range intercepter of extreme performance, and possibly the one which the Russians say is capable of "destroying any modern plane, whatever its speed and altitude." There exist, moreover, at least three varieties of delta-wing fighter, possibly by Sukhoi, and apparently differing in dimensions and powerplant. Such diversity is characteristic of the Red Air Force, just as the delta-wing-plus-tail and an affinity for under-fins is characteristic of Soviet designers. Fitters, Backfins, Flashlights The foregoing does not by any means complete the inventory of Russia's new fighters. In the same pictorial feature we have the first photograph of a type which seems to be NATO's "Fitter," together with a version of "Backfin," which may be a long-range fighter and not the supersonic bomber that the aircraft of this appellation was formerly considered to be. "Flashlights"—or members of this luminous family—were shown as all-weather fighters and multi-purpose aircraft; and there was a liquid-rocket-boosted Sukhoi (?) that disappeared vertically and is said to exceed Mach 1 on the climb. Whatever Roger Bacon may imply in Straight andLevel, these forma remark- able collection of fighting aeroplanes. The bomber picture has a highlight in the huge four-jet supersonic delta, approximating to "Bounder." We print a new view of this mighty aeroplane (which, as remarked last week, has evident potential as the prototype of a transport) on page 99. The great turboprop "Bear" seems almost archaic in contrast, though less so when it is reflected that these monsters passed over in strength, carrying massive stand-off missiles. Curiously, there has been no mention this year of the four-jet "Bison," so prominent in former displays, though "Badgers" were again observed in force, and with stand-off bombs. There is, too, the new bomber with twin jets a la Caravelle, which may be a near-relation of "Backfin," and unique jet-propelled flying-boats, glimpsed on page 98. Yet another "first" which we are able to present this week (it was tantalizingly absent from our first report) is Kamov's twin-rotor, twin-turbine counterpart of the Westland Rotodyne; and we are constrained to add that the monster Mi-6, already dubbed "Hook," is now seen to have as stablemate a true flying crane. How aptly, through the eyes of Mahbub Ali in Kim, did Kipling view in- telligence as a great game.
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