FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1963
1963 - 1499.PDF
FLIGHT International, 29 August 1963 313 y Straight and Level ^^ GOING through some old files on the Atlas missile a colleague found notes on a special committee formed in the summer of 1961 to probe the then disastrous firing record of the Atlas E. I am no expert in these matters, but I do know that for the past two years the name Atlas has been synonymous with reliability, whether the payload be a warhead, an interplanetary laboratory or a man. Which goes to show that people who scream for investigations as soon as a big pro gramme runs into trouble should learn to see things in perspective. • Here's another instance. When Boeing rolled out their famous "Dash-80"—the forerunner of the entire KC-135/707/720 family—and began taxying tests, the complete port main landing gear came up through the wing. A more inauspicious beginning to a great programme would be hard to imagine; but it doesn't seem to have been of any great significance in the long run. "Our numbers really are up. They're phasing out us single-seaters and these turboprop jobs and switching to //-62s" • Bacon's Brief Brains-trust: 1. State the optimum cruise Mach number for a medium/long-range supersonic air liner. 2. Predict all the difficulties that will be encountered during the introduction of supersonic airliners to scheduled service, and provide solutions. 3. Give an accurate estimate of the seat- mile cost of the Concorde, and of whatever American or Russian aircraft might appear in the same category. 4. State the exact entry-to-service dates of the Concorde and of whatever American or Russian aircraft might appear in the same category. 5. Tell each of the world's major airlines what they ought to do about it. Answers should be submitted on clean sheets of paper bearing the sender's name and address. Candidates should attempt all questions, although the difficult ones carry bonus marks. • Happy day for Capt Hugh Lavallee, Massachusetts Air National Guard, who departed from his F-86 at 20,000ft after collision with a towed target, came down in the sea some 60 miles east of Nantucket and was picked up by a trawler of a Russian fishing fleet, which happened to be there. "Put down your Herman Melville and that vodka bottle, comrade mate. By Cap'n Ahab, that's a strange fish in the net. Get Ivanovich Ishmael to lower a boat. . ." • I quote a news release issued by Amer ica's National Aeronautics and Space Administration: "One of the early tests after NASA orbited Syncom II marked the first time that a communications satellite circuit has been operated by a crew in underwear.'" The circumstances of this historic occasion must not go unrecorded. I find that shortly after Syncom was injected "And to think dear granny was frightened by a Shorthorn" into orbit on July 26 the spacecraft's tem perature was found to be low enough to permit testing earlier than expected. Crew men had just been dismissed from duty stations aboard the Syncom communi cations ship anchored in Lagos Harbour, when the skipper ordered "general quarters" to be sounded. The crew "in skivvies" (as NASA puts it) had the station on the air within eight minutes. • "Part I. Applications received: B.3614 from Air Ferry Ltd in conjunction with Fiendship Tours Ltd . . ."—From ATLB Licensing Notice No 135. Which reminds me of the poor girl who typed "Ghool of Gas Turbine Technology." • Picture Note Above, a study in diversification just received from Moscow, showing an undes ignated factory now producing II-18s and toy horses and soon to tackle Il-62s. Left, a study in rumination just "received from Australia, showing Mr Ron Costello's, man-powered ornithopter. The picture- agency captain reads: "Costello, a 46-year- old student of aerodynamics, constructed the craft from nuts, bolts, duralium, calico and rubber bands over a period of several months. He is not yet sure whether it will fly. If it does, the pilot will be pedalling furiously on a narrow platform in the fuselage to make the wings flap. The tail will be raised and lowered by pulling a string." ROGER BACON
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
