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Aviation History
1968
1968 - 0320.PDF
314 FLIGHT International, 29 Ftbrw Ling-Temco-Vought A-7As of the USN are m taking a large share of the strike mission j S£ Asia. Here Corsair Us are seen on tne ft deck of the USS "Ranger" in the Gu/fo Tonkin. Note the Sidewinder missiles and * troughs for the two 20mm cannon in fuselage nose. The former, although an OI'MJ air missile, could conceivably be used ogojns certain ground targets. The picture on di left shows aircraft with low-drag bombs, while that at right shows a S armed A-7A V-Bomber Ejection Seats: Action Likely "i HOPE THOSE IN AUTHORITY will take immediate steps to provide other mem- bers of the crew with a means of escape equal to those of the pilot and co-pilot." So remarked Mr Alan Bond, coroner at the inquest on February 20 at RAF Cottesmore on the four members of a Vulcan from that station which crashed at Burley, Rutland, on January 30. The four members of the crew killed in the accident were the navigator-radar, the navigator-plotter, the air electronics officer and a navigator-radar instructor. The captain and co-pilot ejected and were saved. At the inquest, the Vulcan captain said that two heavy explosions had occurred in the aircraft while in flight near the airfield. Previously, an over- heating problem had been experienced in the weapon bay. The captain ordered the crew to bale out and had himself ejected at a very low altitude while the aircraft was inverted. The question of fitting ejection seats for other crew members to V-bombers was raised several years ago; in 1964, a scheme for the Vulcan was considered in which a crew escape system was to be provided at an estimated £35,000 per aircraft. This was rejected and the present cost of a redesigned crew station is put at about £100,000 per aircraft. With the cancellation of the F-lll and AFVG, some 80 Vulcans will now remain in service until 1976 or 1977 and the Ministry of Defence is again examin- ing the problem. Last Friday the Minister of Defence (Equipment), Mr Roy Mason, told a press conference that the change in the V-Bomber's role to tactical strike was compelling urgent consideration of the possibility of installing ejection seats, which now become more necessary for the rear crewmen. The present escape method for the crew without ejection seats in the Vulcan is through a hatch in the floor. Soviet Services on Film THE SOVIET ARMED FORCES celebrated last week the fiftieth anniversary of thear first victory, over German forces, following their ©stablishmerrt by post-revolution decree on January 28, 1918. To mark the anniversary a superb documentary film, "The Country's True Sons," in colour with occasional monochrome historical inserts, has been released in Britain. Flight saw it at the Soviet Embassy last week. The film shows operations of all the Soviet forces, its opening sequence being at a hardened ICBM base. This is in a forest and stacks of sawn timber, on rail-mounted trolleys, roll aside to open the silos for firing. Mobile rocket forces, with their Scrooge and Scud vehicle- mounted missiles, are also shown— vehicles carrying the latter maintaining a high cross-country speed along in surfaced forest tracks. There are superb air-defence sequences with ground and air-to-air shots o Fiddler long-range intercepters carryinj Ash AAMs, and long-nosed MiG-21s Guideline and Griffon SAMs are fired Sukhoi Su-7 Fitters are seen taking of filmed through a rearward-facing camen under the wing or on the undercarriagi leg of the lead aircraft. A mass scrambli and low-level formation flight of Blinda supersonic bombers, of both the "A" am "B" versions (the latter with reheat) i seen. Filmed both from within ths "customer" aircraft and from a stand-ol aircraft is an over-ocean in-flight refuel ling hook-up, with a missiile-carryini Bear four-turboprop bomber taking fuel from a four-jet Bison. The Bear: also seen launching its Kangaroo stand off missile. A sequence on training wa construed by some members of the audi ence as an indication that Sow operational pilots make an actual ejectioi as part of their training. There is a air-to-air shot of a modified MiG-l5U' two-seater with the ejection taking ) from the rear seat. Some magnificent cinematogra-Pl) showed elements of the Soviet Navy a work and, probably for the first time n the west, Styx ship-to-ship missiles^ Goa ship-to-air missiles are shown fired. A long sequence shows a mass t» exercise, with Soviet tanks, with long, instantly jettisoned tubes, traversing a very wide river^ looking distinctly Wellsian when by underwater cameras as they ninj the river bed. Strike aircraft- sweep overhead with big underwing J of weapons. Mi-4, 8 and 10 helicoj are seen in operational use, the vast numbers. Heavy supply <iT°P shown in which the loads land lightly, braked as they are by i<^f. rockets at the main parachute i which fires when the load is about from the ground, severing the
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