Postblogging Technology, April 1955, I: I Don't Even Know What Secrecy Is, Any More

R_.C.,
Shaughnessy,
Vancouver,
Canada

Dear Father:

I'm having a bit of a mix-up with my magazines, which I am sure I will have sorted out next time. In the mean time, enjoy a review of the news over two weeks in which the Chief of Naval Operations is allowed to just make stuff up and plant it in the press, an MP isn't allowed to complain about an actual security violation, and the Atomic Energy Commission outright lies about the United States having atomic warheads for guided air-to-air missiles. 

Unless WWIII does break out. I can't rule it out, but I'm writing on the 15th, and I will be going to bed well before midnight, so I may wake up to find us in the midst of the final global battle between the imperialists and the Socialist Soviet of Workers and Peasants.

Your Loving Daughter, 

Ronnie

The Economist, 2 April 1955

Leaders

"Boisterous Survey" The economy is going great, Rab Butler is great, a 4.5% bank rate is great, everyone gets a second piece of pie.Or a tax cut. Or, actually, both. Because if there can't be a tax cut now, when can there be a tax cut? 

"Rubicon of Rearmament" We're still going to have West German rearmament and possibly a four power summit, Europe is good within limits, it's important to discuss recent developments in the Kremlin even though they probably don't matter --Hey, wake up, this is important!

"Housewives' Choice" the wacky little lady who made you breakfast will probably vote the cost of living ticket, which is actually the Tories in spite of appearances because of food rationing. 

The Economist of 1855 asks "Can We Afford Not To?" I guess since the usual question is "Can We Afford To?", the novel formulation allows The Editor to approve of extra expenditure on something. Specifically, getting rid of officer commission purchase, which 

There are either too many, or not enough trade fairs these days, depending on the day of the week or maybe some useful thoughts buried in the middle of this Leader that I shall not read!

Notes

"Attack on Matsu and Quemoy?" Oh, right, World War III. We were thinking of going. I've bought a nice frock but we're having just a devil of a time finding a sitter, so I'm still hoping it might be called for rain. (Or because the CIA is just plain making up "intelligence" about imminent Red attacks at this point.) Maybe if it is called off I can wear the smock to Churchill's retirement party/The Surprise Snap Election instead. Speaking of, Bevan's back in the Labour Party to everyone's complete opposite of surprise. The Economist explains the newspaper strike. Iraqis are almost as excited as possible by the news that the British are kind of pulling out of their air bases in Iraq  now that Iraq has ratified the Baghdad Pact. The only way they could be happier is if the British actually pulled out, but this is apparently impossible because there would be radio-activity in a future war and only military air transport would be possible and we would have to have access to our "allies'" air space.  It is very concerning that the Austrians are taking with the Russians, as they might give away too much, and we know longer be able to count on their ski brigades, marching bands, and performing stallions in a war in Europe. Everyone is arguing about who is worse at the disarmament talks currently going on at Lancaster House. Speaking of stories that blend into each other, there is labour turmoil on the Liverpool docks. "Oh, an election? Time to pretend to be Liberal again!" The planned Catholic march on Brussels to express disapproval of education reforms has fizzled. The South African government has solved the problem of the 5-0 Supreme Court ruling finding that they should go soak their heads by appointing six new judges. But! Maybe they won't just overturn the judgement and let apartheid through. Maybe Premier Strydom has a secret plan to be defeated and just let the whole thing go! I mean, if there's anything "the Lion of Waterberg" is known for, it's for being lukewarm on apartheid! Oh, what's that? A bridge to Brooklyn for sale? Don't mind if we do! German trade unionists are also trouble, the new Road Traffic Bill will die on the table if an election is called, but that's okay because the magazine never liked it anyway, Lufthansa resumes flying this week, which is okay because the Nazis are gone, and for the purposes of this run-on sentence, aren't coming back. Horror comics are going where they belong, which is the House of Lords. Everyone agrees that the government needs to  have the power to expropriate land and that this power is ripe for abuse if misused and that there needs to be some way to review such decisions, and that it would be fun for the parties in the Commons to portion out various review proposals and fight over which one to implement, and for The Economist to decide that Labour's preferred option is terrible. The bad news from South Vietnam is that privateers, criminals, secret societies and armed religious sects continue to resist Ngo Dinh Diem, and the something news from Brussels is that the ECSC is doing something about scrap imports from six countries that are exporting scrap in quite the wrong way, the specifics of which, as opposed to the specifics of the exact office of the ECSC so deciding, are not worth spelling out. 

Letters

A. M. P. Brookes writes from St. John's College to explain why professionals pay too much income tax. Marc Ryle explains why free barristers  need special consideration on the income tax. Frederic Benham points out that his critics are idiots. A. R. Wolfe also has idiots in his sights as he points out that dropping graphical illustrations of economic statistics is as bad as censoring horror comics. 

Books

H. R. Acton's The Illusion of the Epoch is a philosophical treatise about how Marxism-Leninism is wrong. The reviewer of H. C. Allen, Great Britain and the United States: A History of Anglo-American Relations, 1783--1932 seems to be a friend of the author with a low opinion of his intelligence, so that he can say that it's a waste of paper is he takes some extra words to say it. Tibor Mende, South-East Asia Between Two Worlds  is a left-leaning but not too left treatment. Basil Davidson's Worse Than the British is a silly and wrong book about how Africa's poverty is due to underinvestment by the colonial powers and not circumstances beyond the limits well-intended efforts. Dudley Stamp's Man and the Land is "a strange, disjointed, but extremely readable book." 

American Survey

"Trade in Trouble" Congress and the President are fighting because the President is being dumb and Congress is being political and the upshot is that it sometimes seems like the United States is never going to get its tariff policy sorted out. 

"Democrats Come to Dinner" The President had a nice dinner with Democratic leaders and has agreed that the Yalta Papers shouldn't turn into a big thing in spite of what Bill Knowland and the right wing press want, and that Admiral Carney should shut up about imminent Red attacks on Quemoy and Matsu. This politicking has got his Tax Bill through the House. The UAW is sorting out what it means by guaranteed employment, which the Big Three at least, might go for. Congress is not covering itself with glory over the Post Office and civil service reform. The Brooklyn Eagle has closed after a 47 day strike. 

"Natural Gas in Congress" The Supreme Court upheld the 1938 Natural Gas Regulatio Act last year that the natural gas industry had to be regulated like the utilities, but Texas Democrats think it shouldn't be, and the Federal Power Commission, which is supposed to regulate them, tends to agree. A deregulation scheme got through Congress the last time it was discussed, but Truman vetoed it. Ike doesn't seem inclined to follow Truman, but who knows? The Economist's view of the recent telephone tapping scandal in New York is that private wiretapping is, and should be, illegal, but it's going to be hard for the United States to stop it. The Civil Aeronautics Board is trying to curtail American airlines' "financial participation in foreign airlines," or, in plain language, taking over Latin American airlines because American airlines are subsidised through the postal rate, and it is ridiculous for American taxpayers to pay for American companies to buy out foreign industries. 

The World Overseas

"The Last Act in Paris" The Economist promises, cross its heart, that this is the last we're going to hear about France and German rearmament. Australia is cutting back on imports to restore its trade balance. Nigeria is currently not having a political crisis. Ben-Gurion's return to the cabinet isn't a surprise because anyone thought that his retirement was real. It is a surprise because he was expected to wait until he could resume the premiership after the elections in July. Instead, he has accepted the Ministry of Defence under Sharret. Ben-Gurion is going to campaign for an end to proportional representation and the creation of popular constituencies, which would lead to a two-party system, and cabinets not dependent on coalition building. The Economist is skeptical that this would actually happen because Israeli politics cannot be reduced to two parties, although it might lead to permanent dominance by Ben-Gurion's party. Colombia was fine as long as it was just being ruled by a dictator, but when falling coffee price put its foreign payments in arrears, that was serious. It is good that the IMF stepped in and settled things by the harmless step of cutting Colombia's imports, but Colombia should probably build some steel mills and the like instead of depending on coffee exports. There's a lot of spying going on in Sweden involving the lesser East Bloc countries. 

Canada gets its own section, which discusses Lester Pearson's efforts to create some distance from Dulles on foreign policy without overtly disagreeing with him, the upcoming budget, which will address the first deficit since before the war with the first cuts in government expenditure since 1948. The deficit is at least partially the result of the recession of 1954 and the rise in unemployment, which peaked in February, which was caused by the population increasing by 3%, while the economy failed to expand, leading to the first decline in the standard of living in years. There is an exciting Note about potentially reforming Parliamentary procedures, and more discussion of the national gas pipeline. 

The Business World

"Guides to the Economy" Not to be too cynical, but The Economist's coverage of a very good year without succumbing to its usual habit of discerning dark clouds on the horizon seems very closely tied to the hope that the Tories will go to the polls on the strength of a tax cut. 

Business Notes

The secret is gyroscopes, which are magic. 

It turns out that newspaper strikes are bad for business as well as for reporting about business. The government is not going to act on the import of cheap Indian cottons before the election. (A later Note discusses W. A. Grierson's proposal for the orderly self-liquidation of undercapitalised Lancashire cotton firms gets cautious approval, as it might be the best way for the industry to get out of its current overproduction problems, and will free labour to work double shifts in recapitalised mills.) AEI is doing well, the government is looking at the National Coal Board looking at the reforms recommended in the recent recommendation-report-writing committee. A brief description of the ship stabilisers installed on the Queen Elizabeth,  which are in the news, includes a useful diagram. The Ministry of Supply has ordered 20 Folland Gnats to support the development effort, and The Economist approves because they are cheap and why shouldn't jet fighters get cheaper. ("Ooh, Ooh," shouts eager beaver Ronnie, desperately waving her hand for recognition. "Because we don't like it when our pilots die!") South Africa's Finance Ministry is experimenting with the much-talked-about tax on undistributed profits. The Economist is interested in seeing how it comes out. American copper prices are up, whiskey exports are climbing, trade with Persia has resumed. Harwell is going to be able to provide really high intensity radiation sources next year, allowing for trials with irradiated silicones and plastics. Britain is sending an official committee to India to kick the tires of India's steel expansion plan and maybe get a contract to build a steel mill. Hudson's Bay Company stock prices are up on the strength of the company's interest in oil. Two Frech electric locomotives have broken the world rail speed record as part of ongoing efforts to develop really fast locomotives.  

 

13:00: Locomotives going like heck. 

Aviation Week, 4 April 1955

News Digest reports that American has ordered another 14 DC-7s, that a Pan American Stratocruiser has ditched 40 miles off the Oregon coast after the No. 3 engine fell off the week. The RCAF has received its first P2V-7 Neptunes, and the Chicago Institute of Technology has a thirty grand contract to study propeller blade stresses. Industry Observer reports that a Wright J65 engine survived a recent crash, which goes to show that Wright isn't just known for failing to fulfill its contracts. Avro Canada is testing out a new "tailpipe thrust augmentor" giving a 15% boost in thrust in the Orenda. The first two prototype CF105s will roll out in the Fall. The Falcon missile is getting a new, better streamlined radar cover. Washington Roundup reports that Secretary Wilson is cracking down on leaks at the Navy. A new Senate subcommittee is going to investigate readiness, with special emphasis on airlift and missiles. Everyone is waiting with bated breath for the Army's aviation plan. The CAA is going to audit more airlines/

Aviation Week reports that the CAB is taking aim at the non-skeds again. The relevant House (two of them) and Senate committees are fighting over how they're going to take on the DME/TACAN dispute. The Hoover Commission has made the obvious point that if there's going to be a MATS because it just makes sense, it doesn't make sense to have Navy Fleet Logistic Wings, Air Material Command's Logistics Air, and the various Command transport units. But they also want to trim MATS back, because it is empire building, too. Lockheed has given up on the Turbo Connie because Wright says that the T34 can't do what Lockheed is asking of it. I don't --Are these things that American aviation companies even allowed to say? If it's any consolation, Lockheed has another magic airplane to replace it, a bigger Super Constellation with Wright Turbo Compound engines like the ones that keep crashing Stratocruisers.

"Air Defence Trying Out Missiles Armed with Atomic Warheads" A prototype warhead will be tried out in the current atomic test series in Nevada. It is thought to fit on a Falcon or a Douglas Sparrow, and is being considered for the Nike. "No indication has been given of the size of the weapon," which in context means the strength of the blast. The Defence Department assures us that high blasts will not cause radiation at ground level. The Air Force has cancelled orders for 1500 GE J47 engines after the time between overhauls was increased to 1200 hours. The Navy is testing its Automatic Carrier Landing System, a combined radio-radar unit from Bell Aircraft with a computer that calculates aircraft speed and direction from radar data and waves the plane off if its approach is wrong. Washington civil aviation circles are a-stir over proposals that additional flights should land in Baltimore instead of a yet-to-be-built second D.C. airport. Hayden Aircraft Corporation, a company that of course you've heard of, has absolutely got a modernised Ford Tri-Motor almost in production which will sell like hotcakes for reasons so obvious I don't even need to explain them. The MATS chief has reported on MATS turboprop experiments, concluding that they're big shaky monsters and who wants them except those neat little Rolls-Royce units, thus confirming ten years of common sense. But the new one that will go on the C-130 is fine, so maybe there's a future for them. Business Flying reports that Bell is trying to sell 47s to uranium hunters and that the Learstar combines a Collins Radio NC-101 off-course computer with a Lear L-5 to make the Learstar less crashable than ever. The Collins system has a punch-card reader that can feed the computer with the VOR receivers for selected stations to fly a pre-programmed route.  

Aeronautical Engineering has Irving Stone, "How An Air Weapon System Is Evolved" Not another word of this story would need to be changed if you just substituted "wife" for "contractor," "husband" for "Air Force" and "new refrigerator" for "supersonic atomic guided seeking missile." It is noted that the Defence Department is opening a titanium laboratory to sort out what it can do with all the useless ingots of titanium it has received. (Other than set them on fire in an asbestos burn barrel and cook steaks Pittsburgh-style.) 

Production has received a nice article from Mr. Rolls-Royce Engines Division via McGraw-Hill World News Service with the fetching title, "Rolls-Royce Uses New Assembly Line," which, as you might expect, is the story of the investigation of the suspicious death of an elderly spinster in a locked rectory in a small Derbyshire village. Or, wait, it's about an assembly line. With conveyor belts and stands and everything! It's at the new plant at Glasgow, and the assembly line is new, since Avons are assembled on stands at Derby. Also, "No Rod Betters Titanium Weld" summarises a paper given by Alan Levy of Marquandt to the Los Angeles section of the American Welding Society explaining how to use the Hierac automatic welder to weld thicker sections of titanium without filler rod than hitherto, leading to less atmospheric contamination and greater ductility. Convair has a new electronic meter for detecting faulty bonds, based on Stanford Research Institute work. Solar Aircraft really likes its new Hydrospin, from Cincinnati Milling Machine Company. Equipment has a nice article from Heli-Coil about its new locknut. Only a page-and-a-half! Link has a navigational trainer specifically for polar flying, installed at Mather AFB. New Aviation Products has a tubeless tire, a night recording camera, a jet starter, a generator that only weighs 30lb, and "mated berthing chairs" for Panagra DC7s. 

Captain R. C. Robson is back at Cockpit Viewpoint with "Insured Manpower," explaining that of course people are going to leave the Air Force (the big concern right now), and not become civil airline pilots, when they are worried that they will wash out of a physical and be left without a career at 40. The solution is some kind of insurance, ALPA is looking at it, and so should the Air Force. 

Air Transport reports that the British transport aircraft backlog has grown to  214, including BOAC's order of 21 Comet 4s, 128 Viscounts, 36 Britannias, and 29 Heralds. 

Maybe if Lord Wigg bought some advertorial space, all would be forgiven. 

Robert Hotz's Editorial denounces "More Wigg flipping in England." That's accusing "socialist MP" George Wigg of being mean to Aviation Week for denouncing it for security violations on the floor of the Commons. But what really disappoints Aviation Week is that Wigg is accusing an RAF officer of indiscretion in the matter of an infrared-homing British missile. 

The Economist, 9 April 1955

Leaders

Winston Churchill gets a political obituary, and The Economist hopes that Anthony Eden runs a more collegiate cabinet. 

"Islands and Wedges" The authoritative American warning of an imminent Red attack on Quemoy and Matsu has been authoritatively rejected by American authorities, but they will attack soon for sure, and maybe, as go Quemoy and Matsu, so goes the world, as the Koumintang government collapses, Japan goes Communist, and so forth. On the  other hand, Britain thinks that having the Koumintang on Quemoy and Matsu is crazy and they should be kicked off. This might lead to a wedge between Britain and the United States, which must be resisted at all costs in some unspecified way. The Economist proposes an Anglo-American guarantee of Hong Kong and Formosa. 

"Map including most of the territory of Kinmen [Quemoy] County"

From The Economist of 1855 comes "The Evils of Purchase," which reads like "The Evils of Witch Hunting," or "Slavery." We don't need convincing, Mr. Wilson! 

We get a catch up on the London press strike, and the first fraud conviction of a Lloyd's member is a historic moment. The Economist explains how it developed over the last twenty years, and how Lloyd's audit process failed. 

Notes of the Week

 We look forward to Eden's government, the election, and the likelihood that Eden will take over the Ministry of Defence to allow Sir Harold MacMillan to take over the Foreign Ministry. Bevan is still Bevan. Contrary to promises last week, we still need to talk about European defence talks about, well, talking. The bomb attacks in Cyprus show that right wing Greeks are ungrateful brutes. It is to be hoped that all the silent pro-British Cypriots that are presumed to be out there will speak up. Conservative gains in the local council elections are a good omen for the national election. The ten year plan for Kenya that was written back in 1946 when ten year plans were the fashion, is now complete. Kenya has grown quickly and far, and will grow even more in the next plan, but this will depend on continuing British aid and improvement in African agriculture, which is a challenge. It also complains about the costs of providing separate social services for all three races. The Chinese Communist Party acknowledges that Kao Kang was purged last month, and The Economist gives us a retrospective account of his long fall. 

"Her von Bonin" Bogislaw von Bonin has been removed from the chief of the military planning subdivision of the German Ministry of Defence for proposing a "national" defence plan involving a mass mobilisation armed with anti-tank weapons, defending a forty-mile deep zone along the East/West German border, a plan which is at odds with NATO planning. The plan was originally supported by the Social Democrats until concerns were raised that the militia might turn into strike breakers, and rejected by Adenauer as a challenge to Germany's place in the western alliance.  Another sign of an imminent election is more money for the National Health Service. (And, in Notes, for Education, and a relaxation of the requisitioned house waiting list so that more families can get more homes faster. 

Now that's an official picture!

"State Farming in Practice" The liquidation of the 225,000 acres taken over by the Agricultural Land Commission gives us a chance to offer a retrospective on state farming since the war emergency. The news is not good. Admittedly this is because the land taken over was all in dereliction and required enormous capital investments, but surely there is some kind of lesson to the effect that state farming is bad. The Economist continues to have high hopes for West Indies Federation, especially possible compromises leading to internal migration from the overpopulated minor islands to Trinidad, which everyone but Trinidadian East Indians are in favour of. The World Federation of Trade Unions is launching a new anti-Nato campaign because communism is bad, and defence money could be used to build more state housing and such. The local elections in Singapore have led to a left wing party getting in. He's also named "David Marshall," which leads me to wonder what is going to  happen in the city as the Asian citizens involve themselves in politics more.We hope that Pakistan is going to keep on with this whole "rule of law" thing. The National Assembly has declared an emergency in Algeria. The Government has now modified the Harmful Publications Bill so that newsagents can't be held liable for selling objectionable material if there's no zombies on the cover. 

  Letters

J. Fordeham Sandler and A. Elliott write to defend trade associations against criticism. "Cordon Bleu" points out that the problem with the frozen beef  the Government is trying to sell isn't price, but the fact that it is as tough as shoe leather. Erleigh, of Staplefield in Surrey, writes to explain that Peace River is in northern Alberta, not central, and that the pipeline to the Peace River is the Westcoast Transmission Line to Vancouver, and not the proposed Trans-Canada Pipeline, and that, in general, The Economist needs to buy a map. A. C. MacNab of MacNab writes from Scotland to explain that when he visited Nepal last year it was quite nice, and progressive, for the subcontinent. Henry Meulen is skeptical of German reunification as long as East Germany as a Communist government. 

Books

David Potter, People of Plenty, explains the history of the United States in terms of the "abundance" its people  have always enjoyed, without which its democracy would be impossible. With, as far as I can tell, a complete lack of irony, it is noted that it wasn't enough to just live in the United States, as the "Red Indians" were "locked out" of that prosperity by their primitive technology. That's certainly one explanation! Selig Hecht and Eugene Rabinowitch have Explaining the Atom, and Daniel Lang has The Man in the Thick Lead Suit. Hecht and Rabinowitch's introduction to atomic physics is pretty difficult for the layman for whom it was intended, while Lang's investigation of the weird world of the American atomic age is compulsive reading. A. J. Arkell's History of Sudan from Earliest Times to 1821 is pretty good, but so lavishly illustrated as to be out of the range of a Sudanese teacher's budget. A. R. Bridbury's England and the Salt Trade in the Later Middle Ages is as good a book as mastery of the sources will allow, but goes astray by offering too much speculation. 

American Survey

"Stock Market Goes Steady" We get a catch-up with developments at the Fullbright Committee investigation of the rise in the stock market. Is it the start of a bubble? Who knows? In completely unrelated news, the Democrat majority has also allowed it to take up a recent study of anti-trust developments and allege that the Republicans have made it far too easy to avoid anti-trust action. Joseph Pulitzer and Colonel Robert McCormick died last week. A combined obituary makes it clear that The Economist liked Pulitzer better, and not jut because McCormick was a raving maniac. 

"Admiral vs. Commander-in-Chief" Apparently Admiral Carney "leaked" news of an imminent Red attack on Matsu and Quemoy by 15 April, and now the President has "leaked" the news that Admiral Carney was completely wrong. It hasn't been "leaked" that Carney has been disciplined "severely," but this is to be supposed. "A Correspondent in Colorado" reports on the recent push to build the full Upper Colorado Storage Basin, and not the two dams that the President now wants after his adventures in private power and reclamation budget cuts. New York state politics are very exciting. It is noted that large American public orchestras could do with some Federal money. 

The World Overseas

The fast-track railway being built from Siberia to Peking will help develop Chinese and Russian industry, and strengthen China's influence in the borderlands. East Germany will have an army now. We get a full page treatment explaining Diem's battles with "the Sects," which are bound to lose considering that Diem has full American support. There has been a disappointing lack of trouble between Germany and Denmark, the Prime Minister of New Zealand gave a long talk about New Zealand's defence, the gist of which is that they're not sending troops to the Middle East again, and there's a full column on how Premier Faure has it easy right now but that things will get tough in France again soon, what with budgets, labour trouble, and local elections.

The Business World

We're back to worrying about the balance of payments.

Business Notes

Note that the W25 package weighed 235lb compared with the 7lb warhead
of the Falcon, and that it was developed for the Genie unguided air-to-air rocket.

Labour costs too high, the airlines are both running profits, tramp shipping rates are falling off, and it is worse for tankers. Concerns about the unwieldiness of the British Industries Fair has led to its being split into two fairs. That's filler for even more issues of The Engineer! The rest is all financial news (including funding of a pulp mill in Tasmania) and commodities price movements, including a new gold field in South Africa. 

 Aviation Week, 11 April 1955

News Digest reports that the test of an atomic warhead for an air-to-air missile was a success. The first production North American FJ-4 Fury has flown, and the first Fairchild C-123 has been delivered. The P2V-7 Neptune with two Wright Turbo Compounds and twin Westinghouse J34s is now being delivered "in quantity." Douglas is preparing a demonstration of the use of closed-circuit television in optical tooling. Note that the Falcon's warhead can't possibly weigh more than 20lbs. If we have an atomic bomb that weighs less than 20lbs, we also have new physics, or at least new nuclear chemistry, since I believe that you can make americium warheads that small. Although considering how expensive americium is, it seems more likely that the AEC and the Air Force are --GASP!!!-- lying.  Industry Observer reports that Lockheed's X-7 and its Marquandt ramjet are working so well together that Lockheed will keep on developing the X-7. The Convair XB-58 uses honeycomb stainless steel structure in 15% of its outer surface. Rolls Royce is giving its RB-109 its first test stand run before putting it in an Avro Ashton test bed. It is currently flight testing its Conway on the Ashton. Orenda's Super Orenda is running on the test stand with a target of 18,000 to 25,000lb thrust. Allison is up to 7000 hours of test stand running with its T-56. The Navy's Talos supersonic surface-to-air missile will have a ramjet built by Bendix, while Lockheed's first production C-130 has made its first flight, UAL is the first airline to make a fleetwide order for C-band weather radar, and Avro has carried out another layoff, cutting C-100 production in half to extend employment until the CF-105 goes into production. Washington Roundup reports that the USAF is standing in the way of the purchase of the Fiat G-91 as the standard European light fighter. The Maryland Congressional delegation is up in arms over the proposed move of the Air Research and Development Command from Baltimore to Dayton. "So far neither the congressmen nor the press have been able to uncover the reason for Secretary of Air Force Harold E. Talbott's decision" to move the headquarters to his hometown, although Aviation Week isn't so indecorous as to point that out. On the other hand, various senators are willing to go on record to say that Talbot is a swell guy. NACA is also in a bind as to whether to put its new laboratory in Dayton or in Senator Herman Welker's Idaho, and something else that's swell, according to the airlines, is the Hoover report on MATS.

Aviation Week reports that the Defence Department may back down on its insistence on TACAN only, which is giving Congress heartburn after all the flak it caught for standing up for Defence. Red China is getting kerosene for its MiGs (and cooking) from the Russians, after all, although probably evil British blockade runners are involved. The Defence Department still can't spend $8 billion allocated for planes. ANDB now has a study to wave when people say that TACAN isn't accurate enough. General Twining thinks it would be swell if Congress wants to give the Air Force enough money to buy all the transport planes it needs to airlift the Army.  

Irving Stone reports for Aircraft Production that "Big West Coast Extruders Near Production Status" Most of the article explains what the extrusion presses are used for. There is also a short blurb about the big forging presses that are working, and Senator James Murray's attempts to get data about titanium from the Air Force. What's New has eight brochures, booklets, and catalogs over the transom. Alloy steel, titanium tubes and pipes, rack and ribbon-type electrical connectors, a convertible broaching machine, a  mass spectrometer, recommendations for controlling the porosity of aluminum castings, a new steel alloy for some electrical work, a new screw-lock adapters. 

David Anderton reports for Aeronautical Engineering that "Support Units are key Part of Aerial Weapon System" Cannons are pulled by horses now! Or, actually now that horses are obsolete, they have trucks, instead. Here's five pages. 

Philip Klass reports for Avionics that "Sanders Beats Out Top Avionics Firms" Sanders invites Phil over to Nashua, New Hampshire to see all the cool gadgets it has on the go, building on its tiny floated rate gyro, the smallest tiny floated rate gyro in the world. It's a lot of gadgets,and a five page article based on its catalog is perfectly warranted. It has hermetically sealed printed circuits, a "novel boot valve," and its new Tri-Plate, and its new embedded waveguide. 

A new silicon diode that operates up to 150C, while RS Electronics has a 4lb travelling wave tube, and Filter Centre reports that Britain has adopted the Navy's new UHF transceiver, that the ANDB is holding a symposium on transponder beacons, while the USAF is looking into transformer automation, and the Western Electronics Convention has put out a call for papers. New Aviation Products reports tiny hydraulic motors and electronics, a miller with a "high feed rate," a big rivet cooler, and a portable magnetic tester. 

Letters has an essay, really, from E. S. Calvert, the British inventor of the Calvert airfield illumination system, describing all the illumination systems along the way to criticising Pearson's slopeline system. Jerome Lederer of the Flight Safety Foundation writes about how much he liked the McGraw Hill linewide editorial on the shortage of scientists. George L. Christian writes for Equipment that "Direct Injection Cuts Fuel Consumption," which is actually about the Simmonds version of the S. U. Fuel Injection for small capacity aeroengines. They're great, and here's a four-page article on how the SIU/Simmonds fuel injection carburetor works.  Aviation Safety reports on the Great Lakes Airlines C-54 crash due to an uncontrollable nacelle fire due to a generator bearing failure. 

Robert Holtz's Editorial comments on Secretary Wilson's news freeze, which, as we've herd, is due to the President throwing a tantrum over Admiral Carney's "WWIII by the mid-month" leak/confidential press conference. It's a terrible idea, Holtz thinks.