Postblogging Technology, April 1956: Mirage Rising

R_., C_.,

Shaughnessy,

Vancouver,

Canada

Dear Father:

It is, of course, my fault that I forgot some issues while packing for our trip to Honolulu, but in my defence, they are small and easily missed! Perhaps all the advertorials in the lost numbers of Aviation Week will seep out into the air and into the minds of possible buyers. It's not like anyone would ever read them anyway.

Your son is a great deal more upset at the sudden apparently universal decision that the lesson of Kefauver's win in Minnesota is somehow that the Democrats will suffer for nominating a progressive in '56, unless, for some reason, it is Averill Harriman and not Kefauver specifically. As he points out, farm voters defecting from the GOP isn't a sign that the party needs to nominate the man who looks the most like the President they're defecting from!

On the other hand, it looks like Stevenson is going to win in California and go into the Convention on a winning note. On the other other hand, it will all be over soon, at least for eighteen months or whenever we start worrying about '58, and we can all agree to worry about something else, like WWIII starting in the Middle East.  

Your Loving Daughter,

Ronnie

Letters

R. E. Walter is on tenterhooks over L'il Orphan Annie, Edith Lapirow writes with regards to the special report from Cincinnati to the effect that Nehru is a great guy, as does Paula Brandes from New York and Greta Lovely of Reading, H. A. Kuldjar to point out an error, W. S. Mead of Roanoke to complain that Indians are always complaining. 1st Lt. James S. Platter catches another error, and so, perhaps, does John Fels, who points out contra Ernest Lindley that it is actually the historical trend not to renominate the Vice-President. Four correspondents denounce Dr. W. A. Crowell's ban on Coloureds entering his First Baptist Church in Dallas. For Your Information had lunch with John Denson on his return from Europe. He explains that anticolonialism, nationalism, and Communistic internationalism are weakening Western influence in non-committed nations, and we should probably do something about it. 

This week in changing cultural standardsd

The Periscope reports that big city bosses promise that Kefauver won't win the nomination in '56 no matter how many primaries he wins, including possibly Illinois if anti-Stevenson types get their way, because "[Kefauver] has made too many enemies." Secretary Benson is in trouble again, Ike has decided not to send arms to Israel, and will instead guarantee its borders. The State Department thinks that anti-Stalinism might lead to disturbing revelations about Stalinist crimes in Poland and the Baltics. "Tokyo" reports that returning Japanese POWS say they met American, British, and French prisoners in Vladimir prison near Moscow. Federal flood insurance is "all but dead." Charles Lindbergh is said to be a top advisor to the ICBM program because of his vast knowledge of methods of killing Judeo-Bolsheviks. New England senators are at odds over the vital question of just who wrote the Pledge of Allegiance.  Soviet Russians are thinking about giving up on the "UN germ warfare in Korea": propaganda lie, and may pack up the Stalin Mausoleum. Czech advisors are training Egyptians in rocket warfare, and the Israelis say that the Egyptians are setting up rocket launchers south of Gaza. India is going to buy Soviet arms so as not to be dependent on just one source. Britain is stockpiling fissinable material in case Middle Eastern oil is cut off, it says here, because we are talking about The Periscope. Tito is sick, Soviet propagandists will soon call for the release of the last five Nazi prisoners in Spandau as a "sop to the East Germans," and Canadian Governor General Vincent Massey's overflight of the Arctic was meant to assert Canadian sovereignty over against possible Red challenges. Where Are They Now has a special hockey edition, catchint up with Eddie Shore and Ivan (Ching) Johnson. Shore is coaching in the AHL and Johnson is a furnace salesman. 

The Periscope Washington Trends reports that party insiders of both parties are having second thoughts about their candidates. Stevenson's moderate stance is not going over with primary voters and are looking at Harriman as a liberal alternative to Kefauver. Republicans are looking at why so many GOP voters crossed over to vote in the Democratic primaries, and think that it might indicate trouble with the farm vote. This means that Eisenhower's cabinet might lose Benson as well as Weeks and Wilson, both of whom want to resign. 

National Affairs

"The Job Now: Enforcing the Peace" The U.S. is sending a Marine brigade to keep peace in the Middle East as soon as they all start being peaceful over there, which they hopefully will soon. Also something about Nehru and Indian and neutralism, which might be bad, although admittedly it might be good. A follow-up story looks at the fight in Congress over the President's foreign aid program. Congress is also occupied with the Federal payroll being a very large number whereas it should probably be a somewhat smaller number, the way that embassies spend money on parties and receptions, including sometimes buying drinks; and, least serious of all, two proposals to reform the electoral college, which is going nowhere because what's the worst that could happen? A roundup of segregation news finds taht Dr. Martin Luther King is quite the guy, and that San Antonio is desegregating all municipal facilities. Maurice Smith, the lawman who ended Harry Tracy's career, has died at 81. And with that bit of tedious national news out of the way, the path is clear for two pages about all the Democrats who might win the Presidential nomination instead of Stevenson!

"Atomic and Airborne" The US Army is working on a new infantry division of 11,500 men instead of the conventional 17,500, achieving the manpower efficiency with Honest John rockets and an organisation using five combat groups instead of the usual three regiments. President Eisenhower mentioned Massimo Salvadori favourably in a speech and now he is getting lots of press attention for his ideas about how the United States is better than Europe, Communism (but also Fascism) is bad, and large corporations are great.

International

General Burns is not about to drop dead, amazingly.

"Middle East: Stepped Up Arming" Everyone is starting to listen to Israe's concerrns about Arab armaments. Egypt has taken delivery of three-fourths of 100 promised MiG-15s and 50 Il-28 bombers and is "approaching all-jet status." Israel repors that it has concentrated three armoured brigades in the Gaza strip, three more to the southwest, and the bulk of its forces in the Sinai peninsula. The Arab powers are also said to be moving closer together diplomatically, and particularly Jordan. It is, however, also noted that Israel's neighbours might have a point when they object to Israel's plan to divert Jordan river water out of the river basin. Meanwhile, Field-Marshal Harding's brilliant plan to stop unrest in Cyprus by arresting and exiling all the popular leaders is blowing up in his face, and Canadian General E. L. M. Burns reminds everyone that the best thing they can do right now is sit down, relax, have some refreshments and see if that makes them happier than fomenting a religious/race war. France is giving up on Tunisia, because the colons have brought it on themselves, while doing that thing where you liberalise some things and crack down on other things in Algeria. They're also sending more conscripts over in the hopes that civil unrest will spread hbome and the Algerians will see that they really can make common cause with the French. At least, I assume that's Premier Mollet's plan. This week's special report explores Russian anti-Stallinism, which is apparently a "trap for the U.S." Everyone agrees that the Indonesian courts are railroading Leon Jungschläger. Queen Elizabeth has Corgis and spends too much money, say some. Over there in Canada. the Governor General is mixing with Eskimos, the Federal budget isn't going to have any tax cuts (boo!), and about 25,000 vehicles carrying 60,000 people use the Alcan Highway every year, which is much improved since the war, has homesteading lots available at $3/acre, might have an asbestos mine soon, and is sprouting up gas stations and motels.

Business

The Periscope Business Trends reports that the business recession that is coming will be caused by high raw material prices and growing inventories. 

In the latest news from industry, there is a shortage of engineers. You heard it here, first!  Hopefully, electronic computers will make most of them obsolete. Hear that, college engineering majors?   

This year's thirteenth annual Mobilgas Economy Run was made at an average speed of 40.99 mph (it's a rally run, set course in set time) and was won by a Chevrolet Imperial at a near record 61.37 ton-miles/gallon, although by straight gas mileage the winner was a Rambler Deluxe at 24.35 miles per gallon. Westinghouse is doing its best to recover from its strike and a commodities speculator has been found guilty of fraud, who would believe it? The Teamster's annual convention did not see the expected all out fight between Jimmy Hoffa and Dave Beck. The Tu-104 made its London debut this week sporting 18,000lb engines, far bigger than anything in a Western jetliner. (Of which, embarrassingly, there are none currently in service. 

Products: What's New reports that Sintox, Ltd of Allentown has a new machine tool cutting head made of the hardest material ever, diamond excepted, which is also cheaper than tungsten carbide. The Heath Company of Benton Harbour, Michigan, has a build-it-yourself digital computer kit, which has 4100 parts and weighs 200lbs.

Henry Hazlitt helps out Middle East peace by writing about "That Egyptian Dam" in Business Tides. It's a terrible idea and so is lending American money to build it. Although this is obvious, since all American foreign aid is bad. 

Medicine, Education

"Hapless and Hopeless" The United States Public Health Service reports that public health on the western Indian reservations is terrible, probably because the reservations are so poor. 

"None for the Women" The American Academy for Family Practice is sick and tired of premature announcements of a reliable oral contraceptive for women, of which there absolutely are none in spite of all the patent medicine-like products that researchers claim to be working on. 

Periscoping Medicine reports that British scientists have succeeded in reviving frozen lab animals hours after breathing has stopped, possibly leading to humans lost in sea and air accidents being "brought back to life" by the same techniques. The U.S. Army and Navy are involved in a program to upgrade discharged medical technicians to make up for the alarming shortage of nurses in the United States. Yale scientists have found that whole blood can be frozen and kept fresh for years at a time in liquid nitrogen, while Dr. Gustav Martin of National Drug Company has found that the touted bioflavinoid cures for the common cold are worthless.

"Are Parents Responsible? If So, Should They Be Punished For Youth Crime?" J. Edgar Hoover says yes. Responsible people say no. Most juvenile delinquents come from broken homes, so if you lock up the custodial parent, that's it, no parent! Parental financial liability laws have been tried in Louisiana and as municipal ordinances in Oregon, and have been completely ineffectual. Fred Hischinger's new book about American public education says that it's getting better.  

Rosaleen Norton, "The Witch of King's Cross."
By Ivan, PIX magazine photographer -
Artists series - Miss Rosaleen Norton & Selma Muller,
Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/
w/index.php?curid=99607338

TV-Radio, Press, Art, Newsmakers

Robert Edward Bennett is the sorriest story in TV Land after missing the $64,000 question on The $64,000 Question. Edith Adams, the blonde comedian/singer on the Ernie Kovacs Show, gets a profile. Periscoping TV-Radio reports upcoming shows by Norman Vincent Peale, Red Skelton, Judy Garland, and Bing Crosby.

The Russian journalists who have been covering Premier Malenkov's tour of Britain have had it up to here with the way that their movements have been controlled. Some Southerners are upset with all the Northern reporters coming down to cover the Martin Luther King trial and other segregation news, while others expect to convert sensible Northern journalists to their point of view once they see the "realities." Pierre Lazareff gets a profile in Press. 

Art covers only plays this week. 

Mamie Eisenhower, Jayne Mansfield, Carol Channing, Linda Christian, Barbara Rockefeller, Grace Kelly, Will Durant, the Gabor sisters, and Orson Welles is in the news for the usual reasons. Sir Eugene Goosens is in it for being caught smuggling pornography into Australia. 

Books

Thomas Anderson, Your Own Beloved Sons is a fine Korean war novel. Hans Helmut Kirst's The Revolt of Gunner Asche is a very funny novel in translation, where it lacks some of the controversial elements of the bestselling, three volume German edition. Irwin Shaw's Lucy Crown is a smutty novel that is to be a sizzling movie. We hope! Marcel Ayme's The Green Mare also sounds smutty, but it is French, so that's all right. 

Raymond Moley uses American Perspectives to predict that Stevenson won't get the nomination this year, and Moley wants to point out that he predicted it months ago, because he is very smart. 

Both New Films and Science are dropped this week. 

By Anthony Ivanoff - Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3555278

Flight, 6 April 1956

Leaders

"She Flies Beautifully" Flight is a bit skeptical about the Tu-104. You know what would answer the critics, the magazine asks? Entering a Tu-104 in next year's Johannesburg-London race. 

"In the Spring . . ." After seeing every country and the other one named as leaders of the jet age, Flight points out, it is a fresh wonder to see Victors rolling out of Radlett, the heavier-than-air records in Britain's bag, and 300+ orders for the Viscount. 

From All Quarters reports that the RAF has ordered a prototype supersonic bomber, probably from Avro, that a radio controlled drone Meteor is flying, that E. S. Jackson is to hold the new position of Director-General, Atomic Weapons, and will be General Morgan's boss. Who remembers that they put Frederick Morgan in charge of atomic weapons? 

"Victors from Radlett" Not much of an article, or pictures, either. To fill out the page, an obituary of Joe Smith, who has just died at 58.

"Heavy Dropping: Background to some Original Developments by the G.Q. Parachute Company" Flight's correspondent went to watch some trials of heavy drops by a Beverley at Blackburn's plant in Brough and got drawn into a discussion of the G. Q.'s 66ft "sectional" parachute, which can take 3000lbs at 145mph, and is designed to be used in combination to drop loads of up to 20,000lbs or perhaps more in the future. It uses new aerodynamics and weighs only 250lbs. 

Here and There reports that the Indian Air Force has agreed in principle to order Canberras, that Aer Lingus is ordering Friendships, that Bristol is developing a marine Proteus, that a notice to airmen tells Canadian pilots to stay at at least 2000ft above Lake of the Woods to avoid endangering whooping cranes.

"Training for Valiants: No. 252 OCU at Gaydon" Mainly, they have to learn the new autopilot and navigation system. 

"Developments in Decca: Recent Progress Described in Lectures at the Institute of Navigation"  Speakers from Decca explained how the system worked, said where the Newfoundland station would be, and talked about progress with helicopter control through Decca and the prospect of semi-automatic course control via Flight Logs. It was then pointed out that they had no way of measuring the high accuracies they claimed, so what was the point of the talks. Our planes get across the Atlantic, it was replied. 

The historical section covers the De Havilland DH9 today, which is interesting to me because I am surprised that such an important plane hasn't already been covered. This is Part One. 

Aircraft Intelligence reports that the military version of the Herald has been described a bit further in company press releases. It has a reinforced floor and fittings for parachute static lines, increasing its empty weight by 800lbs. The first B-66 has been delivered. B52s are reported to be better fliers than the B-47, and can fly the same traffic patterns as DC6s and -7s. The first F6U Crusaders will be delivered to the USN in 1957 and will have no all-weather capability. The 150 plane production run of the Mystere 2 is almost complete, and the Mystere 4 will follow. The prototype Super Mystere I, with an Avon engine, is doing well in trials. We get a feature story about Canadian Naval Aviation, which has T-33s to back up its first jet fighter squadron, now training on Banshees in Florida. 

"Assessing the T-104" It is a very economical plane to build, but not operate, but it is easy on runways, and will carry 50 passengers reasonably safely, it not very quickly. Despite reports to the contrary, it is pressurised. 

"Fail-Safe Airframe Design: The Lockheed Philosophy: "'Fail-safe' Preferred to 'Safe-Life'" 'Safe-life' is retiring an airframe when it exceeds maximum stresses or when it reaches the safe predicted lifespan. This is wasteful. 'Fail-safe' is designing it so that no single failure can bring it down, for example by using a composite panel of two aluminum alloys with different temperature tolerances to make sure that only one fails due to a fire and the other is enough to hold the plane together. The article is rather longer and goes on to discuss structural design such that there is no single "path" a load can take through it, and redundant systems, and many other aspects of design that could be considered under this philsosophy, but that's the gist of it. Make them heavier, run them longer. 

Flight flies an Aeronca 100 to Le Mans, and The Industry updates on English Electric's Electronic Computer Service centre at Marconi House, Electro-Hydraulic's expansion, High Duty acquiring Renfrew, and Newmark's voluntary liquidation. 

Correspondence 

A. G. Wilson asks whether it would not be "wonderfully cheap" to re-engine Hastings and Argonauts with Darts and keep them in service to fill the trooping gap. No, it would not. A. G. Watts and D. F. Gilpin recall the old days, before the war, while A. E. Adams pioneers the new genre of talking about the old days, just after the war.

Civil Aviation 

Tours of the Tu-104 were available in London during its visit, the Britannia  has been demonstrated to all the airlines in case they decide to bite, after all, Lufthansa is buying Super-Constellations, and the latest mark of De Havilland Heron is the best yet. Anglo-American talks are ongoing about flying over this or that Pacific islet.  

Letters

I'm beginning to think that some of the people arguing against
 all forms of non-fossil fuel-related power are being disingenuous!

D. W. Kaufman and Winfield Hale share some old time wisdom about seas, rivers, and rains on the inspiration of the quote from Lucretius that was in an article about cloud seeding, I think. Hassan Ali Mirreh, a Moslem from Somaliland, although living in Goshen, Indiana, explains that Moslems don't like imperialism because they don't like being run by foreigners, not because they're anti-West. E. Parnall of Albuquerque, Paul Bowles of Tangier, Cyril D. Norton of East Douglas, and Dudley T. Sproule of DC all write in a supportive way about Moslems in general and North African Moslems specifically. J. O. Hollister wants to argue about some dusty old English history. Ruth Beck Styffe wants to know if Nehru learned to weave as well as spin in prison. (He did.) R. O. Sweezey of Montreal expands on Raymond Moley's theory that coal is way better than hydroelectric power by explaining that dams have no future out there in B.C. or Washington and there's some good coal in Alberta. For Your Information explains Newsweek's new "news facsimile" machine, which transmits the print copy from New York to the Dayton printing plant by a "virtually instantaneous electronic method" that also allows the editors to see it before the advanced print copies are available. 

The Periscope reports that Russian diplomats are feeling out the possibilities of a state visit by Marshal Zhukov, the only Soviet leader who could could get away with visiting the United States, politically speaking. The Soviets might be about to repudiate the 1939 Hitler-Stalin Pact, which, of course, would be dangerous because it would strengthen Popular Front movements. The Senate is set to invite a member of the Field family to testify about their being Communists. "The boomlet for Stuart Symington for Democratic Presidential nomination is about to take wings." The GOP's plan for reaching out to the Farm Belt isn't working, but they have hopes of House gains in Florida, of all places.  With conditional Red acceptance of the President's "Open Skies" proposal, the Air Force is looking for a good base for the Red reconnaissance planes that will be overflying the United States. The Defence Department is asking Congress to amend the Atomic Energy Act to allow them to lend small atomic warheads to allies. Soviet officials are trying to persuade Svetlana Alliluyeva to take charge of her father's body and give it a family burial. Travellers out of Tibet report rising anti-Red sentiment in Lhasa. Moscow may change the Stalin Peace Prize into the Lenin Peace Prize, since it's all so very embarrassing, and Mao and the Poles and everyone are upset about this and that. What with all the Greek merchant ships passing by, the British are finding that they have to have a standing naval and air patrol of the Seychelles, where they are keeping Archbishop Makarios. General de Gaulle is recuperating from cataract surgery and is talking about coming back from retirement. Where Are They Now checks in with Senator Claghorn, also known as Kenny Delmar, who is still working in radio doing lots of gigs you've never heard of, and Pansy Nussbaum, otherwise Minerva Pious, who is also still a working actress, but in London. 

It's a living.

The Periscope Washington Trends reports that the Convention will not draft Harry Truman, but he will be the kingmaker now that Stevenson's campaign is doomed by his defeat in Minnesota, and he will choose Averill Harriman, who will take Lyndon Johnson as his V.P. to get Southern votes, although Northerners argue that the Party has such a slight chance of winning that it is better off shoring up support among core voters like labour and Coloureds. The Senate will pass expanded Social Security over Administration objections. (Stevenson's San Francisco speech that might have won him the California primary is buried at the bottom of National Affairs.)

National Affairs

Twenty dead, actually, when they cleared the rubble.

The President wants everyone to know that he is taking over diplomacy, not because he doesn't trust John Foster Dulles, but rather because . . . Hey, look over there, isn't that Marilyn Monroe? Now that the election campaign is on, Congress isn't going to do anything because it might muck things up, and this is important news that must be reported.  On the  other hand, no-one says that there can't be investigations. The Senate Permanent Investigations Subcommittee, where they sent McCarthy to dry out, is having fun with demanding that the United States shame and shun every country doing business with the Communist bloc, which led Herbert Hoover, Junior into trouble with McCarthy when Hoover said that the Koumintang was trading with the Mainland, and all the pro-Koumintang types said "No, it isn't," and allowed that it was unpatriotic to criticise the Koumintang, which led Hoover to apologise to the Koumintang, admitting that they were way more patriotic than he was, and that they only traded with the Mainland through Hong Kong, and that was perfectly all right. The Committee remains seized of the proposal that all aid be cut off to all countries that trade with the Communists. Except the Koumintang, because of Hong Kong. 

The IRS is going after the Communist Party and The Daily Worker and it is quite a free speech cause celebre. Eger Murphree, the latest guy to be put in charge of getting missiles straight, gets a box profile. 

Because it's an election year, there's got to be some news stories about maybe Coloured voters will come back to the GOP this time around, and here it is, it's even a Special Report. Also, Congress still hasn't acted on the President's special commission to investigate civil rights violations. The Tidewater Mill and Elevator Company, almost at the heart of Philadelphia, blew up last week, somehow only killing three workers.

Ernest K. Lindley is back from vacation and on the foreign aid case at Washington Tides. He's in favour. 

International

Over there in Europe the Communists are winning! And if we fall for all this disarmament and German reunification and revisionism stuff it'll get worse! For example, over there in the Middle East the Reds are adding powder to the keg by provoking the French and British into sending guns to Israel, with the United States at least meditating on a proposed $50 million arms deal. The French are upset at the Arab League supporting the Algerians and the British are annoyed at Nasser. Twelve Dassault Mystere jet fighters are now on the way. Leon Volkov speculates that Marshal Zhukov is "on the way to the top," Newsweek checks in with Stalin's family, who are a bunch of ne'er do wells. Malta's referendum on  joining the United Kingdom has come out with 67,000 votes in favour of 90,000 cast in a 135,000 strong electorate. The Swedish premier's visit to Moscow led to a proposal for a jetliner service between Stockhom and Moscow, but Scandinavian airports are too small. The French, or possibly just Alfred Lindecker, an engineer at Michelin, are a very strange people. South Africa has come up with a brilliant plan to deal with its race problem by shoving its Black people into a cupboard and forgetting about them. The Coloureds can stay put, plus two million of a total of 12 million Blacks needed as migrant labourers. One tiny problem is that a large part of the area to which the Blacks are going to be relocated happen to be Bechuanaland, Basutoland and Swaziland, which are still British colonies or protectorates, but this seems like a small sacrifice for Britain to make in the name of white supremacy, and White South Africa promises to find the capital to build all the farms and factories and towns and cities that will be needed out there. 

Business

The Periscope Business Trends reports that there is no chance of tax cuts next year, and in fact the Federal Reserve is thinking about cracking down on commercial credit because of inflationary risks again, especially on the services side, with consumers paying much more for everything from haircuts to heating. IBM is talking mergers with Underwood, Studebaker can't sell auto insurance, and the Commerce Department has told the woollens industry that it can, too, set industry-wide wage standards. 

The lead article in Business is useful and timely for a change. "April Question: How's Tax Advice?" Not very good, it seems. Chrysler says that its gas turbine experimental car is great except for the fuel consumption and the control lag. Ask James about control lag when you're, say, landing on a deck! Seed company Ferry-Morse gets a profile. I had no  idea that they had 25,000 acres of seed farm! 

"Today, the irrigation system managed by the HAVA is regarded
as one of the country's most important capital resources^[15] and vital for maintaining
 and expanding agricultural production in the region."

Henry Hazlitt blows off a Business Tides column by repeating himself in "More on Foreign Aid," thanks to someone telling him about how the Helmand Valley Irrigation Project is a disaster, which gives him a few paragraphs of stenography to dress it up. 

Science, Education, Medicine 

Special Report: "A Scientific Navy for Peace"

When you get right down to it, the Navy is getting old. Sure, Forrestal is big and new, but what about the rest of the navy? Well, there's USS Boston, which has finally taken delivery of an honest-to-gosh missile, and so qualifies as the very first "Missile Cruiser," CAG-1. and there's Nautilus and Seawolf, but they're being discrete and quiet up at New Haven. The Navy will have 870,000 men and 1000 ships in 1957, including 411 warships, plus 17 carrier air groups and 31 carrier antisubmarine squadrons with a total aircraft inventory of 12,600, half the Air Force's total, plus the Marines with three divisions and three air wings, on a $10.4 billion budget. And if you are wondering why this article exists, it is because Arleigh Burke is the new CNO and needs a fluff piece from Newsweek or he will be very upset, and because the Terrier ship-to-air missile is finally hitting target drones reliably, which means that the future might have just arrived, since prior to that it was a bit unrealistic to assume that the Navy's carriers could sail close enough to Moscow to drop an H-bomb on it. It still is, but maybe the Reds will be polite enough to put an H-bomb target a bit closer to the water, so that the Navy's "mobile striking force" will have a purpose, at least until they get submarine-launched ICBMs. Also there is possibly the SeaMaster and submarines are getting pretty good in general these days, although I will believe a 50kn underwater speed when I see it. Also, the Russians have launched some cruisers and might be building a bunch of submarines, so that'll give the Navy something to do right there. Although, again, I will believe that the Reds are building 70 submarines a year when I see it. 

"Hypnosis: How Much is Humbug?" This probably should have been the Special Report, what with the Bridey Murphy craze and all. A good discussion of the promise and perils of hypnosis.

"Do Doctors Die Rich?" Dr. Charles Kingston has replied in the negative in a study published in the Connecticut State Medical Journal that could probably have benefitted from a talk with a good tax advisor to help him understand why many millionaires don't leave a million dollars in their will. 

Dr. Remington co-founded Zero Population Growth,
and was the son of Pardon Sheldon Remington

"Digits and Dunces" Dr. George Haslerud, a professor of psychology at the University of New Hampshire supposes that the current shortage of engineering and science students isn't due the Great Depression, as a naive person who confined their attention to the size of the co-ed population might foolishly suppose, but in the rarified realms of psychology. We're scaring first graders out of maths by trying to teach them maths. Japanese students don't get scared of maths, and Halerud supposes that it is due to the fact that they use abacuses, which gives them more emotional security, whereas we in America make fun of kids counting on their fingers, which we should stop. Problem solved! 

Charles Remington of Yale is stamping monarch butterflies with identifying marks to trace their migrations, and in particular to learn more about how they put on weight to make the southern migration, and whether the same individuals then return north, which might tell us something about weight gain in general, and the relationship of this with reproduction. In other educational news (and I question whether the above is educational, as opposed to scientific, news), Italy is giving up on high school Latin, which is funny when you tack on the Vatican's latest annual list of new Latin words for new things like "electrical technician." ("Smokus Leteroutus?") 

TV-Radio, Press, Life and Leisure Newsmakers

Red Buttons gets a profile, while Katharine Cornell is the focus of an article about a TV play adaptation of "The Barretts of Wimpole Street." In other TV news, Italians are a funny people.

The takeover of the Cincinnati Enquirer continues to be a story, and so does Malcolm Muggeridge, who was able to book a hall in Manchester to give a talk in which he denounced Communism, which turns out to be awful, like the brave, iconoclastic truth teller he is.

Life and Leisure goes to the circus and on some "hobby tours," which are the latest thing in travel. What's a hobby tour? Well, golf fans can go see all the great golf courses of Scotland, art tours to to museums, and a caravan of travel trailers is on the road in Europe bringing the hobby of travelling with a trailer to the old continent. Now that sounds like something that needs a travel agent to organise!  

Wiki fails to note the bit about poaching in the Hamptons
 and trying to blame Mexicans for it

Marilyn Monroe, George Bernard Shaw, Grace Kelly, Marlon Brando, George Blanchine, Alec Guinness, the Gabor sisters, Joan Tyler, Gina Lollabridga, and Georgi Malenkov are in the column for he usual reasons, even though Shaw is dead. (If he didn't want to be in the column, he shouldn't have written such a stupid will.) William Faulkner is in it because now that he's sober and his agent has reached him, he realises that threatening a second civil war over desegregation will hurt sales. Representative Stuyvesant Wainwright is in it for the kind of reasons a man with a name like that would be in the column. Over in this hemisphere, Argentina is closing out the worst polio epidemic in the country's history, Ecuador has arrested 12 US tuna clippers enforcing their 200 mile fishery protection zone, and the Royal Canadian Mint is in trouble for reasons that a mad-eyed panhandler somewhere along  Davie Street can explain. 

Forrest Allan has died, the year before he could field a team built around his greatest prospect, 7 footer Wilt Chamberlain. So has William H. Cane, Louis Atwell, E. C. Bentley, Ralph de Palma, and Prince Alphonse of Spain.

The entire mid-century is nuts, is what I'm saying

Movies

Mario Lanza is having a comeback with Serenade, thanks to MGM. Lanza still sings well, but on the other hand he's still Mario Lanza. RKO and United Artists get a double feature review for The Conqueror and Alexander the Great. The first is that movie where John Wayne plays Genghis Khan in a medieval Western, and the UA feature is only slightly better. Mickey Rooney gets a better vehicle for his comeback with The Bold and the Brave. released independently(!) 

Books

 Newsweek goes middle brow with a review of The Collected Works of Y. B. Yeats, Definitive Edition. Pearl S. Buck's Imperial Women is an autobiography, no, wait, a novel, no, wait, a historical novel. Aren't all Buck novels ancient history? Unfortunately, no. Nigel Balchin's Fall of a Sparrow is a character study novel.

Raymond Moley uses Perspectives to explain that the only discrimination that's real is against private utilities. 

Flight, 13 April 1956

Leaders 

 "Tussle in India" Flight takes a victory lap over India's order for Canberras over the Il-28. A second Leader talks about flying clubs.

Last launch of the Skylarik, Esrange, Sweden, 2/05/07
For Wikipedia by Gaelen Marsden
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From All Quarters reports that Lockheed hopes to have the inside track to develop an atomic aircraft because it has a nice lab and a big plant in Marietta. The Atlanta Constitution supposes that a contract would add $3-$4 to Lockheed's share price. Not so fast, says Convair! Sir Frederick Handley-Page's annual speech to shareholders underlines that the only ways to support a British airliner are to subsidise the airlines to buy it, or to equip Transport Command with it. Australia and Britain are talking about the next stage for Woomera, the sounding rocket project. The SNCASO sales team in Australia is showing off French helicopters at air shows. Facing criticism for its accident rate, the USAF has published statistics that show that they fly lots and lots, so all the accidents can be expected, and are less per flying hour than in previous years, four fatal accidents and nine fatalities per 100,000 hours, the same as the previous safest year, 1954, at least so far in 1956. Fuji Heavy Industries is showing off a light aircraft.

Here and There reports that the Ministry has thirty claims for windows shattered by sonic booms during the Delta's attack on the speed record. In the news in Germany is word that a 1940 air raid on Flensburg was actually conducted by the Luftwaffe[!], which thought it was bombing Dijon, which would be more ridiculous than not if it weren't that people got bombed!  A new MoS rocket motor testing site on 8000 acres of Cumbria will only be really loud 4 to 8 minutes a day, the Ministry says. 

"Laminar Flow at Radlett" Since a Flight correspondent went all the way to Radlett to get nothing more than the usual "Here's a lot of planes being assembled in a big building" picture, Handley Page had its arm twisted into giving the magazine a bit more story. It's working on laminar flow. Hunh, said Ronnie. Isn't everyone working on laminar flow? What's even the  point of non-linear flow. Well, I suppose it could be for mixing in a refinery? Anyway, they're flying a Vampire with some new kinds of holes punched in the wing and this produces boundary layer suction, which plenty of other people are doing, but this is a pretty good way of doing it, looks like. Oh, Good Lord, we only took up a third of a page! So here's reviews of Twelve O'clock High and Bridges of Toko-Ri, and then a look at the US Weather Bureau's attempts to forecast long range weather with computers. Dr. Norman Philips of the Princeton IAS can do weather trends three weeks ahead. Joseph Smagorinsky, the head of the project, thinks that they can do even better. 

"The Galtier-Delta Family" Nord wants everyone to know that it's working on delta wings, too. Yes, everyone does know that, but there's no harm in telling them again, and here lets throw in some structural details and photos. 

Aircraft Intelligence reports that the F-101, C-97. and F8U are coming along, that Temco is still trying to wedge into Beech's primary trainer market. Marcel Dassault's new delta winged fighter is now officially nicknamed the Mirage, and is being tested with a rocket engine. 

A. Cecil Hampshire, "The Fleet Air Arm Trials Unit" I don't know why we're sending a freelancer instead of a staff member, or just transcribing the press release, but here's a few pages. 

"Project Vanguard" Everything continues to be excellent and fine with American rocketry, as the Navy and Martin suddenly announce that their three-stage "Vanguard" rocket is right on track. 

The DH9 history continues. 

"Postscript to the Tu-104" We get a brief biography of designer Andrei Nikolajev Tupolev, as Flight renders the patronymic, and a discussion of what its radio aerials might mean, given that we're out of anything else to say, notwithstanding a nice sketch of the cabin furniture. 

Correspondence 

P. A. Tago  has opinions about how fighters should be named. C. H. Gibbs-Smith, K. Cox, and Maurice Austin recall the old days, before the war. F. H. Smith, P. W. Vollborth, and R. B. Brigham point out errors.

Triplex Glass reminds us that it has been making bulletproof glass for a very long time and that it's pretty good, and these days they in fact focus on resistance to extreme flying conditions and not actual bullets. Burma Airways shares a story about using Dexion steel angles to do field repairs on a DC3, and somehow Frederick Miles is still doing business in Britain. 

Civil Aviation reports that Capital Airlines might buy the Britannia, that Seaboard and Western are starting an Atlantic cargo air service to compete with the airlines still in the business, consisting of Pan Am, TWA, Sabena, KLM, and, for some reason (Heh!), Swissair. The recent grounding of the De Havilland Heron, which seriously snarled up the business of a number of airlines, was not, in fact, a serious affair. Says someone. BEA now has all-British flight trainers for the Viscount, made by Air Training, Ltd. Aer Lingus is reported to like the Friendship because it shares the Dart engine with its existing Viscount fleet. Sir Archibald Hope has stepped down as managing director of Airworks because the Government is mean to chartered airlines. Frye Corporation of Dallas has a DC3 replacement which is absolutely a real plane that will actually be offered for sale very soon.