Wing Commander R_. C_. DFC (bar),
L_. House,
Isle of Axholme,
Lincs.
Dear Sir:
No words can express my grief at dear Walter's death and my sympathy for your loss, for you have known him, as friend and as a business partner, for longer than I have been alive. I shall always remember the man who was so patient in waiting to see the Capilano project show a profit.
Uncle Henry did us a real kindness in bringing his active partners into the dam project and greener fields of investment in America. In other news of old kindnesses repaid, I was able to tell Uncle George's friend that the document that would have proved his "Asiatic origins" is now in our care. I am no expert, but it looks as though the entire entry was added to the ledger recently, which explains the fifteen year discrepancy in dates between his grandfather's documented arrival in California and his own recollections! Unfortunately, this has not put our friend completely at ease, for he worries that railroad company rosters might turn up now. As far as we know, they were destroyed long ago, to the complete approbation of all involved, but that is not going to deter a creative forger!
Events will prove. I only wonder just how far enmity is going to motivate the Engineer, now that he has lost whatever faint chance he had of influencing the election.
As far as your son goes, you have asked me to report on how my "feminine wiles" progress. One needs to square the circle as between his desire to be a crack fighter ace, and my desire to see him tinkering with radios. My inquiries are proceeding in the direction of of squaring that particular circle. It remains to persuade him to persist through multi-engine training, where I understand the main opportunities in electronics lie. We shall see.
Uncle Henry did us a real kindness in bringing his active partners into the dam project and greener fields of investment in America. In other news of old kindnesses repaid, I was able to tell Uncle George's friend that the document that would have proved his "Asiatic origins" is now in our care. I am no expert, but it looks as though the entire entry was added to the ledger recently, which explains the fifteen year discrepancy in dates between his grandfather's documented arrival in California and his own recollections! Unfortunately, this has not put our friend completely at ease, for he worries that railroad company rosters might turn up now. As far as we know, they were destroyed long ago, to the complete approbation of all involved, but that is not going to deter a creative forger!
Events will prove. I only wonder just how far enmity is going to motivate the Engineer, now that he has lost whatever faint chance he had of influencing the election.
As far as your son goes, you have asked me to report on how my "feminine wiles" progress. One needs to square the circle as between his desire to be a crack fighter ace, and my desire to see him tinkering with radios. My inquiries are proceeding in the direction of of squaring that particular circle. It remains to persuade him to persist through multi-engine training, where I understand the main opportunities in electronics lie. We shall see.
"GRACE."
Flight,
2 November 1944
Leaders
“Unbalanced Forces” Even though the
Air Force is now turning over men originally allocated to Bomber Command to the
Army and to the mines, everything is still for the best in our best of all
possible air forces. The Germans did it worse!
“International Aviation” Do I feel
like snatching a bureaucrat’s ear in one hand, and a journalist’s in another,
and marching them off to the readership to apologise for their sorry wasting of
everyone’s time? Yes, I will say, but only after meandering on for a paragraph
or five.
War
in the Air
As of this writing, the Japanese are
at sea, and “Halsey’s 3rd Fleet” is preparing to receive them. As of
this reading, the Admiral is still in command of his fleet, because to relieve
him might prejudice the outcome of the election, and apparently America can win
even when it chooses to put its second-raters at the helm. R. does a fine job
of not sounding bitter about it at all. And, to be fair, he has Honolulu to
enjoy, with the main question hanging over him being whether he will be made
grand admiral at the end, or merely full four-star admiral. In Europe, we are bombing more, and more heavily.
Serve the Germans right for freezing the Rhine! The paper notes that the
Russians have entered Kirkenes, and reminds us that there was a Charles XII,
because history broadens the mind. We move on to the battle in the Philippines
Sea, which appears to have ended while the last paragraphs were being written,
or some such. The paper is not sure what happened, but is confident that
aircraft, and aircraft carriers, were involved. Britain has aircraft carriers,
too, it points out.
Here
and There
Tomato growers are upset that they
will be displaced by the Blackpool Airport. Shannon’s airport will be a “free
port.” Air pirates take note! The B-32, follow-on to the “Liberator,” will be
called the “Dominator.” Hard to believe that I hear this the same month that
General Stilwell is recalled. A cargo version of the B-29 is mooted. One F. S.
Mitman, formerly associated with the light metals industry and then with
Messier Aircraft Equipment, has joined the board of Brush Electrical Engineering.
Two directors of a French firm which produced automatic pilots for V1s have
been arrested as collaborators. Pan American has purchased 13 US Army Air Force
C-39s, the so-called “DC 2 ½.”
The 10,000th B-17 has recently been
delivered, while the per-plane cost of the B-29 has now fallen from £849,099 to
£150,000. It is amusing to note that an RCAF aircrewman, one P/O F. H.
Partridge, is a grandfather, due to having his eldest daughter at 16, and she
having just given birth at 17. “Amusing.” General Sir Frederick Pile believes that
the flying bomb has come to stay as a weapon, and it is vital that Britain have
plenty of research establishments after the war so as to counter new weapons.
John Yoxall, “R.P. Squadron:
Impressions from a Flight in a BEaufighter Employoing Our Newest Weapons” Boys
will be boys.
“Celebrating a Flight: On Saltburn
Sands, Yorkshire, by Robert Blackburn, 35 Years Ago” The first Yorkshireman to
fly! (Punchline now?)
 |
| Source: "The First Super Speedway" |
C. B. Bailey-Watson, “Modern
Airscrews: A Descriptive Review of the Latest Hydraulic and Electric Types in
use on British Aircraft” As James has explained it, the basic problem here is
the same as for any feedback control mechanism. A lag between actuating
external influence and the internal compensation introduces an element which
cannot be analysed mathematically, and which has to be managed. This is
normally done by “damping,” which is internal to the mechanism. The designer
introduces an empirically calculated friction or retarding influence. The
problem becomes one of finding a dampener which is suitable to the widest range
of conditions in advance. The next step, then, is to design an element of
variable dampening, which “calculates,” as it were, the necessary resistance
from case to case. James is a great admired of Honeywell’s work in this area in
this country, although he can be patronising about saying that they are almost
as good as the lads at Woolwich. But I do go on, and I am repeating myself, I
know. Here are some pictures, to illustrate how things are done right now.
“Sons of the Air” A film about the
ATC has its London premiere. No word on the status of hats, forage caps or
otherwise.
Studies
in Aircraft Recognition
The Mitsubishi S-03 Army Fighter "Tony",
actually by subsidiary Kawasaki. It is a neat-looking plane, and
has a license-built DB-603,and was captured on an airfield in New Guinea. The
usual claim is that air-cooled
engines have two main advantages: they
are better suited to hot, humid tropical air; and to forward maintenance in
difficult conditions. Which makes it odd that they were sent to New Guinea, Still, it is a very pretty plane, and I think
would look well in jungle camouflage. (See, I do think of such things, and am
not always some sensible-shoe, short-haired type!) The rest of the short blurb
is unexpectedly interesting, as it denounces the Japanese for not sending their
most modern types to prewar air shows. Is this kind of hypocrisy a product of
wartime, or are we simply seeing it more nakedly?
“Standardised Wiring” The SBAC will
now insist on it.
“Scottish Aviation Project” ScottishAviation aims at a private, global airline based on Prestwick, with services to
Moscow, “Pekin,” Vladivostok, Alaska and Vancouver. I should like to see the
class of passenger on the Vladivostok—Vancouver leg. Will they have to check
their pistols and bandoliers?
Behind
the Lines
Swedish sources report that Germany
has stepped up its production of poison gas. One unnamed German broadcast announces
that the Germans will soon regain air superiority through unspecified means,
because fighter jets are secret this week. Another asserts that Germany’s situation is “incomparably
worse” now than was Britain’s after Dunkirk, or Russia’s at the time of
Stalingrad. Germany is building up its air forces in preparation for a winter
offensive in the west. Germany’s steel and iron supply “has received such a
blow that it cannot be repaired” from the fall or imminent fall of Luxembourg
and the steel-producing regions of Belgium, in the view of a “neutral
periodical.” The supposed glider bomb is, the Hs 293, in fact, a “reaction bomb”
of the “doodlebug family.” Which strikes me as a bit overstated, inasmuch as it
is a simple glider with a rocket boost. The pulse jet is not complicated, either, but it is worlds apart from a rocket in being air-breathing.
“Macviator,” “The Air and Shipping” It is supposed that, postwar, some shipping
lines will own some airlines. Or, on the other hand, perhaps the government
will intervene with a heavy hand in favour of BOAC. We should really talk about
this more, Macviator concludes.
Lieutenant General F. A. M.
Brownrigg, “Airborne Forces: Principles of Their Use Explained” Using planes,
we drop large numbers of brave boys on vital locations in the enemy’s rear
which they have neglected to protect, which sounds to me like a tricky thing to pull off right there. The boys then capture them with their
guns, and defend them with their teeth, since by that time they have run out of
bullets, and also food. The more boys we throw away away doing this, the more likely that it
will not all be futile, and the fewer who will require postwar employment, apparently a burden society is hardly prepared to meet.
 |
| Something about if we can just build enough refrigerators and cars, it will balance the three(?) years the Marine Corps spent trying to kill him? |
“The New Martin Transport” The Martin 30 seater that does not exist yet takes a pretty picture. (Artist's impression.)
“Demron,” “American Letter: Random
Impressions of People and Things of Interest to British Readers” Much less
amusing than it could be. References here and there will suggest that there is a another article subject that might be getting spiked by the censor.
Correspondence
Speaking of, Jack Platt defends the two-jet configuration
against the rival single-jet. “Anti-Squirt” writes to correct W. S. Shackleton
on the question of whether V-1 engines cut out when they began to dive. His sense,
from far too many encounters with the things, is that this only happened due to
fuel starvation or mechanical failure, and was not a systemic design flaw. GroupCaptain R. Fulljames thinks that the United Nations should have an
international air force with which to bomb the world into peace.
 |
| The Botley Choral Society later gave him a more productive hobby than writing crank letters to magazines and famous people. |
“Cameleer” is pleased that Flight published a colour photo of the
new Hermes, and asks whether airports could install some kind of equipment to
bring tailwheel planes to level so that their cabins can e boarded without an
obnoxious climb. As a young mother –not that you will catch my children on an
airliner for years yet-- I can well see the point. But surely some kind
of mobile escalator or elevator would be more efficient?
The
Economist, 4 November 1944.
Leaders
“Extended Lease” The war with
Germany will go on into spring or early summer, and the General Election will
not be held until after the war ends, which requires the paper to deploy a new
metaphor.
“Polish Guarantee” Poland is to be
liberated by the Russians, so the paper guarantees that we will hear about
Russians and Poles forever. Also, the Prime Minister assures us that Britain
will accomplish everything for her Polish allies that not-too vigorous Parliamentary scolding can achieve.
“Europeans and Russisians, 1940—70”
“In 1919, the momentum of the nineteenth century still have weight to political
assumptions of all-round increases in population. This time, the settlement
will have the new factor of declining populations to be fitted into the pattern
of peace. Whatever its provisions, it will determine the international
foundations of Europe for several decades. If it should be based on the
assumption of European populations as they were in the thirties, or as they are
to-day, such a settlement would have created a dangerously wide margin of error
by 1970. Even vigorous population policies –whose latest advocates in this
counry are the Tory Reform Committee—cannot entirely reverse the powerful
trends alredy in existence or alter the number of potential mothers twenty-five
years hence.”
I think that this means that the Russian steamroller is coming.
Really, this time. The population of Russia in 1970 will be 250 million, 25
millions greater than the population of all the countries of north-western and
Central Europe together. (Great Britain, France, Italy, Germany and assorted
bagatelles such as Estonia and Latvia.) Economic development, having brought
first the means to sustain large families, and then the means to limit them,
has restored population stability to the countries of Europe. From a peak when
one-in-three of the world’s population was European or descended from Europeans
(I smell a rat, but it may be a small
rat), we are returning to the Eighteenth Century proportion of 1-in-5. Which,
looking at the map, still seems awfully high. Or, better yet, a globe, which will show just how enormous Africa is. The decline in France began in
1935. That in England and Wales, while retarded yet into the future, will, like
past growth, be more rapid. From a peak of 47.5 millions in 1940, the 1970 population
is forecast at 43.5.
Germany, will have 70 millions within its borders of 1937 on the basis tht that the relatively
high fertility rates of 1937—8 are maintained and that postwar emigration
balances wartime immigration. This is a 2.5 million decrease from former
projections. Italy will be the next most populous country in Europe, at 50
millions, while that of Poland, again within its 1937 boundaries, will stand at
41 millions. By 1970, western European populations will be heavily overweight with
the old, and the population will not answer to the bayonet count, or some such
old-fashioned way about talking about brave lads in red pants. To put it in a more congenial way,
Russia will have far more “males of a productive age” than the rest of Europe
combined. Even Roumania, Poland and Jugoslavia will exceed by 2 million the 28
combined millions of productive-age males in Britain and France. Finally, ,“[t]o state
these facts, however, is not to conjure up the bogy of another yellow peril on
the eastern marches of France.” For goodness’ sake, no. It’s a Red peril!
“A Plan for Broadcasting –II” We
should talk about talking about broadcasting. There are only so many frequencies available, unless there are more, so we need to think about dividing them up such that there is
competition, and things don’t get too boring. And don’t forget television! It
might be found that we have made major technical strides during the war,
because radar is sort-of secret this week. Perhaps, if television is found to be
far advanced, television advertising will kill radio advertising, and so
private radio, as the talkies did silent film, because this is a perfect analogy that has not been heard again and again. Or perhaps not, because radio is easier to listen to than television is to watch. I wonder where
the paper gets the idea that radio journalism might turn out to be boring and
interminable?
Notes
of the Week
“The China Problem” The problem with
the Chinese is that they don’t do what we tell them, and now they’ve told us
that General Stilwell has to go. Stilwell’s entourage of journalists have
returned along with him, and have now introduced the American press to the idea that the Chungking regime is
corrupt, riven and ineffectual. And also, crowning insult, not democratic!
(Perhaps the elections that Chiang did not have did not meet up to expectations
of what not-held elections ought to look like?)
“Russia Stays Away” Russia is not at
Chicago to talk about talking about civil aviation. Good on them!
“The Red Army at Kirkenes” The
Russians have reached “western Europe.”
This threatens cutting into capitalism’s increasingly
scant reindeer reserve. But have no fear, because they are our allies, and the
Prime Minister will chastise them if they withhold vital reindeer-derived goods.
“First In –Last Out” The paper
compares British and American reconversion policies. Britain is doing terribly,
apparently, and the new New York airport and the “new TVA in the Columbia
Valley” are cited. I was not aware that there was to be a TVA in the Columbia
Valley, and might have a word with my Congressman if there is, as I thought that the Bonneville Power Administration had been thoroughly neutered back in 1937. Though if matters need fixing on a TVA-scale, it seems to me that we should go to Victoria.
“Background to a Debate” To improve
on Uncle George’s joke, I think that this is talking about talking about
talking about social insurance in Parliament.
“Belgian Crisis Postponed” We were
all set to have a crisis in Brussels this week, and now it’s put over because
the communists’ cisis frock is out for cleaning! This even though the monetary
reforms of which the paper are so keen have led to the coal miners not working,
on the unreasonable and unpatriotic grounds that they should like to be paid, and probably also do not exist.
The paper chooses to focus on food and pit-props, though. The paper is committed to the idea that miners should exist.
“Government or Resistance in France”
Latins continue to be insufficiently excitable.
“The Future of Shipping” There is
roughly as much shipping in the world as there was in 1939, but while Britain’s
holding has fallen by half, that of the United States has trebled.
This
observation is made in light of the First Lord’s statement to the Commons in
which he noted that in 1940—3, 4.415 million tons of merchant shipping, and
1.183 million tons of war vessels were launched from British yards. A debate
ensued, in which members attempted to elicit the Government’s admission that
this had been done wrong, and that its plans for addressing this is in the
future were defective. The Government declined to admit this, and then all the
members went out for tea. The paper observed that all will depend on details of
financing, the future of international trade, and all sorts of imponderables of
which we must talk about talking.
“Unconditional Surrender” The Prime
Minister clarified the policy to the house this week.
“Common Soldier” Are Home Guardsmen
killed on active duty exempt from estate death duties, as soldiers are?
Sometimes.
“Mr. Eden in Greece” Mr. Eden is in
Greece, attempting to determine why swarthy foreigners are so excitable.
Americans tend to think that it is because we are backing the rightists. The
paper suggests that not having any food might be an issue.
“Bulgarian Armistice” Now we are
down to speculating on a Hungarian surrender. Sad times.
“Future Budgets" This story has
appeared in every fifth number of the paper since 1853, I believe. The Government’s decision to spend more money in
the future means that it will need
more money in the future, which concerns the paper, for it is very economical.
“British Communists” Britons are
excitable.
“William Temple” The Archbishop of
Canterbury has died unexpectedly, a heavy blow for the nation. His name was
William Temple, the paper adds, in case the reader cannot put a name to the heavy blow he has felt. He was a “common man’s Archbishop,” we are told. The advantage of having coffee with
Jesuits is that one gets to see the reaction on dropping that line.
“Standing Down” The country is
standing down. There will be increased rations at Christmas. The paper is
concerned that people are getting too jolly, and must be
prepared for life after the Armistice to go on being gray and unsatisfactory.
Perhaps people will even stop working and saving so hard, which will make
prosecuting the war with Japan to a satisfactory end more difficult.
“War Marriages” Some divorces in the
case of war marriages are to be made easier by legislation.
“Planning Inquest in the Lords” The
Lords are not satisfied with aspects of the Town and Country Planning Bill,
mainly in that not enough financial means have been provided for.
“A Cold Christmas” Roofs are
leaking, cellars empty. Stockpiling is hard, moving coal is difficult. We are moving,
said the minister, “towards a terribly difficult winter.” Only 120,000 of
800,000 houses in dire need of repair
have been addressed so far, and while 141,000 workers will soon be
enrolled in repair efforts, and 46 million square feet of plaster board have
now been applied, it does not look like nearly enough is being done. Notice the leaking roofs? Not hard when I choose to lead with it! This is the upshot of the heavy damage of the robot bombing campaign. Let the water in, and it keeps on coming in.
 |
| Source: Library Time Machine |
Correspondence
F.W. Stephens writes to correct the
general misimpression that universal suffrage is always desirable. The vote in
various colonies should be restricted to the rich, well-educated,and
property-owners, producing at once a better-educated and superior electorate. How about skin colour? I understand that is being tried in some advanced societies, and with the cost of decent cosmetics. . . R. MacG. Writes that in order to achieve full technical
efficiency, farming in Great Britain needs not less than 1000 milllions in new
capital, which should be secured for it by various non-market measures. G. C.
Allen, of the University of Liverpool, writes about measures to achieve full
technical efficiency in the cotton industry, pointing to the example of
Japanese industry as providing guidance in how to achieve it.
American
Survey
“Alaska: The Outside Moves In” By
Our Correspondent Recently in Alaska
“’Alaska can some day support more than 10
–perhaps 35—million people . . . Alaska has 30,000 square miles fit for
farming. . . “OCRA quotes this with very qualified approval. It will take
decades, notwithstanding that the Territorial government is being flooded with inquiries from prospective homesteaders. OCRA is also more taken by the
potential of Alaskan pulp-and-paper than its farming, and questions whether the
Alaskan industry will be able to compete with the Canadian or Scandinavian.
American
Notes
“Whirlwind Finish” The President has
made three speeches in three cities in three days, effectively countering
persistent rumours about his health and regaining the initiative by pointing
out that the GOP is dominated by isolationists; that the Administration’s war
policy is justified by the success of the invasion of the Philippines, putting
paid to the allegation that it was not supporting General MacArthur adequately;
and pointing out that the Republicans can hardly repudiate the New Deal while
adopting its policies. Governor Dewey was left to call the President an
isolationist and lackey of big business, which is not going to fly, I don’t
think. “Wise Money” notes that pundits
seem to be talking about two different elections. In one, for which polls
exist, Fortune has the President with
a 7 point lead, and bookmakers have the President a 3-1 favourite. In the
other, which has the support of a Gallup poll, the President’s lead has shrunk
to 2 points, and a “photo-finish” is expected. President Roosevelt, as has been
normal in modern times, is expected to bring a majority of his own party into
the House if re-elected.
The
World Overseas
“Canada and Dumbarton Oaks” Oh, for God’s sake, paper.
“Uneasy Stabillisation in Germany”
The Germans have been driven back to the frozen Rhine, which cannot be crossed
by an attacking army in winter time, which must depend on floating assault bridges. But why talk about that when we could talk about
totalitarianism, Nazi Resistance fighters in training, underground factories
and the Volksturm?
The
Business World
“Scotland: Development Area”
Scotland used to be a Depressed Area. In the future, it is to be a Development
Area.
Business
Notes
“The New Issue” The government is
suspending the offer of the new 10 year 2.5% war savings bonds, as the war is
about to end. A shorter term exchequer bond is to be offered at 1 ¾ % us to be
offered instead, what with the supply of mattresses being rationed and all.
Russia has still not made currency agreements in any of the four countries in
which its armies are fighting. Belgium’s new financial plan is wonderful,
although the peasantry are revolting. Greece is having a currency crisis due to
no-one wanting the drachma so long as you cannot buy food with it. Meanwhile,
the Greeks are hoarding bullion in vast quantities. Progress is being made in
allocating international rubber supplies, and engineering labour in postwar
Britain. The accident rate in British mines is continuing to rise, except in
Northumberland, which exception refutes the rule and proves that it is not a
crisis. The Scottish mines are especially delinquent on production. Bullion is
coming out of hoards in India now that the threat of Japanese invasion in Manipur is resolved. Texas Land & Mortgage is experiencing internal turmoil, Murex’s
profits are falling, there has been much research and development in packing
products for the tropics that will have larger implications in peace.
There is to be talk about talking about Utility Furniture, and also the post-war biscuit is at issue, as a proper quality of wheat may not be available.
Flight,
9 November 1944
Leaders
“Overlooked” the paper will not
allow any aspect of the RAF’s war service to be overlooked. For example, the
2400 mile round trip flight to bomb the Tirpitz
with 12,000lb bombs asked a great deal of their Merlin engines, and they
delivered.
“Bombs and Battleships” Battleships
are done, cf. Philippines, Tirpitz.
“Getting Things Right” No-one ever thought about army/air force cooperation before Air Marshal Sir ArthurConingham. Air Marshal Leigh Mallory also exists, and Air Marshal Tedder is
wonderful.
 |
| "Ugly" Barratt |
War
in the Air
The Fairey Firefly is announced,and
rather conspicuously shown, with its extraordinary wing-folding mechanism, on
an escort aircraft carrier, which, I am told are usually deemed to have too short a flight
deck to support modern fighters. Mosquitoes carried out another of those raids
where they blow up specific street addresses, this one the Gestapo headquarters
in Aarhus, Denmark.
The raid on Cologne was not aimed at an address, but did a
very nice job on the Cologne suspension bridge.
The paper points out that
nowadays it is attacked after a flight of a few minutes from Allied lines, rather
than after a long haul across Flak-armed territory, bad news for German civilians. Liberator wings are enormously strong.
Walcheren has fallen.
Nine hundred American Mustangs and Thunberbolts supported the day raids on the
synthetic oil plants of Leuna and Merseburg. British carrier operations in
Norwegian waters can be fairly compared to American operations off the
Philippines. Oliver Leese is following Leigh Mallory and Mountbatten into exile
in Indian climes. A new land commander in Burma seems about as necessary as a new fleet admiral in the Pacific after the Marianas battle, but perhaps General Slim is ill.
Here
and There
A U.S. Technical Mission is coming
to tour British factories and research facilities. Apparently, Britain is
achieving full technical efficiency much more quickly than expected. Alert The Economist! Air Commodore Whittle
says that the jet turbine is here to stay, and that he is pleased that its
first combat use was against the flying bombs. Jet turbine fighters are not
secret , this week. T. P. Wright will be in town to give the next Wright
Memorial Lecture. Canada will produce a model of the DC-4 with Rolls Royce engines, and this will be the most
advanced transport airplane in the world.
 |
| "Reliable, if noisy service" |
“The Fairey Firefly: Old Name
Revived in New Type: Both have Seen Service in This War” Which is to say that
some of the old Fireflies were blown up
on Belgian airfields in 1940, and some of the new ones harassed Tirpitz’s beached and bloating corpse
last month. It is interesting to see that the final Firefly IV could climb to
23,00 feet in 10 ½ minutes, had a ceiling of 29,500ft with a Hispano-Suiza
785hp engine, a gross weight of 3400lbs, and a wing loading of 12.5 lbs/sq ft.
This is an amazing contrast with the new Firefly, the paper can assure us, even
though all vital statistics are still secret., apart from a wing span of 44ft,
a stall speed below 50mph(!) and the well-known 2200hp of the Rolls-Royce
Griffon engine. The combination of wing folding with Fairey-Youngman flaps must
make the wing as complex a mechanism as a Swiss watch or, worse, a Napier
engine.
and on a fighter's wing loading, to boot!
“One of Many,” “This is Test Flying:
Half an Hour of a Production Test Pilot’s Life: The Routine of Checking: A
Reply to the Romantics” Test flying sounds exciting, but is actually quite
boring, and people who glamourise test pilots are bound to be disappointed bythe results.
Behind
the Lines
The paper sneers at the new German “Superman’s
Super Plane,” which is merely a rehash of the Me 210. My understanding is that getting an Me 210 to
fly is quite the technical achievement, but what do I know? Some sources claim
that a nonstop Germany-Japan service is being prepared. German flying schools
are being shut down, and the men reassigned as infantry. A patented German
autopilot is on show in a Stockholm exhibition. Perhaps it has something to do
with flying bombs! The paper finds the recent Japanese use of suicide pilots
who crash their planes into Allied ships to be well worth a joke. (“One Nip
per Trip.”) It is claimed that German night fighter pilots are using a drug
that enables them to see in the dark.
General Karl Student of the German Air Force
has been given First Parachute Army, which, since it presumably includes
non-Luftwaffe field units, means that air force generals are commanding ground
formations in lieu of less politically reliable army generals. Ever since the bomb plot, Father has been asking about what the "loyal generals" have on the Fuehrer, instead. Father has become such a cynic. Who would have imagined that living in Chungking would incline one that way?
“Catapult,” “Fleet Air Arm Equipment”
A very interesting article, especially In light of the public announcement of
the Firefly. It inspired me to pick James’ brain at some length and produce a short
essay, appended, about why your youngest should pursue electrical engineering and
multiengine pilot training rather than aeronautical engineering and fighters in
order to advance his naval career most efficaciously. I should warn that it
contains spherical trigonometry,
calculus, pulp stories, and an old fantasia of Isaac Newton’s about a
cannon ball fired fast enough from a tower high enough that it never comes
down.
The death due to enemy action last
month of Brian Allen and his wife, Kathleen, is regrettably announced.
“Civil Anson” Some Avro Ansons are
being used as private aircraft or even feeder airliners. Who would have thought?
“Civil Aviation: Royal Aeronautical
Society’s All-Day Debate” Finally, someone is talking about talking about civil
aviation! Unfortunately, Junior got this page crammed into his mouth, and
I was unable to read it and give it the attention it deserved. With some
encouragement. His sister was less obliging, but may come through if we do not have a civil aviation settlement at some point.
C. B. Bailey-Watson, “Modern
Airscrew –II: Design and Construction of the Rotol Electric” This is a very
nice piece, suitable for reverse pitch, for example. I am not going to excerpt
its mechanism in any detail, however, as the article does not include the
necessary circuit diagrammes, which are presumably too arcane for the
readership. Or not released, as of little interest to mechanics. As I suggest in my essay, this whole idea that electrics are too complicated for mere mortals is only going to play into your son's hands if he goes down that path.
“Simple Flying-boat Beaching” Uncle George has already done this joke.
“Gas Turbine Engines” G. W. Vaughan,
of Wright Aeronautical, assures the world that 10,000hp aircraft engines will
be available for giant aircraft within the next decade. Wright is also working
on a turboprop. Due to the needs of military security, no further details can
be released. In the meantime, Wright promises piston engines in the range of
4000 to 5000hp.
Studies
in Aircraft Recognition
Today we profile the Kawanishi “Navy 2” four-engined flying boat, with four Mitsubishi Kinsei 22s. The paper wants
us to know that it is but an imitation of the Short Sunderland, as is the way
of the devious but not creative dwarf barbarians of Wa. Well, the paper doesn’t
say the last part. It does note that
in spite of being a slavish imitation, the Emily has significantly better
aerodynamic lines.
Correspondence
R.L. Gladwell echoes a recent
correspondent on the subject of the superiority of wing-mounted jet engines to fuselage-mounted.
Lt. Colonel A. D. McKechnie writes to remind us that he read in an old magazine
about an old flight in A. V. Roe’s old triplane in 1910, or days of old thereabouts. The
paper then corrects the anecdote with information from an old magazine. J. S. Pole writes to say that to-morrow’s
light aircraft should be properly designed, although there may be fine points
to his argument with "Indicator" which I have missed.
The
Economist, 11 November 1944
Leaders
“The Fourth Term” 413 to 118. I
could, of course, say more, as I find my old party affiliation crumbling into
joy at the scale of the President’s win. This Is not the old Democratic
Party. Ah, well. The Republicans would
have to be insane to nominate Governor Dewey again in 1948, leaving the road
clear for Governor Warren. (I do not take Senator Taft seriously, and am even
slightly surprised that he won re-election.)
“Parliament on Beveridge;” also
“Beveridge on Employment;” and “A
Plan for Broadcasting –III” The paper is certainly doing its best to support the
Alaskan pulp and paper industry this week.
“Spotlight on Palestine” The paper
is, in general, anti-Zionist, and the shocking news of the murder of this week is only
going to reinforce this.
Americans will, of course, disagree, but, as the paper not-so subtly points out, Jews who have actually escaped the Nazis hitherto have often preferred
to go to America than to the Jewish Homeland-perhaps-to-be. It seems awfully callous of the paper to concede that it is uncertain about how many Jews remain in Europe, and then speculate that perhaps their zeal to emigrate will vanish with the Nazis. Who wold not want to shake off the dust of the land of death?
Notes
of the Week
“Mission to Paris” General de Gaulle
has invited Eden, Churchill, and such American high and mighty worthies as
might wish to accompany them, to Paris.
“the Caudillo Speaks” General Franco
has no idea who these “Hitler” and “Mussolini” fellows are, and quite resent
the suggestion that he has been seen in their company. The paper is not fooled,
and recommends that Spain be pushed around a bit before all reverts to normal
in time for the orange season.
“Mr. Hudson’s Economic Defeatism”
Mr. Hudson’s suggestion of a policy of promoting agricultural production at
home is mere defeatism. Britain needs to –I’m sorry. Is this 1944, or 1844?
 |
| Source: The Victorian Web |
“Or Never?” Something about the
Planning Bill and compensation for war damage. Not to be more facetious than I
need to be, but I really need to work up a measured comment on this for the
Earl, as it bears rather heavily on my suggestion that family money needs to go
heavily into repair and renovation so long as new building is restricted.
“Chicago Conference” What would a
number of the paper be without talking about talking about civil aviation? I may produce another paper for the Earl when
this is done, or I may not. It is not likely to be that complicated, as, in the
end, commercial airliners cannot land in countries without permission, and all
the vapouring in the world about freedom of the air is not going to change
that.
“Canadian Liberals in Trouble” And
the cow jumped over the Moon, in other fairy stories.
Persians, Slovaks and Swiss(!) re
excitable.
“Merchant Navy Reinstatement” It
would not be right for members of the Merchant Navy to be unemployed after the
war, but also not right, the paper thinks, if they had reinstatement rights
equivalent to those being put in place for members of the armed services, for
some reason. The solution is that there be enough jobs for all postwar.
There is to be one miner’s union,
while the new accidental injury scheme has had a tough welcome in the Commons,
which will have to be renovated to meet the postwar membership of 640 members
in an accommodation designed for 437.
“Air College” The paper is less
impressed by Fedden’s new air college scheme than is Flight.
Correspondence
A recent letter to the paper
suggested that the industry is mismanaged and that it needs to be nationalised
to remove the control of a hereditary class of coalowners. COLLIERY DIRECTORS
reply that it is the fault of labour. Andre Iste writes to point out that his
recent comments on the French currency situation were brutally misquoted by the
paper. The paper manfully lays the blame on a press agency and demands that it
be allowed to send more correspondents to Paris.
American
Survey
The paper is pleased by the defeats
of Nye, Fish, J. J. Davis of Pennslvania and Stephen Day of Illinois.
“Lend-Lease: The Second Phase” The
paper is displeased with the New York
Time’s suggestion that a second phase is planned, although it does allow
that it might be a good idea.
“The Republican Future” The GOP must
be rethinking things after seeing Hoover, Landon, Willkie and Dewey all go down
to a popular President. But it shouldn’t. Things change.
The
World Overseas
“Canada and Newfoundland”
Newfoundland is a basket case, and Canada has been looking for a colony to oppress. It is a match made in Heaven!
“Spain Without the Axis” Hitler? Who? Have we mentioned our “organic democracy” and Western heritage recently?
Cervantes was Spanish! Columbus! Can we trade with you before our economy
completely collapses?
Russia
at War
Marshal Stalin strongly implied
Russian intervention against Japan after VE Day in his speech at Revolution
Day.
The
Business World
“France’s Liberation Loan” Will end
in tears, I suspect the paper will say, although I am certainly not going to
address the wall of words the paper devotes to it. The paper continues to hold
out the Belgian scheme as the model to follow.
Business
Notes
“Machine or Hand-Made Goods” the
cliché is that the Americans have favoured mass-produced goods for broad
domestic consumption, while British manufacturers have favoured high skilled
production for middle class and upper class consumption. In reality, there is a
place for skills in America and for mass production in Britain, and vice versa
and vice versa all over again.
Argentines, Roumanians and Greeks
are monetarily excitable. As are Australians, surprisingly enough! I think I need to write “cobber” and “ mate” now.
“Redundancy in War Factories” A
demonstration before the Commons of workers laid off from an aircraft factory
underlines the need for more talk about talking about reconversion.
“Winter Coal” There is to be a scheme to help householders with winter
coal, necessary in light of an emerging coal shortage, at the moment framed in
terms of SHAEF’s need for more locomotive coal.
“Temporary Plywood Home” Bad news
for would-be builders of concrete steel and aluminum homes. A new competitor
that has actually been used to make homes has emerged! With luck, however, it
can be made so complicated and unwieldy that it won’t actually be built.
“Bicycles After the War” The world
will need a lot, and the British industry is hoping to reconvert to meet the
world’s demand, perhaps producing six million units per year, up from less than
4 million in 1937, with a short-term
goal of a half million produced per
year, but only if capital for new machinery is forthcoming. India, meanwhile,
has said a firm “No, thank you,” to British cycles on grounds of protecting its
native industry. How, the paper asks, can Britain than repay its war debts to
India? Perhaps, one speculates, by exporting hither things not made in India?
“Safety in Industry” It turns out
that dispersal, overwork and overcrowding have been bad for workplace safety.
And now for the monthlies.
Aviation,
November 1944
Down
the Years in AVIATION’s Log
Twenty-five years ago today, the
Post Office announced a record of 8,988 miles per forced landing in the
previous six months. Authorities were quoted as saying that variable pitch
propellers had possibilities, and Upson, in Goodyear II, won the first postwar
balloon race. Fifteen years ago, the Army ordered $1.642 million in planes and
parts, while the Navy asked for six million to improve Pensacola. Ten years
ago, Scott and Black won the MacRobertson Race, four female pilots flew across
the continent in formation, and Captain Irving Chambers, developer of the
catapult for shipboard launchings, died.
Line
Editorial
“Russia: Threat or Promise?” James
H. W. McGraw, Jr. notes the staggering potential of the Russian market. Due to
its rapid population expansion of 2.5 million/year, Russia has three times as
many youngsters under 16 as the United States. This points to both its current
and future potential status as a commercial market. Russia needs to rebuild its
industry, and its people would like to enjoy a Western standard of living.
However, it will need export credits, and we should be prepared to import
Russian goods to pay for the exports.
Aviation
Editorial Leslie E Neville tells us that “It Takes Human Relations” to keep
unions out of a factory.
J. Carlton Ward, President,
Fairchild Engine and Aircraft Corp, “Contract Termination: Key to Airpower and
Security” Just hand over the money, and nobody gets hurt.
Dick D. Moyer, Service Engineer,
Lockheed Aircraft Corporation, “Give ‘Em the Data. . . And They’ll Fix it Fast!” Why won’t anyone tell me what’s
going on? A variety of war stories illustrate that with proper cooperation,
Fourth Echelon repair capabilities can be used effectively.
Frederic Flader, President, Frederic Flader, Co., Consulting Aeronautical Engineers, “The Economic Future of Aviation Technology” Each improvement in
ton-mile costs will generate additional ton-mile demand. Future aircraft,
earlier installments in this series have shown, will achieve these imporvements
through lighter and more aerodynamic designs. But engines will improve, too.
Specifically, turboprops offer a potential for significant improvements, and
the addition of regeneration cycles to existing proposed turboprop
installations show an ultimate improvement from 58c per ton mile to 35c. What looks like a discussion of the future of aviation turns out to be an advertisement for a new design.
C. L. “Les” Moyer, Formerly Chief
Test Pilot of Sikorsky Aircraft, “What’s Ahead for the Helicopter” This is an
extract from his forthcoming book. Will helicopters be produced in the hundreds
of thousands, at prices comparable to contemporary automobiles? Moyer thinks
that prices could be comparable, if the price of cars goes up a great deal. Will helicopters be a product in line with cars? Well, 9.000
a/c/month is the current, fully nationalised effort, and while car engines are
produced at roughly $1/horsepower, aircraft engines are closer to $10/hp. A
decent two or three place helicopter will need a 200hp engine, so the engine
alone will cost as much as the average person is likely to want to pay (taking
cars and helicopters as substitutable goods, then). Mass production may cut
costs, but it has to come into play, first! He does not think that performance
will be too low, although various ballpark estimates of necessary structure
weight per ton and horsepower/lb intimate that a large helicopter will be very
large and expensive. Then, later, mass
production will lead to an industry that can compete with cars, by a process left to be worked out as an exercise for the student.
Wright Aeronautical celebrates its
25th birthday, while Curtiss-Wright releases information about the
postwar “civilian” C-46. I would probably not have been quite so easy about seeing my husband board one of these last year had I known then that its crews called it the "flying coffin."
Arthur S. Brown, Sales Manager,
Scott Aviation Co., “A Place for the Distributor of Aircraft Accessory Sales”
People should give us money.
Frederick H. Smith, Sperry Gyroscope,
“What Kind of Instruments for the Personal Plane?” All kinds!
Joseph S. Pecker, “Basic Drives for
Helicopters” Looks very practical.
“Better Fuel Tanks Made Faster”
Curtiss Wright makes better fuel tanks, faster!
Donald A. DuPlantier, Chief of
Structure, Nashville Division, Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corp, “Analysis of
Continuous Beams Having Variable Moments of Inertia” I can do algebra! And a
bit of calculus, which I will put off right to the end so as not to scare
anyone.
“Suspension Mount Controls
Instrument Vibration” The idea that a piece designed to be mounted in
suspension would be a good approach for aircraft auxiliary makers to take.
Herbert Chase, “Mass Machining
Features Buick Shortcuts” One has an image of an automobile factory as a place where bits go trundling by a worker on an assembly lines, so that he can tighten a nut all day long.
Not always so, apparently.
“How the Hydraulic Fuse Promotes
Flight Safety” Aeroquip wants you to know that it has designed a hydraulic
fuse. It is 5 inches long and weights 1.75lbs, and, if you have slept through all the other articles on the subject and do not know how a fuse works, Aeoquip will explain why they are a good idea. Actuallly, it will explain this whether you need the explanation or not, because this is a paper. Perhaps Aeroquip is investing in Alaskan pulp-and-paper, too?
B. Mattson Compton, Aviation
Director, City Schools, Ogden, Utah, “Nomographs Facilitate Sheet Metal Layout”
The Ogden, Utah, school district needs an aviation director? He’s clearly not
very busy directing school aviation, though, because he’s got time to work on
an article about nomographs.
“New Method Banishes Wire-Stripping
Risks” Frank Stellwagen and Victor J. Canzani of Fairchild Camera have invented
a new way of stripping synthetic resin insulation off wires that does less
damage to delicate strands. Concentrated sulphuric acid and caustic soda at 350
degrees, and solder at 1100 degrees were
tried, but turned out to be unsafe, as they tended to splash on workers.
Instead, liquids A and B were used. The method is patented, but Fairchild wants
you to know that it can be licensed at a very reasonable cost.
John Brennan and Ralph Hall, Paint Shop Foremen, American Export Airlines, “A Plane is as Fit as its Finish” We do
important work, too. Finishing aircraft used in marine environments is very
challenging work because of the ever-present threat of corrosion. Old finishes
must be stripped, corroded areas apprehended and remediated where possible, and
new finishes applied with great exactness. AEA can do this on its flying boats.
I wonder about marine aircraft operating from less luxurious bases, though.
“System Makes the Difference in
Instrument Overhaul” Embry Riddle is wonderful.
“Snow Doesn’t Ground RCAF” Because
it has invented snow removing!
“Airmail Goes RFD” Remember those
thrilling demonstrations of Lysanders picking up mail with their tailhooks? You
may not, but I certainly do. Well, now it turns out that theUSPS invented it. For a certain definition of "invented," where the word means, "copied well-established military practice."
James B. Rea, “Calculated Cruising
Foolproofs Long Range Flights” I could be snide, but there’s actually a
painfully earnest article here on calculating how much fuel you will use in a
longrange flight. With a chart! And another showing flights from San Francisco
to Honolulu, with lines to show the dividing point between getting there
and crashing into the sea for various operating conditions from headwinds to engine-out conditions. I do not
think I needed to be reminded of this.
Juan Nolan, “Mexico Offers Flyers
Thin Air . . . And Opportunities” Come to Mexico. Spend your Yankee dollars.
“China and U.S. Chip in for New High
in Cooperation” I doublechecked, but I am not reading Time by mistake. Chinese pilots are allowed to fly American planes.
Chester S.Ricker, “Design and
Construction of Nazi V-1 Flying Bomb” Same article as in Flight. As near as I can tell, the autopilot was removed before the
paper could examine the machine. I could be wrong, but there’s a great deal of
emphasis on the mounting, little discussion of the actual device.
Raymond L. Hoadley, “Preview of
Coming Airline Finance” Airlines are doing very well right now, and everyone should invest.
.
Aviation
For Better Design
Martin has come up with a junction
box with a transparent cover. And aviation grade Windex, I suppose.
Aviation
News
T. P. Wright says that we need
better prices before the personal plane market will really move. The first
official picture of the A-26 appears. Aeronautical Products, Inc, exhibit their
first mockup of their first postwar commercial helicopter. Now all they need is
for Congress to pass some minor modifications in the laws of nature and they’ll
be set. The London Star is reporting
that the Alies are picking up “patriots behind German lines” by parachute
dropping special rigs that allow them to be picked up by aircraft hooks,
package style. Etc. sounds safe.
 |
| Yes, it's a repeat, but I love this ad. Did you take a doubletake before you realised that this wasn't a shopfloor amputation? I think that's intentional. Good day to be the first aid attendant! |
America
at War: Aviation’s Communique No. 35
The German war is still not ending,
and aircraft’s involvement is not to be held against them, as 34,000 tons of
bombs were dropped on Germany in a single week the other week, and have you
heard about those paratrooper assaults? The facts that the British are inept
doesn’t disqualify them from being the ultimate terror of future wars. The
P-47N is coming. .50 calibre incendiary bullets are an exciting new thing.
Rocket-assisted takeoff units are called “JATOs.” Applegate Amphibians has
combined with Romer Weyant’s firm to take over Dart Aircraft Corp. (?) Just so that
you know.
Washington
Windsock
Is Blaine Stubblefield a hopeless
drunk, bone lazy, or has he just burned all his bridges to useful sources?
Opinions differ.
Aviation
Manufacturing
“September output is 7,598 planes,
down 341. W-11 schedule calls for 101,944 Craft in 1944.” The paper and the War
Production Board combine to explain why this is so. Bigger planes, new planes,
demands for modifications, labour shortages. There are delays in delivering the
A-26 and B-29 in particular, and heavy cancellations of aircraft the services
don’t need, the latest of 1900 P-38s from Lockheed, 1900 C-47s from
Douglas-Oklahoma City, and 435 P-40s. The P-63 programme was cut by another 325
units, and the Boeing Kaydet line cancelled entirel to free up labour in
Wichita. It is increasingly hard to retain labour as people see the production
cuts. Meanwhile, surplus trainers are selling well, but for whatever reason, no
civilians want P-40s or B-24s, which cost more to break down than the salvage
is worth.
Also coming up short is the paper,
which in a bizarre section at the end of Aviation
News describes the pictures it would have liked to have shown of a
Barracuda landing. Rumours in the
Aeroplane, of two six-engined planes designed “to take Hitler to Japan” are
noted. Bolivia has fined German Lufthansa for smuggling 250lbs of cocaine to
Germany.
Sideslips
The paper is hilariously reminded
that Americans invented the buzzbomb, hilariously fails to note that its anecdote reveals that the American machine had a much
simpler autopilot and no pulse jet engine. Another anecdote reveals the
existence of slot machines in officers’ clubs. I hope the morals of theenlisted men survive proximity to gambling! Also hilarious:
helicopters.
Fortune,
November 1944
The
Fortune Survey
Leading off this number is a last
minute edition of the survey, which you can tell from the fact that it’s a
kraft paper insert into the front cover of the paper. The President is securely
in the lead, although weak spots in April and August are perhaps due to his
tussles with Sewell Avery and the fall of Paris and war-end enthusiasm. The
paper suggests that in spite of his 7 point lead, the President remains
vulnerable due to uncertainty about him on the part of the electorate. The
young and women are strongly for the President, while the old are for Dewey.
Coloured voters and servicemen are also likely to vote Democratic, as is
labour. The President is weak with white collar voters, and with farmers, even
showing weakness with Southern farmers during the fights over the poll tax.
Fortune’s
Wheel Associate Editor Jean Ford flew the North Atlantic in a converted
B-17 to research her article. The paper wants everyone to know that in spite of
the tough assignment, she is a very
feminine southern girl! Cover illustrator Ralston Crawford is an abstract
painter, and Congressman Reid F. Murray of Wisconsin is a nincompoop for confusing the paper's article on margarine for advocacy of non-dairy bread spreadds.
Correspondence
“Guns in the Middle East” General J.
d. Lavarack writes to respond to the allegation contained in Mr. Babcock’s
article about the Middle East in which he suggested that Australian solders
sold all their guns to local Arabs to fund “hilarious farewell benders,”
resulting in their being lots of guns in Syrian hands for the possible future
purpose of shooting Zionists. General Laverack points out that the Australian
army keeps track of its weapons, and knows that this did not happen. The paper,
however, points out that Babcock heard this story from several people, so it must be true, and says that Australians
should not be ashamed of being drunken hooligans, as they are also first-class
fighting men. Oh, no! I've already used up my "cobber" and "mate" material. It would be funny were it not so tragic this week that we're standing on dubious anecdotes about how many guns the Arabs have while debating arming the Jews for self-defence against those guns.
“No Magic Formula” Mr. Heshmat Ali
of Washington, D.C.., writes to suggest that the situation in the Middle East will not be easily resolved. The
paper agrees. All depends on America’s ability to formulate a mature foreign
policy. Problem pretty much solved, then.
Cybele Pomerance, assistant to the
managing editor of the Modern Language
Journal, is offended by claims for novelty in the recent article on Service
foreign language education methods, and also by the decline in the use of phonetics in domestic educational instruction due to the influence of various
progressive theorists. She points out that the new armed forces method is basically just the Berlitz school dressed up to give jobs for supposedly scientific linguists. Professional jealousy?
The
Job Before Us
The war will go on for a year, and
after that, the paper has trepidations about Russia, because it’s not free and
stuff. In the meantime, we can revoke the Johnson Act, and get ready for the
postwar, so that it looks less like the Depression of 1919—21 or the boom that
led to 1929—33. So far we’ve been lucky with inflation. In spite of huge increases
in spending and record Treasury deficits, the cost of living index has barely
budged since May of 1943. One of the mysteries of the war is that there has
been sufficient consumer goods made to absorb the surplus dollars, and no
flight from the dollar to …other commodities? The OPA has done a fine job.
Little Steel, even if it is adjusted upwards 20%, will make little difference,
as most employees have had at least that much increase in compensation, one way
or the other. Walther Reuther has suggested that this is fine, because the war
has seen at least this much increase in technological efficiency, but this is
not necessarily the case. As the recent British White Paper suggests, high
employment depends on moderation in wage demands. Will postwar goods be more
expensive, though also more “plush?” Some think so, but the paper cites others
who do not. Since one of them is Charlie Sorensen, I’m not convinced. The paper also takes a moment to notice that
it liked Wendell Willkie.
 |
| Pass up wage increases to secure your financial future. That's good advice right there. |
“Merchant Marine I: The Postwar
Fleet|: The Industry Will BE Solvent, Its Ships Modern, Its Cargoes Larger: But
a Whale of a Surplus Will Remain: Sell, Lay Up,or Scrap?” Scrap. That was easy!
The paper does note that this is not
just a problem with the Liberties. There will be 600 new tankers, 1200 new dry
cargo, 6 to 700 hundred of the new Maritime Commission types, and some 500
Victories. How much of this
57 million (deadweight, if you were wondering) tons will be operating in 194Q?
It depends on cargo. I may be a bit optimistic here about our chances of getting back into the business in Whampoa, but I also think it
depends on a host of other issues, all of which bear poorly on the postwar
prospects of these ships
“Radios, Refrigertors, and Radar”
Now here are American strong points. The article is a profile of Philco, if you
were wondering.
“Will Butter Win the Peace?”
Margarine has done quite well during the war years, but perhaps butter will
come back in peacetime. Margarine costs about half as much to make, but isn’t
as nice. The industry is making progress, however. Dairy state politicians
won’t let it be coloured yellow, however, and that’s a problem. The paper
suggests that the dairy industry shouldn’t worry, as milk and cheese production
might pick up some of the slack.
“Mayor Wyatt of Louisville’” Wants to reform, streamline
and redevelop Louisville, which has some nasty bits, and, to judge from the
paper’s photographs, no Coloured people at all.
“Housing: The Why of Planning” Some 37 million housing units were registered by the 1940 Census, and some 1.75 million units of war housing were built. We
will need from 1 to 1.6 million new units of housing annually for each of the
next ten years, including repairs and renovations, perhaps a total investment
of $8 billion. This will be hard to achieve, because a large proportion of the
population of the U.S. do not have the income to own or rent decent places, and
thus let the building take care of itself. Costs must be ameliorated somehow.
Perhaps this will take the form of subsidised public housing, although Congress
has not been keen on extending existing schemes. To be clear here: this is what the paper wants and expects. it illustrates several USHA schemes, including the Queensbridge, New York public housing model, and the planned
Wilmington, Delaware developed suburban community, the Aluminum City Terrace development at New Kensington, Pennsylvania and the Baldwin HillsVillage in Los Angeles, California. The paper makes heavy weather of funding
and legal obstacles that hardly seem decisive to me, and I certainly like the
looks of the Wilmington development from the air. We are told that real estate developers are dead set against public housing that will
undercut our prices. The solution would seem to be subsidies for would-be home-owners,, and, fortunately, we already have this quaint "mortage" instrument to work through, but this is not likely to satisfy the kind of people who can build a utopian experiment like Queensbridge. We can hardly leave it to the poor people, as they will probably want to live like the middle class!
“Thunder over the North Atlantic”
Part of the untold story of the Atlantic bridge is the development of weather
forecasting on the route, which involves numerous meterological stations in
very remote places. We know a lot about
North Atlantic weather now, which came in handy at D-Day. It is noted that
Gander is shut down between 20 and 25% of the time by weather. An airbase in
Greenland, whose name I cannot even imagine rendering into characters, is
closed by low ceilings about a quarter of the time. Meeks Field in Iceland is
afflicted with winds of up to 150mph from September to May. The farthest
northern route shown on the map actually has the best weather. -60 degree
temperatures apart, that is.
The
Farm Column
Ladd Haystead, on farming, in
November. Yes, I would like a turkey! Or maybe some ham. Will large number of
new farmers head to the Southwest after the war in the path of Coronado and
assorted Indian corn growers who used to flourish in isolated wet areas?
Perhaps. Probably not. Will W. R. Nelson’s scheme of breeding good, solid
cattle stock and feeding it on lespedeza and Atlas sorgo continue to flourish? Perhaps. Probably? If cattle and new settlers combine on ranches, where they would
cultivate black grama, dropseed, tobosa, burro grasses, African Lehmann and Boer grasses? Will they expand, will they flourish? Who knows, That's Ladd, signing off from the middle of his favourite botany handbook, and off to have a drink with Stubblefield.
Business
at War
Still no Mr. Janeway to give the column
colour and a complete lack of useful content, alas. This month’s number is on
the corporate excess-profits tax. The paper thinks that it deters investment,
and should be reduced or eliminated altogether. Of course it does. It also
presents an analysis by Walter G. O’Neil of Lee Higginson, Corp, published in
the Harvard Business Review, which
shows that the tax also promotes risky investments.
Books
and Ideas
The paper reviews Friedrich Hayek’s Road to Serfdom, definitely the talk of
the town right now in some circles. The
upshot seems about the same as I have been hearing from all of the “the
American way of life is in danger” advertisements I have been seeing in the
paper, but instead of an overwrought cartoon, it’s an entire book.
Harold G. Moulton and Louis Marlio, The Control of Germany and Japan suggest
that the two countries be controlled and
monitored forever, in case lightning strikes twice. It certainly would
be embarrassing if Brazil or the Hottentots started the next world war. (Or a
monumentally aggrieved China, but that is another story.)
Business
Abroad Tells the amusing story of a “Scotsman” (of course), who, in Paris
when departing German officers hastened to dump francs and marks to buy pounds
and dollars, parlayed his £2250 on hand into 9 million francs at the top of the
market, then into $180,000 at the 50-to-the-dollar official peg, then into
£45,000 at its official peg. This is
supposed to be a story about monetary problems, seguing into the problem of the
lira. To me it reads like a German
officer getting shut of the franc and the mark at a very propitious time. We’re
doing quite well on the yen and Hawaii dollar, by the way, though I want to cut
this off before the movements start to look suspicious.
Report
from London
The paper’s correspondent in London
has been reading the Times in bed in
the morning and clubbing all night, and wants us to know that it’s alright,
because the times is what you read to
get a sense of what those queer English people are thinking. This out of the way,
he explains what the Tmes tells us
the British think of the Beveridge Report, the Planning Bill, the Education
Bill, and the Russians. They like ‘em! I did not know that the Astors controlled the Times. Perhaps Lady Astor is just trying to drum up circulation?
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