Group Captain R_. C_., RCAFVR, DSO, DFC (Bar),
L_ House,
Isle of Axholme,
Lincs., U.K.
Dear Sir:
I am pleased to report that Tommy Wong docked in Hawaii just as I prepared to seal this, and that Uncle George reports that he has returned from Lingayen Gulf to Uthili. The press has done its best to soft peddle the whole "kamikaze" thing, but it can only go so far in this house, with James out in Honolulu again, this time escorting an unworldly Australian from MIT onto the water to see the difference with the laboratory first hand.
Your youngest has been flying all through the winter, and is, right now, out trying to land under an instrument hood. If he passes that, he will graduate to doing it within the "carrier" markings, as a first step towards carrier night flying.
In regards Fat Chow's news, Miss v. Q. has found some nice properties across the Bay, but broaches the question of whether someone might prefer a more rural and mountainous retreat. A solution to the Coeur d'Alene lease, perhaps?
Miss V. C. has gone to several Stanford dances with young Lieutenant A. The problem is that our housekeeper has once again taken to evasively-explained absences. I cannot believe that the Lieutenant is two-timing Miss V.C., and I cannot believe that she puts up with it, but there is a dynamic here in which the rivalry is almost more important than the boy. I think?
Finally, I find it hard to believe that the Earl is going to ask Fat Chow to go to Nagasaki, whatever the implications of Sir Eric's death, but I may have found a man who can arrange it --a former employee of Uncle Henry's in the merchant marine for whom Miss v. Q. may have found a way to do an extremely unlikely favour.
"GRACE"
Flight, 18 January 1945
Leaders
“The New R.Ae.S.
Spirit” The Royal Aeronautical Society used to be a “Mutual Admiration Society,”
because everyone was polite to each other, and consequently retractile
undercarriages and variable pitch airscrews were [something.] (The paper is not
going to argue that they were adopted late, because that is not how the paper
does things, so I put [something] in square brackets because it wasn't anything, but it was bad.) There will be a new spirit when it holds three sessions
on civil aviation, upcoming. I know that spirit. It puts me to sleep, too!
“Debatable “
While it is agreed that the sessions will involve talking about talking about
civil aviation, they are still talking about what they will be talking about
talking about.
“Bridges and
Bulges” General Arnold says that airpower brought the German offensive to a
grinding halt. General Arnold seems to be confused. The paper suggests that it
was when Air Marshal Coningham was temporarily put in command of all tactical
air forces (when did this happen?) that the Allies concentrated on attacking
the bridges over the Rhine, which have not been severed so far, but that
attacking them counts for a great deal, and anyway because of all the night
there is in winter, the Germans can move up supplies, so that by
the vernal equinox they will have a lot of supplies, and the Allied offensive
then may be slow and costly.
So much dismal gloom! Spring is on us
in Santa Clara, and the ranch house is fragrant with boiling
oranges. I have a Mexican crew on the roof of Arcadia, and they say that they
can save the great hall, and even make progress on the south
wing. So if you are feeling as though the war, like the winter, will go on forever, take this as the whisper of an awakening land.
War in the Air
Did you know that
Lingayen is a town “halfway up the west coast of Luzon?” The paper needs to
run some articles about asymmetric, 42 cylinder, double camshaft “maps.” Aircraft have been involved in the
invasion. And Italy. And the Ardennes! The paper hopes that now that von
Rundstedt has been brought back for a third time, he will be quite cutting to
Hitler. At least here the paper notices that the great offensive was a failure,
and that means that the war is effectively over. Also, we are bombing rail
yards again, and we see a picture of a shot-down Westland Whirlwind.
The Mosquitoes of
the Light Night Striking Force flew two sorties the other night, first a
50-strong raid on Berlin, then a “tunnel busting” mission.
Here and There
4200 RCAF
trainees released by the air force have been picked up by the Canadian army.
Employees at Bristol Aeroplane have now subscribed £1,000,000 in war savings
bonds. The first “coloured West Indian” to receive the DSO, Flight LieutenantP. L. U. Cross has been given coloured colonial matters-related duties at the
Air Ministry. Several thousands of his fellows are in RAF service, but they
haven’t got gongs. The RCAF will henceforth dismiss everyone below the rank of
Acting Squadron Leader on their 33rd birthday. Claire Chennault has
received the Legion of Merit. Steel armour in American bombers is being
replaced by “flak curtains” of overlapping squares of manganese steel.
Transport Command has now delivered 28 million pounds of cargo to France, and
evacuated 50,000 wounded. Air Marshal Colyer replaces Air Marshal Welsh in
Washington, as Welsh retires, presumably not on the grounds that his manila
envelopes full of unmarked US dollars have now reached his baggage weight
limit. Because i) That would be to ignore the great progress made in private banking; ii) There is nothing to buy in England right now.
“Airborne
Lifeboats: Fully Provisioned Power Lifeboats Dropped to Ditched Air Crews” A
demonstration shows that nothing can go wrong in good weather, and it is, finally, a use for all the effort put into the Vickers Warwick.
Maurice F.Allward, “Monocoques: A Brief Survey of the Development and Some of the
Problems Involved in the Design of Stressed-skin Fuselages” I am honestly not
quite sure what to make of this. Monocoques have been in use for twenty-five years now. Ii find that
stressed skin is, strictly speaking, stressed by the use of frames and stringers.
The more of these, the less weight efficient the structure, “and it has been
found that, where feasible, maximum payload is best.” (That’s what Mr. Allward
says!) Examples of overly complicated internal structures resulting in
excessive weight of monocoque structure include the Ju 88, and, interestingly,
the B-17. A picture is included showing the close-spaced frames and stringers
of the Boeing plane, which allows the stringers to be passed through the frames
without cutting the flanges.
 |
| Simple and heavy, but robust! |
The
B-29 is strikingly different, although still “orthodox” in structure. I suppose
that the advance is in either strength of materials, or less redundancy, made
possible by more accurate calculations and the use of strain gauges.
“Undercarriages:
Some Items of Interest in Landing Gear Operation and Their Effect on Design” I
am supposing that the author took one look at the paper-chosen title, and
demanded that either ‘Some Items of Interest’ be dropped, or his name. “On the
Tempest the leg arrangements is rather ingenious in that it is composed of
upper and lower members staggered fore and aft and joined by parallel linkages.” Undercarriages are ingenious bits of design, because of all the loads and torques they have to take, but only a structural engineer could possibly care.
V. L. Gruberg, “Air
Age Education: Making the Layman Air-Conscious: The Need for a National Policy”
Oh. My. Heaven. Starting in elementary school and going on through higher
education, all students should learn air-arithmetic and air-geography and
air-grammar, so that they will be air-conscious.
Indicator
Discusses “Pre-Planning Perfection” Something about there being more, or
perhaps less “instrumentation” in cockpits and on planes generally?
Well, it’s
official, the paper can’t fill even its rationed space.
Major F. A. de V. Robertson, V. D. “The
Use of Airborne Troops: Sir B. Montgomery’s Reflections” Parachute troops are a
species of corps d’elite, who should not be held out of action in the rear, as
this would be a waste, and also should be available to exploit fleeting
opportunities for air operations, as otherwise it would be a waste.
Correspondence
Mr. Burgess of
the Combined British Astronautical Societies writes to correct his recent
letter on the propulsive efficiency of the V2. V. H. Izart writes to point out
that wooden airscrews, unlike metal ones, can survive being broken, whereas metal airscrews bend. N. F. Stockbridge,
of the AC-Sphinx Sparking Plug, writes to take partial credit for the
performance of British spark plugs credited with maintaining 8th Air
Force’s sortie rates in European conditions by President Roosevelt in the State
of the Union address. Specifically, Sphinx came up with the silver lining of
the nose cavity, which was developed with the help of Bristol. C. G. Hancock
writes that amphibians can so be good, since, after all, the Fairey Flycatcher
was. C. H. Potts agrees with everyone else that John Morison is cracked.
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| Not shown: evil Air Marshal trying to turn it into a strategic bomber. |
Time, 22 January 1945
International
“Reckless
Tranquility” The Rundstedt offensive briefly united Europeans, Left and Right.
Their arguments are silly, and Germans are horrible sex maniacs, and would
women please stop reading our paper?
If my complaints are eluding the male reader, I want to register my discomfort at the way that the paper’s correspondent in Belgium so obviously relishes stories about outrages against women.
“Genial
Blackmail” Edgar Anser Mowrer is a political correspondent who is a “left of
centre liberal who is no Russophobe,” thinks that Russians are horrible, and will continue to be horrible into
“Austria, Slovakia, Iran and (why not?) Manchuria.” The only way to stop this
is by standing up to them in Yalta and giving them what they've already got (eastern Poland and the Baltic States).
“War Criminals”
The United Nations War Crimes Commission is experiencing friction in lobbying
for “powers to try Nazis for crimes against their own nationals, e.g., Jews.”
Meanwhile, the Russians have already hung three SS guards for mass murder at
Maidonek. If it were possible that Fat Chow confine his dealings to men who were not involved in "extermination camps," I would be happier.
“Stella Roma” The
first Rome-Naples train will leave Rome this week. The paper says that Italians
think that its whistle “would seem almost to announce the end of a new Dark
Age” brought on by the “collapse of a highly developed technological
civilisation.” Italy?
“the New Owner” The
Lublin government is pursuing land reform in Poland. It is sure to go wrong.
Latins, and
Yugoslavs are excitable. Bulgarians are not only excitable, but also mountain-climbing sun-worshippers. Greeks are slightly less
excitable, now that General Scobie has told them what’s what. Argentina is
terrible.
“Tortoises and
Air Bases” America and Ecuador were going to talk about a permanent Americanair base in the Galapagos to replace the (temporary?) one there now, and nowthey’re not. If you are wondering why there is an air base in the Galapagos, it
is to stop the Japanese from sneaking up on the Panama Canal.
“Chiang is China” At least, Mr. Luce is pleased to find that Representative Michael Mansfield thinks so.
“Strip the Fat”
Since the pipelines of war supply to Luzon will not be stopped, the Allies must
dig deep into the “fat” to overcome Germany’s inner lines of defence and
achieve VE Day by the currently projected May.
“Prelude and Act
I” American forces have landed at Lingayen Gulf and are advancing overland towards
Manila on the same route they retreated along in 1941. Jesse Oldendorf, Russell
S. Berkley and Thomas Kinkaid commanded the amphibious and bombardment forces
that delivered the invasion, and General Krueger commanded the army on the
ground. What I do not see is any reference to the desperate Japanese air attacks reported by Uncle George. As the paper reports
elsewhere, there are 19 Japanese divisions in the islands and in Southeast
Asia, and all likely to be cut off by the American advance.
“Perils of the
Sea” A month late, and the paper reports on the typhoon disaster. The Navy
could hardly have concealed the loss of three ships and almost 800 men, but it
could wait until after the Court of Inquiry declined to recommend charges
against the Admiral. Not that the paper will even mention the possibility. It
turns out that it was all the “Navy’s aerologists” fault! (Men who study Mars? More "aerologist" below, by the way.)
“Red Friday” The
Russian Silesian Offensive opens.
“A General Dies
at Sea” Herbert Lumsden is killed by unspecified enemy action on ”The bridge of
a U.S. warship in Lingayen Gulf.” Admiral Fraser, the width of the bridge away,
survives with nothing more than a ringing in his ear. (To the distinctly mixed
feelings of the promotion-hungry. I shouldn’t joke, though, as Brian Morton was
killed, which has greatly affected James, and Time correspondent William Henry Chickering, which seems to have
had a similar effect on Mr. Luce. I believe I need to call on his father, who was one of Great-Uncle's archive patrollers.)
Uncle George, by the way, tells me that ship was New Mexico, and
that the damage was done by a single "kamikaze," which killed 30 crew and injured 87. He says that if it was anything like the Walke, where he spent the afternoon, it was more than flesh can
bear.
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| Source |
“Rundstedt’s
Choice” The Rundstedt offensive has delayed the next Allied offensive by “fourto six months.” He now has ten
mobile and partly armoured divisions in the West, as well as four or five fresh
reserve divisions from Norway, and is well-equipped to attack again in the West
if he chooses to ignore the Russian winter offensive. His wily intention is to
exploit Allied mutual distrust, which is why the paper is upset at Montgomery
and Bradley for making offensive remarks. All agree that the Allies “had been
thrown for a big loss, and the way to the enemy’s goal was long and hard.”
“Ice, Snow and
Blood” It is cold and snowy in winter! Flying and fighting is hard. Our
airplanes have “radar bombsights.” Hermann Balck led a German counterattack
towards Strasbourg that was like “a wasp snarling around a man who is trying to
put out a fire.”
“Under Brighter
Skies” Chungking is a happier place now that the Japanese are not attacking,
and Chinese armies have taken a number of coastal towns in the south and in
Fukien province.
“Toughest
Campaign” Allied troops in Italy are discouraged, because after the Appenines
will come the Alps.
Domestic
“After the
Inauguration” The President asked Congress to refrain from inflammatory
statements ahead of the Yalta talks. The Senate reacted as might be expected.
If the paper really needed to write an article about nothing, it could really
have commissioned another like the one following, “That’s Where I Live,” which
followed some returning troops, and had me crying.
“Presidential
Agent” Harry Hopkins has a small office and a regular schedule, but he is very
powerful! Here is his picture on our cover, and many, many pages about the
first courtier of the White House.
“The Lonely Ones”
There are no men in Owosso, Michigan, so when some German POWs arrived at the
W. R. Roach Canning Company, trouble ensured. “Buxom Kitty Marie Chase,” and
“thin, swarthy 18-year-old Shirley Jean Druce” went from “necking parties” in
the prisoner’s stockade to helping two prisoners escape.
“Warning” Admiral
Jonas Ingram, C-in-C Atlantic Fleet, has ordered the air raid sirens on the
East Coast tested, as robomb attacks on the East Coast were “not only possible
but probable.” They might, he warned, be launched by submarine, long-range
plane or surface ship. Some have expressed doubts, but that has just led to
Admiral Ingram repeating his assessment on the Blue Network’s MARCH OF TIME
programme.
“Comparatively
Delicate Appetite” The WAC is no longer to be fed on the regular GI ration,
saving $2.7 million on its food bill by substituting cottage cheese and pear
slices for chicken-fried steak served with a glass of half-and-half.
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| From cookingwithchar |
“Clipped Wings”
John Towers seriously considers himself in the running for Grand Admiral, talks
to the paper. (Where the story is framed as recognition for naval aviators akin
to that for the USAAF.)
“Millionaire
Battalion” 182 American soldiers and 2 officers of the 716th Railway Operating Battalion of the Service Forces have confessed to supplying the black
market and are to be sentenced.
Canada’s
arrangement with the paper is that it carries a quota of Canadian news in
return for favourable post rates. It is not as though Canada does not produce
news: a communist has been elected to Toronto City Council, Mayor Camille Houde
of Montreal has been attacked in the courts by mysterious enemies, and the
Ochase band has accepted a reservation and become the last nomadic Indian tribe
of the Plains to be settled; it’s just that the paper is terrible at reporting
these things as news. I do not care that Mayor Houde’s nose was purple as he whiled
away the hours figure skating. I care about who might have backed the court
challenge!
Business
“The New Ruml
Plan” Tw years ago, the old Ruml plan introduced pay-as-you-go income tax. In
his new book, Tomorrow’s Business, Beardsley Ruml sets out to launch an even more ambitious revolution in the way America
thinks about business. Which, from the summary, would sound as though it were
rewritten James H. McGraw, Jr editorials. Just because
cost-plus contracts let companies book a profit from advertising, even if they
have nothing to advertise, and your president sprays some words on a page to book that 5% profit does not mean that they need to be read by anyone.
“The Old Fever”
The stock market is up sharply. It is suggested that a boom is on. People even
bought Graham-Paige! (People are not always that smart.) The thought is that everyone has too much
money, that inflation is on the way, and that we must hedge against inflation
by getting into stocks.
Now please
imagine your daughter-in-law tapping her forehead and rolling her eyes. To make
the story a little more credible, the paper points out that there has been a
surge in stock buying in Los Angeles since the horse track was shut down,
proving that this is all amateurs who miss betting on the races.
“Enough for
Everybody” The National Retail Dry Goods Association” convention in Manhattan
announced that there will be no critical shortages in their articles of trade,
just regular shortages. It will be a harried year ahead, but with a promise of
fat profits, if sales matched 1944’s fabulous $6 billion retail sales. MiltonReynolds, at the convention, announced that his new Mexican venture that was
going to bring in 45,000 lighters a month is going to fall behind, because lazy
Mexicans love to take siestas. It is certainly a good thing that Mr. Reynolds
is a good, upstanding American English Protestant, of whom no stereotypes hold
true! Why, imagine how people would respond to this if he were an Israelite!
“Up a Little” The
Office of Price Administration has raised the price ceiling on live cattle and
steel, two key benchmarks under heavy pressure. It did not, however, relent on
tobacco, which is to be rationed by distributors at 15 cigarettes a day on an
honour system. I do not miss cigarettes, I do not miss cigarettes, I tell
myself. . . Now, if only I could convince myself. (James is quite disgustingly
blasé about all of this, perhaps I sometimes suspect, because no man really enjoys pipe tobacco. It’s all
just a big put-on show.)
Science, Medicine, Etc
“Warm-Blooded
Robot” General Electric has exhibited a “Copper Man” with heating coils and
thermometers to replace human subjects in tests of cold-weather gear. Notice
the “man” here. Because there is only one sex that could produce someone who
could think that this is a good idea.
“Portrait of a
Molecule” Maurice L. Huggins, of the Eastman Kodak Laboratories, has produced a
photograph of a very large molecule by X-ray methods. It is hexamethylbenzene,
if you were interested. it turns out that this
has already been done by Sir William L. Bragg in London, and Huggins’
breakthrough consists of a simplified calculation. (James is roused from contemplating his mortality to point out that the main discovery here is that Eastman
Kodak has found another way to take an American patent on British science.) On something of a
tear (thank Heavens, as I was getting worried), James runs down to the University library --he has a key-- and proceeds to turn up a prior controversy over something called a “hydrogen
bond,” proving that Dr. Huggins will also steal from fellow Americans. Or some
such. I think your son is being a little
bit chauvinistic here. I also wonder how our youngest and Miss V.C. came to be in the car when it pulled back into the drive at 9:30 on a Friday night, and where our housekeeper was. . .
“Snowflakes
Electrified” Mr. Orestes Caldwell, editor of Electronics Industries, announces that he has discovered that snowflakes
carry a static electric charge. By an astonishing turn of events, this is not
an original discovery, either. I am less astonished to note Mr. Caldwell’s long
connection with the Engineer and son in the matter of commercial radio licenses. Ah, well, just so long as only the bestof men have received commercial radio licenses and use their profits wisely.
“Penicillin for
Man and Beast” Penicillin is now so plentiful that this week, an 800lb prize
bull was saved in Hardwick, Massachusetts by a veterinarian with 2.5 million
units to dispense.
“So You Brush
Your Teeth?” You are probably doing it wrong, says The American Dental Association.
“Physiology of
Fear” Science has determined that fear causes rapid heart beats, sweating and
sighing. Fingers may tremble, and there may be frequent urination. Tough
flights over enemy territory do not cause pilots to lose 10lbs, as is
frequently said, but rather a pound-and-a-half.
Press, Literature, Religion, Arts, Etc.
“Something Wrong”
The New Republic found travel ads in
the New York Times along with an
editorial on the evils of unnecessary travel, and a story about how winter
resorts are crowded and busy. A scolding is issued.
“New Dress for
Dixie” The Atlanta Journal has
replaced the old Hearst Sunday supplement, American
Weekly, with its own four-colour insert. Because the Hearst press is awful. I wonder where it stands on the Nationalists? Silly question: it's for the church lady party in China. No-one crosses the church ladies without good reason.
“Unofficial but
Authoritative” Another contemporary which the paper dislikes is The Army and Navy Journal, which has
been attacking the British and Russians for prolonging the war in Europe with
politics. The paper thinks that editor Colonel John Callan O’Laughlin’s
pretence of close connections within the services is getting old, along with
his “closest friend, John J. Pershing.”
“Atkinson Reviews
New York” “Timesman” Brooks Atkinson, recently returned from China, finds it
difficult to adjust to the nervous, frivolous, desperate atmosphere of wartime
New York. Anyone wondering what he thought of China will have to look to
another paper. This one is only ready to broadly imply that he is on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Anyway, guess! Guess what he thought of Chiang and the communists!
“A Catholic
U.S.?” Harold Edward Fey of the Disciples of Christ, reveals the Catholic
Church’s blueprint for taking over America in an eight-week series of articles
in Christian Century.Just for the amusement of the Fathers, I read this number out loud at lunch. When we got to the part where a well-funded evangelising campaign rolled into an Ohio town, they laughed so hard that their navy bean soup came out of their...
I'm sorry, the company I keep right now.
I'm sorry, the company I keep right now.
 |
| Via GOCOMICS |
“School for
Fathers” A hilarious night class in Washington teaches expectant fathers about
feminine matters relating to pregnancy and babies, eschewing classes in
diapers, as “their purpose is to turn out better fathers, not mediocre
substitute mothers.” An obvious comment comes to mind, although with Fanny to
help me, I will just look a hypocrite.
“Not Now”
Although 1.16 million veterans want to go to college, an immediate mass
conscription on the end of war, combined with delayed demobilisation, might
leave colleges “hanging by their ivy unless drastic action is taken,” in the
form of federal aid, perhaps money, perhaps selective draft deferments for
college students, perhaps long term, low-interest loans for would-be students,
perhaps a federal scholarship fund.
“A Lady Says Yes”
premiers on Broadway. Jose Maria Velasco is receiving a showing at the Brooklyn
Museum.
Fighting Lady and I’ll Be Seeing You are new. The paper liked the former, not the latter, although it says nice things about the director Ralph Barton Perry’s Puritanism and Democracy proposes that “the invention of America was more important than the discovery of America.” Of course, James says, up before breakfast this Saturday morning, lifting my spirits as his are restored, even if he is off to Honolulu again. A Brit was responsible for discovering it, while some glib Bostonian divines got to take credit for the invention. It was actually an Italian, I point out to your son, and get a long and involved lecture on electrical motors named “dynes,” the point of which seems to be that the Italian patent case is the British case. Somehow.
Jean Stafford is the latest person to be called the American Proust. The paper’s review is all about emphasising the “called.” (She is also married to a Lowell. Doesn't that make her a Putnam kin? Or perhaps it just a matter of same social circles. Not that I should complain, given our old connexion via the, uhm, "other Columbian.") A biography of Kahlil Gibran is out. Margaret Deland, author of greeting-card verses turned literary realist author, has died. Henry Morgenthau appears in the “People” section, of all places, urging that people his age resign themselves to paying high taxes for the rest of their lives to retire the war debt, along with the Engineer, said to be “returning to New York with his family from a vacation in California.” The Engineer concedes that we are going to win the war, but says that prospects of a lasting peace are “discouraging.”
 |
| San Sebastian Chilasco. Source |
Fighting Lady and I’ll Be Seeing You are new. The paper liked the former, not the latter, although it says nice things about the director Ralph Barton Perry’s Puritanism and Democracy proposes that “the invention of America was more important than the discovery of America.” Of course, James says, up before breakfast this Saturday morning, lifting my spirits as his are restored, even if he is off to Honolulu again. A Brit was responsible for discovering it, while some glib Bostonian divines got to take credit for the invention. It was actually an Italian, I point out to your son, and get a long and involved lecture on electrical motors named “dynes,” the point of which seems to be that the Italian patent case is the British case. Somehow.
Jean Stafford is the latest person to be called the American Proust. The paper’s review is all about emphasising the “called.” (She is also married to a Lowell. Doesn't that make her a Putnam kin? Or perhaps it just a matter of same social circles. Not that I should complain, given our old connexion via the, uhm, "other Columbian.") A biography of Kahlil Gibran is out. Margaret Deland, author of greeting-card verses turned literary realist author, has died. Henry Morgenthau appears in the “People” section, of all places, urging that people his age resign themselves to paying high taxes for the rest of their lives to retire the war debt, along with the Engineer, said to be “returning to New York with his family from a vacation in California.” The Engineer concedes that we are going to win the war, but says that prospects of a lasting peace are “discouraging.”
Some GIs write to
request a picture of Ursula Graham Bower.
Flight, 25 January 1945
Leaders
“The £ s. d. of
Flying” Flying is quite likely to be very expensive compared to some people’s
estimates. For example, in an article in this number, Major Mayo calculates
that a London-Sydney fare will be £350.
 |
| Flying out of downtown Sydney, as I imagine it. |
“Chicago” Talking
about talking about civil aviation in the Lords!
“Flying Gear”
Flying clothes should be better.
War in the Air
The Russians are
coming! (The ever-militaristic Fathers explain that winter campaigns in eastern Europe are usually sudden, successful, and short, due to the exhaustion of winter forage, pointing out that both the Germans and Russians still rely on draft animals.) Aircraft must have been involved. Aircraft have also been involved on
occasion on the Western and Italian Fronts, where there is weather.
It is a
mystery why there has been no effective Japanese resistance in the air in
Luzon. The paper cannot be bothered with maps or reading, but it does want
to remind us that the Royal Naval Air Service sent a mission to Japan, back in
the 1920s or so. Pictures of Air Marshal Sir Guy Garrod and Air Commodore the Earl of Bandon provide evidence of aircraft being involved in Burma, too.
 |
| Burma agrees with someone! |
Here and There
Canadian air
chief Air Marshal Breadner is still touring the Far East, because there’s still
nothing for him to do at home. The Miles M. 60 is to have a de Havilland Gipsy Queen air-cooled, in-line engine with gear-driven centrifugal supercharger.
Lord Amherst, who was an air-taxi pilot at one point before the war, is leaving
the RAF, with which he has been voluntarily associated in the AFVR for the war,
or thereabouts. Air Commodore A. H. Robson has been made director of RAF
educational services in place of Air Commodore W. M. Page, recently retired.
Pan American intends to run a $368 New York-South Africa service after the war,
because it has not seen Major Mayo’s math, yet. Mr. Handley-Page gave a model
of a Halifax bomber to the outgoing High Commissioner for South Africa, making
a casual comment about how it would be followed by a civil aircraft very soon,
and trying to do that trick where pass a sheaf of five pound notes as you shake hands with a man, only to fumble it all over the stage. A “northern
terminal of RAF Transport Command” received 3000 aircraft from Canada and the
United States during 1944, carrying 3 million pounds of mail, and many
passengers. (300,000 have crossed the Atlantic by air so far in this war, I read elsewhere!)
And apparently it still doesn’t have a decent place to eat. Though that may apply to the whole island by now, I hear.
And apparently it still doesn’t have a decent place to eat. Though that may apply to the whole island by now, I hear.
John Yoxall, “With
the Higher-Ups” The paper’s war correspondent visits a Mosquito XVI squadron
and experiences the trials and hardships of high altitude raiding. Which are
apparently considerable, even with the cabin pressurised to the equivalent of
10,000ft. The plane took off at 25,300lbs, with lift flaps at 15 degrees, and
70-series Merlins at 3000hp, +12lbs boost, with a further +18lbs in reserve
against emergencies. The takeoff run is somewhere between 1200 yards and 1500,
the imprecision being due to the need to compensate for a swing to port, and
not censorship. Flight is at 2650 rpm, +4 to +6lbs boost, at somewhere between
20 and 35,000ft, where overweather conditions can be found. This is how the
squadrons have managed to fly 53% of their missions on nights when Bomber
Command’s heavies are grounded. The Germans have developed AA that can engage
at 30,000ft, although they are probably less dangerous than wing, flap and
aerial icing. Mosquito XVIs are also used by the Meteorological Flight, which
conducts intrusions into German air space ahead of every Bomber Command and,
until recently, 8th Air Force operation. (Eighth now has its own
Met. Flight of Mosquito XVIs.) Some Met.
Flight pilots have flown as many as 87 missions, and 24 to 25 flights is not
uncommon.
Maurice F.
Allward, “Monocoques, Part II: Several Different Systems Are Surveyed” There
are two systems to be considered here. The Bristol system starts with the Type
143, shown at the Paris Aero Show in October, 1934. History! This eventually
led on to the Blenheim. Hawker has another system, first seen in the Typhoon,
since the company was not to be hurried. The Avro York is another example, and
uses the third of the two systems. The fourth of the two is ithe Japanese semi-monocoque,
seen in a “Hamp,” the fifth is the German, and the sixth is the wooden, as seen in the Mosquito, which
apparently can be dealt with in two paragraphs, so that Aviation was just wasting our time with that multi-part article.
“Rootes, Branches
and Shadow” At a celebratory dinner given for the TShadow Factory group run by Rootes
Securities, Sir William Rootes told the paper, and other guests, about how the operation
was very successful at making planes, and also armoured cars, Scout cars, and
3600 other armoured reconnaissance vehicles, comprising with all types, 11% of
the country’s output of wheeled vehicles of all types. The Group, comprised of
five automobile manufacturers, had a total of 17,000 employees at the outbreak
of war,made many, many Blenheims, mostly at a time when someone wanted them,
modified 2690 aircraft in an unspecified way at short notice, and rebuilt
21,000 engines. G. Geoffrey Smith, who had just arrived back from America the
day before, gave the reply for the guests, saying, and I quote, “Oh God, why
won’t you just let me go home. Please, I want to go home.”
Major Mayo, “Air
Transport Economics” Either the man who thought that the Short-Mayo Composite
airplane is right, or the entire airline industry is right about the future of
long distance commercial air travel. That is, either long distance air passenger travel will be subsidised, or there will be enough rich people to fill the planes.
“Lord Swinton
Reports” If my summary of the paper’s summary of the article summarising Lord
Swinton summarising the talking about talking about civil aviation in Chicago
was too summary, you can go here for more words.
“Indicator”
Discusses “’Passenger-Conscious’ Pilots: Making Transport Flying Feel Safe:
Considering the ‘Eggs in the Basket’: The Necessity for Smooth Flying and
Unworried ‘Drill’” Because I have done the numbers of the paper together this
beautiful Santa Clara afternoon, I’m a little conscious coming to this that I
was short with “Indicator” last time. That’s because I really do not take a
veteran, old-time pilot’s opinions about how much ‘instrumentation’ there
should be in a cockpit very seriously. What he needs, and what a new pilot
needs, is going to be very different, even if he is unusually quick to see the
advantage of new gadgets. This matter,
on the other hand, is quite important. Aviation people are always
overestimating their passengers, expecting them to be as ‘air-conscious’ as
they. We are, however, as a rule, not. That is why there are stewardesses, to
remind us that the air is safe, even homely! He talks about a recent bad
landing. “I don’t even know whether he had any passengers on board at the time;
if he had, they’ll be cured of air travel for all time!” I come back to the Bay
landing on that last trip back from Hawaii. If I could (and I can’t!) that
would certainly have cured me. Or the
bone-chilling cold. It all quite blends together. Fix that, and I honestly don’t
think that Major Mayo’s £350 flight to Sydney is that bad. There are many
people who can’t afford that, but there are also enough who would rather pay
that than spend two weeks of their life or more getting to Australia.
“M.A.P. Chief
Executive Resigns” Air Chief Marshal Sir Wilfrid Freeman, A.K.A. the most
important Air Member no-one’s ever heard of, is retiring from the Ministry at
his own request, to be replaced by Mr. E. N. Plowden. As did Wing Commander R.S. Booth, remembered for piloting R. 33 down after it broke away from its
mooring mast, and for commanding R. 100’s crew in its Atlantic crossing.
Correspondence
Harold H. Caplan writes to continue the
ongoing discussion of how canary flying in its cage weighs in an airplane. “Escapist”
writes on the implications of the V2, finding that interplanetary travel is
rapidly graduating from a possibility into a probability, all that is required
now being a superman with a double-barrelled, supercharged slide rule, a strong
stomach, and an Einsteinian knowledge of mathematics as navigator.
And your youngest longs to be him.
J. Bernard and A Crichton write to suggest that Tennant’s article on asymmetric aircraft was a prank. C. A. H. Pollitt writes to suggest that he is not a crank. L. M. Braund of K.L.G. Sparking Plugs writes to suggest that his firm’s spark plugs do not, in fact, have cast silver core linings.
And your youngest longs to be him.
J. Bernard and A Crichton write to suggest that Tennant’s article on asymmetric aircraft was a prank. C. A. H. Pollitt writes to suggest that he is not a crank. L. M. Braund of K.L.G. Sparking Plugs writes to suggest that his firm’s spark plugs do not, in fact, have cast silver core linings.
Time, 29 January 1945
“The Voice” The
paper is impressed with the Prime Minister’s speech to the Commons. The paper
has two stories, the latter giving a four page summary of all the reasons that
the Prime Minister’s feelings are hurt by criticisms of his Greek policy.
Greeks and
Czechoslovaks are excitable. Argentinians are awful, Egyptian women rally for
equal rights, which is not excitable at all. Paraguay might have oil, says the
Union Oil Company, and the Brazilians are trying to civilise the feral Indians
of the Matto Grosso, as the country’s policy of racial equality forbids
exterminating them, which would be easy for the Brazilian army.
“Protocol in
Chunking” The Generalissimo received the credentials of the new American ambassador,
Pat Hurley, in a splendid uniform, T. V. Soong in a traditional gown. In other,
less important China-related news, the American embassy burned to the ground,
and Theodore White cables from Burma that the Communists are on the verge of
declaring themselves the government of China.
“Terrible
Silence” Liberated Warsaw is a heap of ruins, Poles are excitable.
“Two Assassins”
The assassins of Lord Moyne, two Palestinian Jews of the Stern Gang, appeared
in a Cairo court before Judge Mahmoud Mansour Bey, who sentenced them to death
after a seven day trial. The whole thing just makes me sick, between the loss
of poor Lord Walter and the thought of the follies to which all young men are
prone. Why, if he thought it would get mankind to the Moon, your own youngest
might do something so foolish. Well, to a point. There’s the bit where the one
terrorist stabbed Walter’s chauffeur to death. That’s just unforgiveable.
“The Uses of
Technology” The French are a very silly people. Seeing the U.S. Army pipeline
that carries gas from Normandy to Paris, they have laid their own, which will
carry wine across the practically bridgeless Loire to relieve the raging thirst
of Paris.
“In One Week”
Brigadier General Frederick W. Castle was lost with his B-17 over Belgium, Major George E. Preddy, Jr., “son of a freight conductor and top U.S. ace in the
European Theatre” was shot down and killed by American antiaircraft fire, and
Major Thomas B. McGuire, top active ace in the Pacific theatre, was killed by
stalling out his P-38 at low altitude.
“Uncle Joe’s
Super-Duper” American troops were impressed enough with the German Royal Tiger
tank, but now German radio is reporting that the Russian “Joseph Stalin supertank” is even bigger and more powerful than the Royal Tiger.
“Weight and
Urgency” The Russian winter offensive in Poland has easily passed the vaunted
German “Mitteleuropa” Line. The goal is now Berlin, and victory by spring. The
Red Army has 200 divisions in the field, with the Red Army’s elite troops of
the White Russian Army placed under Marshal Zhukov in Poland, and tasked with
reaching the Oder at least, only 50 miles from Berlin.
“Hungary
Switches” Sadly, the paper doesn’t throw a party for the last
rumoured-surrender-of-minor-Axis-allies story. V. inconsiderate.
“Whose Initiative?” Who holds the initiative on the Western Front? The Germans
opposite Strasbourg, the British in the north, no-one in the Ardennes, where
the German withdrawal continues without effective American pursuit.
“Strategic
Impotence” The Japanese are strategically impotent, with no crumb of comfort
anywhere in the Pacific. Well, except for the fact that the West Coast repair
yards are going to be so crowded with kamikaze victims soon that they'll have to send victims back through the Canal. But aside from that.
“Old Soldier”
General Krueger is this week’s cover story. The man is commanding an army in
the field at the age of 64!
“Victory in
Burma” Wanting has fallen, finally opening the Ledo Road. I think there’s some
fighting going on in the south, too. I am sure that the paper is not too
embarrassed about the resources expended on the Ledo Road to cover the possible
opening of the old Burma route! And the fall of Wanting is certainly important
enough to justify two separate stories.
Domestic
“For the Fourth
Time” The President, who can now barely stand unaided, took the oath of office
for the fourth time. Had you heard about that? That he had been elected for a
fourth time? Four. That’s quite a lot of times.
“Pursuit in the
Black Hills” Since buffalo meat, curiously, is not rationed, Michigan farmer Ed
Butters is going into the buffalo ranching business, unless his animals kill him
first.
“Paying the Debt”
Jesse Jones is out at Commerce to make way for Henry Wallace, following through
on the promise to find the man a job once he agreed not to stand for
Vice-President at the convention. Jones is upset, while the CIO’s Political
Action Committee is seen as the victor.
“Plan for
Remodelling” Cleveland Business Engineer Robert Heller proposes to remodel
Congress to make it more efficient and businesslike.
“Three Years
Toll” Total US casualties in three years of war are 663,859, two and a half
times the casualties of WWI. Most of the casualties have been suffered since
the fighting started, more or less, at D-Day, and from June 6th to 1
January, US Army casualties have been 54,562 killed, 232,672 wounded, 45,678
missing. This is “substantially higher than even the pessimistic had expected,”
the paper says, because who can be bothered to remember what pessimistic people actually said a whole year ago? British Commonwealth
casualties are still at 1 million and climbing, including 600,000 from the UK.
“If the Nation
Calls” The Services still need 900,000 more men, war industry still needs
700,000 more workers, no-one has any idea how to get a national service act
passed. The paper asks why men can be conscripted to fight, but not to work in
war industries, while the labour movement rolls its eyes. Canada has one, the
“Canada” section of the paper points out. I see. Now, which country had to
fight a war to get rid of slavery almost in living memory? It’s on the tip of
my tongue, and the name doesn’t start with “C.”
The Protestant
churches think that the new international framework established at Dumbarton
Oaks might be good, if it works out for the best, but otherwise –actually, I
have no idea, because my grazing eyes ran into phrases like “dying of
inanition,” and “ghosts wandering the halls.” Dear divines: there is a reason
people do not read poetry any more. It’s because we do not have the time to
waste!
“Struck Out” An
amusing story of a Coloured seaman who applied for the “aerological branch,” on
the basis of his college science education, which more than qualified him, only
to be struck on the basis of never having taken Home Economics. Colour
prejudice is hilarious! (Notice that this applies to Negroes. If it were a
Chinese boy applying for an enlisted man’s position requiring a college degree,
the Navy would snap him up in a second to spare the embarrassment of being seen
to promote a White boy with a sixth-grade education over him.)
“It Shouldn’t
Happen to a Dog” A story of three returning servicemen being bumped from an
Army Transport Command flight by Elliot Roosevelt’s dog, being sent to his brand-new starlet wife, The ATC man who gave
the dog a number one priority remains unidentified, and presumably will remain
unidentified so long as there is a scrap of justice in the world, which, of
course, is all agog at the First Family’s effrontery.
 |
| Presidential! Source |
The tiny, little
cynic that inhabits the smallest share of my soul suggests that this is the
kind of thing that reaches the press when people begin to suspect that your
father will not survive his term. And considering that the President’s Teheran
cold nearly did him in. . . Offered as human sacrifice to appease the gods of the press, USAAF Colonel Glenn
Myer, who had the nerve to let two titled British ladies aboard a flight to
Brussels. Not on offer, the Los Angeles playboy who, I believe the word I need to use here is "introduced" the couple. His press is taken care of by his money.
“China’s Plan”
China is looking to the future, when American money flows through Nationalist
hands to rehabilitate the country’s industry, instead of to fight the Japanese.
“Range Royalty”
The bull auction at the National Western Livestock Show has fetched some very
high prices. Breeders are bullish on the industry!
“Sorry” After a
year of trying, the Surplus War Property Administration has sold only 6,912 of
27,253 used aircraft.
“Trouble in
Paradise” There’s so much money to be made in Hollywood that everyone is trying
to become an independent producer, causing the major studios to become more
generous with their star actors and producers. There is some serious meat to this story, specifically the relationship of the cinema chains with the studios, but it is well buried, as the lead seems to be that the actors, actresses and directors don't deserve the money that has been flowing into Hollywood. All very well, but then who does?
Science, Medicine, Education, Etc.
“Biogeochemist”
Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky, the cosmic thinker who founded biogeochemistry,
died this week. His theories held that man’s brain has come to rival the
geological forces of wind and water in transforming nature, coining the idea of
a “noosphere,” a “new geological phenomenon on our planet.”
“Super Cotton”
Georgia State Experimental Station has developed a new breed of super cotton
which can compete with rayon and other synthetic alternatives.
“Heartsickness”
Psychoneurosis of the “heartsickness” variety is a rapidly growing problem
amongst service wives with actual physical symptoms, say San Francisco psychiatrists, who want admitting
privileges. Why do I have the feeling that “wanting admitting privileges” came
a little before the “science” part of this story?
“Medical Art” The
Pratt Free Library of Philadelphia is showing an exhibit of gruesome surgical
pictures, because of the importance of education, or art, or some such.
“Newest Wonder
Drug” Penicillin is the new wonder drug, and it is made from fungus, so that
all the folk cures of yesteryear that had fungus, or mold, or some such in
them, might have been on to something. Other chemicals
from molds seem to have “antibiotic” properties, as well, and might be used in
humans if they prove to be as safe as penicillin. Half seriously, one doctor
proposes that in the future we might just prescribe penicillin for everything,
and the whole profession of medicine could be practically abolished.
“A New Lost Generation?” Either one or another
of lost morals and a future lack of employment dooms the younger generation, or
perhaps both. To solve these problems, Grayson Kefauver believes that the
United Nations should have an educational and cultural organisation, while New
York City’s Board of Education thinks that new primary readers will do the
trick, and the editor of Stars and
Stripes’ Paris edition thinks that high school for all will solve problems
like the murder of Eric Teichman by a serviceman with the mental age of “about
nine years,” and the one veteran who is using his educational benefit to enroll
in the sixth grade. I am astonished, just astonished, by the
way, that a feeble-minded soldier has been found to confess to Sir Eric’s
murder.
Press, Literature, Art, Religion, Etc
“Military
Doubletalk” Says Punch: “Military
experts are unanimous that Rundstedt has taken an irrevocable step toward what
may be the turning point of the hinge of the pincers he cannot draw out from or
with.” Ooh! Ooh! Do The Economist next!
 |
| There is nothing funnier than seventy year old jokes. |
“Private Rights”
Ray Richards, the Hearst man who has previously specialised in anti-Japanese
sentiment, has turned his sights on the Institute for Pacific Relations
conference at Warm Springs. Apparently, the fact that politicians and
pointy-headed academics are allowed to meet there and talk without press
coverage is a sign of anti-Americanism. The Syndicate believes that the
Institute is pro-communist and pro-Japanese.
“Patton Prays”
The General prayed for clear skies, and got them. Meanwhile, in England, the
rites of Plough Monday were celebrated at Chichester Cathedral for the first
time in 300 years.
God speed the plough: the plough and the ploughman,
the farm and the farmer,
machine, and beast, and man.
God speed the
plough:
the beam and the
mouldboard,
the slade and the
sidecap,
the share and the coulters.
“Post Bets” The
FCC has reserved airwaves space for walkie-talkies, Frequency Modulation
stations, but at a higher frequency. This will make existing FM sets useless.
Commercial television was cut from 18 to 12 channels, but the FCC expects to
allot newer, higher frequencies in the future for full-colour television at
some point in the future when the advantages are developed and proven. The
title is because the paper thinks that the FCC is “betting” on our Buck Rogers
future.
“Foul Weather
Friends” Now that bad weather has hit France, the only top-flight USO
entertainers still touring are Katharine Conrell and the “lustrous-limbed” Marlene
Dietrich.
“Coca in Calypso”
The “catchy little ditty called ‘Rum & Coca-Cola’ has been banned by all
four major networks,” but is sweeping the sheet-music sales at 37,000 copies
per day. It has not been banned because it’s about miscegenation between
American troops and Trinidadian girls. It’s because it is free advertising for
Coca-Cola!
The paper likes Mr. Emmanuel, Guest in the House, and Brought to Action. The paper is in a
very agreeable mood this week!
The paper reviews
Stanley Vestal’s The Missouri, and,
in general, the 26 volumes (so far) of “The Rivers of America.” Vestal has
delivered 368 pages of history, local colour and anecdote. It is less artistic
than some in the series, more colourful than others. Also, Hodding Coder’s Winds of Fear is a nice treatment of “Negrophobes”
in the South. Lin Yutang is a wise Chinese-American novelist philosopher who
happens to hate the Communists. No doubt that means that he loves the Nationalists, although the paper does not notice this. (Not-ironic Grace: because he doesn't.)
Gilbert Pattern,
(“Burt L. Standish”), author-creator of hero Frank Merriwell, whose 1,236 paperback
adventures for boys, which sold 125 million copies, has died at 78. I suppose
that Merriwell was too much the boy's hero for me, as he was certainly too young for you, but it
is still worth noting as a glimpse of a lost age, even if Hollywood does keep on trying to blow life into it.
Miscellany
“Long Division. In Manhattan, Jean A.
Brunner asked his niece what she did in her Washington war job, was told:
"I work in the data-analysis group of the aptitude-test subunit of the
worker-analysis section of the division of occupational analysis and manning
tables of the bureau of labor utilization of the War Manpower Commission."
Correspondence
(I’m going to cheat here and lift something from the
January 8th number, just to show that your youngest and his peers isn’t
the only one out there dreaming of lunar things.)
The Winthrop Plan
Sirs:
Subject: the Winthrop plan of interglobal strategy in World War III. According to this theory only a planet with a backside has a military future. The earth, alas, has no backside. It is immediately imperative for the U.S. to take the lead in rocket exploration of the moon and to establish bases there. The nation that controls the moon controls the earth.
In short: it is a well-known fact that the moon revolves in such a way that it always turns the same face to the earth. The other side of it will always be inaccessible to rocket fire from the earth. Thus it forms an ideal site for supplies, factories, munitions works, etc. Well placed emplacements on this side of the moon, on the other hand, could command every part of the earth as if it were a chicken turning on a spit, simply waiting for New York or Moscow to come within range.... I offer this idea free of charge (out of selfless patriotism) to TIME or the U.S. General Staff. On with lunar exploration! It is later than you think!
GOUVERNEUR WINTHROP New York City
(In reply at the end of the month. . . .)
Interglobal Strategy
Sirs:
. . . Mr. Winthrop's plan (TiME, Jan. 8), like much good satire, is less frivolous than prophetic. I predict that by 2000 A.D. the Germans, having been encouraged to migrate, will be firmly entrenched on the moon, the U.S. General Staff having rejected the planet as "militarily unsuitable" and the British having discounted it as unnavigable.
PAUL A. JORGENSEN Berkeley, Calif.
Aero Digest, 1 January 1945
“AERO DIGEST’s
Symposium of Opinion on Post-War Air Transportation” begins this month with a piece on the case for
a railway-airlines integration, argued by John J. Pelley, president of the
Association of American Railroads, while
Almon E. Roth, president of the National Federation of American Shipping,
argues for the right of steamship lines to enter into overseas air
transportation. Roth is a Stanford man, but that doesn’t necessarily make him evil.
Guest Editorial
Frederick C.
Crawford, “Let’s Sell Ourselves to Our Workers” If you are going to keep unions
out of your factory, you have to ‘sell’ yourselves to your workers by giving
them facts.
Research
Institute of America, “Surplus Property –An Overall View” The stuff that people want will be sold under
terms mostly to be established later. We speculate on what those might be, and
suggest what might happen next.
Editorial
Surplus
government property shouldn’t be sold for too little, or it will undermine
industry sales. It is time to talk about talking about civil aviation.
Washington In-Formation
It turns out we
probably won the war. Now there’s talk of “bonus payments” for workers in the
war industries. Hey! Management wants some, too! People are talking about a
Labour Draft again. It could happen!
Aviation Engineering
“Current
Developments in Plastics for Aeronautical Use; Portfolio of Design Features,
P-47; B-29 Gunnery System Solves Diverse Problems; Cost-Planning Post-War
Plane; Army Announces New Gliders; Lockheed Announces “Saturn” 75; Determining
Principal Stresses by the Equilateral Strain Rosette; Time Ticks Broadcast
Service, Station WWV; Cam Engines for Aircraft; The Vane-type Stall Warning
Device; Standard Materials-Handling Units Adapted to Aircraft Manufacture; New
X-Ray Technique Introduced; Calculation of Span Lift Distribution (Part 1)
Well, the details
of the B-29 gunnery system sound interesting, at least. As we’ve heard, they
are remotely controlled, with a fire control computer. The system is
all-electric, and contains six amplidyne generators to drive the turrets. We
are told that the computer “continuously” receives the firing data, with no indication of whether the word is being
used accurately, which is important, because it would allow for tachymetric
control –which, according to James, is overrated, but at least it has been
overrated for a long time! The computer is GE-made, and
all electronic. Sights are set to the specific aircraft target, and the gunner
than keeps the target within a ring of luminous dots projected on the viewing
screen to give angular bearing, while adjusting the size of the ring, which,
given known aircraft dimensions, generates range. Ah ha! The information is
then supplied to the computer via
selsyn, so that is how they are getting the continuous feed –that is, until
they track past 90 degrees and the polarity reverses. According to James, the
Admiralty went with a magslip transmitter over the selsyn because it was too unstable, but that doesn’t
mean that GE hasn’t found a way to stabilise it in the B-29. It’s not exactly
encouraging, however, that the calculations given aren’t corrections against
error, but standard ballistic tommyrot
–wind speed, temperature, etc. Accuracy is deemed to allow for fewer guns, the
question being whether the theoretical accuracy is actually achieved, or
whether the selsyn just has the guns backlashing and hunting all about the
firing solution.
In case you are
interested, the “Cost-Planning:” has nothing to do with the design, and is an
interesting exercise in working out the scale of machining that will pay for
each production breakpoint. Fewer planes sold means fewer specialised
production machine tools. Also
considered, forging weights, material used. . . The “time ticks” thing refers
to the Federal Standards Bureau’s three reference broadcast frequencies, which
are useful for calibrating radio equipment. The “cam engine” thing is more
Morison-style novelty for novelty’s sake, although I shall deny saying this if
it ever appears on an automobile.
The production
short cut award for this month goes to another rivet sorting machine made out
of spare parts. Sorting rivets must be a lot of work!
Digest of the News
CAA calls for
3050 new airports –nothing too ambitious; Air Force League established
to lobby for more planes forever; the V3
is coming to New York! It’s time to talk about talking about civil aviation!
Now that Jacqueline Cochran has been out of the WASPs for a few days, it is
okay to name her a Director of Northeast Airlines. The paper, even nastier than
I, reminds us that “in civil life, she is known as Mrs. Floyd Odlum.” The Army
has turned over 100 new production Lockheeds, DC-3s and Beeches for civilian
use. North American is set to build 17,000 aircraft, including P-51s and two
“secret new types,” which presumably doesn’t include the P-82, which isn’t secret.
Unless it is secret this month.
Aero Digest, 15 January 1945
Brigadier GeneralF. O. Carroll, “Fundamental Importance of Research to Continual Aviation
Progress” In 1939, Wright Field was doing experimental engineering with 35
officers and 380 civilian machinists. (So that's what full technical efficiency looks like! RAE had to struggle by with a few thousand staff.) There should be many more than this,
because the air force did lots of stuff that needed research in the last war,
and will when we fight the Commies. Which we won’t. Unless we do. Soon.
Hon. Jennings
Randolph, “Congress and the Challenge of Aviation” Clearly, there are too many
trees, and Congress can do something about that. Such as publishing articles
like this one.
Dr. Alexander
Klemin, “Current Air cargo Trends” Are you excited about new ways to load
and unload cargo planes?
Editorial
Pearl Harbour!
Let’s investigate and find out that it was FDR’s fault! In real life, I get to avoid these bores.
Washington In-Formation
The war isn’t
going to end as soon as some people thought, and so might not end as quickly as
other people think. That means that we need to make more ammunition and such.,
which is why the 1945 war production programme has been revised upwards, or at
least not further reduced.
I am not going to
summarise the Aviation Engineering section at the same length as I did last
time. This is not a case of hidden gems. (Well, one hidden gem.) There are
three papers on air navigation issues, one on feeder airline economics, design
features of the BT-13 trainer, several papers on welding, one on used Stinsons
in ANA livery, progress in aeronautical carpentry and engine power measurement;
and a paper on “Nazi Jet-Propelled Fighters” which sounds more interesting than
it is.
The promised
hidden gem is Lawrence Le Kashman, Consulting Radio Editor, “Salient Features
of the Sperry ‘Gyrosyn’: Device, Controlled by Flux Valve, Detects Earth’s
Magnetic Field, Light Weight, Compactness And Dependability among Advantages”
As you know, I am always on the lookout for the way in which the big
design firms use gyroscopes, as gyroscopes are the main way of controlling the
orientation in space of various automatic devices, and automatic devices are a
huge part of the new electrical engineering industry which I am charged by
Uncle George to keep up with. Combine them with electrics, and they really command my attention, so I spent entirely too much time pouring over this article. This particular
device is an electrically driven gyro fed from a 115v, 400 cycle aircraft main. Gyrocompasses have enormous advantages as aircraft navigational devices, but need correction against pitch-and-roll and precession in order to maintain their directionality. In this device, orientation is controlled by the said flux gate, which, of is a
sensitive magnetic device which produces a current proportional
to the deviation from the magnetic north. The signal is
then amplified several times (this is the devil where the detail is) and fed to the display gyro It’s quite a neat little device which greatly eases the navigator's burden, since he is no longer continuously correcting gyro against compass, especially when changing latitudes. it is also one of the equipments that Tommy Wong will be in
charge of maintaining and evaluating in his new position.
Digest of the News
The paper
believes that the Empire is talking about talking about civil aviation amongst
itself. The navy has 35,575 aircraft, 47,276 pilots, as compared with a total
of 2199 and 5587 at the end of 1940, with 250,000 officers and men in the
aviation branch. 96,369 aircraft were produced in 1944, which is a 50% gain in
frames, but production of critical types is still falling short. The airlines grossed
150 million last year. Consolidated Vultee has produced 25,000 aircraft. James,
by the way, would want an earlier conversation in which he questioned how many of those planes were old, trainers,
transports registered. (The question being how far the Fleet Air Arm actually was inferior to the United States Navy. I would led sleeping lions lie in Honolulu, except that this gives me an excuse to ask whether you know about those little tabulations that your son did all through the pages of your old Janes? So cute!
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