Shaughnessy,
Vancouver,
Canada
Dear Father:
Your Loving Daughter,
Ronnie
Letters
General Horkan, the Quartermaster General, writes to mention that Newsweek overlooked the exciting new winter uniform that the Army was testing when it covered those boring old atomic tests the other month. Olympic athlete Robert Eisner writes to point out how keen the Olympics are. Two Texans disagree about whether Texas is right on Tidelands. One points out that Texas underfunding its schools, as recently revealed, shows that it shouldn't have offshore oil, while the other figures that Texas will go Republican over it. Our editor explains that the election campaign between the bald war hero and the bald sacrificial goat is getting even more exciting, and that is why there will be even more exciting campaign coverage for the next two months or until the voters can put the readers out of their misery.
Washington Trends reports that the Democrats are going to campaign on the "Democratic voters should vote Democratic because we are better than Republicans" platform, giving a whole page of copy to balance a Credit Union National Association ad about how credit unions are the banks for people just like you, who wear coveralls to meet their banker.
Campaign
Eisenhower and Stevenson are both campaigning, it says so right here. That's why they had that debate, which gets a full page summary. A boring box summary reports that Eisenhower's low point 7 percent lead in the polls from Stevenson's convention "bounce" has widened out to a thirteen point lead, which would mean a GOP blowout if the election were held now, but if we let that kind of thing rule our lives, we'd have to cover some real news instead of hanging around in the campaign train bar car. Actual reporters then check in with the Connecticut and Nevada senate races, and the particularly horrible fate of the sad cub scouts who are following the Vice-Presidents gets a highlight. The Nixons are fighting lobsters, it says here, and Sparkman got a laugh in Alabama when he pointed out that some people in the audience knew who he was!
National Affairs
Congress is looking into corruption, the tornado that blew through Carswell Air Force Base last week and grounded our B-36 force ended up demolishing a B-36, C-45 and an F-51 and damaging 26 other bombers. Nine more B-36s were damaged at the Convair plant next door, and some of them will be out for a year. The Air Force says that the 19th Air Division it will be back in operation by next week, as long as the Reds don't atom bomb us into the stone age by then. Newsweek catches us up with the Doolittle recommendations on not putting airports next to orphanages recommendations.
"Thanx to Korea" The very attractive blonde who was sending Christmas packages to Korea is now famous and wants donations for her Thanx Club.
International
"Secret Strategy for Holding Europe Against Reds: Shall it Be Defence Lines or Resistance Areas"
"Bloody Battles, Silenced Talks" This is technically a story under a Korean War banner, but is basically just a summing up of the state of affairs as of mid-month, which is local battles for positions along the front while negotiations are stalled.
In Chile, where General Ibanez was dictator from 1927 to 1931, when he was kicked out in a student revolution, has now been elected President, although not with an absolute majority. According to the constitution, this throws the election to Congress,but it is expected to endorse the popular vote.
Business
"New Defence Chief in Favour of Stretching Out Stretchout" "So we're not saying that Bevan was right or anything, but Bevan was right." Meanwhile, the Guarantee Trust of New York has studied the relationship between inflation and spending and concluded that the only way to stop inflation is to grind the working class under our nail-shod boots with high unemployment, high interest rates, low farm prices, and no welfare, which is why that's actually a good thing!
Industry is for voting, the 3rd Circuit is against picket line violence, Pinay is against inflation, the railroads are against regulations, and Chemstrand's new Acrilan miracle fabric is a miracle that will boost the joint venture of Monsanto and American Viscose into the stratosphere.
CAB is still fighting to justify its decision grounding Wiggins, which is bound and determined to come back as a "helicopter airline," while the brand new Proctor and Gamble soap labs have 250 researchers and 86 laboratories.
Products: What's New reports that Parker has an automatic barrier for parking lots that allows lots to do without attendants, while Elsart Novelties has a fountain pen with a cartridge of concentrated ink which only needs to be reloaded with water to write for eighteen months. Warner-Fruehof has a truck trailer based on a hopper rail car, while Modernair has a radiation detector which combines with a wristband on a machine tool operator to automatically stop the machine when the operator's hand enters the danger area.
Henry Hazlitt's Business Tides has another excuse for not talking about business. This week, it turns out that the Democratic candidate doesn't understand business! Specifically, he doesn't see the point of crushing unions under nail-shod boots.
Science, Medicine, Education
"Power Breeder" This week the AEC invited the press to see its newest baby, the Experimental Breeder Reactor at Arco, Idaho. It isn't very well explained, but it turns a bar of natural uranium, which includes mostly not fissionable U238 and U235 into power and plutonium and somehow implicates the surplus plutonium that will be produced when other, commercial reactors use the same process and end up with leftover plutonium, which they aren't to be allowed to keep and make bombs out of, because that would be wrong. And it will produce electricity. Theoretically, it could produce a lot of electricity from not very much uranium at all, which is as much the point of the story as the story has a point. (It is not a very well written story, is what I am trying to say.)
"Operation Revere" Dr. Stuart Carter Dodd, of the University of Washington, is studying how rumours spread, with an eye to propagandising the enemy more effectively, by dropping leaflets on Salt Lake City and asking the citizens there to help fight Communism by telling their neighbours about the contents of the leaflet so that science can study how quickly the information in them spreads through the community. As someone who flatters herself that she knows how gossip works, Ronnie can see no flaws in this plan whatsoever.
"New Lenses for Old" Harold Ridley, a British eye surgeon, has been experimenting with inserting methyl acrylic plastic lens into the hole made by cataract surgery, which is producing some excellent outcomes.
Radio-Television, Press, Newsmakers
The Chicago Daily News' long pursuit of the Moroney kidnapping (2 year old girl kidnapped in 1930, parents never gave up hope; adoptee from California identified as possibly being Mary Moroney) has blown up in its face as the Moroneys and the adoptee have mutually agreed that they are not related after all notwithstanding blood tests, skull measurements, and other such foolproof science. The Mormon church is pushing Deseret Daily News circulation, the Los Angeles Daily News is reorganising and has got rid of its publisher, and a columnist in Oregon has gone from one paper to its rival paper. News about news! I think the real reason that Mary McClelland went back to Oakland is that she was tired of sitting in a room and listening to the reporters talk about each other.
Newsweek thinks it has to give almost a full page to the assault on Barry Gray, which almost squeezes out a story on the latest thing on television, religious shows like This is the Life and a pictorial-strip story about how racy Cuban television is on account of not having a broadcast code of standards.
Movies
Twentieth Century Fox's Monkey Business is "one of the best comedies of the year" in spite of starring a chimpanzee. Although maybe not, because it costars Marilyn Monroe. Son of Paleface is a sequel to Paleface, obviously. It has the same stars, but they are playing different people, so it isn't really a sequel? Bob Hope does a good job and the big musical number is nice. The Devil Makes Three is a "first-rate picture of postwar Germany" marred by melodramatic love and cops-and-robber stories.
Books
Roy Campbell is a troubled author who likes bullfights, only he is English instead of American and anyway everyone should buy his book Light on a Dark Horse, because you just can't get enough of troubled authors and bullfights. (That's an order, not an observation.) Mary Borden's You, the Jury is a novel about a treason trial that is very misguided because of moral reasons the reviewer disagrees with. Hutchinson and Adler's wall of Great Books is now out, complete with their Synopticon that explains it all. Cynthia Asquith does not need 52 volumes to cover 102 themes, because she is funny and can wear a frock. See her memoir, Haply I May Remember.
Raymond Moley explains in Perspectives that it is important that the states have the Tidelands so that they will have the money to keep the Darkies down. Or, in California, the Mexicans.
Aviation Week, 15 September 1952
News Digest reports that Lockheed is on strike, the USAF is expanding pilot training, this was the safest year for flying ever, the American Helicopter pulsejet is on show, which I mentioned while covering Newsweek but may have misattributed to Hiller, that Kamen has another model (literally), and that the first turboprop Super Connies might be delivered in 1955 if someone just orders them.
Katherine Johnsen's Washington Roundup reports that the defence buildup "emergency " is over, and all administration is being turned back over to the Department of Defence. The next budget might be more balanced, with more money for the army, but meanwhile the Bureau of the Budget has appointed a committee of ten to recommend some cuts from air force procurement, which seems a bit bloated.
Industry Observer reports from London that Bristol, Rolls Royce and Armstrong Siddeley are competing neck-and-neck in the high powered axial race, taht Boulton Paul's second P. 120 research plane will be available to continue the test flying regime in a few weeks, that the deadline for the BEA helicopter specification is running out with most firms undecided about their offer of a radically new helicopter design that can actually do the work. Napier's Eland turboprop is very light compared with current practice and may be used in later models of the Viscount. The British are worried that aircraft keep getting bigger, one reason being ever heavier armament, with the Hunter and Swift now to carry 30mm guns and a twin 20mm going into the nose of the Avro Shackleton II. Comet takeoff under Sprite rocket boost assist was smooth with no smoke, but very loud. Bristol is redesigning the Britannia turboprop nacelles to run the tailpipes straight back, and Aviation Week reports the Scottish Aviation Twin Pioneer.
Robert B. Holtz reports for Aviation Week that "Britain Bids for World Jet Plane Business" It does! In terms of what is on offer, the Hunter is better than the Swift, the Javelin was better than the DH110 before the crash, Canberra production will be curtailed in favour of the faster Avro and Vickers jobs, the Fairey Gannet is impressive engineering, and Aviation Week suspects that the crash was caused by the DH110 being overstressed by supersonic flight.
Alexander McNeely reports "800 Planes a Month" The USAF and Navy finally answer their critics by producing a lot of planes, although far less than originally promised and much later. I don't know how much it matters when they're so much better than WWII planes, but that is what the critics were harping on. Even planes going directly to storage are replacing WWII antiques, and the Secretary took the moment to let us know that the J65 definitely wasn't a failure and that SAC will be able to fight an atomic war in no time. CAB has also proposed rules for ditching.
"Air Show Accidents Pose Design Problems" At Detroit and Farnborough, new supersonic planes broke up in the air while showing off at air shows. Dense, low altitude air stresses air frames, so that's a reason that this is happening, but maybe jet planes have to be stronger!
"Shakeup" Lockheed is going through an unexpected shakeup of top brass. Designers would like a shakeup at Defence, because they are tired of different standards causing red tape.
Aeronautical Engineering has "DH110: A Study of a Fighter's Evolution" It's a Vampire development with a new engine and a moderate wing sweepback, a new wing, and a new engine. The airframe wasn't too radical, because the DH108 was a disaster and you dont' 'want to have that happen again!
Philip Klass reports for Avionics on "Novel Design Featured in HF Transceiver" It is a new 100 watt airborne transceiver from Collins with some interesting features (automatic volume control), but essentially this is just an ad for a small plane radio.
"British Low Cost Approach Radar," from McGraw-Hill World News Service. It is a Cossor radar that gives azimuth but not elevation data, so it is half a PAR (no height finder), and at 40kW peak power at 3.2cm can pick up a plane at 15 miles distance, with a simple cathode ray console display for the observer. From Instrument Resisters Company comes a new line of precision resistors that work from minus 55 to plus 126 Celsius.
Filter Centre reports that RCA may develop a new radar, that DuMont is coming out with a bright radar display soon, that RCA is building a "high intelligibility intercommunications system for the Air Force," that the latest model of the Good year Differential Analyser is the L3, out now.
George L. Christian has been sent off to do an Equipment article about Trans-Ocean Airlines, which has a maintenance contract with the Air Force and charter services all over the place. The Air Force has ordered Arctic heaters, Tiltman Langley's pre-fab aircraft docks get an advertorial, as does the Air Force's new screens for protecting jet engines on the ground from ingressing passersby.
CAA and CAB are fighting over who gets to collect Robin Airlines' scalp. Ocean tourism was up 50% with 10% more flights, but operators worry that Atlantic coach air services are not financially sound in the long run because load factors might decline as equipment shortages ease and we go into the "low season," and this will throw costs onto first class service and have a domino effect.
Captain A. C. Robson's Cockpit Viewpoint looks into the affairs of the Airline Pilots' Association, which he can do without me. What's New looks at a monograph describing Sylvia Berkman's new syntehtic octane catalyst, views the slick new Jimmy Stewart documentary, Wings for Industry, and reads the Kwik-Klamop and Stamping in Small Lots catalogues. (From HPL Manufacturing.)
Robert H. Wood's Editorial understandably has a field day with the Detroit and Farnborough air disasters.
Letters
Three New Orleanites liked the article about New Orleans and some of the four letters about the orchestra story were positive, which makes a nice exception to the rest of the letters, which complain about imagined mistakes and are upset that Newsweek took a picture of a sleepy sentry. Although bridge players were nice! Our publisher apologises for taking the cover off from the election to give James B. Conant some press.
The Periscope reports that Eisenhower won't attack Dean Acheson, that Kefauver will campaign for Stevenson, that the Senate Preparedness Committee wants a "plane czar," that Comptroller Lindsay Warren is embarrassed by criticisms of the General Accounting Office and is going to do something about it. Representative Overton Brooks told the Japanese that the US doesn't consider them a real, sovereign nation during his visit and everyone is in trouble. The Navy's atomic carrier is expected to make 40 knots, fast as the fastest torpedo. The Army and Air Force will have different names for the same exercises from now on. A "leading planemaker" wants to get rid of leading edge slots and deicing equipment because they just slow down production and the air crew know what they signed up for. The Norwegians are training their home guard miliita as patrols against parachute saboteurs. The US is looking on with interest, because It Might Happen Here. "Pardon me. Mr. Fellow Americanski! I am John Son of John Johnson, another American just like you who happens to not know way to aeroplane factory for very good and not at all suspicious reasons!" Entirely plausible rumours out of Poland have Marshal Rokossovsky wounded by an attack by a Polish officer he cuckolded, and his guards shooting down yet another outraged Polish husband. Athens police arrested a suspicious individual watching the arrival of the Yugoslav ambassador, who turned out to be carrying five hand grenades and a signed confession to being a Stalinist. Austrian officials are afraid that former Nazis and Socialists will resurge in the next election at the expense of the conservative party, while the Japanese are starting their own first, postwar nuclear lab. In Hollywood news, Herb Shriner will substitute for an ailing Fred Allen, Eddie Albert and Jane Wyatt will be in a domestic comedy, Leave it to Lester, on CBS-TV, Mickey Rooney is going to do a series of TV-movies where he can sing and dance. Katherine Grayson is going to do a Warners musical version of Saratoga Trunk, Will Rogers, Jr., has signed a four-picture deal with Warner, Billy Wilder is trying to get Charlie Chaplin to star in a production of "Oedipus Rex."
Washington Trends reports that Taft will campaign for Eisenhower and create the appearance of the campaign moving to the right, which is just an appearance. Also, Truman will campaign for Stevenson, etc. It's all very exciting and this week's poll only shows Eisenhower 6 points ahead. It's a dead heat! Eisenhower is cagey on civil rights, Stevenson is in the south, all the "key states" get another paragraph this week, while Newsweek investigates the "Springfield circle," and Lindley tells us that Stevenson hasn't been kidnapped and replaced by a double who can't campaign or something equally silly. Senate Races checks in on Wisconsin, where McCarthy's supporters are running against all the big-headed Pinkos who have maligned him by inventing "McCarthyism," which is the worst smear ever. Meanwhile, anti-McCarthy Republicans have come up with an ingenious plan to get rid of him: Let the Democrats do it! Either they will cross over and vote in the Republican primary for his opponent, or, at worst, they will beat him in November. Unfortunately for this plan, any Democrats who crossed over, voted for McCarthy, who won the primary with an overwhelming majority, and now all the state Republicans who endorsed McCarthy will have to campaign for him. Oops! Utah is also having a very exciting race, even after Arthur Watkins beat off a challenge from Marriner Eccles.
National Affairs
International
"NATO's Navy Puts to Sea: Nine Nations in 'Main Brace'" MAINBRACE will involve 200 warships, 1000 warplanes and 80,000 personnel. I would list the nine NATO countries involved, but, seriously, it's most of them. In a sign of the times, only two battleships will be involved, Wisconsin and Vanguard, but eleven aircraft carriers. There's not much more to actually say, so Newsweek quotes Winston Churchill and an admiral named Mahan, who had a way with words. The land exercise equivalent will be ROSEBUSH.
The next article, which is about Hjalmar Schacht and Alton Jones "booking out" of the Anglo-Iranian dispute also doesn't deserve a title. As usual, it's all Mossadegh's fault and the Iranians are lazy and feckless. A long story about the Liepizig Trade Fair follows next. The East Germans are doing a good job of putting their country back together, but there are spies everywhere, all the propaganda posters seem ungracious and wearing, and people are subtly disgruntled.
A full-page pictorial on Egypt's new strong man concludes that General Naguib is "tireless, devout, tolerant."
The Korean War has "Big Test for Retrained ROKs" The ROK Capitol Division is fighting a grim, WWI-style battle for Capitol Hill under constant Red artillery barrages, showing that their retraining is taking hold, and that as soon as it can be extended to the other million soldiers of the ROK, the UN can beging withdrawing its troops, armistice or not. Whether that's what ends up happening or not, I hope it gooses the Communist peace negotiators!
In Canada, there was a scandalous mass breakout from the Don Valley Jail, and a not-at-all scandalous episode in which Canadian bankers wrote falsified letters confirming that Canadians entering the United States had enough money to support themselves, including in one case the sister of the Health and Welfare Minister, Paul Martin. But he told the police that he wanted his sister to stop dropping his name ever so long ago, so everything is fine.
Business
The auto industry has full assembly lines again, and Hudson has a major new model coming out next year, while Ford, Chrysler and GM are talking about style changes, and Kaiser-Frazier is saving major changes to 1955. Predictably, perhaps, Herbert J. Miller of the Tax Foundation and the Hoover Institute told a major meeting of economic researchers at Pennsylvania;s Shawnee Inn resort, that if you parse the numbers right, American incomes have been declining and indebtedness rising since 1944. Everyone hates cost of living rises, the Bank of America wants another President like A. P. Giannini but doesn't know where to find one, and imported Japanese cigarette lighters are a challenge for Ronson.
"Something for the Girls" We check in with Jimmy Spitalny's All Girls Job Centre in Chicago, which sounds like either an excellent idea or the beginning of something horribly sordid.
"Whirlybird Jeep" The Army is showing off its Hiller XH-26 "Jet-Jeep," which sounds promising except for the pilot's very prominent ear-muffs.
Week in Business reports that John Fox has completed his takeover of Western Union, Alcoa's $45 million expansion of its Wenatchee aluminum plant, Curtiss-Wright's new 24,000hp turboprop, the strike at Lockheed, and William Howlett resigning at Nesco because of "fundamental disagreements" with board chairman Arthur Keating.
Otis Elevator says that the automatic elevator is the coming thing, Steel Techniplan's modular office furniture is also the coming thing, and Products: What's New reports on a whole host of coming things, including a new chemical separator from Dow, lampshades from Polyplastex that contain natural sprigs of heather, grass, leaves and feathers; a four-head, versatile drill for jet engine workers from Modern Industrial Engineering; and an automatic gas safety valve cutoff from Kelly Safety Devices of Cleveland.
Henry Hazlitt still finds business too boring to talk about in Business Tides, so this week he denounces farm price subsidies instead.
Science, Medicine, Education
"Talks on Teeth" At the annual convention of the American Dental Association, two Cornell scientists, Drs. Stanley Behman and George Egan, an oral surgeon and an engineer, respectively, talked about their new denture installation system, which involves implanting magnets in the jawbone to keep them in place; Dr. J. Bernard Hutcherson explained a new process for straightening adult teeth by using a combination of braces to gradually adjust their orientation over a few months, followed by a retainer to keep them in place until they "set." Dr. John Spencer thinks that adolescents who play sports should wear mouthpieces like the ones that boxers wear to prevent tooth damage. Dr. Arvin Munn says that people with artificial molars can learn to eat any kind of food, even corn, Dr. C. J. Cordetto puts toys on his dental drill so that it doesn't scare kids, and Dr. Sidney Kohn says that people undergoing dental treatments shouldn't eat sugar or starch.
"Dr. Conant: In Science, Pure, In Education, Controversial" John B. Conant is the President of Harvard, where he is making some changes, and is the leading educator in America, where he wants to make even bigger changes. Also, he is a public commentator who, amongst other things, doesn't see much of a future for atomic power or atomic war. The controversial changes in education will consist of more federal funding for education so that all the states and localities can afford secondary schools to handle the massive "boom" in births during and since the war; more two year colleges so that more students aren't roped into dubious four-year college degrees; fewer parochial and private schools, which are bad for democracy; and following along from that, social reforms so that intergenerational wealth doesn't build up and create a society of "castes, not classes." Which even Newsweek thinks is an odd thing for the President of Harvard to say.
Art, Radio-Television, Press, Newsmakers
Punch has sent Nellie, "the most famous locomotive in Britain," to visit America, resulting in a nice picture book for Rowland Emett, A New World for Nellie, and quite a fetching caricature for the Art page.
"New Stars: Adlai and Ike" Newsweek reviews Stevenson and Eisenhower as stars of television and radio. Stevenson comes out ahead because he used to do a regular show when he was Governor of Illinois, and, of course, he likes to tell jokes. Probably too many jokes! Eisenhower talks over himself. Almost as newsworthy is the Archbishop of Canterbury's views on television. You see, he visited America recently and is very worried about television's effect on the masses. His wife, however, says he is all wet, as usual. Television is fine!
Chicago has newspapers and dubious newsmen, Louis Dolivet is trying to get into the country to deal with a family tragedy, but has been denied a visa because he is some kind of pinko who has been involved with pinko nespapers in the past, and the party press is treating the other guy surprisingly politely this election, so far.
New Films
The Amazing Monsieur Fabre is a documentary about that famous Nineteenth Century bug scientist (entomologist) we've all heard about. We haven't? Well, there's lots of great bug footage, and he had quite the life, so it's a great documentary. My Man and I is an MGM attempt to tell a low-class California romance story featuring a Mexican migrant farm worker who marries a lush and gets hit on by his asshole employer's wife. Then it has a happy ending, which is terrible. Just for You is a fine Bing Crosby family drama. Fine. Just fine.
Books
Justice William Douglas (and, oh, the stories about him!) has another book out that's not about supreme judging, but, instead, his travels, this time Beyond the Himalayas. H. Consuelo Balsan's The Glitter and the Gold is her memoir of marrying into the British aristocracy and then divorcing out of it to be a lot happier. It's like a Henry James novel, but with a happy ending, and the reviewer can't even complain about it, because it's true. Newsweek hates John Steinbeck's latest, East of Eden.
Raymond Moley is afraid that Henry Hazlitt hasn't told the readers about Adlai Stevenson being a terrible liberal enough yet, so he devotes this week's Perspectives to explaining that he is too soft on international relations, what with his wanting to help poor countries and not actively foment the overthrow of Communist regimes.
Aviation Week, 22 September 1952
News Digest reports that the F-101 has been ordered (this also gets a Ben S. Lee news story reviewing the history of the programme), that the Army was very impressed with the XH-26, that there has been another air crash at Elizabeth, this one of a DC-3 with no fatalities, as it landed in a swamp and not a built up area. David Ryan, son of Claude Ryan, has died in an Air Force flying accident. Jet fuel supply is improving.
Industry Observer reports from London that the British have sold 300 Swifts to Holland, that Hunters will not be available for overseas sale until 1955, that the RCAF will put GE J47s in their F-86s because they can't get Avons. Temco is going to build an Armstrong Siddeley powered trainer in the fall. English Electric has a "transocean bomber" under development, but the British definitely don't want big planes like the Princess, Brabazon and, it now turns out, Air Horse. I don't think that the size of the Air Horse was a problem so much as the three separate power plants!
Katherine Johnsen's Washington Roundup reports that aircraft spending is worringly high, production worringly low and the Army is getting the anti-air role.
Robert B. .Hotz reports for Aviation Week on "British Speed Empire-Wide Coach Service" Well, that's aggressive! Details of equipment availability to follow! The nonskeds, which are doing a lot of trooping out Africa and Middle East way, are getting second hand equipment to play their part.
ALPA is asking the CAA to intervene with regards to an El Paso city ordinance requiring lowered landing flaps, because American has been ignoring previous ordinances and the city is getting tough. believing that lowered flaps to divert prop wash is a good thing. There's also a look at the tornado that hit Carswell AFB and "crippled" SAC, which the Air Force is all over, no need for the Johnson Committee top investigate, no sir! Air Materiel Command is refusing to speed up reporting on contract negotiations, Boeing thinks that defence planning could be streamlined, and the CAA opposes the use of auto gas in planes.
David A. Anderton has "Why British Push Delta Wing Design" for Aeronautical Engineering Because it is a good design concept? Correct!
Pratt and Whitney sends in an article about their preparations to move into a new plant in South Haven.
Philip Klass has "New Ignition Better, Yet Cheaper," for Avionics I suppose that an electronic jet engine ignition initiator is technically "avionics"! And Bendix hasn't had an advertorial in here in two weeks, so it is about time. Midwestern Geophysical Laboratory has an oscillograph that "withstands shock."
George L. Christian checks out the maintenance activities at TPA Aloha for Equipment.
New Aviation Products has the Sel Lok Spring Pins from Self Lock Fastener, Sun Electric's shock resistant electrical measurement meters, a wide angle lens for aerial cameras from Bausch and Lomb.
A McGraw-Hill Linewide Editorial reminds us that government is bad in the long run because it gives us stuff, like Santa Claus, and you don't want Santa Claus to die of overwork. Anyway, please cut our taxes so we can make America better by having more money!
Letters has one from Boeing defending gifts of stock to senior executives, from Vultee that really likes an article about Vultee (and Piasecki, and Doman), from Protection Inc reminding everyone that it made the keen helmet seen on a Lockheed pilot in an Aviation Week picture, from France explaining why it prefers money to equipment in the way of military aid, because it is spending so much in Indochina that it can't afford to keep domestic industry working, that Fashion Frocks is making parachutes for the armed forces.. A pilot in Korea really appreciates his subscription.
Letters
Colonel Malin Craig, an engineer and artillerist in the Office of the Chief of Military History, was very upset with the article about Korea in 1950, and thinks that it does a disservice to the quality of the weapons the army went to war with, and to the Office by misreporting the source of the official history that Newsweek was using. Joseph Hurley wonders why US fighter jets have windshield wipers that cost $5000 each. That's a lot more than car wipers! Mike Sullivan thinks that all them strat-ee-gists at NATO have their thinking caps on crooked what with their plans for lines and redoubts and all. On the other hand, French exchange student Bernard Fall points out that in evaluating German and French plans for defending Europe, maybe we should take a moment to recall that the Germans lost WWII, so maybe their brilliant, experience-based plan for beating the Red Army isn't so hot, after all. Will Merrill, B. A. Koteff, Colonel James Coll, and H. Hanson (of Kemano, Canada!) have opinions about the staged rifle inspection picture from the Korea article, which was either staged improperly, or not. Our Publisher reminds everyone to give generously during the Red Feather campaign and is pleased that Newsweek correspondent Ken Crawford is getting letters from Korea from men he met when he was the first reporter ashore on D-Day.
Arlene Dahl and Rosemary Clooney will co-sar with Bob Hope in his next movie, Girls are Here to Stay, Marlon Brando will play the lead, probably with Susan Hayward, in a movie version of Mika Waltari's The Egyptian, Jennifer Jones will star in Terminal Station, to be filmed in Rome with Vittorio De Sica directing. Lee Schubert is producing a new version of the Ziegfield Follies, and Raymond Massey has written a play based on Bruce Hamilton's The Hanging Judge, which will be staged in London by Michael Powell and Walter P. Chrysler.
Katherine Johnsen's Washington Roundup gets further into post mobilisation planning and the new production boss, John D. Small.
Aviation Week's Washington staff do a victory lap over the fizzling of the APB's plan to reshuffle air production, hits the approval of afterburners for the J40 and the Army helicopter air show at Fort Bragg. No, wait, that's Alexander McSurely down in North Carolina. IATA is having a meeting, Aviation Week covers the Navy use of 6F drones.
Production Engineering has the story of the Comet, as told by its designer, which is very interesting, especially the daring use of Redux to bond the fuselage pieces, which was key to keeping weights down and shapes aerodynamic. The Comet will probably enjoy a long developmental life, with Olympus and Sapphire versions to follow the Avon.
"They All Watch Scorpion Weight" Northrop wants everyone to know that the weight of the F-89 absolutely isn't going to grow with development. They have an employee suggestion board and everything!
The National Bureau of Standards recommends prestretching transparent plastic to reduce crazing.
"Glass-Plastic Plane for Future?" Scooped by Newsweek! To be fair, there are pages of details about how ceramic materials, with their higher melting points, might be made into aircraft structural material. "It's not an artist's fantasy," says Thomas Piper, director of materials and process engineering for Northrop.
The British are looking at pods to speed copter service, while the Rocket Society's meeting in Chicago heard papers about the radiation hazard in upper air flying, various sounding rockets, and Werner von Braun's concept of a multi-stage rocket vehicle to put satellites into orbit around the Earth.
William J. Coughlin has "Little Black Boxes Move In on Pilots" for Avionics. It is a report on the Western Electronic Show. It's a five page catalogue and a bit overwhelming, and you really need to take to Bill and David who were there, hanging out in the digital equipment area.
Filter Centre reports that the electronic computer industry is getting tired of coming up with new "Brain" names, the latest being the RAYDAC, for Raytheon Digital Automatic Computer. The B-66 is to get the new Minneapolis-Honeywell M-H autopilot. The Air Force has decided not to standardise on Sperry because of heavy factory load there.
Off the Line reports that Kai Tak is getting a runway extension, hurray, and that Industrial Sound Control has a soundproofing backlog approaching $4.25 million. Now that's the business to be in these days!
New Aviation Products reports that Pan Am has an engine cylinder heating bench, KLM a refrigeration truck, DSD Manufacturing has seals suitable for jet engine applications.
Air Transport reports that Idlewild is trying out surface radar to monitor taxi-ing aircraft, while a flight engineer's station has been ruled out for the DC7.
Robert C. Wood is back in Editorial, which page survived heavy treatment from the postman, unlike Captain Robson's column and What's New. Wood is looking into whether the Defence Department is mishandling air freight, which could provide the means to rapidly reinforce Europe in the event of war.
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