Nakusp,
Canada
Dear Father:
Well, I left my current numbers of Aviation Week and The Engineer on the train when I dashed to catch a connection to Weybridge. So if this letter isn't to your liking, blame the clowns at Handley Page for not putting the tail of the Victor on firmly enough to balance flying without the "weapon system"-y radar that's supposed to go in the nose. (James thinks, anyway. He was right about the Comet, though!) This led to an all-hands-on-deck sales meeting over the Viscount replacement, from which I had to turn around for my flight to Montreal, upon which I am writing these words, far away from replacement copies, and there you go.
As for the meeting, the super-Viscount, or whatever they're going to call it, might be completely different from the Victor, but that isn't stopping the American industry, as you can see from the Newsweek coverage. to be fair, it is good news for them that the Victor won't be out setting high publicity speed records while there is a Vickers team still touring the States. I know I would have loved some British Pathe footage of the Victor prototype landing in Montreal, not that it was even vaguely close to ready for a trans-Atlantic flight, but a girl can dream.
Your Loving Daughter,
Ronnie
Letters
Cay McGoway wants to know what that motto is on Senator McCarthy's wall. It's something Lincoln said about all the attacks on him proving that he's right. Jengsoon Sheen really likes Columbia. Geo. Plumleigh of Yucaipo doesn't want to turn the Flag Pledge into a prayer. Harding Brown writes from Christchurch that Caonia's visit was the most exciting thing that ever happened there. Well, actually, the article about the Eisenhowers' retirement dream house confused the contractor with the architect, points out William Hench, who is a Professor of International Trade in State College, Pennsylvania, which the magazine translates in the address line as though Hench were a professor at Pennsylvania State College. For Your Information wants us to know that Newsweek's publishing and distribution machine is a well-oiled machine, and highlights the traffic manager, John Redmond, out of the Dayton plant.
The Periscope reminds the families of the American POWs who chose to refuse repatriation can pick up their back pay any time. Secretary Dulles is confident that there aren't enough votes to put Red China in the General Assembly. Senator Kerr of Oklahoma has lots of money, but not enough to buy the Presidency, and maybe not enough to buy a Senate seat. US foreign aid funds go mainly to buy American stuff to export. Or for junk planes that the Europeans don't want. TWA is going to start "buy now, pay later" schemes for airline tickets. Hand picked volunteers are being trained as "Special forces units" at Fort Bragg. Divided into teams of 24, they are equipped with "the most advanced hand weapons" and "are being trained for operations behind enemy lines on a sustained basis. Precise missions presumably would include seizures of communication centers, atomic works, or other high-priority targets."
Kaman is developing a pilotless helicopter for the ONR that could be used "in atom-devastated areas," or for search and rescue in difficult conditions. Other Navy sources say that yes, blimps can be used for sub hunting. For sure, why not? But can they catch them? Periscoping the World reports that Peron is sick and after he fainted in his office, it was revealed that a provisional five-member junta of cabinet members to replace him, had been selected. Fulgencio Batista isn't going anywhere. The British have been warned to expect the US to request permission to build a radar on Ascension Island to extend the range of the Cape Canaveral missile tracking centre. Greece might opposed the expected German application to NATO until they get something for it. Tunisian exiles are training in "'Liberation'" commando camps in Egypt alongside Egyptians who will take part in a takeover of the Canal Zone if the British don't pull out after all. The FBI and Cominterm disagree about whether there are 25,000 or 60,000 Communists in Britain. Everyone likes the new premier of Burma, U Nu, because he is anti-communist. He's even more anti-communist than Nehru, who isn't anti-communist enough. (The confusing part is that one paragraph says that U Nu is better than Nehru because he is anti-Red, while the next one stresses just how anti-communist Nehru is.)
The Periscope Washington Trends reports that Republican strategists are hoping that trends are moving in their favour because everyone likes Ike, they have strong candidates, and everyone is forgetting about the Army-McCarthy hearings already. On the other hand, the Western Alliance is closer to falling apart than ever because America, France, and Britain can't agree at Geneva, and Dulles is talking about "an agonising reappraisal" and the press is talking about "American isolation." The Army also seems to have wiggled its way out of the two division cut under the New Look. Washington is afraid that Indonesia will soon go Communist thanks to its large Chinese fifth column.
National Affairs
Lead Story: Americans are going on vacation and disagreeing with each other or something when they should be holding the Alliance together and fighting Communism. As usual, it turns out to be the Democrats' job to support the President's foreign policy so that Knowland and the Senate GOP (and the Secretary of State!) can grandstand. Also, one of the Democrats running in Texas is a maverick, and Montgomery Ward Thorne's death by morphine, alcohol, and barbiturates might have been murder, because someone injected him with his last dose.
"The Lessons of Korea and Prostrate Indo-China: Do They Point the Path Toward Security?" General Spaatz returns to these pages with a two page spread to explain that Korea was a mess and now we've lost Indo-China, and the only alternative to endless Communist expansion is air power, and lots of it. A failed grocer from Chicago who definitely murdered his wife and might have murdered his daughter may go to the gas chamber now that he's failed a lie detector test, which is an interesting sort of technology sidelight that justifies mentioning a story from the Crime section that is usually just instantly forgotten scandals of the week.
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| It's amazing when you think about it that the man was allowed to disappear on weeks-long benders and the press just let him get away with it. |
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| Victorine Marcelle Ninio was the most photogenic member of Unit 131, about which, what the fuck, Israel? |
E605 murder scandals continue in Germany, Czechoslovakia is in trouble with the US for detaining 7 US troops along the border, Franco has given his first press conference since 1939; he hates communism, democracy, the free press, and Don Juan. Anti-French terrorist outrages continue in Tunisia. The British can't wait to be out of Suez.
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| My theory is that the biographical detail that he resigned as publisher of The Freemen at "the beginning of 1954" is wrong, and that he stayed on until the publisher brought in Frank Chodorov to replace him in June. |
Science
"Space Visitor" Cosmic-ray scientist Marcel Schein reports that a high altitude balloon observatory has seen an "anti-proton" (an anti-matter proton) clocking in at 10 million billion electron volts of energy, compared with the 6 billion volt particles produced in accelerators. The article goes on to explain "contra-terrene matter," and theorise that somewhere in the universe there are forms of matter made up of entirely contra-terrene matter. The thing that I worry about is what makes particles that powerful, because it stands to reason that, closer to where-ever they're made, there's a lot more of them, and if we didn't see it happening, it must have been a long way away. I really hope that nothing like that happens closer to Earth!
"Ant-Lovers Ahoy" When men study each other, it says here, it ends up getting controversial. So let's look at ants, instead! That's what John Compton did in Ways of the Ant. Which, I don't know. Army ants, "Amazon ants" that conduct slave raids, rancher ants that milk aphids, farmer ants with underground mushroom galleries . . . Sounds like you can just write your controversy right here! Are ants smart? Maybe. Probably, says Compton.
"Mastermind" An eighth of all American industry is using "a new electronic tool for automatic control of production operations" to do mathematics, which I guess is a confusing way of saying that the tools do complicated mathematical operations instead of automating processes, and it is said that way because the editors don't trust the average reader to know what a computer is. The word is introduced in the third paragraph in a very strange way, in that after taking so long to explain what a computer is, we're immediately launched into the specific world of the analog computer with little or no explanation of what makes those different from the more celebrated digital computers that we've heard so much about in the technical press. Finally, in the very last paragraph, there's an explanation of analog computers. It feels like someone wanted to put "cybernetics" in this article and the editor said no!
"Just Relax" Drs. Carl Oman and Edmund Applebaum, dentists associated with Columbia University, have the Cavitron, an ultrasonic tool for painlessly cleaning out dental cavities, sounded pretty exciting until I read the part about it being adapted from an "existing machine tool" used for "precision cutting of metals." The ultrasonics are used to drive a steel bit, the argument being that it is better because it is more precise, I think. Another argument looks at a study that asks why women lives longer than men nowadays. A study read to the AMA seems to find that men do more stupid things than women, but women used to die in childbirth more. Which does not sound like the full explanation given that it might be true of other animals, too. And speaking of doing stupid things, the column ends up with a long bit touting every bit of dubious science about the health benefits of wine that you can imagine, and some you can't.
"Negro Teachers" What about the Negro teachers? If we desegregate the schools, we'll have to fire all the 82,000 Negro teachers, is the latest line from the Southern governors. The late Morris Raphael Cohen's American Thought: A Critical Sketch is a pretty good book, Newsweek says.
TV-Radio, Press, Newsmakers
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| Now this is the Newsweek this teenager knew and loved! |
Wolcott Gibbs is the drama critic for The New Yorker. He lives on Fire Island, publishes The Fire Islander, and somehow that's a story. Or maye the fact he knows Joan Diener is a story. Paul Smith is cutting costs at Crowell-Collier by cancelling low-circulation magazines. The Scripps-Howard chain has turned against McCarthy.
Franco's daughter, Dizzy Dean, Karl Wilhelm Naundorff, Steve Allen, Porfirio Rubirosa, Dick Haymes, Lucille Ball, Jaime Ortiz Patino, Gloria Swanson, and Billy Graham are in the column for the usual reasons, Naundorff posthumously. Colonel Frank Schwable got his third Legion of Merit, because while he did endorse Red germ warfare claims while a POW, he did it as a bird colonel, which warrants a medal, and not as an enlisted man, which gets you the stockade. Seems fair! Burt Lancaster and Frances Neal Heflin have had babies. Viveca Landfors is married. Isabelle Fontaine, Mrs. Milton Eisenhower, Albert Pansells, John Blanks Campbell, and Frank Hague Eggers have died.
The New Films
Jean Gabin's latest American release through Mayer-Kingsley is Le Plaisir, is okay, not his best. Here's some more details about Gabin. He's a movie star, only he's French! Victory at Sea (United Artists) is the 96 minute theatrical cut. It loses some of the enormous power of the television version, but is pretty good. Periscoping Movies reports that Charlie Chaplin, Orson Welles, and Akim Tamaroff are working together to create a film production centre at Malaga on Spain's south coast. Charles Vidor is holding a European talent search to find a ballerina to star in his film biography of Nijinsky. Dimitri Tiomkin and Chester Miller are working on a biopic of John McCormack.
Igor Gouzenko has a novel out, The Fall of the Titan. It's okay. So does Alexandre Orme, Paris Original, It's better. Machado de Assis is one of those smart and influential writers you've never heard of, and before he died in 1908 he wrote lots of novels, of which Philosopher orDog? is the latest out in English. And Raymond Moley does a victory lap over the Hell's Canyon hearings.
Flight, 16 July 1954
Leaders
"Business Aircraft Can Pay Their Way" I honestly had no idea they couldn't, but I guess the special case of larger planes in the smaller British Isles needs some more argument than the American case.
From All Quarters reports that the Lords will be discussing noise abatement, that the RAF is selling its last 50 Dakotas, that the ast Saro Princess will likely be pulled out of the water and cocooned with its sisters, that EXERCISE DIVIDEND will be the major air defence exercise conducted in the UK in 1954, in two phases, 16--18 July and 22--25 July, and will coincide with HAUL and WINCH, the former a mine-clearing exercise in the Channel and the latter an amphibious landing by a British brigade on the Belgian coast. MIT's new 98ft wind tunnel is a "balloon burst" type in which an overpressure is built up in a sealed chamber, and then released by a quick cut, to simulate shockwaves. Negotiations for Danish and Swedish Hunter sales continue, and the Comet 2 that apparently landed in flames last week was just releasing ballast. The naval air show at Bawley gets its own page, as does the jet-transport planning session at the latest New York meeting of the SAE, which heard about noise abatement efforts, reverse thrust for turbojets, and paper exercises proving that jets wouldn't need special priority in airport stacking.
"Applications of Electronics: Industrial Applications Reviewed at Oxford Conference" More than 300 delegates from nine industries heard about digital computers, analogue computers, computers in aircrew training, ultrasonic flaw detection, typical uses of x-ray equipment in aviation, wire strain-gauge transducers, electronic control of resistance welding, and the replacement of human operators by digital computers.
Aircraft Intelligence reports that the P. 111 will probably go supersonic soon, that the CF-100 will eventually be just loaded with weapons, including two Hughes F-98 Falcons, that the Convair hydroski fighter is coming along fine, that the McDonnell F-101 Voodoo is coming along fine, and that the North American F-100 is coming along fine. Historical articles continue with the Avro 504. There's also an Industry column, but it's all "behind the industry" people moves, branch office openings, and prizes for apprentices.
Correspondence
Grenville Manton, M. Howard, Charles W. Cain, and D. L. Hart recall the old days, before the war. Leslie Frewin of Associated British Picture Corporation writes in about the historical research behind The Dam-Busters.
Civil Aviation is on about rear-facing seats again, answers the claim that the Capitol Viscounts required 100 changes to meet American standards, and reports the still-unauthorised finding that the Comet losses were caused by "pressure-failure." Cleaned-up Super Connies are expected to be 12mph faster.
Letters
Various readers really appreciated the special feature on Houston. I. Robert Eisenmann calls the readership's attention to Panama's long efforts to negotiate a new and fairer Panama Canal Treaty. For our Information wants us to know that Newsweek correspondent Guy Munger got a Nieman Fellowship and reminds us that starting forest fires is bad, even when it's an accident.
The Periscope reports that United States advisors are very upset that the French might abandon a million tons of US military equipment if they evacuate Hanoi without taking it all with them, as seems like a perfectly reasonable thing to happen. "No, no, take your time! Can I help you carry that?" I imagine Ho saying. Intelligence reports that the Communists are recruiting Laotians into the Viet Minh to train as infiltrators, and imminent trouble is expected imminently in Espiritu Santu because of the 2000 Tonkinese planation workers shipped there before the war, who are going to go all Viet Minh any minute now. Trains arriving in Berlin from Polish routes are said to be loaded with sandbags in the first two cars, an anti-mine measure. Soviet propaganda is blaming the heavy recent rains on American H-bomb tests. A public hanging of an enemy of the people is reported from Czechoslovakia, the first since the war. The Reds are planning a show trial of the 1953 rioters, and the West German government is worried about all the Red infiltrators sneaking in. The Dalai Lama has agreed to go to Peking next month to be coerced to accept more Red against resistance groups. The South Korean army is being reorganised. The President of Panama is upset at the dictator of Nicaragua, and Where Are They Now reports that Field Marshal Paulus is living in retirement in Berlin and making occasional statements against the West German government.
Periscoping the Nation reports that Senator McCarthy is pressing the Army for information about their vetting officers, that the State Department is worried about Koumintang piracy directed against Soviet ships, because it would be perfectly legal for the Soviets to do something about it, that General Vogel will be the new head of the TVA, that the Interior Department is about to open large swathes of Alaska to oil exploration leases, that various politicians are caving in to the farm lobby on price supports, that the Army is upset that the Navy is taking hardly any Negro recruits ("one tenth of 1%" of Navy officers are Negros), leaving the Army to take up the slack, that Civil Defence is looking into a switch that would automatically turn radios on to receive emergency alerts, that the Army will soon be shipping "Honest John" atomic-rocket batteries to Germany because the big rocket can "wipe out an area 9 miles square," and is more mobile than an atomic howitzer. The CIA is concerned that the Reds have a youth advantage in Asia, since their generals are often in their 30s and ours average 55.
_van_19_Afdeling_veldartillerie_(2155_046863).jpg) |
| "Early tests exhibited more scatter on target than was acceptable" |
National Affairs
"Abroad, Wary: At Home, Vigilant" The United States will neither approve nor disapprove any Indo-China settlement that is "somewhere between the unacceptable and the unattainable." Once the treaty is approved by those Europeans over there, Washington is going to go right ahead with SEATO, and will listen to General Ridgeway and expand the army. Also, Bill Donovan is going to go ahead and organise anti-Communism in Thailand more.
"Plan and Prejudice" The President's $5 billion/year for ten years plan for highway expansion was presented to the Governor's conference this week by Nixon because the President was detained by family matters, specifically his sister-in-law's death. So far the Governors seem mainly unhappy about the federal intrusion into state's rights. "Just give us the money," they say.
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| Note that this is a very different narrative of the development of the pentomic division than the received narrative at Wikipedia |
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| De Vere Baker; Credit The Press-Democrat |
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| Eisenhower is not staying here in any way, shape, or form |
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| Guylay did nothing of the sort. |
Flight, 23 July 1954
Leaders
"Gas-Turbine Promise" Foreigners say that they are catching up with British gas turbines, but that's because they don't have security clearance. New jet turbine engines are on the way, and rockets and ramjets, too.
From All Quarters reports that the first prototype Victor was lost to a possible structural failure, W. G. Carter has retired, The Minister of Supply is on about vertical takeoff engine research as one of the big things the industry is working on. Flight visits HMS Hendon to see Sea Venoms in service. Here and There reports that the Saab J. 39s closed-circuit speed record has been confirmed, that Canadair has a new lab, and that RFD, Inc's new rubber life rafts are pretty good. Flight visits some gliders in Poland and a Fleet Air Arm show at Lossiemouth. Aircraft Intelligence reports that the Folland lightweight fighter might be called the "Midge" because it will not have the Bristol Orpheus, the engine intended for the Gnat. The Bell HSL-1 is undergoing service trials, Cessna is working on a four-place helicopter, an Italian source says that the Douglas X-3 is cooled by fuel circulating through the structure. The Grumman S2F is in quantity production, drawings of the McDonnell Banshee are out, and various French Nord and SNCASE projects are checked.
"EXERCISE DIVIDEND" The first phase of DIVIDEND was the defence of Britain against atomic attack, with Flight correspondents flying in Meteor 7s and Canberras trying to intercept each other.
"Napier Eland" This turboprop for fixed and rotary-wing applications has advanced far enough to get a detailed design article. It is nowhere near as novel as the Napier turbocompound engines we've seen lately. Excellent performance is claimed from detailed design, not novel features.
"Russia's Airline Service" Route maps and the fleet are discussed, and travel time comparisons by air and rail. Moscow to Vladivostok is 40 hours by air, 220 by rail.
Correspondence
P. Hugon of the Institut Francis de Navigation points out how far ahead the European Decca system is compared with VOR. L. M. Kelsea-Williams of Dragon Air Agricultural Services disagrees with the Antipodean authors that high-wing configurations are undesirable in agricultural planes, mainly because the view is better. G. Allan-Reid and G. O. Waters share anecdotes about the old days, before the war. Civil Aviation announces that BOAC has been given the go-ahead, and the money, to buy additional American airliners, because the Comet is unlikely to return to service any time soon and no Comet 2s will be procured. Aeroflot is growing, as the recent article indicates, Skyways has a German subsidiary now, the Government is still sorting out what to do with the Princess, Fokker Friendships will be very economical, one third of foreign visitors came to Britain by air last year. Yet another gliding pictorial ends the issue. (Before Service Aviation, which is hardly ever worth reporting.
Flight, 30 July 1954
Leaders
"Non-Playing Members" People who complain about how much gliding coverage there is in Flight (Hey! That's me! They're talking about me!) have no appreciation of its importance in fostering airmindedness. While we're at it, a second Leader prods industry to do more to give workers flying lessons.
From All Quarters reports that the radial-engined, low-winged, red-circled marked fighters that forced down a Cathay Pacific DC-4 with eight survivors just east of Hainan were Red Chinese, that rescue efforts from two American carriers nearby were exemplary, and that Secretary of State Dulles has announced that fighters covering the rescue efforts shot down two Chinese fighters that tried to interfere. Boeing is rapidly making up time lost by the Stratoliner undercarriage accident, the Barodeur has dived at supersonic speed, Finland is buying some MiG fighters, the Canadian Army is evaluating supply support in the Arctic from Otters versus helicopters. The Commons is debating noise this week.
"The New Comet" Flight trials of the Comet 3, which both BOAC and Pan Am intend to operate, are going great.
"DIVIDEND The Second Phase" It went ahead, but Flight doesn't have much to say about it because the weather was terrible and no correspondents flew with the planes, although it did wile away the hours with some impressive charcoals drawn around Biggin Hill.
"Super Sabre Details: More Thoughts on the F-100A" A few more details of the just-barely subsonic fighter.
"Honourable Conversion: The Lighter Side of Training Japanese Civil Transport Planes" Remember when the Japanese were ferocious warriors? Now they're silly and too polite, like before the war. A feature on the Provost Weapon Trainer follows. It's a Percival Provost with wing racks so that you can do bomb training.
"Douglas DC-7" The Seven is a stretched DC-6B with new engines intended to achieve "higher speed, increased range, and greater payload." This is mainly thanks to the Turbocompound engines, and the rest of the details are equally old news. I really don't know why this is here, although Flight was invited for a ride (the cabins are very spacious), and Douglas is fishing for orders for the DC-7B.
The Aeronautical Bookshelf has the latest volume of Saunders' official history of the Royal Air Force in WWII, which undercuts my complaints about Roskill's "renegade" project, but I will not change my mind! Anyway, it's not nearly as good as Roskill, because air war isn't as dramatic as naval, unless you are writing about aces, and even that isn't as much fund as it was in WWI when they still had to dogfight. Warren Merriam's memoirs, First Through the Clouds, will find an audience, if Flight letter writers are any guide. John P. Lee's Theory and Design of Steam and Gas-Turbines is a substantial and well-produced textbook from McGraw-Hill, but unfortunately out of date when published. R. Hadekel's Hydraulic Systems and Equipment is compact, tries to generalise, and is very useful. Aircraft Yearbook 1953 is what it says on the tin, as they say. It does have an American focus, though.
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| Mail call 1954 |
Correspondence
Gliding, reminiscing, and Hans Schicht explaining why Flight is unduly minimising helicopter noise, which will be much more obtrusive and annoying than train noise ever was.
Civil Aviation reports that Australia has received its first Viscounts, Safir sales in the UK are being handled by Aerocontacts of Gatwick, that CAB has made an hour-long training film to familiarise pilots with airfield approaches.
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