UNITED STATES Atomic Powered Submarine
New York Times, Feb. 21.—America’s defense chiefs today were reported pushing plans for development of the world’s first atom-powered submarine—a project that might revolutionize naval warfare.
Theoretically, such an underseas craft would have an almost unlimited range.
Research on atom engines for airplanes was also reported progressing.
Secrecy surrounded both projects, but a well-posted informant said discussions were under way between the Navy and the Electric Boat Corporation of Groton, Conn., builder of many of the Navy’s submarines.
The Atomic Energy Commission disclosed that three Electric Boat technicians had been sent to attend “nuclear reactor” courses at the Oak Ridge, Tenn., atomic works.
An informant said the Navy-Electric Boat discussions were so far along that in all likelihood Congress would be asked to tack on new funds for the work in making up the Navy budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1.
Lona Beach Shipyard to Close
New York Times. Feb. 8.—Francis P. Matthews, Secretary of the Navy, announced tonight that the Long Beach (Calif.) naval shipyard would definitely be inactivated by June 30 as originally scheduled.
The decision to shut down the yard, Mr. Matthews said, was reached after a thorough review of all the facts in the announced curtailment of facilities and cut-back in civilian personnel ordered last summer by Louis Johnson, Secretary of Defense.
For a few months a labor force will be retained to place the yard in “mothballs,” but after July 1 only 400 employes will be kept on for maintenance, security and carrying out the remedial subsidence measures.
Mr. Matthews said that limited services would be continued at the yard to provide logistic support for those Navy vessels that did have to use the harbor and to maintain the Long Beach group of the Pacific Naval Reserve.
Ex Naval Officer Heads RDB
New York Times, Feb. 9.—William Webster, executive vice president of the New England Electric System of Boston, Mass., was nominated by President Truman today to be chairman of the Research and Development Board.
One of Mr. Webster’s major responsibilities will be to fit the hydrogen bomb, production of which was ordered by President Truman last week, into an integrated military research and development program, which in turn would help maintain a well-balanced defense policy.
In Administration quarters Mr. Webster is regarded as highly qualified for his new position. He was the first chairman of the Military Liaison Committee of the Atomic Energy Commission. In that post, his duty was to keep armed forces officials informed of activities and policies of the commission.
A graduate of the Naval Academy in 1920, Mr. Webster is 49 years old and has made a career of technical work and administration. He left the Navy in 1928 after serving the last six years as a naval constructor.
He has been associated also with the New England Power Association of Boston since he left the Navy.
Mr. Webster was a management consultant to the Office of Price Administration from 1942 to 1945, and during the same period was president of the Narragansett Electric Company and the United Electric Railways. He was also a consultant to the Joint Research and Development Board of the armed forces.
As director and chairman of the Atomic Energy Committee of the New England Council, he joined with his four fellow members on Dec. 20, 1946, in stating that atomic energy for industrial purposes was technically and economically feasible and might be attained in five years. One of his fellow members was Dr. Karl T. Compton, whom Mr. Webster succeeds as chairman of the Research and Development Board. Dr. Compton resigned Nov. 3, 1949.
Army A.A. Gun
Chicago Tribune, Feb. 5.—The army has scrapped its plans to buy 320 of its highly touted “skysweeper” guns for 77 million dollars, a Pentagon source has disclosed.
Hailed by army ordnance as a major postwar development in automatic anti-aircraft weapons, the skysweeper gun ran into congressional opposition last fall. The senate appropriations committee questioned the army’s judgment in spending approximately $240,000 on each gun.
Has Six Test Guns
Defense Secretary Johnson ordered the army to hold up the order for the anti-aircraft guns until military scientists could evaluate their merits. The inquiry disclosed that the skysweeper, firing a 75 mm. shell [roughly 3 inches in diameter], had a maximum altitude of 40,000 feet and would not be effective against high flying or extremely fast planes.
The army has only six of the skysweeper guns which it purchased last year for 2.3 million dollars for testing purposes. The gun was described by the army as an intermediate weapon until anti-aircraft rockets and guided missiles could be developed.
Congressmen objected to spending large sums on weapons which would become obsolete in a few years.
Fired by Radar
The skysweeper is a rapid firing gun which is aimed and fired automatically by radar. A special cut-off device keyed to a radar unit which distinguishes between enemy and friendly planes automatically shuts off the gun when a friendly plane moves into the target area.
Army ordnance officials defended purchase of the gun until more effective anti-aircraft artillery can be developed. They said that the $240,000 price on each one includes the mount, the radar director, other equipment and spare parts. They said the gun is especially valuable to combat troops because it can be moved quickly and emplaced.
The gun is believed capable of firing more than 40 shells a minute for each barrel. The shells are set off by the electronic proximity fuze developed during the war, which automatically detonates the projectile when it comes within lethal range of an enemy plane.
Bigger Guns Planned
Army sources said the skysweeper gun would be replaced by guns of larger caliber, probably 90 mm. or 155 mm., of greater range and effectiveness to knock down high flying planes.
The army has a new automatic fire control system, called the T-33, for heavy anti-aircraft weapons. This system will aim and fire the bigger guns by radar without human gunners.
The navy after the war installed a new twin mount automatic 3 inch gun similar to the skysweeper as a replacement for war time 40 mm. guns. The 3 inch gun, however, has been considered satisfactory for short range targets and the navy depends on its new fast firing 6 inch and 8 inch guns to knock down high altitude high speed planes.
New York Times, Feb. 16.—The Army has asked for $44,518,500 to continue tests of the “skysweeper,” a top-secret antiaircraft gun which it says can hit planes of supersonic speed (faster than sound) either night or day.
Secretary of the Army Gordon Gray described the weapon as “our best answer to date for the threat posed by aircraft at short and medium ranges.”
Mr. Gray also said that the Army was completing development of “extremely accurate fire-control systems for detecting and engaging high altitude targets traveling at near-sonic speeds.” The Army wants $23,779,339 to be used for this purpose.
Alaskan Exercise
New York Times, Feb. 15.—Whitehorse.—Snow flurries and clouds “down to the deck” kept all planes in Exercise Sweetbriar on the ground this morning. A Canadian combat team driving up the Alaska (Alcan) Highway through the heart of the Yukon wilderness made contact with the “enemy” along the frozen Donjek River, 211 miles northwest of Whitehorse.
It was fortunate for the Allied forces that weather hamstrung the “aggressor” enemy’s air arm. For the tactical situation that frames the scope of Exercise Sweetbriar—the first combined United States-Canadian Arctic exercise since the war—is a “set-up” for air power.
This ten-day maneuver, in which some 5,200 United States and Canadian soldiers, sailors and airmen are prepared for temperatures of 50 below zero, is a training and testing exercise, and the tactical situation—admittedly highly artificial- has been deliberately tailored to test Arctic doctrine, tactical procedures and standard Arctic clothing and equipment.
The Allied force, consisting of about eighty planes and two battalion combat teams—one Canadian, one American—has been given the mission of securing the Northwest highway system [the Alcan Highway] and adjacent air bases from Whitehorse to Northway as an axis of advance for future operations against an “enemy,” which is supposed to have seized Alaska and which is represented by 500 men and some twenty planes from the United States-Alaskan garrison.
Given such a mission in actual war, there is not much doubt how it would be fulfilled. Airborne operations are the key to warfare in the Arctic, where each airstrip can be best regarded as an “island” in a sea of muskeg, tundra, snow and forest. The movement of large bodies of ground troops overland against enemy opposition in a land where the mountains tower to the skies, where the few roads are narrow defiles easily defended, and the snow and cold erect forbidding ramparts to long-continued field operations, is almost prohibitively difficult.
But, from the United States point of view, one of Exercise Sweetbriar’s most important objectives is a test of the tentative doctrine for Arctic operations. For this reason, primarily, and secondarily because of time and money limitations, the Allied forces were restricted in large measure to a ground movement to the north along the Alcan Highway. Such a movement would he subject, against a smart and aggressive enemy, to terrific difficulties, in addition to those imposed by the climate and terrain. The Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, which made contact about 1 a.m. today in the bitter cold of the Arctic night with a patrol of the enemy “aggressor,” moved out from Whitehorse in a convoy of about 150 tactical vehicles.
Snow banked up on either side of the Alcan restricts the motor convoys to the road. The vehicles cannot even pull off on the “shoulder” of the road, much less into the pine forests, which would offer in summer—some camouflage.
The Canadian convoy, with vehicles closed up and halted, occupies about a two-mile stretch of the road considerably more when under way.
Given such conditions, it is easy to see that the Allied forces would be a beautiful “set-up” for a strafing attack unless the United States and Canadian planes had won absolute air superiority—something very difficult to obtain and maintain. Moreover, motor convoys moving along the narrow defile of a single road in mountainous and wooded regions in sub-zero cold are very vulnerable to ambush.
Military Housed in Slums
New York limes, Feb. 8.—Honolulu.—Military housing in the Pacific was sharply criticized today by the Joint Chiefs of Staff who arrived here on their return trip to Washington following conferences in the Far East.
Gen. Omar N. Bradley told a press conference that shabby service housing in Alaska, Guam, Okinawa, Kwajalein and even Japan constituted “military slums.”
Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg, Air Force Chief of Staff, said that he was “horrified” by some of these housing conditions, and that “we talk about slum clearance at home, but find conditions for troops in Alaska and elsewhere much worse.”
The Staff Chiefs said that they were impressed by the combat readiness of the Pacific military forces despite these adverse circumstances.
Admiral Forrest P. Sherman, Chief of Naval Operations, said that Russia’s submarine strength in the Pacific was a matter of concern. He added that he had no knowledge of how close to Hawaii these submarines were operating, but that their presence in the Pacific pointed up the need “for strong naval forces” in this ocean.
The Admiral reported that American destroyers were being modified for Pacific antisubmarine duty. Asked if the strength of the Navy in the Pacific was sufficient to guarantee the security of the scheduled atomic tests on Eniwetok, he replied that it was.
Admiral Sherman said that the poor housing criticized by his colleagues was preventing shore installations from properly servicing the fleet, and that the problem of mere existence took too much of the men’s energies. He noted that some Quonset huts on Guam and Okinawa were in use after surviving eight years and several typhoons.
New York Times, Feb. 10.—By a voice vote, the Senate approved today a $500,000,000 authorization for construction at 174 military and Naval installations at home and abroad. The same vote passed an authorization for construction of some 7,000 homes for married personnel of the Army, Navy and Air Force and more barracks for single men.
Poor service housing conditions have stirred long controversy.
The measure now moves to the House, whose Armed Services Committee is holding hearings on similar construction programs.
This afternoon the Senate gave prompt approval to about $370,000,000 of projects to strengthen military and naval installations in thirty-three states and Alaska, on this continent, and in Arabia, Greenland, Guam, Newfoundland, Okinawa, Samoa, Bermuda and at other outposts. The housing projects, to provide $113,000,000 for homes and $20,000,000 for barracks, ran into heated contest.
This resulted in limiting the cost of the service family house to a maximum of $14,000, with an average of $13,000. Streets, sidewalks and other outside utilities would have a ceiling of $2,500 and an average of $1,750.
President Seeks to Reorganize Panama Canal
New York Times, Feb. 2. Washington, Feb. 1—President Truman started today a far-reaching reorganization of the Panama Canal and requested Congress to complete the process by unifying its operation under a single new Panama Canal Company and allowing it to retain ship transit tolls.
In general, Mr. Truman followed recommendations of the (Hoover) Commission on Organization of the Executive Branch of the Government. He ignored one important proposal, however, and that was to transfer the canal from the jurisdiction of the Army to the Department of Commerce.
Mr. Truman directed changes within his power in executive orders issued today which were preliminaries for the ultimate merger of two entities, the Panama Canal and the Panama Railroad Company. The merging of these under the new name, the Panama Canal Company, a Government corporation, would require Congressional authority, and this Mr. Truman requested in a letter to Speaker Sam Rayburn.
Five Changes Requested
The President asked Congress to authorize these changes:
- Authorize transfer of the Panama Canal to the Panama Railroad Company.
- Change the name of the Panama Railroad Company to Panama Canal Co.
- Authorize the company’s board of directors to establish toll rates, subject to the President’s approval.
- Permit the company to retain and utilize toll revenues.
- Authorize appropriations to the company to cover losses that might result from changes in economic conditions.
In his letter to the House Speaker, which was accompanied by an eighteen-page report from Frank Pace, the budget director, Mr. Truman said:
“It is believed that implementation of the Bureau of the Budget’s recommendations will result in a more logical grouping of functions, provide a sounder basis for determining toll rates and other charges, facilitate operations, and, in general, promote the more effective administration of the Panama Canal enterprise.”
New York 'Times, Feb. 21.—Guam.— A Japanese who hid for five years in a two-story building on Tinian Island was found last Thursday by a United States Navy patrol. The man, Murato Susumu Hachijo, 35 years old, said he had neither seen nor spoken to anyone in the five years he was in hiding.
GREAT BRITAIN
Exercises and Visits
London Times, Jan. 11.—The Admiralty announced yesterday that units of the Home Fleet will assemble at Portland later this month for their spring cruise, which this year will take them to the Mediterranean and will include combined exercises with the Mediterranean Fleet.
The ships will sail for Gibraltar on January 28, accompanied by the training squadron from Portland.
From February 2 until February 27 they will be based at Gibraltar and will carry out harbour drills and exercises at sea. Some of the warships may visit other ports. The fleet will sail from Gibraltar to cruise in the western Mediterranean between February 27 and March 20, and will carry out exercises with ships and squadrons of the Mediterranean Fleet. From March 20 to March 22 there will be a full-scale combined fleet exercise.
Discussions will take place during five days following the combined exercise and sporting fixtures will be organized. The Home Fleet will sail for the United Kingdom on March 27.
London Times Jan. 13.—Asmara (Eritrea)—The destroyer H.M.S. Cockade (Lieutenant-Commander H. I. Lee) arrived at Massawa to-day as part of the Administration’s measures for ensuring law and order in Eritrea.
London Times Jan. 19—Admiral Sir Arthur Power, Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean, who is on a cruise in the Red Sea flying his flag in H.M.S. Surprise, accompanied by the destroyer Chequers and the submarine Tabard, paid an official visit to Jedda on Tuesday. At this port Lieutenant the Duke of Edinburgh, who is serving in H.M.S. Chequers, and Admiral Power were received in audience by King Ibn Saud and later dined at the King’s invitation at the royal palace. In the evening the ships gave a display of fireworks.
London Times, Jan. 23.—King Farouk today visited H.M.S. Liverpool in Alexandria harbour. He travelled from Ras el Tin Palace in the royal barge escorted by two pinnaces from the cruiser. All ships in the harbour were dressed and sirens were sounded. The Liverpool fired a royal salute of 21 guns and the Egyptian national anthem was played as the King stepped on board.
After being received by the British Ambassador, Sir Ronald Campbell, and by Lord Mountbalten, the King inspected a guard of honour of the Royal Marines. His Majesty lunched in the Admiral’s cabin, where two pipers of the Cameron Highlanders played during the meal. King Farouk, who was accompanied by the chief of the royal cabinet, Hussein Sirry Pasha, expressed his pleasure at the visit and at renewing his acquaintance with the Royal Navy.
The Egyptian Ambassador in London, Amr Pasha, arrived in Cairo last night by air. He will stay here until after Mr. Bevin’s visit next week-end. Muzahem el Pachachi, the Iraqi deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, accompanied by the Education Minister, Hagib el Rawy, also arrived here to-day. They are to discuss with the Egyptian Government questions which have caused misunderstanding between the two countries.
British Ship Runs China Blockade
London Times, Jan. 26.—Hongkong.—The British-owned steamer Elsie Moller (400 tons), which is the first foreign ship to break the Shanghai blockade during the past two months, returned to Hongkong yesterday. She used a shallow, uncharted channel of the Yangtze and entered Shanghai when the Nationalist gunboats were busy dealing with the American ship Flying Arrow The Elsie Moller, which spent 11 days in Shanghai, brought to Hongkong 17 mailbags and 450 tons of general cargo.
The Elsie Moller is owned by the Anglo-Chinese Shipping Co., Ltd.
Plans for Atom Ship Engines
New York Herald Tribune, Feb. 9.—London.—British scientists were officially reported tonight ready with plans for putting atomic engines in ships and power plants.
A Supply Ministry spokesman said the Cabinet will be asked to study these projects within the next two months.
The ship’s engine will take the form of a miniature atomic pile—small enough to go into the engine room of a destroyer.
The engine to produce electricity for Britain’s factories and homes will also use atomic power. It will turn out steam to drive gigantic power, producing turbines.
The Supply Ministry spokesman said research on projects for harnessing atom-power to industry is being done by teams of scientists at Harwell. Royal Navy experts have been trying to adapt warships to take miniature atomic piles.
May Close Bermuda Dockyard
London Times, Jan. 14.—Bermuda.—The possibility of closing the naval dockyard at Bermuda has been discussed by an Admiralty delegation with the Bermuda Government.
A statement issued to the Press before the delegation left for England to-night said “discussions have been taking place during the past week between a delegation from the Admiralty and representatives of the Bermuda Government regarding the possibility of so reorganizing the America and West Indies Squadron as to enable the Royal Navy to dispense with the use of the dockyard and other shore establishments in Bermuda. While this would have various important advantages, not least the substantial economy resulting from the closing of the Bermuda dockyard, its probable effects upon Bermuda have to be carefully considered. The implications have been fully examined in a series of frank and friendly meetings at which a Colonial Office representative was present, and the Admiralty delegation is now returning to London to report to the Government.”
Mr. John Dugdale, Parliamentary and Financial Secretary to the Admiralty, who led the delegation, told your Correspondent that it was unlikely that the Government would reach any final decision on the matter before the General Election. He emphasized that the delegation had been in the closest consultation with the Bermuda Government. It is understood that the proposals are part of a plan to produce as much economy and efficient operation as possible in Royal Naval establishments. Between £800,000 and £900, 000 a year is spent by the Royal Navy in Bermuda, excluding what the men themselves spend. The dockyard employs about 1,200 men, including 550 from England.
It is pointed out that the Bermuda dockyard is more expensive to run in relation to its usefulness than any other. Wages are necessarily high, and the establishment is old and too small to be run economically. If the change in organization is put into effect the America and West Indies Squadron will be based in Britain instead of Bermuda, but there is no intention of reducing the squadron’s strength. Nor is there any intention of consolidating British and American facilities in Bermuda. The proposals should not be regarded as foreshadowing reductions in other British bases.
Pluto Pipeline Pays Awards
Manchester Guardian, Jan. 28.—An exgratia payment of £500 each to Captain T. A. Hussey, of 146, Piccadilly, London, and Lieutenant Colonel Lord Napier of Magdala, of Pinehill, Pineridge, Lower Bourne, Farham, has been recommended for their contribution to the initiation of the Pluto project, for the bulk supply of petrol across the Channel. This was announced yesterday by the Royal Commission on Awards to Inventors.
Awards totalling £15,100 were made in August to four other claimants. The highest was £9,000 to Mr. A. C. Hartley, of West Byfleet, Surrey, who was then chief engineer of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. The claim by Captain Hussey and Lord Napier, for conceiving the idea of Pluto, was heard by the commission this year.
A statement from Lord Mountbatten in support of his claim was read to the commission. It said that Captain Hussey first discussed with him, in January, 1942, the idea of laying an underwater pipeline for supplying petrol to the armies after they gained a foothold in France.
U.S.S.R.
Skipper on Rocks Awaits Moscow Orders
New York Times, Feb. 23.—Copenhagen.—A Russian captain and three of his officers refused to leave their stranded trawler today although the 140-ton vessel was being pounded to pieces on the rocks of the Danish island of Bornholm.
Eighteen crewmen were rescued by breeches buoy after the Soviet trawler had run aground in a dense fog yesterday.
But the captain said he and the other officers would stick aboard the wreck until he got radioed orders from Moscow. He declined to accept assistance from a Danish salvage ship, and maritime experts say nothing now can save the battered vessel.
The trawler ran aground as it was leading a flotilla of five trawlers apparently heading for the Barents Sea.
Soviet Officers Held Responsible for Men
New York Times, Feb. 6.—Berlin.—Two former Wehrmacht officers, recently released after almost four years in the Soviet zone concentration camp at Sachsenhausen, supplied a sequel yesterday to the crash of a British transport plane April 5, 1948, in which fourteen British and American passengers and crew members were killed.
The plane crashed and burned as it was approaching Berlin on a flight from Hamburg after colliding with a Soviet Yak trainer. The Soviet pilot, witnesses said, had been stunt-flying in the vicinity, and he also was killed.
The Germans told of having met in Sachsenhausen a lieutenant colonel of the Soviet Air Force who had been sentenced to twenty-five years’ imprisonment as a result of this accident. The Russian officer’s only connection with the tragedy, they said, was that he had been the superior of the Soviet pilot who caused the crash. The Germans added that the Soviet colonel, with whom they had chatted frequently as fellow prisoners, had been sent to Siberia some months ago.
While the colonel never mentioned the incident, the Germans said, Soviet guards at the camp told them that he had been accused of plotting with the British to create anti-Soviet propaganda by arranging this accident.
In the official exchanges that followed the crash the then Soviet Military Governor, Marshal Vassilli D. Sokolovsky, assigned all the blame to the British pilot, charging that he had violated the rules regulating the air corridor to Berlin.
This account dovetails with indications received here by Western Allied sources that desertions from the Soviet forces in Germany have been decreasing as the result of a new policy that holds every officer personally accountable for the conduct of the men under his command.
OTHER COUNTRIES
China
London Times, Jan. 26.—Lake Success.— Whatever solution is eventually found for the Chinese puzzle in the United Nations, there is no air of defeatism about the attitude of Dr. Tsiang, head of the present Nationalist mission, who, in discussing the situation with correspondents here to-day, expressed complete confidence in the ability of his Government to hold Formosa provided the Chinese Communists were not supported by Soviet ships and aircraft. This possibility, he said, was the main source of worry in planning the military defence of the island; and undoubtedly it was also one of the subjects of Mao Tze-tung’s negotiations in Moscow.
He disclosed that Formosa is defended by a force of between 150,000 and 200,000 men, including six highly trained divisions equipped with American weapons, under the command of General Sung Li-jen, who was trained at the Virginia Military Institute and during the war had taken part in the Burma campaign. Formosa, with its population of 6,500,000 was, the largest of a number of islands of great strategic importance. The Communists, he pointed out, had made repeated attempts, with no success, to take Tinghai, off the port of Ningpo, one of the Nationalist bases for air and naval operations. They had lost 5,000 killed and 14,000 prisoners in a vain attack on Kinmen, opposite the port of Amoy, and Dr. Tsiang suggested that if the Chinese Communists could not reduce these islands it was “sheer fantasy” to say they could take Formosa.
India
London Times, Jan. 24.—Bombay.—India’s three new destroyers—the Rajput, the Rana, and the Ranjit—fresh from training exercises with the British Mediterranean Fleet, met the flagship H.M.I.S. Delhi, formerly H.M.S. Ajax, 25 miles from the port of Bombay this morning. Commodore H. N. S. Brown, R. N., Officer Commanding R. I. N. Squadron, signalled a welcome and directed the senior officer of the flotilla, Captain A. Chakravarti, R.. I. N., to follow in line ahead into Bombay harbour.
Norway
Christian Science Monitor, Jan. 25.—To withstand attack until help arrives, and to cooperate with Allied forces in defense of the country, are the twin missions now envisioned for Norway’s defense forces.
This is made clear in a report of the Norwegian Defense Commission, which sets up a six-year “building” program estimated to cost $174,000,000.
Taking the three branches of the service individually, the new program involves broad and immediate changes in organization. In the army, major emphasis is placed on forming 12 combined regiments of field forces.
Naval forces would be charged with maintaining coastal communications and withstanding an attack by sea. It is proposed that Norway’s major naval base be transferred from Oslo fiord to Bergen, while three independent armored units would defend the large air bases at Sola, Gardemoen, and Vaernes.
Nine Months Basic Training
Under the compulsory military training system, conscripts for the army, coast artillery, and anti-aircraft will receive nine months’ basic training; naval and air force conscripts, 11 months, and specialists in all branches of the service, 12 months.
Refresher courses of between 30 to 60 days during the six-year period of the defense program would be required of all line and local defense personnel.
The report asks for authorization to make home guard service compulsory should the situation warrant; allocates specific funds to the three defense arms, and comments:
“To make possible the rapid transfer of Allied Air forces to Norway in event of attack, the Norwegian Air Force would concentrate on staving off attacks on airfields during the invasion’s early stages with eight fighter squadrons, two light bomber and night fighter squadrons, two reconnaissance and one transport squadron, which would make up the entire Norwegian Air Force at the end of the six-year period.”
Naval Recommendations
At the end of the six years, it is recommended that the navy comprise some 68 vessels including 5 destroyers, 2 destroyer escorts, 11 submarines, 13 torpedo boats, and 11 minesweepers.
The central naval base should be transferred from Horten to Bergen, according to the report, as well as Norway’s major submarine base now located at Trondheim. Of the many coastal points fortified by the Germans during the occupation, it is planned to make use of 80 of the most strategically located.
It is recommended that arms production be increased through building two new arms plants—neither of which would be built in the eastern area, the report adds. Plans for the utilization of labor in wartime, the training of women for noncombatant positions in the services, and the organization of civilian defense also are covered in the report.
Copies of Report on Sale
Copies of this report are now on sale in most bookshops and the public is being encouraged to acquaint itself with the scope and purpose of the document. With the exception of the Communist newspapers, the program already has won broad editorial support.
Details of the commission’s proposal will not be placed before Parliament for decision immediately but its general policy will be evaluated in a bill to be submitted to Parliament in May this year.
Meanwhile, agreement has now been reached between the Norwegians and the Russians on more satisfactory methods of settling border disputes in northern Finnmark. The settlement is of particular interest to fishermen who often inadvertently have fished on the wrong side of the Passvik River which forms part of the Norwegian-Russian border and to farmers whose cows and reindeer often stray across the border.
AVIATION
Air-to-Air Rockets
New York Herald Tribune, Feb. 7.—The Navy disclosed today development of the first successful air-to-air rocket, an explosive projectile powerful enough to destroy a large bomber such as the B-36 with one hit.
Dubbed the “Mighty Mouse,” the rocket —three inches in diameter—was hailed as an “important” weapon for the nation’s air defenses. Some experts consider it the most noteworthy development in armament for interceptor fighter planes since World War II.
The Air Force is so much impressed with results of Navy operational tests that the “Mighty Mouse” will be the primary weapon on the F-86D Sabre and the F-94, the Air Force’s newest interceptor fighters now in production.
Rear Admiral Albeit G. Noble, chief of the Navy’s Ordnance Bureau, called the new rocket a “powerful addition to the weapons of interceptor fighter aircraft.”
He said it can be used to attack at greater distances than with automatic guns, such as the 20-mm., and carries a larger explosive charge—“both of which are important factors in attacking large high-speed aircraft.”
Air Force officials admitted the new air-to-air weapon will give fighter planes an advantage over B-36s. But they said that, even if a possible enemy had developed such a rocket, the edge in favor of fighters would not be large enough to cause any major change in the Air Force’s strategic plans for long-range bombing with B-36s and other huge bombers.
Defense officials also indicated they did not believe Russia has such a rocket now.
Air Force officials said the “Mighty Mouse” was an interim weapon to be used until an air-to-air guided missile is developed. Both the Navy and Air Force are working on such a guided missile, with high hopes of success in the “fairly near future.”
Because it must be fired straight ahead (or aimed by pointing the plane) the unguided rocket is not a suitable weapon for large bombers. Guided missiles, however, can be used effectively on both bombers and fighters. The B-36s are now equipped with 20-millimeter automatic guns—also the most powerful weapon on Air Force interceptor planes.
Tests Called Successful
The Navy reported successful tests—firing of the “Mighty Mouse” by its skyraider attack plane at the naval ordnance test station, Inyokern, Calif., where the rocket was developed.
Data on the rocket’s range or the number interceptor planes can carry were withheld. They can be fired singly or in salvo from special launching racks attached to the underside of the plane’s wings or to its fuselage.
The “Mighty Mouse” has folding fins which reduce air resistance on the plane and allow it to carry more. The fins, which give directional stability to the rocket, snap up upon firing.
The Navy began work on the rocket two years ago. Production in quantity was started late last year for service tests.
Previous plane rockets have been air-to-ground. The five-inch and the eleven-inch “Tiny Tim” rockets, which were developed during World War II are, used on fighterbombers to attack ground targets.
High Speed Targets
Technical Data Digest, Feb. 1.—The Navy says its new winged aircraft tow targets have been flight tested successfully at altitudes of more than 35,000 ft. and at speeds exceeding 450 mph.
Having a wing span of 24 ft, this new target glider greatly resembles the configuration of conventional aircraft. It will be used for target practice by both day and night fighter planes and to test the skill of antiaircraft crews.
Altitude is limited only by the ceiling of the towing plane, and enough structural strength has been built into the target to allow for towing speeds around 450 mph.
It may be launched by normal drag takeoff or by snatch pickup. Provision is made for a 10-g ultimate acceleration in the snatch pickup. In landing, a drag parachute was designed to stop the target within 200 ft. after its release by the towing plane. The chute is carried in the tail section of the tow glider and is released by a trip in its nose section as soon as it comes in contact with the runway.
The winged target is constructed of metal to aid radar reflection, and aluminum has been used generously to meet its weight requirements. Its design has been arranged to facilitate manufacture, maintenance, and assembly.
The Dallas plant of Chance Voughl Division, United Aircraft Corp., was awarded an experimental contract in 1946 to build 45 models for flight testing and evaluation. The testing is going on at the Naval Air Test Center, Patuxent, Md.
Navy Developing High Speed Props and Carrier Landing Control
New York Times, Jan. 25.—A propeller-driven airplane that can fly at the speed of sound, but still have a low fuel consumption rate at slower speeds over long distances, is being developed by the air arm of the Navy, Rear Admiral C. M. Bolster, assistant chief of research Bureau of Aeronautics announced yesterday.
Speaking at a luncheon meeting of the eighteenth annual meeting of the Institute of the Aeronautical Sciences at the Hotel Astor, Admiral Bolster said that the Air Force also was interested in such a plane and that both services were working with the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics on the project.
Such a plane, according to Admiral Bolster would be powered by a turbo-prop engine. The only engine of this type now about ready for flight is the Allison T-40 which, is scheduled for its initial flight tests in a Navy flying boat within the next few weeks.
The chief problem in developing a turboprop plane that could fly at speeds approaching or touching the speed of sound (660 miles an hour above 30,000 feet) is the propeller. Admiral Bolster said that a propeller capable of 55 per cent efficiency would push a plane through the air at the speed of sound.
Six-bladed propellers with dual rotation are now being worked on by the Navy, Admiral Bolster reported, and will be used on the T-40 series of turbo-prop planes. He added that the Navy also was considering propellers with eight blades.
The turbo-prop engine differs from the turbo-jet in several ways. The turbo-prop transfers energy to a shaft driving a propeller while the turbo-jet uses the heat energy escaping for thrust. Fuel consumption on the turbo-jet at low speeds is high and the power plant is sluggish in take off. The turbo-prop characteristics are almost exactly opposite.
The faster take-off of the turbo prop and low “power-on” stall speeds are important to carrier-based aircraft and they are not readily obtainable in turbo-jet planes. In addition, the lower fuel consumption would cut down the logistical problem of the aircraft carrier, which must haul its own and its planes’ fuel.
Admiral Bolster also announced that the Special Devices Center of the Navy was working on an automatic system for controlling airplanes in flight. The device, when finally perfected, will not only control a plane in flight but control it in approach and landing.
New York Herald Tribune, Jan. 26.—Admiral Bolster stressed that although equipment for the new flight control system would require additional development before it could reach the production stage, prototype models had been built and thoroughly flght-tested. He added: “Many successful automatic approaches have been made with the equipment and several were carried to the touchdown point.”
The piloting equipment, Admiral Bolster disclosed, incorporated both altitude and thrust control. When set for automatic approach and landing, it controls the flight path of the aircraft. It can guide a plane in level flight and in climbs, glides, turns and other air maneuvers, according to him, and will include safety devices automatically preventing approaches at dangerous angles.
“There is every assurance that when it is completed, we shall have a dependable system which will be capable not only of controlling an airplane in the air but one which will land it safely under conditions which would be extremely difficult for a human pilot,” Admiral Bolster asserted. “We feel that the Navy’s Special Devices Center is to be congratulated on the success of this project.”
(Editor’s Note: Same speech, different emphasis.)
Helicopter for Mats
New York Herald Tribune, Feb. 15.—The new Arctic rescue helicopter, which the Air Force will call the H-21, actually is an advanced and improved model of the Piasecki rotary-wing aircraft now in production for the Navy and Marine Corps. It has a specially-designed “omniphibious” landing gear, however, combining regular landing wheels, floats and skis into a compact unit quickly adaptable to any landing surface at the will of the pilot.
The cabin is 20 feet long and 5½ feet wide. As many as twenty-seven persons can be seated on the floor of the cabin in emergencies. The fuselage measures 54 feet from noes to tail and rotors 44 feet in diameter which clear the ground by 15 feet. The H-21 will have a Wright-Cyclone air-cooled radial engine of approximately 1,425 horsepower. There will be a hydraulic boost control system to reduce pilot effort during long Arctic missions.
A new twenty-passenger Piasecki helicopter able to land on snow, ice, water, marsh or any type of land without changing its gear has won the Air Force’s Arctic rescue competition for rotary wing aircraft, it was announced yesterday at Air Force liaison offices at 90 Church Street.
An order for production of the Arctic rescue helicopter has been placed with the Piasecki Corporation of Morton, Pa. Although no announcement of the size of the order was made, it is understood to be for an initial batch of twenty. They will be operated by Air Rescue units of the Military Air Transport Service on a world-wide basis.
F-84s As B-36 Parasites
Aviation Week, Feb. 13.—Air Force is planning “parasite” installation of two Republic F-84 Thunderjet fighters under the wings of the Convair B-36 bomber. This surprising revival of the idea of parasite fighters for the huge bomber is a reversal of policy after the parasite was dismissed as an active Air Force project on the basis of experience with the McDonnell XF-85 Goblin jet fighter.
The use of the F-84 mounted externally on the B-36 offers a new approach to the problem of escort fighters for the 10,000-mile bomber. The 850-mile radius-of-action (2,000 mile range) of the F-84E places an entirely different light on the problem by permitting extensive operational time and distance for the parasite fighter. Extremely short duration of the XF-85 (about 30 min.) severely restricted its combat usefulness.
Block Avoided
Mounting the parasite fighters suspended from the B-36 wings completely avoids the major stumbling block in the idea to date: cramped dimensions of bomb bays. Requirement for internal stowage of the XF-85 forced its designers to produce an airplane with wholly unsatisfactory stability and control characteristics, which extensive wing and tail modifications could not lick. New arrangement will permit use of two full-size, conventionally-arranged jet fighters with all three advantages in stability and control, as parasites.
Decision to order experimental tests indicates the Air Force is still studying the tactical problems of sending unescorted B-36 bombers over enemy targets. Previous defense of such a mission was based more on necessity than tactical reasoning. No fighter in the world, now flying or in future prospect, will ever have a 10,000-mile range with present powerplants. Therefore, the B-36 was . assigned to unescorted missions by unavoidable default of fighter design.
“One Way” Missions
Even its range of 2,000 miles, longest of any jet fighter now flying, does not classify the F-84E as wholly suitable for the job of B-36 escort, but presumably Air Force tactical requirements would assign the “mother” B-36 only to targets from which friendly bases are within the range of the parasite fighters. These bases would lie beyond the bomb target to permit “one-way” bombing and bomber-defense missions.
Extensive experimental tests and development will be required to make operational the launching and retrieving of F-84 fighters from the B-36 wings. The retrieving operation may be left for the distant future, in the light of unsatisfactory experience with the XF-85 in this respect.
First plan would call for development of a jettisonable fitting on the underside of the B-36 outer panel. The F-84 would be loaded on the ground and the flight proceed to the launching point. After breaking clear of the wing, the F-84 would proceed to base. Attaching fittings would then be dropped from the wing to reduce the drag.
Impetus
Although the parasite tactical requirement has been studied for more than five years by Air Force planners, impetus to the new test program was given by the installation of twin-jet pods on the B-36. Studies of jettisonable versions of these pods led officers to connect these turbojet engines with wings, tails and fuselages, and the idea of using a conventional jet fighter was born.
The entire program is in preliminary planning stage. Its activation will hinge on the outcome of fiscal 1951 budget hearings. However, such tests should not require any large expenditure in initial stages since mounting fixtures on both the bomber and fighter can be fabricated in Air Force installations with available tools and materials. Eventual program however would involve a considerable outlay for special fittings, installation, tests, evaluation and eventual production.
YF-93A Makes First Flight
Aviation Week, Jan. 30.—Newest addition to the USAF jet penetration fighter stable, the swept-wing North American YF-93A flew for the first time last week at Edwards AFB, Muroc, Calif., and immediately became a strong contender for quantity USAF procurement although currently only two of the planes have been ordered.
The powerful new craft made a JATO takeoff and flew for 43 min. on its first trip aloft.
The 10-ton fighter, nearly twice as heavy as its earlier relative, the 13,000-lb. North American F-86, is powered with a new Pratt & Whitney J-48 turbo-Wasp engine, American development of the British Tay design, rated at 6,250 thrust lb. dry, and about 8,000 lb. with afterburner.
Comparison of dimensions with those of the F-86 shows clearly that the new long-range fighter is a much larger airplane. Wingspan is 39 ft. as compared to 37 for the F-86; fuselage length is 44 ft. as compared to 37 ft., while height is 16 ft. as compared to 14 ft.
Twin flush air intake ducts just above and forward of the wingroots are precisely tailored into the sides of the fuselage, leaving the nose to house interceptor radar. (The F-86 has a single intake duct in the center of the nose.)
Exceptionally large boundary layer bleeds are visible at the intake ducts. Smaller flush air intake ducts near the tail apparently serve as a cooling arrangement.
Single-wheel nosegear retracts forward into the nose, while small diameter twin-wheeled main gear retracts inboard into the wing-roots.
Automatic wing slots and slotted type flaps are provided.
Fuselage diameter appears considerably greater than that of the F-86, presumably to enclose the larger diameter of the centrifugal-flow type J-48 which replaces the slimmer axial-flow type GE J-47.
Tail surfaces are swept back like those of the F-86, and are slightly larger, in keeping with the general scaling up of the YF-93A.
As a more powerful development of the first tactical combat plane to fly faster than the speed of sound (Aviation Week, June 14, 1948), the YF-93A is described by USAF as “designed to reach high sub-sonic speed,” an apparent understatement of the new plane’s obvious real capabilities, when its reduced drag and greater power is considered.
The F-86 is currently the Air Force’s top standard jet fighter, with approximately 800 planes on order or delivered. The plane still holds the world’s speed record of 670.98 mph. But North American announced recently that new production F-86s are exceeding this official record almost daily in acceptance tests at Los Angeles.
Comets in Service One Year Early
Manchester Guardian, Jan. 27.—Karachi, January 27.—Sir Miles Thomas, chairman of the British Overseas Airways Corporation, said here to-night that the world’s first jet air-liner, the British De Havilland Comet, was expected to fly commercially between London and Karachi next year—a year earlier than had previously been stated.
In an interview with Reuter, he said that progress on the Comet had been much faster than anticipated and the manufacturers were two years ahead of schedule. B.O.A.C. would introduce the Comet first on the London-Australia run and would start with a short-stage service, probably as far as Cairo. By the end of 1951 he expected jet airliners to be flying regularly as far as Karachi.
Sir Miles gave these estimated timings for the new ’plane: London-Karachi, at first 15 hours, later to be cut to a little over 12 hours; London-Calcutta, 22 hours, later to be reduced to 17 hours; London-Singapore, 28 hours, later to be reduced to 25 hours.—Reuter.
B-29s for RAF
The Aeroplane. Feb. 3.—Bomber command will begin to receive 70 Boeing B-29 Super-fortresses in April, to supplement its present strength of Lincolns and Lancasters. No details are available of the conditions on which these aircraft are supplied, but it will be recalled that Sir Oliver Franks, British Ambassador, was negotiating with Mr. Dean Acheson for less binding terms than those common to other countries of the Atlantic pact who were accepting American aid.
Until the advent of long-range jet-bombers in the R.A.F., the Superfortresses will provide useful experience to Bomber Command crews in operating high-altitude, pressurized, aircraft, with remote-controlled armament. Much has been made of the alleged differences in bombing technique between the R.A.F. and the U.S.A.F., but the finest work of the Superfortress was done against targets in Japan, operating with stream tactics by night. Although each service specialized in a particular mode of attack, both showed themselves capable of an elasticity of tactics when required.
The re-equipment will not affect the 90-day training tours done by B-29 and B-50 Groups of Strategic Air Command at stations in the United Kingdom. After the R.A.F. B-29s have been flown across from the United States by American pilots. British crews will receive conversion training from the U.S.A.F. The two services will work together at Schylthorpe, Norfolk; Marham, Norfolk; and Lakenheath, Suffolk—all at present in use by the U.S.A.F.
Conversion should be straightforward, but by no means simple. British crews will appreciate the comfort of the B-29, but will have to familiarize themselves with a vast mass of electronic equipment. Compared with a Lincoln’s seven or eight men, the Superfortress is manned by twice as many personnel, so that more crews will probably have to be recruited into Bomber Command. Another change from R.A.F. methods is the provision of a permanent second pilot while the flight engineer in the Superfortress is probably the hardest-working man in the crew.
MERCHANT MARINE
New Rudder Design
The Shipbuilder and Marine Engine-Builder, Jan. 1950.—An interesting development in the design of ships’ rudders, which has been evolved by Mr. H. A. Wilson, of the Esso Transportation Co., Ltd., has recently been tested in the 18,000-ton twin-screw oil-tank ship D. L. Harper, owned by the Anglo-American Oil Co., Ltd.
The innovation, which entails the addition to the main rudder of two specially-designed and carefully located wing rudders, has been introduced with a view to improving the steering of some of the company’s twin-screw tank vessels, in confined and shallow waterways, where low speeds are necessary. The steering of twin-screw ships in such circumstances has been a long standing problem; in some cases, it has been found necessary to turn the rudder to an angle of as much as 20 to 25 deg., before it experiences the effect of the propeller race.
A critical examination of the various circumstances suggested that some device, which would secure the advantage to be derived from the propeller slip-streams at an earlier stage, would result in greatly improved steering at smaller angles of helm. Increasing the fore-and-aft length of the rudder was not regarded favourably, and, accordingly, it was decided, as an experiment to attach two auxiliary blades to the main rudder; so that, with the rudder amidships, these auxiliary blades were just within the propeller races.
Subsequent trials with the D. L. Harper disclosed that the degree of helm necessary to maintain the ship’s course at reduced speeds (6 to 8 knots) was less than half that previously required.
The recent increase of traffic through the Suez Canal has helped to focus attention on the general problem of steering large twin-screw ships accurately at slow speeds. The captain of the D. L. Harper has reported that, during the passages through the Canal, it was possible to hold the vessel on her course for most of the time, with not more than 5 deg. of helm, in both laden and ballast conditions. The steering qualities were described as being not merely good, but exceptional.
While the most important result achieved is, of course, the greatly improved sensitivity of the steering of such ships at small angles of helm, the demands made on the steering gear are also much reduced; this reacts favourably on the fuel economy. Wear and tear on the gear itself are also much less.
Following the success which has been realized in the D. L. Harper, rudders of the new design have been fitted in several other tankers of the Esso fleet.
Lloyd's Register of Wrecks
Engineering, Feb. 3.—Statistics issued by Lloyd’s Register of Shipping, 71, Fenchurch-street, London, E.C. 3, indicate that during the quarter ended June 30, 1949, 40 steamers and motorships, aggregating 59,571 tons gross, were totally lost or condemned in consequence of casualty or stress of weather. Of these, six, making together 29,605 tons, were owned in Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the most important being the steamers Magdalena (17,547 tons), James Clunies (7,850 tons) and the Corcrest (2,373 tons). The Magdalena, it will be recalled, became stranded on a reef half a mile south of Tijucas Island, off the coast of Brazil, on April 25. She was refloated on the following day and taken in tow, but broke in two outside the harbour of Rio de Janeiro. The James Clunies, which carried a cargo of grain was wrecked on April 21, 2 km. from Punta Mogotes, Argentina, and the Corcrest became a total loss, after striking a wreck on June 21, while on a voyage in ballast from Rochester to Sunderland. Three vessels became total losses during the quarter under review as a result of striking mines, namely, the 2,950-ton Belgian steamer Prinses Astrid, on June 21; the 1,301-ton Norwegian steamer Henrik on May 25; and the 428-ton Swedish steamship Bidia, on May 5. The statistics show that the ships broken up or condemned for causes other than those consequent upon casualty or stress of weather totalled 38, making together 122,759 tons. Of these, 13, comprising 51,224 tons, were steamers and motorships under British ownership. The two largest were the 10,000-ton steamers Cornwall and Talma, the former built in 1920 and the latter in 1923. Both were broken up. Another British vessel, the 1,354-ton steamer Empire Conyngham, built in 1899, was scuttled, with a cargo of unwanted ammunition by the Government.
Work Is Begun On Superliner Amid Secrecy
New York Herald Tribune, Feb. 9.—Newport News.—Construction of America’s first superliner began here today. A giant crane lowered a fifty-five-ton vertical steel plate out of gray skies into place in the elongated rib-cage of Shipways 10 at the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company this morning.
Ceremony was lacking at the keel laying. There was an ominous atmosphere reminiscent of similar operations in war time. Officials of the United States Lines, which will operate the largest liner ever to be built in this country, watched its beginning, standing on an improvised platform and huddled in overcoats.
The superliner’s designer, William Francis Gibbs, of New York, watched. He declined to amplify the few details revealed about the design of the United States, which the sea queen will be called.
“Since this is essentially a naval ship, the same security restrictions would apply to information about her construction as would apply to other naval vessels,” he said. “The trouble with Americans is that they tell everything they know. There’s one man who would like very much to know more about this ship, and that’s Uncle Joe Stalin, and I’m not going to oblige him.”
Shipyard Turns to Other Work
New York Times, Feb. 15.—Newport News.—The steady decline of shipyard orders is leading skilled yard mechanics into manufacturing fields far removed from the maritime world.
As one result, officials of the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company disclosed today, the huge, half-idle plant here has taken part in the development of a wool-carding machine, and has found itself deep in the production and marketing of this heavy equipment.
The plant is engaged on a wide variety of products from railroad cars to supersonic wind tunnels and power water turbines. William E. Blewett Jr., executive vice president of the shipyard, said that economic necessity had forced the entering of other fields, and that about 10 per cent of the yard’s “direct” labor force was now busy on non-sea activity. Without it the workers would be idle.
The strange incursion into fabrics came about by accident, although it was no accident that the shipyard was looking for other work. Its order book had been virtually depleted except for the new superliner now being built for the United States Lines.
Old German Machine Taken Apart
Experts of the Forstmann mills were seeking skilled engineers to take over an old, worn-out German carding machine, one that no longer can be duplicated abroad. Mr Blewett told the Forstmann experts: “Sure, we’ll have a look at it just but what is a carding machine?”
Shipyard men began taking the old German machine apart to see if they could make it run again. They made some new parts, worked out some improvements of their own and got so interested in the project that when they sent the machine back to Forstmann, ready to run, they decided to make another one. Now they are in the business.
The yard is winding up an order for eighteen turbines of 165,000 horsepower each for the Grand Coulee Dam on the Columbia River. An order for the repair and reconstruction of 1,219 freight cars for the Seaboard Air Line Railroad, one of the first big landlubber jobs undertaken, has now been completed. Other jobs either completed or on the current order book include marine paints, steel gates, rayon pot-spinning machines, trash racks, mechanical rack rakes, tanks, pipe lines, paper-making machinery, pressure vessels and a variety of hydraulic power equipment.
The supersonic wind tunnel project is being undertaken for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. Another special job, now in progress in a ship construction basin adjacent to that where the big superliner keel was laid on Feb. 8, is a series of tremendous steel caissons for the new York-town Bridge in Virginia.
SCIENCE
Navy Fires Third Aero bee
Chicago Tribune, Jan. 21.—A navy Aerobee rocket was fired 45 miles into the air above the gulf of Alaska last Sunday in continuing research to crack the mystery of cosmic rays which bombard the earth, the navy department said today.
The rocket was fired from the navy’s experimental guided missile ship, Norton Sound which has been cruising in the gulf of Alaska for the navy’s cosmic ray research program. The missile carried instruments in its war head which weighted it down and prevented it from reaching the average altitude of 70 miles attained in other Aerobee launchings.