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UNITED STATES
Economy in Joint Buying
New York Times, Sept. 5.—Under unification, it was learned today, the Army and the Navy will implement by the end of this month a new joint procurement plan with the aim of achieving further economies, efficiency and simplicity.
Apart from formally binding the two departments to the joint purchasing system evolved during the recent war, the new plan will eliminate unnecessary bookkeeping and red tape.
A joint directive has been drafted to carry out the plan. The Navy has already given its approval. In the War Department the General Staff is studying the document, and early approval there is expected. The plan will go into effect after James Forrestal is sworn in as Secretary of Defense upon President Truman’s return from Brazil, or sooner if War Department assent comes first.
Each department will prepare separate contracts and specifications covering its needs, but the department selected to do the purchasing will have the power to merge the contracts into a single deal if the item to be produced is common to more than one service.
The purchasing department will also have the authority to determine whether joint Army and Navy or even a single Federal specification for all using Government departments should be written.
By this method it is hoped to avoid overlapping procurement and duplicated orders, a subject in which Congress showed considerable interest while the unification issue was being debated.
Last year 50 per cent of all Army and Navy purchases were made jointly, or by one department acting for both. “Special procurement” was necessary in 34 per cent of the purchases. This term is applied to items like submarine torpedoes which are peculiar to only one department and in which joint action is not possible.
Thus only 16 per cent of purchases susceptible of joint action were not brought under the joint system. A Navy spokesman explained that this 16 per cent consisted chiefly of small emergency purchases made “over the counter” and that possibly it could be whittled down by 5 or 6 per cent in the future.
Mediterranean Fleet
Manchester Guardian, Sept. 10.—Admiral Bieri, commanding the United States Mediterranean Fleet, has given an interview in Naples to the correspondent of the Milan daily Corriere Lombardo in the course of which he is alleged to have said:
“The United States Fleet is here and intends to stay here in Italian and Mediterranean waters. American interests in Europe will not cease with the signing of the German treaty. In accordance with the policy of the United. States Navy Minister American forces will be allocated wherever there are American interests, in closest co-operation with the British.”
Asked whether the United States fleet would stay even after the ninety days allowed for evacuation after the ratification of the Italian peace treaty is deposited in Paris, Admiral Bieri answered:
“We shall still have troops in Trieste, and probably for a long time, and in Austria and Germany. Probable bases for the fleet will be Naples and Palermo. These arrangements will enter into the treaty of trade, navigation, and friendship between Italy and the United States and will be discussed at the end of the month in Rome.”
The present fleet, said Admiral Bieri, consists of five cruisers, seven destroyers, one aircraft carrier with 150 planes, and 12 auxiliary vessels.
VARIOUS NOTES Subs Return From Arctic
Chicago Tribune, Aug. 27.—Juneau.—A United States submarine task force was en route today to Victoria, B. C., and Seattle after weeks of maneuvers near the arctic ice pack along the northern rim of Alaska.
The Navy kept secret results of the cruise, which took the submarines Boarfish, Caiman, Chub, and Cabezon, and the -tender Nereus through the Bering Strait to Point Barrow.
Watching the maneuvers was Rear Adm. A. R. McCann, head of the submarine force of the Pacific fleet, who joined the unit at Adak in the Aleutians.
Steam LST Christened
New York Times, Sept. 4.—A new type of tank landing craft, the LST 1153, was christened today in ceremonies at the naval shipyard in Charlestown.
The new LST is steam-propelled and about fifty feet longer than any war-time tank landing craft.
Acting as sponsor of the boat was Mrs. Lena Mickelson of Worcester, Mass., mother of Carl Raymond Mickelson, gunner’s mate third class, who was killed during landings at Anzio Feb. 15, 1944. The Navy and Marine Corps Medal was awarded to him posthumously.
New Mexico Sells for Scrap
New York Herald Tribune, Aug. 30.—Any United States citizen who would like to buy a 30,600-ton battleship should submit a sealed bid to the New York Naval Shipyard in Brooklyn before 11 a.m. on Sept. 30. The buyer must agree to scrap the vessel, which is tied to Commonwealth Pier 1, East Boston, Mass.
The battleship is the superannuated but proud New Mexico, the first turbo-electric super-battleship in the world when she was built in 1918 at an estimated cost of $7,800,000. Coast-to-coast newspaper advertisements of the Navy Vessel Disposal Office, in Brooklyn—which are headed “Vessel for Sale; One (1) Battleship”—say the 624-foot ship contains four turbines, each capable of developing 10,000 horsepower.
The ship was launched too late to see action in World War I. She tasted first blood in World War II when she supported a dozen invasions of Pacific islands with her twelve fourteen-inch rifles, once firing her batteries almost continuously for nineteen days. She suffered her first battle damage on Jan. 6, 1945, in Lingayen Gulf, the Philippines, when a Japanese aerial bomb struck her port navigating bridge, killing thirty, including her skipper, Captain Robert W. Fleming; Lieutenant General Herbert Lumsden, of the British Royal Marines, and William Chicker- ing, Time magazine correspondent.
The Navy said yesterday it wouldn’t take “just anything” for the ship but reserved the right to reject any bid it considered too low.
It is practically impossible to estimate how much money has been poured into the New Mexico since her launching in the presence of Franklin D. Roosevelt, then Assistant Secretary of the Navy. Between 1931 and 1933 she was almost completely rebuilt at the Philadelphia Navy Yard at a cost of $10,000,000. A year later she was fitted with a girdle of costly torpedo bulges.
Some idea of what old battleships bring in the scrap market was provided by the 29,000- ton Oklahoma which brought $46,127 at auction last year from the Moore Drydock Corporation, of Oakland, Calif.
Study at Bikini Ends
New York Times, Sept. 4.— Pearl Harbor- The Navy transport Chilton, carry thirty- three scientists and much secret information, docked today after a six-week survey of Bikini Lagoon, where an atomic bomb was dropped for testing purposes.
“The expedition accomplished all its mission,” said Capt. Christian L. Engleman, project officer.
D. M. Whitaker of Stanford University’s Department of Biology said the scientists “found out what effects of a year after are and have definite answers from living organisms.”
The answers, however, were not for public release now, he added. They would be incorporated into a report to the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Atomic Energy Commission.
Special Medal for Admiral Kins
New York Herald Tribune, Aug. 27.— Fleet Admiral Ernest J. King today received a special gold medal for his “distinguished leadership” of the Navy during the second world war. The award was made to the sixty- eight-year-old former Chief of Naval Operations at Bethesda Naval Hospital, where he is recovering from an illness.
The special medal was authorized by Congress in March, 1946, and was recently delivered by the United States Mint. A similar medal also was authorized for Secretary of State George C. Marshall for his leadership of the Army. Mr. Marshall has not received his.
Fleet Admiral William D. Leahy, acting for President Truman, presented the medal to Admiral King. One side of the medal bears an image of Admiral King with an inscription covering his years of war-time service; the other depicts symbolic figures of the power he held during the war and the words “Awarded by the Congress, act of March 22, 1946—on behalf of a grateful nation.”
Army Makes Alaska First Line of Defense
New York Herald Tribune, Aug. 30.—The Department of the Interior said today the Army plans to push its efforts to build up Alaska as the first line of the United States’ polar defense. In a report on the territory’s development over the last year, the department said the Army has poured $100,000,000 into its immediate construction program, ‘‘with even greater sums yet to be spent.”
“Great new air-base projects, expansion of existing airfields and other kindred projects —many of a highly secret nature—all were contributing to changes of a radical design in the pattern of Alaska’s social and economic structure,” the report said.
On the civilian side, the report cautiously predicted that Anchorage, Alaska’s largest “city,” with 15,000 population, will become the site of a “great new international airport.” Routes now flown by Northwest Airlines and Pan American Airways from Seattle and Minneapolis to the Orient via Anchorage put the tiny metropolis “directly in the center of international air communications with the Far East,” the report said.
The report named these other indications of Alaska’s coming-of-age: opening of
78,000,000,000 board feet of standing pulp
timber to private industry, the opening of
45,0 acres of farmland for homesteaders, a survey showing the immediate availability for power sites of at least 800,000 horsepower and the opening for homesteading of 2,750,000 acres of land along the Alaska Highway for timber development and small businesses to serve motorists.
Betatron to X-Ray Navy Armor Steel
New York Times, Aug. 24,—A 10,000,000- volt betatron which can take an X-ray picture of an inch-thick piece of steel in one second, almost as fast as a conventional camera takes a picture of its surface, has been built here by the General Electric Company.
Its rays will penetrate a foot-thick piece of steel in minutes, as compared with hours for a conventional X-ray machine.
The machine, the first of its size to be produced for industrial purposes, will be installed in the Naval Ordnance Laboratory at White Oaks, Md., near Washington, D. C., where it will be used in the radiography of castings and weldments of naval guns, directors, armor plate and other ordnance equipment for internal flaws.
Bought by the Navy through the General Electric X-ray Corporation in Chicago, the machine is a small version of G. E.’s 100,000,000 electron-volt atom-smashing betatron. It follows the design of a machine of similar size developed by Dr. E. E. Charlton of the company’s Research Laboratory.
The General Engineering and Consulting Laboratory is also building two 100,000,000- volt betatrons for nuclear research.
Wisconsin on Reserve Cruise
New York Herald Tribune, Sept. 21.—The 45,000-ton battleship Wisconsin, carrying 890 reserve officers and men on a two-week training cruise, steamed into Halifax Harbor this morning, her guns booming twenty-one times in salute to Canada.
At 11 a.m., with the warship berthed alongside a waterfront pier, the reservists, of whom 350 come from the 3d Naval District, swarmed ashore for two days of liberty. For hundreds of them, never at sea before, it was their first time on foreign soil.
Carrier V-2 Test Plan Unconfirmed
New York Herald Tribune, Sept. 4.—The Navy Department declined today either to confirm or deny reports that the 45,000-ton carrier Midway would fire test V-2 rockets from its flying deck during its present cruise in Atlantic waters.
A Navy spokesman confined himself to saying: “The Midway has sailed for exercises at sea. A report on the operations will be made later.”
Extensive tests will have to be carried out in order to provide data for the installations on the battleship Kentucky, which will ultimately carry guided missiles as her main battery. Work on the vessel has been suspended until such data have been worked out.
(Editor’s Note: The sequel was front page news.)
Army to Test Underground Defenses
New York Herald Tribune, Sept. 21.—The Army today disclosed plans to explode giant TNT charges against underground structures to find out how strong it must build its subterranean defenses against the atomic bomb.
The biggest charge will be 320,000 pounds —containing power seven and a half times as great as the Army’s largest bomb and about one-fifth the rated explosive power of the atomic bomb itself.
Lieutenant General Raymond A. Wheeler, chief of engineers, said the tests would be staged by the Corps of Engineers at the Dug- way Proving Ground near Salt Lake City and at other points in the same general area. He gave no dates, but the Army indicated the tests still are far into the future. It said that contracts will be made with Engineer Research Associates, Minneapolis, for the delicate scientific instruments needed to record and translate information on the blasts.
Continuation of War Tests
The tests actually are a continuation of ones held secretly late in the war, but they go far beyond the earlier experiments, which used charges only up to 2,000 pounds.
The Army said the tests were scheduled to obtain information on heavier explosive
charges “in keeping with the increased firing power of offensive weapons.” They also will show, it said, explosive effects “without regard to the means of delivery, whether by bomb or guided missile.”
“These tests,” the Army’s announcement continued, “are aimed primarily at determining requirements for command posts, air defense control centers, and other vital military installations. In addition, they will be of great value in establishing protection for underground industrial plants should they be built.”
The Army’s experiments will be divided into three categories—explosions against structures buried under various types of soil, detonations against defenses tunneled into different types of rock, and the surface blasting of a windowless structure which might be built to offer limited protection from the explosion and radiation effects of the atom bomb.
Three Types of Structures
Structures to be used in the earth include three types: a simple target of four sides without roof or bottom to establish structural damage from earth shock; a heavy structure of a type that might be used for a command post and designed for complete protection against a “direct hit” from a 2,000-pound bomb, and a light shelter such as might be built for civilians or for underground arsenal workers.
In the earth shock tests three “targets” will be placed at various distances from each charge to register very heavy, moderate and light damage. According to size, the charges will be exploded at depths ranging from seven to seventy feet.
The Army said each structure would correspond in scale to the size of the explosive charge used. As the amount of the charge is increased, the walls of the structures will be thickened in proportion.
For the rock tests tunnels will be built at depths varying from 125 to 175 feet and the charges set off from overhead. This will determine the protective qualities of the different types of rock and is expected to show the type of covering needed at tunnel entrances to protect equipment and personnel.
The Army said that information obtained in similar experiments from 1940 through 1944 was “of invaluable assistance in the attack on Japanese and German fortifications.”
(Editor’s Note: They have tested German defenses at Farge. See Aviation, Professional Notes, September Proceedings.)
French Frigate Shoals
Military Engineer, September.—Building an airfield without the land to build it on sounds like a fantastic bit of engineering even when we consider all the fabulous achievements of the men who grappled with nature at her worst to build a far-flung system of Naval Air Bases in the Pacific. But that is exactly what happened at French Frigate Shoals, a tiny spot in the Pacific just 552 miles northwest of Honolulu.
The Navy’s decision to build the airfield at French Frigate Shoals was a direct result of the Battle of Midway. Although American forces won a decisive victory there, the Island of Midway took a terrific beating. Naval strategists were afraid that the Japanese might again strike at Midway, and this time with success. So they decided that some way must be found to get large numbers of fighter planes to the island in a hurry. The problem was how to get them there. Fighter planes at that time could not carry sufficient gasoline to get them all the way from airfields near Pearl Harbor to Midway, 1,300 miles distant. French Frigate Shoals was the answer—if an airfield could be built on it.
Starting with a sand spit no bigger than a tennis court, the Seabees dredged up enough coral to build a stationary aircraft carrier 3,100 feet long and 250 feet wide, rimmed with sheet metal to prevent it from washing away.
The actual cost was $1,800,000.
As the tides of war began to turn against the Japanese, it developed that the project was hardly worth the cost. But like any calculated risk, “it might have been.” And in those early days of the war, when there was serious possibility that Midway or even Hawaii might be struck again, any precaution no matter how costly was a good investment. Coincident with the change in the military situation, the invention of expendable wing tanks which enabled fighters to fly the 1,300-mile nonstop flight to Midway from Oahu helped spell the downfall of this tiny sandbleached “aircraft carrier” before it could accomplish much.
After the war the airport was turned over by the Navy to the Territory of Hawaii. At first the Territory did not quite know what to do with it. Although the waters surrounding the island had been recognized for many years as being one of the most fertile fishing areas of the Pacific, there had always been the problem of transporting the fish to the packing houses. Finally, some enterprising fishermen made arrangements with a commercial air line to fly the catch several times a week to Honolulu.
GREAT BRITAIN Fleet Visit to Sevastopol
London Times, August 2.—The Admiralty announced yesterday that the Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean, Admiral Sir Algernon Willis, flying his flag in the cruiser H.M.S. Liverpool (Captain A. C. Chapman), with H.M. destroyers Chequers (Captain R. D. Watson) and Chaplet (Lieut. Commander C. G. Forsberg), visited Sevastopol, the base of the Soviet Black Sea Fleet, from July 28 to 31.
The Commander-in-Chief and his officers and men were very cordially received by Admiral Oktiaberski, the Commander-in-Chief, Black Sea Fleet, and men of his command. Official luncheons and receptions were exchanged, at which speeches mutually emphasized the friendship between the two navies and between the British and Soviet peoples.
A number of sporting events and excursions, including trips to Yalta, the Crimean holiday resort, were arranged for the officers and men. The devastated state of the city and its surroundings, as a result of the severe fighting which took place in 1943 and again in 1944, when the Germans were finally driven out, provided the main material interest of the visit.
The British officers and men were very impressed with the friendly and hospitable reception, not only from the Soviet Navy, but also from prominent members of the civil community.
90 Warships for Targets
New York Times, Sept. 3.—Of the ninety British warships which it has been announced are to be sacrificed in the Royal Navy’s program of target trials during 1947— 48 all but a dozen were built during the war, The London News Chronicle naval correspondent explains. They comprise one large aircraft carrier (H.M.S. Furious, of 22,450 tons), two cruisers (the Hawkins, of 9,800 tons, and the Emerald, of 7,550 tons), ten destroyers, three sloops, sixteen submarines, sixteen corvettes, seven “X”-craft, six M. T. B.’s and twenty-nine L. C. T.’s, C. F. craft and “E”-boats.
Three of the destroyers, the Albuera, Namur and Oudenarde, are units of the latest “Battle” class of giant flotilla leaders displacing 2,325 tons. They were launched as recently as the summer of 1945. Another is the contemporary of even larger ex-German Z-30.
All the submarines are of recent construction or were completed toward the end of the war. Two, the Ace and Achates, are of the new “A” class, fast ocean-going vessels designed for service in the Pacific.
The experiments have been arranged to determine the effect of shock and flash damage by underwater explosions at various depths, static bomb detonations, airburst bombing, magazine flooding, stowage of explosives and air attack against massed shipping. The latter is still under consideration and may be postponed until 1948-49.
Repair of H.M.S. Volage
London Times, Aug. 21.—Malta. His Majesty’s destroyer Volage, which was mined off Corfu on October 22, 1946, sailed out of Grand Harbour for the first time today, after reconstruction, for steaming trials. The Volage was brought into Grand Harbour under tow on November 1, 1946. Since then her bows have been completely reconstructed and electrical and other installations renewed.
Sinking of the Scharnhorst
London Times, Aug. 8.—The dispatch from Admiral Sir Bruce Fraser—now Lord
Fraser—reporting and describing the action which concluded with the Sinking of the German battleship Scharnhorst off the North Cape on December 26, 1943, was published last night in a supplement to the London Gazette.
The dispatch reveals what a large share radar had in the successful outcome of the action. It also brings out clearly the immense difficulties caused by the physical conditions of the Arctic—constant darkness, heavy seas caused by the gale that blew throughout, and the great distances involved which threatened to exhaust the destroyers’ fuel endurance at a crucial moment.
The general lines of the action will be well remembered. Admiral Burnett’s squadron of three cruisers twice engaged the German heavy ship—which could have blown them out of the water if she had been handled as resolutely and skilfully as were Admiral Cunningham’s battleships at Matapan—and twice drove her off from the convoy they were protecting, shadowing her during her second retreat until Admiral Fraser’s flagship, the Duke of York, could intercept, engage her by gunfire, and disable her so that she was eventually sunk by torpedoes. What was not previously known is that the Scharnhorst, when first located by Admiral Burnett’s radar, was actually between him and the convoy, but he was able to work round her before disclosing his presence and engaging.
Airborne Exercise
London Times, Sept. 5.—The War Office and Air Ministry announce that on September 22-23 Transport Command and the 2nd Parachute Brigade Group will carry out exercise “Longstop,” the first airborne manoeuvres in England since the end of the war.
The aircraft will be under the command of Air Vice-Marshal A. L. Fiddament, No. 38 Group, R. A.F., which was responsible for the technique of launching the airborne forces into battle during the war. The 2nd Parachute Brigade is now commanded by Brigadier R. H. Bellamy.
The exercise will begin on the evening of September 22, when about 700 men and equipment will be dropped to capture the airfield at Netheravon, Wiltshire. Next morning a battalion will land by parachute and glider as reinforcements, and when the airfield is securely held a third battalion with supporting arms will arrive in aircraft. The second phase of the exercise, on the afternoon of September 23, will include the landing in York aircraft of R.A.F. staffs to prepare the airfield at Brize Norton, Oxfordshire.
Gas Turbine M.G.B. Trials
London Times, Sept. 3.—Marine gas turbine propulsion is in the course of development by the Admiralty, and as the first experiment a turbine of this type has been fitted to a craft of coastal forces.
The turbine has been installed in M.G.B.- 2009, a triple screw 110 ft. craft built by Messrs. Camper Nicholson, Southampton, by Metropolitan Vickers Electrical Company. Putting out from H.M.S. Hornet (Captain T. A. C. Pakenham), the Coastal Forces base at Gosport, M. G. B. 2009 made a demonstration run to just beyond the Nab Tower to-day. Her gas turbine was started from rest without any warming up, and quickly reached full power. The turbine drives the central shaft and takes the place of one of the three I.C. 125 b.h.p. petrol engines. The unit produces remarkable power for its space and weight, and the Admiralty already have further promising developments in hand, one being the construction of a marine gas turbine sufficiently powerful to propel an escort vessel.
Not Jet-Propelled
In the gas turbine gas instead of steam is used to rotate the turbine, and the gas is produced in a generator of similar type to that used in a jet-propelled aircraft, although the ship is not jet-propelled. An axial flow compressor supplies air under pressure to the combustion chamber burning Diesel fuel, and the hot gases are expanded through a two-stage turbine to drive the compressor, and finally through a four-stage turbine coupled with the propeller shaft by gears. The power from the jet is converted into a rotary motion to drive the conventional shaft and propellor. Nominally, the output has been rated at 2,500 shaft horse-power.
(Editor’s Note: See Professional Notes, October Proceedings.)
Atomic Development Problems
The Aeroplane, Aug. 22.—First major unit constructed at Harwell which started last week is a Graphite Low Energy Experimental Pile (Gleep) designed for production of small quantities of radio-active isotopes. The reactor was built in 15 months and the engineering and construction were quickly carried out by W. E. Chivers and Sons, Ltd. This unit has been designed by a group of New Zealand scientists and British scientists.
Although we understand nuclear-energy projects have first call on certain classes of scientists, the overall progress of the Ministry of Supply’s plans seems to be very slow and has to be measured against World progress. Reports state the Russians have from
100,0 to 300,000 people working on atomic installations (of which perhaps one-eighth are actually engaged in the scientific work) and this figure compares closely with the maximum American effort of some 130,000 people engaged. Although the American total has shrunk to 45,000 since the end of the War, this figure represents a larger number of operatives and fewer engaged on nonskilled constructional work. The proportion of scientists is as high as 25 per cent.
Measured against this colossal effort overseas Harwell is but a mouse. There are grounds for believing that our theoretical knowledge on atomic subjects—although almost certainly less than that of America—is more than that in Russia and may be holding its own, but all the figures in the World, on paper, do not give us a kilowatt of power.
The aircraft industry needs urgently some central directive over the expected application of atomic energy—in all its branches— to aviation. Officially we are not building an atomic bomb, so it seems senseless to design new jet bombers around a hypothetical weapon. And we can rest assured that even if our bombers outpace all others they will be militarily insignificant if designed to carry only molecular explosives.
Radio-active dust is reported to be relatively simple to produce and this material might be packed into suitable containers and carried in our new aircraft. The design conditions around a jet bomber are, however, likely to be so stringent that it may be a great mistake to design the bomber without having some idea of what it is supposed to carry. The British Services appear to be practically oblivious of the implications of atomic energy. None of the important schools of warfare we have visited regards atomic weapons as parts of their curriculum. British warships still bristle like Christmas trees with equipment above decks, which is quite unrealistic in an atomic age.
The taxpayer is asked to pay fantastic sums to keep our World position as a great power, yet we are enmeshed with the most obsolete and useless weapons which could stand no hope of forcing an issue in a major conflict. The Vanguard is fitted with guns made 30 years ago! The R.A.F. remains incomparably the most effective and up-to-date of the Services but, even so, we are running a risk if our bombers have nothing to carry.
These are serious questions and it seems no argument to say that there will not be war for a few years. No doubt atomic weapons are discussed in the sanctums of Whitehall, but this talk must materialize into something positive.
(Editor’s Note: See last month’s Professional Notes on Atomic Pile.)
Rocket Development
London Times, Sept. 1.—Westcott. At an airfield in this quiet part of Buckinghamshire many scientists and technicians are working on the development of German techniques of rocket propulsion for aircraft and projectiles. Their work is highly secret, but to-day the Ministry of Supply, which surrounds its activities in this field with the strictest security measures, relaxed sufficiently to allow a party of journalists to go on a conducted tour of the less secret parts of its rocket propulsion department.
The department has been here since April, 1946, but its development is far from complete; it is to be expanded considerably, and at present many additional laboratories, test beds, and firing range structures are under construction. Recently, since the connection between missiles and aircraft is obvious, it came under the control of the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough, and there is a twice-daily air ferry service between the two stations.
Mr. W. R. Cook who was engaged in work on rockets throughout the war, is in charge of the department, and he is assisted by Mr. F. Elstub, formerly an R.A.F. rocket specialist, and Mr. A. D. Baxter, who worked at Farnborough during the war. There are about a dozen German scientists here, some of them with their families.
Winged Horror
One hangar contains a collection of winged horrors which indicate clearly enough that if the Germans had been able to resist invasion for a further year Allied air supremacy would probably have been lost. The V-l and V-2 rockets, the H.S. 296 glide bomb, and the Me. 163 rocket-driven intercepter fighter are relatively familiar—these were all used operationally with some success as bomber pilots and inhabitants of Southern England know.
Grouped around them are many other types of rocket which were just going into the production stage at the time of the German surrender. The “Feuerlillie” is a prettily named prototype. Most of these are for use against aircraft. There is a smaller version of the V-2 with half a ton of high explosive in its nose. The Enzian El., a remote-controlled version of the Me. 163, carries a war head of 500 pounds. The Rhein- tochter 1, a fearsome object with enormous vanes, carries 330 pounds of high explosive. These are in turn surrounded by their calves —small lean rockets, capable, however, of immense speeds and carrying enough explosive to make short work of at least one aircraft each. Some are controlled by radio, some by radar beam, and others by fine enamel wire attached to the parent aircraft.
The Army Apprentices School
Engineering, Aug. 22.—The Secretary of State for War, the Rt. Hon. F. J. Bellenger, inspected the boys and took the salute at a parade at the Army Apprentices School, Arborfield, Berkshire, on Tuesday, August 19, 1947. Boys enter the school at about 14§ years of age for three years, and are trained in one of six trades. Fitters do general fitting, including gun fitting; armourers are trained in repairs to small-arms and mortars; electricians are given a varied training; vehicle mechanics do motor-vehicle and tank work; instrument mechanics are trained on fire- control (gun) instruments; and telecommunication mechanics receive basic training for radio and radar work. In addition to workshops for each of these trades, there are also a well-equipped machine shop, blacksmiths’ shop and carpenters’ shop. The syllabus includes a general education, the proportion of which is gradually reduced during the three years, as the boys specialize in their trades. Entry is by competitive examinations held twice a year, and the object of the course is to train boys to the Army Class III standard in their trade. The workmanship, especially in fitting and turning, of which many examples were on view to visitors, is of a high standard; and certain trades unions recognise the training as equivalent to a civilian apprenticeship. The prospects for the boys are those of non-commissioned ranks, principally in the technical arms of the service, such as the Royal Engineers and the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, but any boy with the necessary aptitude can aspire to, and will receive every inducement to reach, commissioned rank, by qualifying for the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, or the Royal Arsenal and the Polytechnic, Woolwich. In the latter case, the successful boys enter for a B.Sc. (Eng.) Honours Degree of London University, or for a National Diploma, and qualify for a commission in a technical arm. The school will accommodate 1,020 boys, and very nearly this number were on parade with their own band and the band of the 7th (Queen’s Own) Hussars, for the visit of the Secretary of State. After the parade, the Commandant, Colonel C. E. M. Grenville-Grey, presented his report for the past school year, in the course of which he remarked that eight of the boys had been successful in the scholarship for the Woolwich Apprenticeship scheme. Mr. Bellenger then presented the prizes, and spoke of the work of the school. There are three other Army Apprentices Schools, at Harrogate, Taunton, and Chepstow, and he said that, unfortunately, the latter would have to be moved to make room for the proposed Severn Bridge. It was an ill wind that blew nobody any good, however, and it was possible that the Chepstow School might remain in its present location for some time yet, if the threatened reduction of capital works should occur. Mr. Bellenger said it was the Army Council’s intention to provide, at the schools, academic and technical training of a high standard, which would compare very favourably with the best that was being provided by civilian firms. Although the future regular Army might be small, it would be well- equipped and efficient, and the work of these boys would become more vital as the Army was increasingly mechanized. He hoped that many would complete their full term of service in the regular Army to qualify for a pension, but whenever they sought a job in civilian life, he was sure they would find themselves well trained for it.
(Editor’s Note: This appears worth looking
into.)
FRANCE
French Navy
The Revue Maritime, July.—The end of spring has marked a change in the activities of the French Navy. Freed at least in part from the demands of the Indochina operations with their heavy expenditures, their repeated requirements of personnel and materiel,—it has been able, without neglecting any of the missions required by the security of the French Union, to concern itself more freely than in the past with the reorganization, regrouping, and training of its home forces.
Not that no obligation remains to maintain relatively important effectives in the Far Eastern Theatre. But, with the exception of the cruiser Tourville, waiting to be relieved by the old Duguay-Trouin, they comprise no more than light combat units, best suited to the repression of smuggling and guerrilla warfare: two colonial dispatch boats and two frigates, eight each of dispatch boats and mud-dredgers. The aircraft carrier Dixmude and the cruiser Duquesne will take turns repatriating a thousand men of the armored regiment of marines; the dispatch boat Savorgnan de-Brazza and the frigate Croix de Lorraine returned to the mother country between May 15 and the first of June.
In contrast with the reduction in power in Indochina, the most powerful naval concentration that France has made in two years was set up during May in North African waters. Up to 17 ships have been assembled at one time, the greatest part of which were of the Intervention Force: the Richelieu, the Arromanches, the cruisers Georges Leygues and Gloire, the light cruisers Malin and Terrible, the destroyers Hoche, Desaix, and Marceau. Our ships have not only received the warmest welcome in all the ports, from Agadir to Tunis, where they have carried, together and singly, proof of the rebirth of the French Navy; off the Moroccan coast, in the region of Mers-el-Kebir, then along the Berber coast, they have engaged in ma- noeuvers alone and in conjunction with the air force; these have greatly improved their training and strengthened, particularly among the various units of the Intervention Force so long separated, the technical, tactical, and supervisory cohesion.
A first separation was made at Casablanca May 20. While the main part of the fleet was in Algerian waters and the Georges Leygues returned to Toulon to pick up General Juin, new Resident General at Morocco, the frigate La Surprise appeared with the submarines Archimede, Glorieux, and the former German 2518 for a two-months’ endurance cruise in the Gulf of Guinea. One might wonder about the value of such a campaign, at a time when in all the fleets, and particularly in the Anglo-Saxon fleets, tests are constantly being made to perfect submarine technique (the fine points of hydrodynamics, use of schnorckel, motors capable of maintaining great speeds on submersion, etc.). May 28, after 4 days at Algiers, our naval forces were again divided into two groups, the Arromanches and the light cruisers to visit the ports of eastern Algeria and Tunis; the Richelieu with the destroyers to carry out practice drills for ten days off Oran before returning to France.
The spectacular demonstrations of the North African cruise have forced the activities of our sailors at Madagascar somewhat into the background. Their task was not as difficult as in Indo-china, but nevertheless they did a good job of suppressing the insurrectionary movement. The dispatch boat Lap&rouse and the patrol boat Ajaccienne participated in the operations of the eastern coast, at Mananjary and at Nosivarika; the Duguay-Trouin and the transport lie d’Oleron unloaded reinforcements and materiel (28 May-1 June); a naval commando force assures the defense of Tamatave. An exploit which would call to mind the most epic pages of our colonial past if it had not been a “victory without tears,” a commando band of 20 men, brought by the Ajaccienne and the oil tanker Var, landed at Antalaha, marched on Andapa where there was a concentration of 400 rebels, and captured without bloodshed 50 prisoners, among whom were the leaders of the revolt, pacifying in 5 days a territory as extensive as 4 French departments.
Unfortunately, these successes must not allow us to forget how much the future of the Navy depends on the resolution of the present financial crisis. The budgetary restrictions it has been forced to accept prevent it from testing new weapons, pursuing scientific research as other nations have been doing; and they have prevented until now the modernization of bases. They retard construction, and endanger armament plans. The Navy has existed during the second third of 1947 on a basis of an effective force of 53,000 men, estimated so exactly that it has been necessary to levy on the battleship Lorraine, placed on the reserve list, the greater part of 1,200 men, the crews of 4 frigates of the O.P.A.C.I., whose maintenance is incumbent upon the Ministry of Public Works and Transport, just as that of
3,0 men of the Amphibious Force rests with the Ministry of the Colonies, but remains in the last analysis with the Navy. When France receives her share of the Italian ships delivered to the Allies, when the ships in process of completion enter into service (the submarines la Creole, undergoing trials, and I’Africaine, being fitted out for trials, the dispatch boats Bisson, Commandant Amyot d’Inville and Commandant de Pimodan, which should be ready in August), only by the strictest economy in its effective force will the Navy succeed in equipping, if not all the tonnage whose active maintenance would be desirable, at least, without exceptions, the new or modernized units.
OTHER COUNTRIES Argentina Four PFs for Argentina
New York Times, Sept. 11.—Four frigates of the United States Navy, all of the Asheville class, are to be reconditioned in New York for their new owner, the Argentine Navy, officials of Todd Shipyards Corporation announced yesterday. Two of the former escort vessels have entered the Todd Hoboken yard for extensive repairs. Argentina bought the ships from the United States Maritime Commission, disposal agent for the Government.
The 304-foot, 1,100-ton craft are the Caicos and Unionlown, already in the shipyard, and the Asheville and Reading, which are due to enter the yard tomorrow. After overhauling and deliver to Argentina they are to be renamed the Trinidad, Sarandi, Hercules and Heroina.
Rehabilitation work on the vessels will take two or three months. They are to be delivered in Buenos Aires in full operating condition, but with no armament. They are to sail from New York for Buenos Aires.
Argentina Seeks Warships
New York Herald Tribune, Sept. 4.—Rear Admiral Athos Colonna, principal purchasing agent for the Argentine Navy in the United States, indicated Tuesday that he hoped to be able to start buying naval ships as a result of the inter-American defense treaty signed Tuesday in Rio de Janeiro.
Since the end of the war Argentina has been trying to buy ships, airplanes and weapons for all her armed forces in the United States, but has had no success because of State Department opposition. It was not until the middle of last year that the United States recognized that Argentina was sufficiently purged of Nazi influences to comply with the Act of Chapultepec. Thereafter President Truman’s proposal for standardizing military equipment throughout the Western Hemisphere failed to win Congress approval and had to be reintroduced last May.
The successful conclusion of the InterAmerican Defense Conference, originally scheduled for 1945 and twice postponed, was laid down by James F. Byrnes, former Secretary of State, as a necessary prerequisite to any military dealings with Argentina.
The Navy Ministry in Buenos Aires let it be known last November that it wanted to buy an aircraft carrier, a heavy cruiser, three submarines, four destroyers and landing craft for a battalion of marines. More recent dispatches from Buenos Aires raised the number of destroyers to six, but did not mention the landing craft.
None of these has been obtained so far, though Argentina did buy four small escort frigates last November. To create an atmosphere of cordial relations between the navies of Argentina and the United States, the cruiser La Argentina visited New York last September and again in July. For the same purpose, and to get started on whatever buying was possible, Admiral Colonna came to New York last March.
All he has been able to buy so far is an impressive $400,000 house at 12 East Fifty- sixth Street for the offices of the Argentine Naval Commission, which he heads, and four harbor tugs. He has also ordered three noncombatant supply ships to be built in Halifax.
Admiral Colonna said there were a lot of other things he could buy for the Navy while he is waiting. “We need all kinds of supplies and machinery which we buy as a simple commercial operation,” he said. But business has not been brisk.
“I am waiting for instructions from my government,” he said. “Just now they do not want me to buy navy ships, and they are not for sale, either. It may be the Navy Ministry will change their minds. I do not know, but it seems reasonable to expect that after the conference at Rio there may be general discussions about armaments.”
The admiral has thirty officers on his staff, and they have clean new typewriters and steel office furniture. The columned walls and ornate grand staircase are freshly painted, and deep carpets deaden the noise in the hall. Large packing cases labeled “fragile” and carrying Argentine addresses were being carried out of the building yesterday, indicating that private purchases were being made while the government had to wait.
Japan
New York Times, Aug. 21.—Seven Japanese defense witnesses at the International War Crimes trial testified today that no military installations or fortifications existed on Palau, Truk, Saipan, Tinian and other mandated islands prior to the outbreak of war Dec. 7, 1941.
Their testimony was not challenged by the prosecution during cross-examination.
Hidemi Yoshida, former captain who served in the navy ministry from October, 1941, to March, 1945, testified that, while Japan regarded the mandated islands as “a first line of defense,” no military installations on them were ordered prior to November, 1941, because of prohibitions of the League of Nations mandate.
On cross-examination, Yoshida testified that studies had been made and plans prepared for use in time of war. He said the first order to begin fortification construction was issued Nov. 5, 1941.
Yoshida said the fortification order was issued by Shigetaro Shimada, former navy minister, one of the defendants along with former Premier Hideki Tojo and twenty-three others.
The witness added that at the war’s outbreak there were not enough fuel storage facilities in the islands to accommodate the Japanese fleet.
Another witness, Asashichi Iwasaki, an engineer, testified that he prepared in August 1940, a blueprint for installation of buildings on Wotje Island.
All witnesses testified that the Japanese rushed in guns and planes after hostilities began.
End of Japan’s Navy Potential
New York Herald Tribune, Aug. 31.—The war potential of Japan’s badly-mauled navy has been eliminated in the two years of occupation, a second anniversary report by
General Douglas MacArthur’s general staff said today.
The report said that 82.5 per cent of the seventeen major warships operable or tow- able on V-J Day had been scrapped, as had 44.8 per cent of the fifteen big ships damaged heavily at that time.
“Only five sunken Japanese submarines remain to be salvaged and scrapped to complete the destruction of the Japanese undersea fleet,” the general staff said, adding that 110 submarines had been destroyed.
It also pointed to the division of minor combat vessels among the United States, China, Russia and Great Britain. It said that of 292 merchant vessels which had been damaged or sunk, sixty-two were exempted from scrapping as salvageable while the others were declared total losses.
The report added that 99 per cent of the 85,000,000 pieces of clothing and 3,000,000 tons of military food seized at the start of the occupation had been returned to the Japanese. About 90 per cent of all civilian items taken over were returned.
Poland
Chicago Tribune, Sept. 3.—An authoritative source said today the Russians had removed three large and damaged German warships from Polish waters. These were the carrier Graf Zeppelin, the battle cruiser Schleswig-Holstein and the cruiser Ltitzow, the informant siad.
A Polish newspaper report said the wrecked Schleswig-Holstein had been raised from Gdynia harbor and taken toward the sea by the Russians to be sunk. Whether the battle cruiser and the other two ships were destroyed was not known.
The United States state department last February asked Moscow whether the Graf Zeppelin and other former German warships had been destroyed, as agreed to with the United States and United Kingdom. The Russians replied then they were having “technical difficulties” in disposing of the vessels.
Sweden
(Courtesy Mr. Roger Simons).—Late in July the first of two 7,400-ton cruisers
ordered by the Swedish Navy ran her final sea trials off the Swedish West Coast. She is the cruiser Tre Kronor (Three Crowns), built by the Gotaverken Shipyard of Gothenburg. The second unit of the same class, Gota Lejon (Gotha Lion), is under construction at the Eriksberg Shipyard, also of Gothenburg, and is expected to be delivered within a few months.
These cruisers are 590 feet long, 52 feet in beam, and are largely of welded construction. Main armament consists of seven 152 millimeter guns, three in a triple turret on the foredeck and the other four in twd double turrets aft. In addition there are twenty 40- millimeter and nine 25-millimeter anti-aircraft guns. The 152- and 40-millimeter arms are all-automatic and even the first-mentioned can be used against aircraft.
The fire-speed of the guns is claimed to be higher than that of earlier designs. Thus it is estimated that the seven 152-millimeter guns are the equivalent of ten guns of the usual type. Altogether, Tre Kronor can deliver about six tons of shells per minute and more than twenty airplanes can be taken under fire simultaneously. The ship also mounts two 53-millimeter triple torpedo tubes, as well as gear for the laying of mines, dropping of depth charges, etc.
Tre Kronor is powered by two steam turbines and the propellers are of stainless steel.
Figures as to the speed have not been released, of course, but it is affirmed that very satisfactory results were attained at the recent full-speed trials.
The fire-fighting system is very extensive and includes foam-spraying facilities. Among other details released by the Swedish naval authorities may be mentioned that the ship carries 350 electric motors and that there are 322 telephones for the internal communication system. The crew consists of about 620 officers and men.
In the building and equipment of the new cruisers Sweden has relied almost entirely on her own internal resources, even most of the fine-instrumentation being produced within the country. Guns and armor were delivered by the well-known Bofors Ordnance Works.
These cruisers are considered a substantial reinforcement of the Swedish Navy. During the war years some 90 new units were completed, most of them in the lighter category. The fleet at present consists of about 150 fighting vessels of various types, a strength greater than ever before in the country’s history.
Turkey
Chicago Tribune, Sept. 22.—A Turkish naval squadron of 22 units led by the 23,000 ton battle cruiser Yavuz will attend as observers the maneuvers of the United States and British fleets in the eastern Mediterranean in October. Gen. Salihk Omurtak, chief of the Turkish general staff, will head a group of senior Turkish officers who will go to the United States in October in connection with the United States-Turkey $100,000,000 aid agreement. A Turkish military mission is already in the United States.
AVIATION
XP-87, Four Engine Jet Fighter,
Starts Tests
New York Herald Tribune, Sept. 14.—The first four-engined jet fighter airplane, powered and equipped to operate under any weather conditions, has been completed and is ready for preliminary ground tests, the Army Air Forces announced Saturday.
The XP-87, said the A. A. F., “is designed to operate under the most extreme weather conditions and will incorporate the latest developments in anti-icing equipment.”
The brief announcement contained no elaboration of this reference to climatic conditions to indicate whether the XP-87 was designed with particular attention to Polar operations, a subject which has received special attention in recent defense planning. All jet and conventional engine fighters up to now have been powered with either one or two engines.
Airmen noted, however, that weather is a problem for all fighter aircraft since they operate at high altitudes where extreme icing conditions and air turbulence are frequently encountered.
The XP-87 has a wing span of sixty feet and over-all length of sixty-five, compared with a wing span of thirty-nine feet and length of thirty-four feet, six inches for the P-80, with which most of the jet fighter units of the A.A.F. are now equipped. The new airplane is an experimental model. A two- man crew will operate the XP-87; one man handles the smaller jet fighter.
The jet power plants of the Curtiss- Wright-built XP-87 are manufactured by the Westinghouse Electric Corporation.
The fighter has been taken from its construction hangar at the Columbus, Ohio, plant of Curtiss-Wright preparatory to ground and taxi tests, the A.A.F. said, and after completion of those tests will be sent to the Muroc, Calif., air base for flight testing.
Speedy Air Truck to Carry 16 Tons
New York Times, Aug. 28.—Military and commercial airline officials tomorrow will witness preview demonstrations of a postwar sky truck, capable of carrying sixteen tons of freight at 300 miles an hour, at the Columbus plant of the Curtiss-Wright corporation.
A full-scale wood mock-up of an airgiant designed to carry larger air cargoes than any airplane yet introduced, including the 31,000 pound 155-mm. “Long Tom” field gun, was described as capable of carrying any commercial cargo that would fit into a box car.
The entire tail section is hinged and may be raised by a hydraulic system, permitting a 7|-ton truck to be driven aboard. A single unit forty-eight feet long, nine feet wide and seven feet high, weighing 32,000 pounds, can be accommodated.
Engineers have determined the direct operating costs at about 4 cents a ton mile, meaning overnight delivery of one ton of freight from New York to San Francisco for $112.
The high-wing construction and special cargo doors in the side of the plane would permit thirty-foot highway truck trailers to be loaded directly from the plane, reducing loading and unloading time.
The plane is powered by four engines, totaling 8,400 horsepower.
Electric propellers can be used as air brakes. or to back the plane into loading docks.
The tail of the plane stands thirty-two feet high. Overall length of the craft is eighty- nine feet, and wingspan is equivalent to the height of a ten-story building.
(Editor’s Note: It is still in a wooden state, we notice.)
Research Seeks Better Fuel for Rocket Engines
New York Herald Tribune, Sept. 21.— Rocket engines are in the top drawer of aviation research projects. Here is some evidence of the rocket’s growing stature:
Professional Notes
1947]
1. The Navy’s launching of a V-2 from the carrier Midway.
2. The Air Force’s unveiling of the Boeing B-47, first combat type plane to use rocket engines, although only as auxiliary power.
3. Construction of a rocket engine test center at the propulsion laboratory of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics in Cleveland.
Rockets are extravagant of fuel. They burn about eighteen pounds an hour for each pound of thrust. A turbo-jet engine uses only a pound or so. The reason is that rocket engines carry the oxygen needed to burn their fuel, while jet engines take it from the air. For the same reason the rocket is not limited to the earth’s atmosphere, but the jet must be operated below 60,000 feet altitude.
Combat Plane Use
Rockets have been associated primarily with missiles because of relatively simple application. However, the rocket engine is getting much attention for other uses. The Air Force is incorporating it in combat plane designs for auxiliary power use and for interceptor fighter types, which require tremendous climbing performance.
Commercial air lines are working with rockets as auxiliary power for take-off and in emergencies, as the Navy’s flying boats did during the war.
The rocket’s big limitations are weight and volume of the fuel and difficulty of turning their motors off and on. This latter can be accomplished when liquid propellants are used, as demonstrated by the Bell XS-1, the speed- of-sound test-plane built for the Air Force and the N.A.C.A. It cannot be done with solid propellants, such as are used in airborne missiles.
The N.A.C.A. assignment at Cleveland is easily summarized: To find better rocket fuels and to learn to use them. Probably the best of known rocket fuels is the alcohol- hydrogen-peroxide combination developed by the Germans. This gives a “specific impulse” of 218 pounds of thrust for each pound of fuel burned a second.
Could Triple V-2 Range
Experts say that if that specific impulse could be increased to 300, the range of a
rocket such as the V-2 would be tripled. The difference would be tremendous. It would mean that a rocket-firing carrier could stand 700 miles offshore, or fire that much farther inland.
Some N.A.C.A. scientists feel now that there is hope for an appreciable improvement in rocket fuels. Last year it was said that rockets of much greater power than then known were not in sight. The German V-2 still stands as the most powerful rocket actually tested.
In studying fuels, the objective is to find materials which pack more punch for a given volume. Space is more important than weight in missiles and aircraft designed to travel faster than sound.
In seeking ways to use fuels which burn at higher temperature, the search is going in the direction of glazed ceramic surfaces as well as toward new metal alloys and designs for cooling jackets. Present fuels burn at between 5,000 and 6,000 degrees.
Man Power and Cost Factor
Lessons of World War II have complicated such research by emphasizing the importance of supply and cost in man power and materials. When a new fuel or material gives promise, it must be studied immediately for availability in usable quantities, its possible drain on a war-time economy, the problems involved in handling and its storage characteristics. Storage will be important for use aboard ships and also for maintaining supplies at distant land bases.
N.A.C.A.’s rocket motor test stands were designed for utmost safety. They were in a comparatively isolated area. The entire test unit is inclosed by a thick wall of earth, and individual buildings within the area are separated by reinforced concrete baffles. The test stands are in four double units so that eight motors can be tested at once.
Through a remote control arrangement engineering observations can be made from a central building fully protected by blast baffles, as well as from the individual test cells.
N.A.C.A.’s big Cleveland laboratory has been converted about 95 per cent to turbojet and rocket engine problems. The reciprocating or piston engine is no longer studied
I
there except in “compounding”—that is, using the exhaust to drive a turbine and thus put additional power into the crankshaft.
Hurricane Patrol
New York Herald Tribune, Sept. 14.— by Milton Carr—San Juan.—Ten Navy airmen and this correspondent who flew through the center of the tropical hurricane now raging in the Atlantic, can describe it in one word: “Terrifying.”
We battled the black, doughnut-shaped monster for more than two hours in one of the Navy’s most powerful four-motored planes. For at least five heart-stopping minutes I was sure the storm had won.
Winds of 140-mile-an-hour velocity slammed us once to within 250 feet of the churning seas. The pilot and co-pilot worked feverishly to pull out, but it was like trying to swim up a waterfall.
For an instant the plane was virtually stationary. We could feel it shudder as the engines clawed at the wall of rain and wind. Then it began to skid sidewise.
After that paralyzing moment the plane gained forward momentum.
Darkness in Afternoon
Two hundred fifty feet below, the sea looked like a huge vanilla milk-shake in a mixer. All around, for a hundred miles in any direction and for possibly 20,000 feet upward was the hurricane. We were in the center.
Then darkness closed in. It was 3 o’clock in the afternoon and above the swirling storm the sun was shining. Yet the plane wing which seconds before I had watched flap like a bird’s wing no longer was visible. .
The shriek of the wind drowned out the engines. Water began to pour in through the roof and sides of the plane.
Forward, in the cockpit, the pilot and copilot were wrestling with the controls to keep the big ship’s nose up. They were flying blind. The needle registering altitude bounced crazily between 200 and 800 feet.
The plane was bobbing too fast for the instrument to keep up. A sudden down-draft or a skip in the beat of the engine and we would be plunged toward the ocean before the altimeter could indicate the drop.
Suddenly, we were blinded by a bright glare. We had broken through into the center of the doughnut. It was like coming out of a tunnel. Wind velocity dropped at least one- half in the space of seconds. The plane righted itself and started climbing, but in a minute and a half we crossed the relative calm of the center and smashed into the other side. It was the same agonizing experience all over again as we fought our way out.
Two hours after entering the storm we came out on the other side. As the plane turned and headed back for Puerto Rico, the crew broke into relieved chatter through the inter-communications system.
The experience was all in a day’s work for this group of young men. They are the Navy’s “hurricane hunters” and it is their job to track storms and obtain the information that goes into Weather Bureau advisories.
Throughout the flight Lieutenant Commander Archie R. Fields, aerologist, of Whitesburg, Ky., gave a running description of the hurricane into a wire recording outfit. Weathermen can play back his commentary and learn more about what makes hurricanes tick.
(Editor’s Note: Who says they don’t earn their fifty percent extra flying pay?)
RAF Squadron 617 Visits U. S.
The Aeroplane, Aug. 13.—First direct crossing of the Atlantic from East to West by a bomber squadron was successfully accomplished by the 16 Lincoln aircraft of No. 617 Squadron, Royal Air Force, on Wednesday, July 23, adding another pioneer effort to the short but outstanding history of the squadron, which began with the unique breaching of the Ruhr Dams, followed by some of the finest night precision attacks of the War, the sinking (with No. 9 Squadron) of the Tirpitz, the dropping of the first
22,0- lb. bomb, and the destruction of the Kembs barrage on the Rhine.
The weather did everything to help the Squadron on this occasion. The take-off was made in ideal conditions, and the only difficult patch of the weather was encountered over Ireland, involving a certain amount of blind flying, and mild icing. At the briefing, conditions at Gander were given as highly doubtful and a diversion to Goose Bay was covered. When the Squadron reached Newfoundland they found perfect conditions, with unlimited visibility.
For control purposes the 16 Lincolns flew individually, taking off at 10-minute intervals from B inbrook. Prestwick controlled the first half of the flight, and Gander the second. A great circle course was flown of 2,020 nautical miles, and the briefed speed was 165 knots I.A.S. The aircraft flew alternately at 8,000 ft. and 10,000 ft., and thanks to better winds at the higher level, the second aircraft, L-Love, piloted by F/L A. H. Crowe, D.F.C., with the leader of the mission, G/Capt. W. P. J. Thompson, D.F.C., on board, was the first to land at Gander, after a flight of 11 hrs. 20 mins., from take-off. The Squadron Commander, W/Cdr. C. D. Milne, D.F.C., in A-Abel, which had taken off first, came in shortly afterwards. The take-offs stretched from
08.0 hrs. D.B.S.T. to 10.30 hrs., and the landings from 19.30 hrs. D.B.S.T. to 21.48 hrs.
On the way across, the crews had hoped for a fix from the weather ship, C-Charlie, at 32 degrees West. One operator made contact, only to learn that the ship had moved off station to take an emergency case of appendicitis back to port.
Loran was the main aid for the 2,000- mile ocean crossing. It had been expected that there would be a gap of 400 to 500 miles in the middle of the crossing, but this never exceeded 250 miles, and in two cases aircraft had Loran coverage the whole way across. Consul was found most satisfactory, and was still being picked up within sight of Gander, but was not used beyond 40 degrees West. Radio range was picked up 350 miles out from Newfoundland, but 617 Squadron, like civilian operators on the same day, had a dead area on the W/T over a distance of approximately 800 miles. A similar phenomenon had been met with in 1928, and is possibly attributable to sun spots. H2S Mk. 3 gave its usual assistance at either end of the journey.
L-Love, the first across, was one of the two aircraft that had difficulty with their wireless equipment, and the navigator, F/L E. G. Crowley, relied a great deal on his sextant in the astro dome. That he, like
every other navigator, made landfall within four miles of his flight plan, speaks well for the hard work the navigators put in. None had navigated on an Atlantic crossing previously.
The Squadron having lined up their Lincolns at the side of one of the asphalt runways at Gander, went off to enjoy the four hours they had made on the crossing. They were welcomed at Gander on behalf of the Newfoundland Government by Mr. H. A. L. Pattison, Director of Civil Aviation.
Air Marshal Sir Hugh Saunders, the A.O.C.-in-C., Bomber Command, sent a cable of congratulation to all crews on Thursday morning, while they were in the process of getting their aircraft ready for the journey down to Washington. There was little to do as the Lincolns had come out of their long flight with a clean bill of health.
The squadron later flew in formation over 12 cities of three of the eastern states during a six-hour flight from Andrews Field, near Washington, D. C., made as part of the American Army Air Forces Day programme.
When the Lincolns returned, a formation of P-80s came in to escort them over the capital. Flying in flights of four, 20 of the Shooting Stars made wide sweeps over the Lincolns as they came down low over the huge concourse of spectators at the Air Forces base at Bolling Field. From there 617 Squadron just had time to gain sufficient height to over-fly the Capitol, Washington Memorial and the White House in salute. Then they followed the P-80s into their base at Andrews Field. This airfield is at the site of Headquarters Strategic Air Command, Bomber Command’s opposite formation in the U.S.A.F.
The squadron arrived at Andrews Field on Monday, July 28, from Gander, and they left for Detroit on Monday, August 4. They were greeted last Monday by General Spaatz, Commanding General U.S.A.F., and General Kenney, Commanding General, Strategic Air Command.
“Naval Aviation”
The Aeroplane, Sept. 5.—Earlier in the year, when the Admiralty ruled that all Naval air activities should be referred to by the single generic term “Naval Aviation,”
there were those who confessed to relief. It was a constant embarrassment to refer to “Naval Air Units,” “Fleet Air Arm,” “Naval Air Arm,” and so on. However, we are beginning to find that “Naval Aviation” is an awkward expression to use. For instance, it is the most natural thing in the World to say “A Fleet Air Arm Pilot,” but a “Pilot of Naval Aviation” or “A Naval Aviation Pilot” is clumsy; a “Naval Aviation Squadron” is equally inapt. There are a great many examples one can think of where the term “Naval Aviation,” when used as an adjective or a noun, becomes unwieldy and even absurd.
It has been very difficult to find a suitable and expressive name for the air activities of the Navy. Fleet Air Arm is an admirable name, but can no longer be used, because the word “Arm” is an anachronism in the Royal Navy, which is half, or nearly half, an air service. The same argument rules out any variation of “Branch” (i.e., “Air Branch of the Royal Navy”), although we do not imagine the slang expression “branch types” will die easily.
Two alternatives come to mind: one is a revival of the very old “Royal Naval Air Service,” the other is the American expression “Naval Air.” There is something to commend both of these two. We have Royal Naval Air Stations so, logically, the people who run them should be the Royal Naval Air Service. Some find “Naval Air” is crisp and new—unlike Royal Naval Air Service, which is still somehow vaguely connected with the old body (and, by implication, associated with the former administrative machinery), Naval Air is expressive and can be used easily, e.g., Naval Air Squadron, Naval Air Officer (Naval Aviation Officer is unthinkable), yet who could say “Five squadrons of Naval Air were based at Hatston,” or “A considerable concentration of Naval Air attacked Salerno”?
The Navy’s Air commitments have expanded so enormously that it raises the whole question of whether an expression to describe the air component is really required at this stage. We feel that the Admiralty must consider this broader issue again. There can be little dispute that Naval Aviation is unsatisfactory, and it might be a good thing to discontinue any special reference to the air. So long as naval aviation has a separate name it is to be inferred that its air arm is still an attachment of the Navy instead of being an integral part of it. That is the danger of any name.
(Editor’s Note: Perhaps a name contest is in order. Who will put up the prize?)
New Air Escape Device
London Times, Aug. 30.—Testing a new apparatus designed to enable pilots to escape from high-speed aircraft such as jet-propelled fighters, Mr. Bernard Lynch, a 29-year-old employee of the Martin-Baker Aircraft Company, made a successful descent to-day from a Gloster Meteor jet fighter travelling at just over 500 miles an hour. Nowhere in the world had anyone previously been ejected from an aeroplane flying at such a high speed.
Mr. Lynch used a pilot-ejection seat invented by Mr. James Martin, head of the firm of Martin-Baker Aircraft, which has now been adopted as standard for all R.A.F. jet-propelled fighters. The apparatus was first described in The Times of June 1 last year, after it had been tested experimentally on a special rig. The pilot, after jettisoning the cockpit cover, pulls a blind over his face. This fires the cartridge which ejects him, still sitting in his seat, clear of the aeroplane, and also protects his face from the rush of air as he is hurled upwards at a speed of 60 ft. a second. The operation takes only one-fifth of a second, at a force equal to 23 times the force of gravity.
Descent From 12,000 Ft.
A static line linked to the seat operates a switch inside the cockpit, when the pilot is safely away from the aircraft, releasing a drogue which keeps the seat steady in midair. Eight seconds after the drogue has been pulled out a parachute attached to the seat is released automatically. When the pilot is certain that he is well clear of the aircraft he pulls the ripcord of his own parachute to make a descent in the normal manner.
Mr. Lynch had previously made two “emergency” landings in this manner from aircraft travelling at lower speeds. To-day’s test, which was completely successful, was made 12,000 ft. above the R.A.F. airfield at Chalgrove, near High Wycombe, from an adapted two-seat Meteor III piloted by Captain J.E.D. Scott, of the National Gas Turbine Establishment.
With the aid of field glasses it was just possible to see Lynch fired from the back seat of the Meteor flying almost at maximum speed. The drogue steadied his upward rush, and eight seconds later the seat parachute opened. For two minutes Lynch remained sitting in his seat, and then we could see his own parachute blossom out soon after he had fallen clear of the seat.
The whole descent occupied just five minutes, Lynch said he experienced no difficulty whatever.
(Editor’s Note: See Professional Notes, June Proceedings, page 753.)
Jet Air Liner Tests
London Times, Sept. 2.—To pave the way for using de Havilland Ghost gas turbines in the DH106, which will almost certainly be the first trans-Atlantic “straight” jet air liner, two of these units have been installed in the outboard positions of a four- engined Lancastrian air liner, in place of the Rolls-Royce Merlin piston engines. The DH106, now being built at Hatfield, is expected to begin its test flights within the next two years.
Although the Ghost engine is giving 5,000 lb. static thrust on the test bench, its power output in flight at present is approximately 4,500 lb., and the object is to increase its output to the test bench figure. The period between engine overhauls is some 120 hours, which is acceptable for military aircraft but not for civil air liners, and it is the intention to double the present period. With these two main objects two Lancastrians have been adapted as flying test beds, and so far about 60 hours’ flying experience has been gained.
When the Ghost-Lancastrian was seen in public for the first time to-day it carried aeronautical correspondents on a short flight which provided a foretaste of the smooth and comparatively quiet flying which passengers will be able to enjoy when jet- propelled air liners are available.
We took off with all four engines—two Ghosts and two Merlins—functioning, but after gaining height the piston engines were switched off and their airscrews feathered. Instantly a big reduction in noise could be noticed, and there was no vibration in the cabin. Having crossed London and flown as far as Luton in a few minutes, we returned by way of Radlett, and then the two Merlins were again switched on for the landing.
With all four engines working, the Lancastrian reaches a speed of 330 m.p.h. at
20.0 ft. and has a general rate of climb of approximately 2,000 ft. a minute. With only the two gas turbines functioning the air liner’s best speed is 275 m.p.h. at 10,000 ft.
New British Transport
N. Y. Times, Sept. 3.—Britain’s largest and fastest military transport aircraft, the Handley Page Hastings, was removed from the secrecy shelf today some eighteen months after its initial flight. It is now in full scale production for the RAF.
It can be used as a freighter, troop transport, ambulance, para troop-carrier, glider tug, or for supply dropping.
This four-engined monoplane, driven by Bristol Hercules sleeve-valve engines of 1,675 horsepower each, has a wingspan of 113 feet, is 81 feet, 8 inches long, and 22 feet, 6 inches in height. Its maximum take-off weight is 75,000 pounds. It has a top speed of 354 m.p.h. and a service ceiling of about
27.0 feet. Its maximum range is 3,260 miles.
High Altitude Tests
London Times, Aug. 19.—Before much practical experience had been accumulated it used to be believed that when aircraft were capable of flying at high altitudes they would be able to “get above the weather.”
Greater knowledge has disclosed that at altitudes above 25,000 feet, gusts—unheralded patches of violently turbulent air—constitute a serious problem which, unless solved, may outweigh the other advantages of flying at great heights.
For this reason Mr. N. E. Rowe, head of research and long-term development of British European Airways Corporation,Jis to institute research work into the nature and frequency of such gusts. The Ministry of Supply and Ministry of Civil Aviation are collaborating with B.E.A., and two high- altitude Mosquito aircraft are being made available for flight tests which are expected to start early in the autumn. They will be equipped with special radio and radar, and with an accelerometer to measure the response of the aircraft to the gusts.
The first flight tests will be made over the United Kingdom, but subsequently the Mosquitos will fly to various continental capitals on the B.E.A. regular routes.
British Flying Boat’s 10,000 Mile Flight
London Times, Sept. 9.—Within the next few days three R.A.F. Sunderland flying- boats of No. 205 Squadron, Air Command, Far East, based on Ceylon, will leave on a
10,0- mile training flight across the Indian Ocean to Durban and back. Calls will be made at various Empire outposts.
On the outward flight the aircraft will call at Male, in the Ceylonese Maidive Islands, 550 miles south-west of Ceylon, and at the Seychelles Islands, 1,400 miles from Male. The Sunderlands’ first landfall on the coast of Africa will be at Mombasa, chief port of Kenya, and thereafter the formation will fly over Portuguese East Africa to Durban, calling at Mozambique and Lourenfo Marques. On the return journey a call will be made at Mauritius.
The crews will spend a total of about 72 hours in the air, and the flight will occupy between a fortnight and a month.
Canada to Sell 150 Bombing Planes to China
N. Y. Herald Tribune, Sept. 15.—A Canadian government spokesman said today the Department of External Affairs had approved sale to the Chinese government by the Canadian War Assets Corporation of 150 twin-engined Mosquito planes, of the type used by the British in daylight bombing raids on German cities during the war.
These plywood aircraft now are considered obsolete by the Royal Canadian Air Force and 500 recently were declared surplus.
The sale to China is being arranged under terms of a 1945 agreement by which Canada was to sell “certain surpluses,” including aircraft, to that country. The price was not disclosed, as details of the sale still are in negotiation, but Canada is seeking payment in United States dollars.
The government spokesman emphasized that the sale was a purely commercial matter and without implication that Canada may or may not approve Chinese government policies.
Russian Jet Fighter
Model Airplane News, October.—Details are available on the first Russian jet fighter, which was flown over Red Square in Moscow during May Day celebration. It is a Lavochkin design powered by two German-built BMW 003A axial-flow turbojet engines. Air for the two engines, which are mounted side- by-side in the belly, is taken in at the nose and the ducts divide on either side of the pilot, who is located well forward in the nose. The craft has a 40 ft. span and is 35 ft. long. Estimated top speed is over 500 mph. and it was built as a research airplane. Russia is continuing production of Messerschmitt ME-262, Nazi twin-jet fighter, and it is believed that the production rate is even higher than during the war. Following claims that the 262 outclassed the Lockheed P-80, AAF awarded a contract to Hughes Aircraft Corp. for exhaustive test flights of a captured 262 and another contract to Cal-Aero Tech. Inst, for tests of the Junkers Jumo 004 turbojet engines that power the 262. Although Russia, so far as is known, has no Russian-designed turbojet engines, both the BMW 003 and the Junkers 004 are available in Russia in considerable quantity and many experts believe that production in the German factories is continuing.
U.S.S.R. Civil Air Progress
Aviation Week, Sept. 8.—Moscow—Soviet air strength is coming of age. Now operating
93,0 miles of internal civil airways, the Soviet Union ranks among the world’s two greatest air powers in civil air service, as well as military air might.
“Soviet air transport holds first place in the world for the length of air lines and the quantity of air freight carried, and second place for passenger traffic,” it was recently stated by Air Marshal F. Astakhov, chief of the Soviet Civil Air Fleet Administration. He added that “Passenger traffic by 1950 should be 14 times greater than it was in 1940.” He did not say what the 1940 figure was.
During the past fifteen years, Soviet civil airways have expanded nearly five times over, and are being extended. This year alone, about 7,500 miles of lines opened.
Exceeds Other Transport—The mileage of Soviet airways is greater than that of any other form of internal transport in the Soviet Union, whether rail, road or waterway.
One main trunk airline extends from Moscow across Siberia to the Pacific, with stops at the main junctions of the Trans-Siberian railway. Another reaches across the Southern Urals from Moscow to Tashkent and Alma Ata. Trunklines reach from Moscow north to Leningrad, west to the capitals of the Baltic States, to Minsk and Kiev, and south to the Caucasus. A new airway is being opened to link Tbilisi with Odessa via the Black Sea ports Batumi, Sochi and Sevastopol.
Moscow, the heart of the Soviet civil airways system, is connected by air with the capitals of the 16 republics in the USSR. Planes taking off from Moscow reach the capitals of fourteen of these republics on the same day.
Expensive Trip—The most expensive air trip one can take from Moscow is the flight to Anadyr on the Bering Strait opposite Alaska. The passenger ticket costs 3,880 rubles, the equivalent of five months’ pay to the average citizen. For internal lines the luggage limitation is 55 lb. per passenger; 11 lb. free carriage. For international lines, the baggage limitation is 132 lb.; 33 lb. free.
Air passenger and freight traffic of Soviet airways this year is expected to reach a total five times greater than prewar level. Total passenger haul in 1947 is expected to top by
400,0 the 1946 mark. During the first nine months of 1946 the Soviet civil airways were reported to have transported 230,000 passengers and about 30,000,000 pounds of air freight.
Flying from Moscow’s two main airdromes, regular civil airway planes connect
the Soviet capital with about 80 cities, including 15 outside the Soviet Union. In 1946, 30 planes daily were landing and taking off from the capital.
Moscow’s Major Airport—The civil airport at Vnukovo, 25 miles from Moscow, is the city’s major airdrome both for internal and for international airlines.
Operating on a 40-minute express schedule, large comfortable motor busses ply between the Soviet capital and the airport. Every day Vnukovo now services more than 1,500 air travelers, among them many who arrive from and depart to foreign lands. Customs inspection is also carried out here for passengers arriving from abroad. Airfreight is dispatched and received at Vnukovo field.
Russians do not follow the American practice of using safety belts in taking off and landing. Nevertheless, chief of the Civil Air Fleet Astakhov stated recently that “judging by available statistics Soviet air transport ranks first in the world for safety of air travel.”
All pilots of the civil air planes are skilled airmen, many with distinguished wartime service and some with phenomenally long civil service records. Among the pilots operating out of Vnukovo are several “million- milers.”
Civil Aircraft—The majority of the civil air fleet transport and passenger planes at present are Russian-produced DC-3s, but a new plane identified as the “1L-12” which has been developed by S. I. Ilyushin, designer of the famous “Stormovik” bomber, seems earmarked to replace these planes on trunk lines. The “IL-12” which seats 27, is reported to develop a speed about 60 miles faster than the Douglas planes. Successful test flights have been made on long distance swings out of Moscow. A larger passenger transport seating 70 persons has been developed by the noted Russian designer A. N. Tupolev. This plane was first shown publicly at the Aviation Day celebration Aug. 4.
The Aviation Day air show also disclosed a series of jet-propelled planes, designed by seven of the Soviet Union’s leading aircraft designers—Yakovlev, Lavochkin, Mikoyan, Gurevich, Sukhov, Ilyushin and Tupolev. To judge from current comment in the Soviet
press, jet-propulsion is a field with which Russian aeronautical engineers have long been familiar. “The modern airplane is the material expression of the latest achievement in Scientific thought,” stated a recent Pravda editorial, adding: “Our native land which first gave the world the scientific theory of flight and then the theory of jet- propelled motion has made a great contribution to the rapid progress of aviation. The development of aviation techniques, the application of jet-propelled engines, the increase of speed, distance and altitude of aircraft flights, the utilization of radar—all set new tasks before those who design and build aircraft as well as those who fly in them.”
Regional Airways—For all main trunklines the Soviet aircraft industry, which during the war developed an output capacity of
40,0 planes per year, is to supply multiseat fast transports. Light machines simple to pilot and to service are to be produced for the local airlines. Main trunklines link the major cities in the national network, while local airlines branch out from major centers to reach the small towns.
One of the problems still only partially solved by the civil air authorities is the paving of good roads and the establishment of good normal transport between the airports and the cities they serve. Whereas the city and airport communications in Moscow and other centers are satisfactory, it takes about as much time, for instance, to get from the Leningrad airport to the city by available surface transport as it does to travel by air from Moscow to Leningrad.
Multi-Purpose Use—Apart from transport of passengers and air freight, planes of the Soviet civil air fleet perform an estimated 60 special functions.
Civil air pilots keep watch over high-tension power transmission lines to facilitate speedy repair work. Ranging the seas, they scout out schools of fish for the fishing fleet. In the Arctic ice patrol they search the pack for lanes, guiding ice-breaker convoys. In rural areas remote from rail and waterway they transport tractors, seed and farm implements, bring in young fish to stock farm ponds and carry incubated chicks to help build up poultry yards in war-devastated
farms. For planting in the Ukraine, they transported seed for kok-sagyz rubber plants from Central Asia. In Central Asia civil airmen perform cowboy service driving herds of cattle to pasture.
MERCHANT MARINE U. S. Ships Sought for Coast Power
N. Y. Times, Sept. 8.—Electric tankers may help alleviate a power shortage in northern California if negotiations now underway between the Pacific Gas and Electric Company and the Maritime Commission are successful.
If it can win the commission’s approval, the company will lease three or four allelectric T-2 tankers from the “mothball” merchant fleet now tied up in Suisun Bay, north of this city, and use their tremendous generating plants to add to the power output.
A spokesman for the P.G. & E. said the company had contracted with the Navy to buy surplus power from the steam generating plant at the Mare Island Navy Yard. He added that it had tried to get some of the Navy’s big turbo-electric-driven ships but that none of this type was laid up in this area.
At present the company uses one T-2 tanker unit in its power output at Humboldt Bay, on the northern California coast. This is the after-half of an American-built Russian tanker that broke in half in the Aleutians.
Power delivery has been curtailed at the Shell Chemical, Dow Chemical and Hercules Power plants in this area but the P.G. & E. said there was no immediate prospect that the shortage, attributed to lack of rainfall last winter and to demands of an increasing population, would hit the regular consumer.
The Shell, Dow and Hercules plants had bought their power from the P.G. & E. surplus at a low rate, with the understanding that the buyers would be shut off if there was any other call for such “dump power.” The curtailment has cut into the nitrogen fertilizer output in California, threatening a serious condition for agriculturists, since there is a world shortage of nitrogen fertilizer.
According to the P.G. & E. the power shortage is due partly to the inability of the company to expand its facilities during the war years and present calls for power far exceed the war peak. In northern and central California the company hooked up power to
33.0 new homes in 1946 and has hooked up
22.0 so far this year.
General power consumption was reported as 20 per cent greater than last year, which was itself a peak year.
(Editor’s Note: Shades of the Saratoga at Tacoma!)
U. S. Short in Passenger Tonnage
N. Y. Herald Tribune, Sept. 21.—The United States Friday has less than one-third of its pre-war passenger carrying maritime tonnage and construction and operation of additional tonnage is one of the pressing problems facing the Maritime Commission, Joseph K. Carson, former Mayor of Portland, Ore., who was named to the commission last spring, said Thursday.
Mr. Carson told a reporter that the commission faced several important problems that must be solved. First, he said, is the termination of sales of Maritime Commission ships to foreign interests, which he said is finished in the main. Second, he listed competition of government chartered ships with privately-owned vessels. Third, and of prime interest to the West Coast, he continued, is rehabilitation of the coastal and intercoastal service. Fourth and last he listed new construction under a long-range program. He said the first two problems were in the process of solution but the problem of coastal and intercoastal service had many difficult aspects.
Ship Near East Pipeline
Maritime Reporter, Sept. 15.—Walter M. Wells, president of the Isthmian Steamship Co., has disclosed that the company is planning a continuous 30-month haul to move the Arabian-American Oil Co.’s pipeline from the United States to terminals in the Mediterranean and Persian Gulf.
The task, which Mr. Wells called “some job,” has been described as the greatest single commercial shipment in maritime history and the contract, estimated at between $20,000,000 and $30,000,000, has been termed the largest single contract ever signed by a steamship company.
(Some weeks ago, E. C. Austin, purchasing and traffic manager of the Arabian-American Oil Co., said the shipment of pipe will be part of a series of consignments of goods and materials whose aggregate will be sufficient to create a new industrial kingdom in Arabia.)
About 265,000 tons of pipe and all manner of construction equipment and even food stuffs are to be drawn from ports on all three coasts of the United States. A huge fleet of vessels will be used, including not only those of the Isthmian Line, one of the largest carriers under the American flag, but also of the Pacific Far East Line, Inc., and “possibly one or two other sub-contractors,” said Mr. Wells.
Although total tonnage has not yet been determined, some cargoes have already moved under the Isthmian contract. Other shipments are now scheduled to move outward through Baltimore, New York, Philadelphia, Houston, Galveston, and a wide range of Pacific ports extending from Seattle to Long Beach.
U. S. Tanker Tonnage Leads
N. Y. Herald Tribune, Sept. 8.—Slightly more than one half of the world’s large tanker tonnage, consisting of 1,683 ships totaling 22,067,151 deadweight tons, is under the American flag, according to a survey by the American Merchant Marine Institute.
The institute’s report, covering tankers larger than 6,000 deadweight tons, shows the United States is easily the leader in this field, with 741 ships of 11,227,027 tons. The Maritime Commission owns 6,858,749 tons, while private American operators own the balance, 4,368,278 tons. Although less than half the world vessel total is American, the tonnage superiority is explained by the American predilection for large, fast types, such as the war-built T-2, designed for long hauls at high speed. The American fleet includes the word’s largest tanker, the Ulysses, of 27,900 tons, owned by National Bulk Carriers.
The American privately owned fleet is considerably larger than that of Great Britain, the second tank power. That nation has 322 ships of 3,833,824 tons. Norway is third, with 196 tankers of 2,513,850 tons; Panama is fourth, with eighty-eight vessels of 1,144,812, and Sweden is fifth, with thirty-seven of 501,091.
Trailing these nations are the Netherlands, Italy, Argentina and Russia, in that order. The Soviet tanker fleet comprises nineteen ships of 219,093 tons. Landlocked Switzerland has two tankships totaling 17,888 tons. Canada, a rising maritime power, has but seven ships of 103,751 tons.
Tanker fleets of former enemy nations have been cut drastically from pre-war totals, the institute reported. Japan, with twelve ships of 189,131 tons, is eleventh in world ranking and Germany is fifteenth with seven ships aggregating 73,855 tons. German and Japanese tankers are operated under supervision of Allied powers, according to the institute. Italy, which served both the Axis and Allied causes at different times, now operates the eighth largest tanker fleet, with thirty-seven oil carriers of 404,990 tons.
16 Ships Placed on Sale
N. Y. Herald Tribune, Sept. 4.—Twelve pre-war passenger ships and four obsolete troop transports are being offered by the United States Maritime Commission for sale on Oct. 22 to the highest bidder, it was learned yesterday.
The sale will be conducted by sealed bids to be opened at 2:30 p.m. on Oct. 22. The ships are being offered to bidders in two categories—for use in active operations or to be scrapped. The vessels may be bought by citizens or non-citizens if intended for operation. If sought for purposes of scrapping, only bids from United States citizens will be accepted.
The passenger vessels include former luxury liners that sailed in American transAtlantic, trans-Pacific, South American, inter-coastal, Pacific and Atlantic coast runs before the war. All were used during the war either as troop or hospital ships and are offered for sale in that condition. The vessels are now laid up in reserve fleet anchorages.
• All over 20 Years Old
None of the vessels are under twenty years old and it is unlikely that American operators will purchase them for use as passenger or cargo ships since the cost of putting them into condition to satisfy American standards will be prohibitive.
The Maritime Commission placed the vessels on the market for immediate disposal because of the high cost of maintaining them in reserve fleets, because the market for scrap steel is at an all-time high, and because almost any type of passenger ship is in demand for foreign operations.
The largest ships being offered are four
18,0- gross-ton liners whose best-known names are President Roosevelt, American Legion, Pan American and Western World. Only two American passenger ships in operation today, the America and Matsonia, are larger than these vessels.
The Roosevelt was operated before the war in the trans-Atlantic route of the United States Lines while the other three served under the Munson Line flag to the east coast of South America.
Some Famous Names
The President Garfield and President Fillmore, used as transports during World War I and later by the American President Lines and Dollar Line in trans-Pacific trades, are included, as are the H. F. Alexander, which as the Great Northern beat the Leviathan in an unofficial race across the Atlantic after the first world war. The last vessel was built for the Pacific trade and was at one time known as the “Palace of the Pacific.”
The oldest ship is the Shamrock, originally built in 1907 as the Havana, renamed first Yucatan, then Agwileon. Smallest is the John L. Clem, originally the Irwin, built for the Merchants and Miners service between Boston and Norfolk.
The four Army and Navy vessels are the Chateau Thierry, Chaumont, Henderson and Relief.
The list of ships under their war names and old names follows:
War Name | Old Name | Tonnage | ||
Joseph T. Dickman | President Roosevelt | 13,000 | ||
American Legion | Same | 13,000 | ||
Hunter Leffett | Pan America | 13,000 | ||
Leonard Wood | Western World | 13,000 | ||
Refuge | President Garfield | 10,000 | ||
Marigold | President Fillmore | 10,000 | ||
George S. Simonds | Great Northern, H. F. Alexander | 9,000 | ||
Old Name | Tonnage |
| ||
City of Baltimore | 8,000 |
| ||
City of Newport News | 8,000 |
| ||
City of Norfolk | 8,000 |
| ||
Agwileon, Yucatan, Havana | 7,000 |
| ||
Irwin | • 5,000 7,000 |
| ||
Henderson |
| |||
Chaumont | 7,000 |
| ||
Same | 7,000 |
| ||
Same | 7,000 |
| ||
1947]
War Name Heywood Fuller Neville Shamrock
John L. Clem Bountiful Samaritan Chateau Thierry Relief
MISCELLANEOUS Snow in Washington
N. Y. Times, Aug. 28.—Snow fell in Washington today but only for a group of Army and Navy officers.
To demonstrate the chain reaction method that has coaxed small quantities of snow and rain from clouds, General Electric scientists scraped a few flakes off a cake of dry ice and let them fall into a deep freeze locker. Soon thousands of tiny glittering crystals formed within the locker, and turned into snow.
Dr. Irving Langmuir estimated that 20 cents worth of dry ice could produce 1,000,000 tons of water for hydroelectric power use, and $200 worth could make rain all over the United States.
The clouds have to be “super cooled” to begin with, he emphasized. He said that fantastic quantities of dry ice would be required to cool a warmer cloud to the necessary degree.
Capt. Howard Orville, Navy meteorologist, expressed the hope that the process might be used to temper the fury of typhoons and hurricanes, and said the Navy was planning to test this possibility.
Naval Lab at Point Barrow
N. Y. Herald Tribune, Aug. 31.—A laboratory for the study of the adaptation of animal
life to Arctic living conditions has been set up at Point Barrow, Alaska, by the Office of Naval Research.
Here, it is expected, university scientists will carry out individual investigations, using facilities of the Navy.
The first party is already at work on studies of the metabolism of warm and coldblooded animals, the expenditure and economy of animal heat, and the orientation and metabolism of Arctic birds during migration.
Following these processes through the transitions from summer to winter and winter to summer is expected to yield data on the basic biological requirements for adaptation to an Arctic environment.
Point Barrow is the only settlement in the possession of this country lying within the Arctic Circle. It faces an Arctic Ocean whose shores, waters and ice have been little explored, biologically. Southward, the tundra land rising gradually to the Brooks Mountains also is essentially unknown from the standpoint of biology.
The first group of scientists is composed of Drs. Laurence Irving, P. F. Scholander, Reidar Wennesland, Walter Flagg and Erik T. Nielsen of Swarthmore College and Donald R. Griffith and Raymond J. Hock of Cornell University. They are working under Navy contracts.
Ability to live in the Arctic is becoming of increasing importance, especially from a military standpoint, since these frozen wastes provide the shortest air routes between the Eastern and Western Hemispheres and might possibly become a no-man’s land in another war.
A great deal of data, it is expected, can be obtained from the actual ways of life of the Eskimos and far-north Indians. The Navy is interested, however, in much more fundamental information upon which to base clothing, ration and housing requirements.