To November 23, 1947
United States ......102
Blandy says Navy not Obsolete—Seminole—Agate—Help for Greece—Air Warning Plan—Army on Shipping Mission—Survey Pacific Health—Study Warm Polar Lakes
Great Britain......108
Fleet Reductions Fleet Notes British Navy’s “Holloway Plan’’
Other Countries......114
China—Netherlands
Aviation......117
Skyrocket—Supersonic Plane Possibilities—Army XC-99—P-84 Ready—YB49—Flying Bike—Fighters out of Storage—Seaplane Slip—Weather Flying Test Center
Merchant Marine......125
Ships Sold—13 Lines Drop Charters—New Ships—Towing by Radar in N.Y.
Miscellaneous......128
Mysteries of Naval Ordnance
UNITED STATES
Navy Not Obsolete
New York Times, Nov. 15.—Another war is inevitable if Uncle Sam again adopts the policy of being “Uncle Ostrich” as he did after the end of World War I, Admiral W. H. P. Blandy, commander of the Navy’s Atlantic Fleet, declared last night. The admiral spoke at the annual dinner of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers in the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel.
Admiral Blandy contended that the best preventive against another war “is to think about it, talk about it and do something about it.” He added that that “something” included maintaining a balanced fighting force of sufficient strength to induce respect among those who understand nothing but force for our ideas for restoring real world peace and prosperity, and preventing wholesale recourse to communism, “the ideology of despair.”
In his address the admiral called “fallacious” any theory that a war can be won against a powerful enemy in twenty-four hours by use of the atomic bomb. He conceded that initial damage could be inflicted to a severe degree, but he maintained that neither atomic bombardment nor any other kind of bombardment alone would win a war.
Discussing the future value of sea power, the speaker asserted that no peacetime test of any kind, including Operation Crossroads—the Bikini atom bomb tests—was capable of proving the Navy obsolete. He said the only thing that “could drive the Navy from the seas and out of the air over the seas would be winning a war without needing the sea itself, either for fighting or as a highway.”
“Virile Nation Will Not Quit”
“I do not believe the destruction of cities by atomic bombs at the beginning of a war when the country receiving such attack still possesses effective offensive forces will insure a surrender,” he declared. “A virile nation strongly armed and battling for a vital issue is not going to quit while it can fight back. And it can fight back until its offensive forces are defeated or its existing weapons or ammunition are destroyed or spent without hope of replacement.
“Those original stocks of weapons and ammunition, including atomic bombs, are not going to be stored within such obvious targets as large industrial or commercial areas.
“If, as I believe, neither atomic bombardment nor any other kind of bombardment will alone win a war, ground forces must be available to take and hold enemy territory. For the United States, whose only probable enemies lie overseas, sea transport for these ground forces will continue to be necessary for the indefinite future.”
Admiral Blandy called air transport “too expensive a proposition” for carrying the major needs of warfare. He explained that expensive meant not only dollars but fundamental basic resources—manpower, materials and time.
He used as an illustration a survey made in 1943 by the Assistant Secretary of War for Air concerning the problem of moving long tons of supplies a month from San Francisco to Australia, a distance of about 6,500 miles. He said that on the sea, the load could be handled by forty-four surface ships manned by some 3,200 men, and requiring 165,000 barrels of fuel a month.
In contrast, he explained, the job would require 10,000 large cargo airplanes manned by 120,000 specially trained men, and since the planes could not carry fuel for the return flight, nearly 5,000,000 barrels of gasoline would have to be shipped overseas to keep them flying. This task, he added, would require eighty-five large tankers—almost double the forty-four ships needed to do the whole job by sea.
Atomic Tests Are Continuing
Admiral Blandy said the Navy interest in atomic energy is not confined to defense against atomic weapons, and added that considerable experimentation in atomic power drive is now going on. He asserted that he doubted if specifications for 30-knot, long range submarines propelled with this energy would be ready this year, but he stressed that a special section of the Navy Department’s Bureau of Ships is working steadily on this form of drive.
He ended his address with caution that this country should hold onto its weapons for any future emergency. He declared that unless man’s international cooperative ability matched his rapidly advancing technology, the United States will need the Navy, an essential element of its fighting strength, to control the seas so long as they are needed as roads.
Editor’s Note: Not forgetting our aircraft are part of the Navy.)
Exercise Seminole
New York Herald Tribune, Nov. 9, by James Minifies—Exercise Seminole, in which Army, Navy and Air Force co-operated to transport the heavy equipment of the 2d Armored Division across the Gulf of Mexico and land it on a beach in Florida under assault conditions, ended this week.
It proved to most observers that unification, training and techniques still had a long way to go before amphibious operations could be mounted as smoothly and confidently as they had been at the end of the war. Skills are already being forgotten.
It showed that the shortage of manpower in the fighting services was impairing efficiency by making it impossible to use existing equipment extensively enough and often enough to maintain techniques learned during the war. And it showed that a great deal of staff work and further practice in planning was necessary before the benefits of unification could be realized.
As Kenneth C. Royall, Secretary of the Army, remarked at the conclusion of the main landing operation, “there would have been no point in it if it had gone without a hitch.”
The problem assumed that a force of “aggressor” troops had invaded the United States and established themselves across northern Florida and along a line running roughly from Charleston, S. C., to Fort Walton in northwestern Florida. The mission of United States forces was to sail from Texas and land behind the aggressor’s front lines, much as units of the 5th Army landed behind the German lines at Anzio in the Italian campaign. About 7,000 men were engaged in the exercise. Of these, 6,000 were in the amphibious force. Some 2,500 were drawn from the 2d Armored Division and represented virtually the entire strength of the division.
Many things went wrong pointing to inadequate staff planning. The idea of the aggressor had been carefully thought out—his troops were dressed in green uniforms with red tabs and a crested helmet to make them distinctive. But they were also endowed with “an ideology,” until it occurred to the Army Department that this was pushing things much too far in time of peace. So nothing more was said about the ideology. At the same time, the name of the maneuver was changed from Operation Seminole to Exercise Seminole, after the thing had got under way, at the Army Department’s urgent request.
The best the Army could do to explain it was that the term operation denoted a regular military undertakings—a shooting war— and hence was improperly used for this problem.
Tides Were Miscalculated
The Navy, for its part, miscalculated the tides at H-hour, with the result that the landing ramps which had been towed in the day before the armor was to land were placed so far inshore that the LST’s could not reach them. The first LST made four passes for more than two hours before giving up the attempt, and revealed in doing so that the beaches had been quite inadequately reconnoitered. There was a sand bar 100 yards offshore, which appeared to be news to the LST’s helmsman.
It was hard to say how completely the Air Force filled its part of the exercises, for it was only able to put in about fifty planes. Its other available planes were occupied on other exercises taking place simultaneously. But the planes made available to the “enemy” certainly failed to take advantage of the LST’s fumbling.
Too much had to be simulated. The 186th Division, which theoretically went in on D- Day to establish the beachhead, was completely simulated. The strategic bombers which softened up the “aggressor” were simulated. The battle fleet which supported the landing was simulated—there was not a combat ship in the whole exercise.
The anti-submarine air patrol and surface screen were both simulated and so was “aggressor’s” submarine force. So were the battle noises, which were put out over loud speakers. And most of the opposition was simulated. Aggressor was strictly a token force.
Slow Start, Fast Finish
Under these disadvantages it is remarkable that the exercise went as well as it did. The 2d Armored had only sixteen men who had fought with the unit during the war. But they had passed on the tricky knowhow of loading and unloading LST’s. Once unloading commenced it went smoothly and fast. There seemed to be no flaw in the loading. A beautiful job of waterproofing had been done. Although the tanks and vehicles were run off the LST into the surf instead of onto the ramps, at the end of the day only five vehicles out of nearly 600 had stalled.
Again, the tactical staff appeared to be excellently co-ordinated aboard the U. S. S. Taconic, a 12,000-ton cargo hull fitted up as a specialist control and communications unit. The staff may not have improved on, but it at least appeared to have maintained the high level of three-way co-ordination achieved toward the end of the war.
This, in fact, was as high as the exercise aimed. There was nothing about it essentially that had not been done during the last war under battle conditions. A few refinements perhaps, but that was all. And it was apparent that constant training and repeated exercises on a much greater scale than this will be needed if the fighting services are to pass on to the new recruits, the new officers and the new staff corps the skills, the knowhow and the planning which was brought to such a high state in World War II. Knowhow cannot be simulated.
Operation Agate
New York Herald Tribune, Nov. 13.—The United States Navy, which is striving for world leadership in the field of guided missiles and other weapons of the future, Thursday demonstrated conclusively that its personnel at the same time are not forgetting fundamentals of present-day naval warfare.
As the climax of Operation Agate, an air and amphibious maneuver drawn up particularly to show the nation’s top-ranking Army and Air Force officers exactly how landing operations are performed, more than 5,000 United States Marines stormed ashore in California Thursday morning from transports of a Navy task fleet deployed off shore. Among the marines was Colonel James P. S. Devereaux, Marine hero of the defense of Wake Island, and hundreds of veterans of the initial Navy landings on Guadacanal Island.
The Navy announced Thursday night that one sergeant, whose name was not released, was killed during Thursday’s maneuvers when he tripped on a barbed wire lining the invasion beach and fell on a signal flare projector which detonated. The explosion sent the flare projector through his body. Brush fires which started from some of the other beach detonations were extinguished later by Marine firefighters.
The landings were for the theoretical purpose of dislodging an enemy force and seizing an airfield that its members supposedly were building to launch attacks against industrial centers. For the first time in Navy history, the entire maneuver was witnessed by the current class of more than 500 at an Army’s Command and General Staff School, Fort Leavenworth, Kan.
Besides Army and Air Force officers, other interested spectators at Aliso Canyon Thursday were several thousand members of the public, who had been invited to attend by the Navy. According to Vice-Admiral George D. Murray, commanding the first task fleet assembled for Operation Agate, today marked the first time that a large number of civilians ever witnessed a full-scale landing operation or comparable Navy maneuver.
Many observers, both civilian and military, plugged their ears with their fingers as underwater demolition charges began exploding along the beach line preparatory to the landing of the first wave of Marines. The charges were planted earlier Thursday by demolition teams, which swam ashore from ships of the task fleet with the aid of special web-foot swimming equipment and face masks.
More than 400 Navy planes, including rocket-firing Skyraiders from the carrier Tarawa and aircraft of the 1st Marine Wing from El Toro, Calif., provided air cover for the demolition teams and landing forces. Wednesday these planes fired rocket projectiles at simulated enemy shore installations, but Thursday, as a safety measure, their offensive armament was not in use. Fixed explosive charges were fired during the landings to suggest exploding bombs.
After all the Marines and supporting tanks were ashore the forces began moving inland over part of the 125,000 acres which comprise Camp Pendleton, the Marine Corps base of which Aliso Canyon is a part.
U. S. to Help Shape Greek War Plans
New York Times, Nov. 19.—Athens.—Planning of the campaign against the Greek guerrillas will become a “joint Greek-American operation” when United States officers begin advising Greek forces, Dwight P. Griswold, head of the United States aid mission, said today at a press conference.
The United States Government, he said, has broadened the military authority of the mission, hitherto restricted to supply functions, so that such advice can be given.
Lieut. Gen. William G. Livesay, who heads the mission’s military section, will become chairman of the joint planning staff of the United States Army, Navy and Air Force officers cooperating with the Greek general staff. American observers and advisers attached to the three Greek Army corps and divisions will advise the Greek commanders and report to the planning staff in Athens.
“But the Americans will not take command,” Mr. Griswold declared. “They will have no command function whatsoever.”
Mr. Griswold said he had recommended this move ten weeks ago “as necessary to the success of the mission” after he had been urged to do so by the Greek Government. He asserted that there was no plan to bring United States troops to Greece and that the British military mission would remain in charge of military training. Americans, he added, will, however, be of special service, since they have a better understanding of the use of American equipment.
Final Orders Awaited
Neither Mr. Griswold nor General Livesay has yet received from Washington a final detailed directive on the new American military functions.
Explaining the limitation of the roles of observers and advisers, General Livesay said “if we advise an attack and the Greeks attack and it is a failure, it is a Greek responsibility, not ours.”
There are thirty-two officers and fourteen enlisted men on General Livesay’s staff. A scheduled increase will bring the total to 116 officers and ninety-four men, mostly skilled in mountain warfare. Nine men and a first lieutenant operate a radio station that will enable the planning staff to keep in touch with observers in the field.
General Livesay said it could be assumed that his officers would get into combat areas. “After all, in a sense, all of Greece is a combat area,” he remarked. According to him, this development does not make the United States a belligerent since “we are merely helping the Greeks to quell a rebellion within their own borders.”
Air Warning Plan
New York Times, Nov. 13.—An air warning network of the kind which might have prevented the Pearl Harbor disaster is now being planned for use in an emergency, James Forrestal, Secretary of Defense, said today.
The study of an early-warning system is being pushed jointly with the related problem of expanding civil and military air navigation facilities, Mr. Forrestal told a press conference. The discussion, in which Dr. Vannevar Bush, chairman of the Research and Development Board, participated, pointed up the fact that this country has had no country-wide air warning system, or a plan for such a system.
Inquiry in the armed forces revealed that the continental limits of the United States were little better protected against a sneak attack than they were on Dec. 7, 1941. The few radar search units maintained on a 24- hour basis are used for traffic control, it was said, and are not connected to fighter control bases or keyed to any IFF (identification friend or foe) code.
It was hinted in official quarters, however, that American outposts have radar screens organized on a protective plan.
Army Mission to Help Jap Shipping
New York Herald Tribune, Nov. 5.—The National Federation of American Shipping announced yesterday that negotiations have been completed with the Army to send a shipping mission headed by Colonel Arthur G. Syran, former special assistant to the Maritime Commission, to direct rehabilitation of enough shipping in Japan to restore that nation’s economy.
Colonel Syran’s mission will go to Japan as members of the staff of the federation and will be paid by the federation although they will work under General of the Army Douglas MacArthur on the assignment. It was at General MacArthur’s request that the mission was established in September. Approval of the Department of Justice and the Army in Washington held up its departure for Japan.
The mission still lacks approval from the Supreme Command of the Allied Powers in Tokyo but this is expected to reach Washington in less than a week. The mission will include at least two shipping men from the west coast.
(Editor’s Note: Perhaps the Navy will rehabilitate the Jap cavalry while the Army straightens out the shipping.)
Survey Health on Pacific Islands
New York Times, Nov. 9.—The United States will soon start a medical census of 50,000 natives scattered through the vast territory of the Pacific which is in its trust.
The Navy is converting a surplus Army ship into a floating laboratory for the survey, which should be started by Jan. 1, Admiral Louis E. Denfeld, high commissioner of the territory, said.
To examine islanders and compile the first set of vital statistics for the region will require several years. To be covered are 117 inhabited islands of the Carolines, Marshalls and northern Marianas, which spread over 2,000,000 square miles of the Pacific.
“This project will be unique in the field of colonial administration,” Admiral Denfeld stated, “for never before has such an extensive medical survey program been attempted with a native population.
“The natives have been plagued for many years with yaws, tuberculosis, leprosy and intestinal parasitism. These are diseases of white men against which the natives have little or no racial immunity.
“Navy doctors have been combating the diseases since the United States recovered the islands from the Japanese.”
When the laboratory ship visits an island or atoll each native will be brought out by boat for a complete medical and dental examination, including X-rays, the commissioner said. Records obtained will be a basis on which to gauge success of the health program in later years.
While examinations are under way aboard ship, sanitation experts will check food and water supply, garbage and sewage disposal and rodent and pest control.
The Pacific Fleet’s medical officer, Captain F. C. Greaves, is directing the program.
Study Warm Polar Lakes
New York Times, Nov. 4.—In the hope of learning more about the mysterious region of multi-colored lakes sighted from the air in Antarctica last year, the United States Navy is completing preparations for a special expedition to the area, it was learned yesterday.
The first of two ships chosen for the task—the icebreaker Edisto—is scheduled to sail from Norfolk, Va., tomorrow. A second icebreaker, the Burton Island, is scheduled to leave San pedro, Calif., Nov. 20. Each vessel is to carry a helicopter, to permit Navy fliers to land in the lake region, among the gravel hills that preclude a landing by a conventional airplane.
Comdr. Gerald L. Ketchum has been designated to head the expedition, it was learned. The two icebreakers will rendezvous at sea, it was indicated, and proceed directly to the Antarctic ice pack.
To Operate in Summer
The plan of exploration adopted is for the two icebreakers to drive as near to the coast as possible and launch their helicopters. Although it will be winter in the northern hemisphere, the expedition will have the advantage of operating during the Antarctic summer. Personnel will live aboard the Edisto and the Burton Island, avoiding the difficulties of setting up a base ashore, as was done by last year’s Navy expedition.
Plans for a visit to Little America were tentative, but it was understood that such a visit might be made. In addition, it was learned that the expedition might attempt to force the ice barrier at other points where exploration has been slight, provided time remains after it has accomplished its primary mission of studying the lake area.
A primary mystery surrounding this region is why the lakes do not freeze, surrounded as they are by glaciers and perpetual snow. Among the theories advanced to account for the temperature is one that the earth is warmed by volcanic activity.
Another theory is that the climate is becoming milder. This will be checked, it was understood, even though there is little evidence to support it in the surrounding frigid wastes of the Antarctic, because such a change, if in progress, would have portentous meteorological implications.
Commander Ketchum was captain of the Burton Island during the last expedition. A small group of civilian scientists, whose names have not been made public, is scheduled to accompany him on the present undertaking.
Members of the 1946 expedition described the lake area as an “oasis” because of its isolated position. The region is inland from the Knox coast of the Antarctic continent, almost due south of Australia.
GREAT BRITAIN
More Fleet Cuts
Manchester Guardian, Oct. 20.—Impending cuts in naval personnel will have a crippling effect on the strength of the fleet at home and abroad. Apparently only three large ships will be left in commission. These are the battleships Anson and King George V, of 35,000 tons, and the fleet aircraft-carrier Victorious, of 23,000 tons, together constituting the training squadron. But these ships, being largely manned by new entries at sea for the first time, cannot for a moment be counted as efficient fighting units.
For the time being the active force of the Home Fleet is being reduced to a mere skeleton, comprising the cruiser Superb and four destroyers of the Battle class. In pre-war days the normal strength of this fleet was seven battleships and battle-cruisers, two fleet aircraft carriers, six cruisers, 28 destroyers, and more than 20 other ships.
In the Mediterranean, two light aircraft- carriers, four cruisers, and a handful of destroyers will apparently be called upon to keep the peace in a particularly sensitive area. In the Pacific, two light aircraft-carriers, a cruiser, and a few destroyers and smaller craft will be the only ships left to maintain British prestige in the Far East.
On the America and West Indies station, which is of vast extent, a single cruiser, H.M.S. Sheffield, and two sloops will constitute a mere shadow of the pre-war strength, which consisted of five cruisers and two sloops.
DRASTIC REDUCTIONS
In the South Atlantic and on the East Indies station equally drastic reductions are being made so that the defence of our important interests in those waters will devolve upon three or four cruisers and some smaller craft.
Never before in modern times has the seagoing strength of the Royal Navy been brought to so low an ebb. Apart from the shortage of men, which appears to be the official excuse, the desire to save oil fuel would seem to have played a large part in this policy of ruthless reduction. No measure could have struck a harder blow at naval efficiency since it is a truism in Service quarters that without adequate sea training it is impossible to guarantee that personnel will be fit to meet a sudden emergency.
London Times, Oct. 24.—Mr. Alexander, Minister of Defence (Sheffield, Hillsborough, Lab.), made the following statement regarding the effect of the proposed reductions in man-power of the Navy, more especially in regard to the Home Fleet:—
It is anticipated that the strength of the Navy at March 31, 1948, will be 147,000, and it is hoped that it will remain steady at or about that figure throughout the following year.
The consequences of this more rapid rundown from the previously planned strength of 178,000 as of March 31, 1948, will, of course, be appreciable, especially during the next few months. It was, however, after deliberate consideration of the relative advantages and disadvantages of making the reductions quickly at the expense of temporary dislocation, but with earlier reorganization, or of spreading over a longer period, that the Admiralty advised, and the Government approved, that the naval reduction should take place by March 31, 1948.
To effect the reductions in naval numbers, if reasonable strength oversea is to be preserved and fairness maintained in releasing men abroad pari passu with those at home, it is necessary to draw trained men from the Home Fleet and other home stations to relieve men on foreign service. This process does involve temporary immobilization of a considerable part of the Home Fleet.
It is, however, essential that this term “immobilization” should not be misunderstood. With one exception, the ships are being maintained in commission. Some will be kept fully operational; others will be subject to such substantial changes in their ships’ companies that they cannot proceed to sea at once. In some instances this period of immobility will be quite short. In others it may be a matter of some months. But, so long as the ships are kept in commission, they can be restored to a full operational condition as soon as the manning adjustments in their complements have been completed.
This period of temporary immobility will be restricted to the absolute minimum. If, during its continuance, there should be any emergency, it would be possible to bring back to full commission a considerable number of the ships concerned at relatively short notice; in addition, at all times, there will be two modern battleships and at least two modern aircraft carriers, with other ancillary craft, maintained in commission and engaged on sea training duties in home waters. Moreover, the Mediterranean Fleet is being maintained virtually at full strength.
To put the matter in its proper perspective I would inform the House that when this period of temporary readjustment has been completed of the ships now comprising the Home Fleet, only one, a cruiser, will have been reduced to reserve.
Fleet Notes
London Times, Oct. 24.—First moves towards the temporary demobilization of the Home Fleet units, while ratings are withdrawn for release or drafting, were begun today.
The Duke of York, flying the flag of the Commander-in-Chief, Admiral Sir Neville Syfret, sailed from Portland to Portsmouth, and the cruiser Dido and the destroyers Solebay, Gabbard, Corunna, and St. Kitts sailed for Sheerness. To-morrow the cruisers Cleopatra and Sirius and the destroyers Cadiz and Barrosa leave Portland for Portsmouth, arid the destroyers St. James and Sluys for Plymouth. Their departure will leave at Portland the temporarily reduced operational force comprising the cruiser Superb and the destroyers Agincourt, Aisne, Dunkirk, and Jutland.
London Times, Oct. 20.—The cruiser H.M.S. Liverpool, flagship of Admiral Willis, sails from Malta to-morrow for Chatham to pay off after more than two years’ commission in the Mediterranean. The submarine depot ship H.M.S. Wolfe is expected to leave for Plymouth about October 24, leaving the destroyers’ depot ship, H.M.S. Woolwich, for dual depot duties.
London Times, Oct. 16.—When H.M.S. Belfast (Captain H. B. Ellison, D.S.O.) arrived at Portsmouth from the Far East this afternoon she was welcomed by a crowd of about 1,000 relatives and friends of the ship’s company. Of her complement of 750 about 150 will soon be due for demobilization under the accelerated arrangements, and she had as passengers 100 ratings, most of whom are due for release. She entered harbour flying a paying-off pennant, and she is to be reduced to reserve.
London Times, Oct. 11.—H.M.S. Battleaxe, the second destroyer of the new Weapons class, which is to be the leader of the Sixth Destroyer Flotilla, is completing her acceptance trials and is due to be handed over to the Royal Navy by the builders, Yarrow and Company, Limited, Scotstoun, Glasgow, on Monday. Like her sister ship, H.M.S. Scorpion, which was commissioned as a unit of the Royal Navy in September, the Battleaxe incorporates many of the latest developments in warship construction. She will be commanded by Captain Sir Charles Madden and there will be a complement of 290 officers and men.
(Editorial Note: A bright gleam in the general gloom of reductions.)
The Aeroplane, Oct. 17.—When the Home Fleet were recently exercising in the Western Approaches we expressed concern that the C.-in-C. should wear his flag in a battleship. We are glad to record that Vice-Admiral Sir Cecil Harcourt, K.C.B., C.B.E., the Flag Officer (Air) and Second-in-Command Mediterranean Fleet, is flying his flag in the Light Fleet Carrier H.M.S. Triumph (Capt. E. M. C. Abel Smith, C.V.O., R.N.).
Fourteen ships visited ports in the West Mediterranean during exercises between September 18 and October 10. They later joined the C.-in-C. (Admiral Sir Algernon U. Willis, G.C.B., K.B.E., D.S.O.), at Arcanci Bay, where they were joined by the Light Fleet Carrier H.M.S. Ocean and a number of other ships.
The six British Light Fleet Carriers are clearly doing good work showing the flag in the modern way. Their war potential will be considerably increased when the present weak arrester gear (15,500 lb.) is replaced with the new gear to enable them to operate Sea Hornet equipment. The Sea Mosquito, Spearfish, Sturgeon and Wyvern are, of course, all too heavy with the present arrester gear and will probably be too heavy even with the new arrester gear.
Pending ship modifications, however, the Sea Hornets could operate at light weight and under conditions of natural wind. Unfortunately, as all those concerned with Naval Aviation know, it is on the days of absolute calm that urgent missions have to be carried out. Ratog is no answer, because it is fundamentally undesirable that an aircraft should rely on it for normal take-offs, quite apart from the major difficulty of storage space aboard for the Ratog motors. Tail-down accelerating would be more effective if more than one booster is fitted to the ships.
His Majesty’s Navy Holloway Plan
London Times, Oct. 13-14.—Recent changes in the age and system of entry of the naval cadets who are to form the majority of the Navy’s officers in the future recall that from time to time during the last century and a half these matters have been the subject of acute controversy. Throughout the eighteenth century an officer could not, by regulation, be made a lieutenant before the age of 20, and the minimum sea service he must have had to his credit to qualify for that rank varied from three years at the beginning to six years at the end. The regulations were not very strictly enforced. Barrington in 1746 became a captain when he was only 17, and Nelson himself, though he produced certificates showing that he was 20 years old and had the necessary six years’ service, was actually promoted lieutenant at 18. Direct entry was common, and boys intended for officers and serving as midshipmen were borne on ships’ books variously as able seaman, captain’s servant, volunteer, or midshipman. They were sometimes so borne for some months, or even years, before they actually joined their ship, so as to acquire the necessary service. The fraud was seldom attended by any ill results, for they were required to pass an exacting and rigorous professional examination in seamanship, as readers of “Peter Simple” will recall, before they could be commissioned.
In 1729 the Naval Academy at Portsmouth was started as an alternative to direct entry, and for over a century the dual system obtained. Boys went to the college—as it became in 1808—between 13 and 16, spending two or three years there before going to sea as midshipmen; after the peace in 1816 the age limits were reduced by successive steps to 12½ - 13. For various causes the college was abolished in 1837, and thereafter direct entry between the age of 12 and 16 held the field for 20 years.
The “Britannia”
In 1857 the training ship Illustrious, a 3-decker—replaced two years later by the Britannia, which moved to Dartmouth in 1863 and became a hulk—was allocated for the training of newly entered cadets. Entry was by nomination, followed by a competitive examination, at the age of 13-14½ — raised in 1897 to 14—15—and cadets spent two years in the Britannia, later reduced to 15 months, before going to sea as midshipmen.
The Britannia was replaced by the present college, built on the hill above her moorings, at the turn of the century, and in 1902 the whole system of entry and early training was recast by the introduction of the Fisher scheme under which cadets were entered between 12 and 13 and spent four years ashore before going afloat. The process of tinkering with the age of entry, period of shore training, and curriculum continued to some extent, but with small variations it may broadly be said that that system has survived without great change until to-day.
An essential feature of the Fisher scheme as first introduced was the unification of the executive and engineering branches by a process which amounted in effect to the abolition of the latter and the assumption of its duties by the former as one of the various forms of “specializing” open to its officers. This proved in practice to be unworkable; executive officers found that the time necessarily devoted to the midshipman’s training in engineering left insufficient time to bring him up to the necessary standard as a seaman and deck officer. Engineer officers reported that it was impossible to make an engineer officer of the standard needed by the Navy in anything short of the whole of the young officer’s time. The two branches were therefore separated again after a few years’ trial, though a measure of unification of entry was retained and still survives.
The curriculum at Dartmouth—the first half of it was carried out at Osborne for the first few years of the Fisher scheme—has undergone much of what I have called “tinkering,” including some developments of much value. The Fisher curriculum was based upon the theory that every naval officer must have a mechanical training, which he must start even at the preparatory school age at which he was entered. The compelling need for this was recognized to be greatly modified once the executive and engineering branches were again separated; and experience in the intervening period threw doubt on the theory that technical training could with advantage be started before general education had reached something like what is now commonly known as “school certificate standard.”
Weeding Out
Another consideration emphasized a similar conclusion. It was realized from the first of course, that many boys entered at 12 by selection after an interview were liable to be found unsuited for the Navy in the course of the next few years; and the Fisher scheme therefore provided for a weeding-out process to be applied to them throughout their Dartmouth career. The boys discharged for reasons in no way derogatory to them were naturally not up to the standard of their civilian contemporaries in general education, and the technical training—to which the humanities had been sacrificed while they were cadets—was no longer of any value to them. Their Dartmouth time, so far from being an advantage to them, had been a positive handicap and it was very difficult for their parents to make arrangements for their further education.
For these reasons the Dartmouth curriculum was made much less technical in character than at first. It now approximated much more closely to that of public and secondary schools catering for boys of the same age—so much so that the Admiralty could boast, with pride and justification, that the general education given at Dartmouth challenged comparison with that of the best schools in the country. The “term” system, moreover, whereby the boys of one entry remained together, to some extent segregated from those of all the other terms, throughout their sojourn at Dartmouth, was also abandoned in favour of the “house” system of the public school, and the latter change brought advantages which will be recognized by all educationists.
A Naval Atmosphere
The result of all these developments, however, advantageous though they were, has been that the Navy had come to maintain, at great expense, a college which hardly professed to do anything that the civilian schools were not already doing, except to educate its future officers from an early age “in a naval atmosphere,” and at the same time to instil firmly into them the traditions of the Navy. Whether it is possible to achieve these results anywhere but afloat in the King’s ships is matter for argument. So is the question whether the Navy has really been getting full value for the substantial cost of the Royal Naval College. Probably the majority of naval officers, serving and retired, but especially the latter, would answer the question with an emphatic and enthusiastic affirmative; but it is desirable to examine other avenues to the quarterdeck before judgment can be passed.
Cadets entered through the Royal Naval College at Dartmouth are intended to provide about half the officers of the Navy, half the rest being supplied by promotion to commissioned rank of men serving on the lower deck and the other half, one quarter of the whole, by what is known as the “special entry.” Space does not permit discussion here of the large subject of promotion from the lower deck; it provides opportunity for advancement for the young man who does not develop intellectually early enough in life to achieve a cadetship—an intellectual standard above the general average is an indispensable qualification for the naval officer of to-day; most of those promoted in this way have received no more than elementary schooling. The special entry, on the other hand, was intended, while drawing its entrants from the same sources as Dartmouth, to enable the Navy to take advantage of the general educational system of the country, which caters for boys up to the age at which they enter a university or its equivalent.
Special entry was instituted just before the 1914-18 war, cadetships being offered for open competition by boys in their seventeenth year. It was hoped to attract boys from the public schools, but in order that midshipmen from that source should not be too different in age from their Dartmouth contemporaries their age of entry was put too low for that project to be entirely successful. Holding that the last year at a public school is the most valuable in the formation of character, head masters and house masters were reluctant to encourage their best boys to enter the Navy under a scheme which deprived them of that most valuable period.
Dangers of Cramming
The age of special entry was raised to remove this handicap, but even then the scheme fell short of the success it might have had, for in the meantime the entrance examination had somehow evolved into a form which demanded cramming if a candidate were to have an adequate chance of success. The published lists of successful candidates for “special entry” announced the schools from which they came, but to an unduly large number of names was frequently appended the note “studied with a tutor after leaving school.” In effect, it would seem that many of them were still losing the chief advantage of a public school education through premature removal.
This disability ought not, however, to be inevitable. From no point of view is any advantage to be gained by the encouragement, or even toleration, of cramming. It is to be hoped that, in prescribing the examination for special entry in the future, precautions—well known to experienced examiners—will be taken to avoid any continuance of the premium hitherto put upon special instruction.
For many years the parents of Britannia and Dartmouth cadets were charged fees, comparable to those of the more expensive preparatory schools, which confined the ranks of naval officers to the sons of well-to-do parents. As long ago as the beginning of this century the view was often urged—occasionally from inside the Navy, as well as outside it—that the Navy ought to be able to draw its officers from the best and the ablest in the land, even though they might happen to be the sons of poor parents. The institution of the special entry by open competition did something to permit the entry of the able youth of humble origin, but that entry, as described above, had its limitations.
In order to throw the net wider, a scholarship system of entry to Dartmouth was therefore instituted in 1940, age of entry and other Dartmouth conditions remaining unchanged. Scholarships, numbering about half the vacancies at each entry, are now offered for competition by would-be cadets, and of these scholarships about half are reserved for candidates who come from grant-aided secondary schools. The scholarships vary in value according to a means test applied to the boys’ parents, but if necessary they amount to a waiver of all fees with a maintenance grant—to cover holidays in addition. Scholarship boys are therefore not precluded from success by lack of means in their parents, but it remains true that to the extent of more than half the Dartmouth-trained and special entry officers the Navy still draws its officers chiefly from the sons of well-to-do parents.
Quality of Officers
Though the tradition that formerly prescribed that limitation is out of date, the system which still in part embodies it is not thereby necessarily to be condemned. The view of the Navy has always been that the test of a system must be first and foremost the quality of the officers produced. Experience of two wars has confirmed that throughout all the changes and experiments with the conditions and age of entry and the system of training, the quality of the finished product has been of the highest. There has been, inside the Navy, some opposition to changes which have had the effect of casting the net wider. That has been due not to a desire to maintain class privilege but to a fear of lowering the standard, which is set not by intellectual ability alone but even more by the extent to which personality and character have been fostered.
Naval officers as a whole are reluctant to throw open their ranks to all aspirants, regardless of their origins, though only a few opposed the start with that process, which the scholarship system represented, experimentally on a small-scale. Most of them contend that the Navy, if it catches the able boy young enough, can make of him the officer it needs. That theory is held to have been borne out by experience, for it has been stated that, after a few terms at Dartmouth, it becomes impossible to distinguish the scholarship boy from his well-to-do fellow.
The general raising of the school-leaving age to 16, however, profoundly affects the whole situation. General education up to school certificate standard will be available, when the future educational structure is complete, to every boy in the country who is capable of achieving that standard. The Admiralty have therefore decided to enter cadets at the age of 16, charging no fees to any entrant, and to make their training at Dartmouth after entry largely professional up to the time that they pass out from the college and seagoing training ship and join the fleet as young officers.
Two Systems
It is not intended that this system shall at once replace the present Dartmouth system, for so sudden and complete a change would not be administratively practicable. Moreover, it would clearly be risky to discard a well-proved system altogether in favour of one entirely different and untried. For a time the two systems will exist side by side, and it seems probable that experience will suggest some modifications in each. It would be a fairly safe prophecy, however, to predict that the system which eventually emerges will approximate much more to the new, which is clearly more in harmony with the spirit of the age, than the old. The “special entry” at 18 is also to continue in operation, cadets entering by that channel devoting also the whole of their time to technical and professional training.
The Royal Naval College at Dartmouth thus seems destined to develop into the counterpart of what the Army, in barbarous jargon, knows as an “Octu,” rather than the “public school” into which it has been transformed of late years. Its chief function will be character training and the development of the brand of leadership and the realization of responsibility which have come to be known as “officer-like qualities.” Naval cadets, whatever their age of entry, will undergo a period of intensive sea-going training after Dartmouth in a cruiser allocated for that duty (at present H.M.S. Devonshire) where they will do the duties of seamen. This period is strictly analogous to the period served “in the ranks” by the young officers of the Army and Air Force. One thing which is clearly unacceptable, in any quarter, is any derogation from the standard of efficiency which the country has always expected in the Navy, and the Navy has required of its officers.
OTHER COUNTRIES
China
New York Times, Nov. 15.—China is negotiating in Washington for the purchase of 600 surplus transport planes and an undisclosed amount of munitions, an authoritative Chinese source said today.
The Government expects to obtain used American noncombat aircraft at $5,000 each, about 5 per cent of the original cost. This price was mentioned when Nanking was informed recently that surplus transports were available for sale.
China has bought 150 Mosquito bombers from Canada. Before the acquisition of these fast twin-engined wooden bombers, the effective strength of the Chinese Air Force was estimated at 300 planes in fighter, heavy bomber, medium bomber and transport categories.
All Nationalist planes, of which time and use are exacting a high attritional toll, are American types. The fighters are P-51’s and some P-47’s. The medium bombers are B-25’s, the heavy bombers are B-24’s, the transports C-47’s and C-46’s.
Deal Was Made for 1,200
It is not clear to what extent the new plane negotiations are related to earlier post-war Sino-American discussions for setting up a Chinese air force of eight and one-third flying groups. Under this arrangement China was to acquire 1,200 aircraft, including about 550 for first line use and the rest for reserve.
Because of the shortage of engines and the rapid deterioration of surplus planes left at Pacific bases, about 275 aircraft were not delivered. The original arrangements were further complicated by the decision during Gen. George C. Marshall’s peace mediation mission here to stop providing combat planes or parts for such planes.
Expansion of the Chinese Air Force is limited by the availability of trained crews and the dollar cost of supplying imported gasoline with restricted exchange resources. It was suggested that acquisition of the 600 cargo planes would enable the air force to use some for transport operations and the rest as a source of spare parts.
The Nationalists have an absolute air-power monopoly in the civil war. Despite the effectiveness of aerial reconnaissance, strafing and bombing, this monopoly has not been sufficient by itself to give the Government over-all military initiative.
Transports Most Effective
The offensive power of the Chinese Air Force has been nullified to a large extent by the dispersal of Red forces over a vast terrain, the multifront war and the Communist guerrilla tactics, involving troop movements by night and a military “fadeout” by day. The destructions of railways has made the air force most successful as a substitute means of troop transport and supply.
The most effective planes have been C-47’s and C-46’s. They have enabled the Nationalists to move reinforcements quickly by air to isolated points under attack.
For some time the Government has been trying to buy surplus munitions that are at Pacific bases and in Japan. Some believe that American aid to China may involve United States commodity credits that would largely write off the unfavorable balance of trade, thus permitting Nanking to use available exchange to buy military equipment at low surplus prices.
It is estimated that $300,000,000 in commodity credits would cover the projected unfavorable balance up to June, 1947. Some stabilization of economic conditions may enable the Chinese to achieve more success in obtaining American Export-Import Bank loans for self-liquidating reconstruction projects in areas that are free of Communists.
Dutch Navy
The Dutch Navy is organized as follows:
Minister of the Navy
Chief of Naval Operations ..Chief Directors: Personnel, Supply, Aeronautics, Matériel, Naval, and Aeronautical
Chief of General Staff
General Staff
Naval Forces at Home / Naval Forces in Indonesia / Naval Infantry (Marines)
Netherlands
La Revue Maritime, Aug., 1947.
The Chief of Staff of the Navy is likewise the chief of staff of the commander-in-chief. He is eventually his standby, and by right his successor. The minister, the chief of naval operations, his chief of staff, and the chief directors constitute the Superior Council of the Admiralty. The general staff is made up of an information office, an operations office, an aero-naval office, a service of communications, and finally an office of organization and plans corresponding somewhat to our 4th bureau (French or op. 30, U. S. Navy).
The available naval forces are almost entirely on duty in the Netherlands Indies. They are under the orders of a vice-admiral. The units based in Holland are commanded by a captain; these units are chiefly devoted to school purposes and the training of personnel.
The personnel is now made up of about 2,000 officers (both non-combat duty and command officers), and of 28,000 petty officers and enlisted men. In this number are included about 300 officers and 10,000 men belonging to the naval infantry. This corps is completely modeled on the American Marines.
Matériel
From the matériel point of view, the Dutch fleet, which suffered heavy losses during the war, has been partly reconstituted by matériel bought in England or loaned by the Royal Navy, and by units which fell into German hands in Holland and were subsequently recovered.
The total tonnage of the fleet in service now amounts to about 58,500 tons. It is made up chiefly of the following ships:
1 aircraft carrier escort, the Karel-Door- man (ex-H.M.S. Nairana). This ship has been loaned by the Royal Navy until March, 1948;
2 light cruisers of 4,150 tons, the Tromp and the Jacob-Van-Heemskirck, entered service respectively in August, 1938, and at the end of 1944;
6 destroyers, dating from 1941-43, bought in Great Britain (1,800 tons, 31 knots, 4 6/120’s, 4/40 AA’s, 8 to 10 T/533);
8 submarines, 3 of which were bought in England and another recovered in Holland fit the end of the war. These units are obsolete and are kept only for training submarine personnel and for listening schools;
19 PT boats: 8 M.T.B. 3 motor launches, type Fairmile, 8 American type PT boats;
6 escort vessels (one ex-English frigate, one P. C. American and 4 gunboats).
Two of the gunboats are over-age: one, the Soemba, is used as radar training ship, and the other, the Flores, as station ship at Rotterdam;
3 mine layers;
8 squadron mine sweepers;
26 small tonnage mine sweepers;
1 tender of 9,200 tons: the Vulkaan, ex- H.M.S. Beacher-Head. This vessel was purchased recently.
Naval Program
In 1942 the Admiralty established a naval program which was approved by Parliament. This program, set up in view of the lessons of the war, should in principle be realized in ten years. If it is fulfilled, it should, in the opinion of its sponsors, give Holland a navy worthy of its past and of its position in the world. This naval force will, moreover, on the one hand, enable her to effect the policing of her colonies, and, on the other, to bring to her allies in case of international tension, a worthy support, adapted to the type of conflict predictable during the coming years and which, in addition, would constitute for the Netherlands government a political trump of the first order.
Naturally, this program has been built around the aircraft carrier, whose number determines today, as the battleship did formerly, the potential of the fleet. The program entails the constitution of 3 “Task Forces,” each consisting of:
1 light aircraft carrier,
2 anti-aircraft cruisers,
8 destroyers,
1 repair ship,
1 rapid tanker,
and of a reserve made up of a fourth aircraft carrier, 2 cruisers, and 12 destroyers.
The program also calls for the construction of 4 submarines for training personnel. These 4 units are intended to replace the submarines now in service and which are out-dated and comparatively worn out.
Included in the program are:
the 6 destroyers of 1,700 tons bought in Great Britain;
the 2 cruisers of 8,350 tons: De-Zeven-Provincien and Eendracht.
These two ships, which had been abandoned on the ways in 1940, were found intact on liberation. Their construction had been pursued by the Germans, and the first had even been launched at the end of 1944. The armaments will be changed in order to prepare them for their rôle of anti-air support in the task forces to be made up.
On the other hand, the 2 small cruisers Tromp and Heemskirk, as well as the Karel-Doorman are not included in the program.
It is the intention of the Netherlands government to buy abroad at the earliest date 1 light aircraft carrier, 1 cruiser, and 4 destroyers, and to have the remaining ships built in her national yards. Last year the budget envisaged the acquisition in Great Britain of 1 cruiser, the Orion, and of 2 destroyers, plus the laying down in Holland of 1 cruiser, 3 destroyers, 1 submarine, and 1 tender. For financial reasons, none of the purchases negotiated in Great Britain was realized, and, as the yards could begin only a small part of the projected work, the unused credits were carried over to the following year’s budget; the 1947 budget provides merely for the continuance of construction on the 2 Eendrachts and the acquisition of 2 destroyers in Great Britain. As one can see, the realization of the naval program is turning out to be difficult and, given the necessary delays in the construction of the ships, it is probable that the first “Task Force” will not take shape until about three or four years hence.
Naval Aviation
The status of naval aviation has not yet been fixed. If it depends on the navy for matériel, organization, and personnel, it has a mere supervisory rôle in the training of the latter. The personnel afloat is in fact trained at the Air School of Gilze Rigen, controlled by a Directory of Air Forces placed under the common control of the Army, the Navy, and the Ministry of the Colonies. Certain Dutch military leaders favor the constitution of a general Staff for Aviation which would direct all air forces including naval aviation. Wise in the lessons of the war, the Navy firmly opposes this solution.
At present, the Netherlands naval aviation appears to consist of:
1 flotilla of Fairey Firefly planes (2-seater fighter and reconnaissance) on board the Karel-Doorman;
1 identical flotilla based in Indonesia;
1 flotilla of pursuit Hawker Sea Fairey planes;
1 flotilla of Catalina hydroplanes in Indonesia;
1 group of transports equipped with Dakotas and a certain number of training planes.
The naval program established in 1946 provides for the incorporation of 344 planes, to wit:
1st Land-based Aviation:
3 squadrons of 12 quadrimotor long-range bombers;
6 squadrons of 20 twin-motor bombers (assault);
3 squadrons of 20 pursuit planes;
1 group of transports (20 planes);
2nd Carrier-based Aviation:
3 squadrons of 16 combat and reconnaissance planes;
3 squadrons of pursuit planes (60 planes in all).
This matériel would make possible the setting up of: 1st, 3 combat groups of land-based aviation, composed each of: 1 squadron of exploration and bombardment (4-motored); 2 squadrons of assault (twin-motored bombers); 1 pursuit squadron; 2nd, 3 aircraft carriers.
This program, which is in keeping with the well-assimilated lessons of the war, is rather ambitious. It shows, in any case, the importance attached by the Netherlands Admiralty and the government, which approved the program, to the development of naval aviation.
Aviation
Douglas Skyrocket
Navy Press Release, Nov. 16.—The Navy’s Douglas D-558-2 Skyrocket, a rocket and jet flight machine with acutely sweptback wings and tail, pointed needle nose and slimly tapered fuselage resembling a “winged V-2,” was previewed for the press this week.
Unveiled by the Navy Department, National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics and Douglas Aircraft Company, Inc., El Segundo, California Plant, where it was designed and developed, the sleek craft startlingly indicated the shape of things to come as Man edges closer to the Era of Rocket Flight.
Pacing aeronautical progress, the swordfish-like Skyrocket is the first man-carrying flight machine of its type to utilize combined rocket and jet energy. It is the first sonic research type capable of taking off, flying and landing under its own power.
Sequel to its sister ship, the Navy’s Douglas (D-558) Skystreak, which established a new official World’s Speed Record on August 25, the Skyrocket is the nation’s latest challenge to the formidable barrier to increased speeds known as the speed-of-sound range (761 mph at sea level).
Like its record-breaking predecessor, the Skyrocket is powered by a turbo-jet engine (J-34 (24-C) Westinghouse), permitting it to function as a conventional aircraft at lower speeds. The addition of a Reaction Motors, Inc., rocket engine at the aft tip of the fuselage affords extra thrust to ram the craft to the upper limits of its high-speed swept wings and tail.
Its elongated, narrow fuselage and needle nose are designed to reduce drag and interference from shock waves in the furious clashings of air currents of the transonic range. A substantial increase in speed is expected over the earlier straight-winged jet Skystreak.
Two air intakes or “gills” that feed the turbo-jet are located on the lower sides to the rear of the cockpit. The jet exhaust outlet is on the underbelly of the ship between the wing and the aft tip of the fuselage. There is no inlet for air for the rocket motor as rockets carry their own oxygen independent of the outer atmosphere.
The transonic craft is 44 ½ feet long with a span of 25 feet.
Because of insufficient space in the wings, the landing gear and fuel are housed in the fuselage. Aerodynamic brakes are provided on the sides of the after portion of the fuselage to aid in controlling speed.
To offset the adverse low-speed lift characteristics of sweptback wings, leading edge type automatic slots are provided.
Built to withstand the rigors of flight at the speed of sound, the fuselage consists chiefly of magnesium alloy. Wing and tail surfaces are largely tough 75 S aluminum alloy.
There is no “bubble” to break the ship’s clean aerodynamic line. The pilot’s enclosure is housed completely inside the polished fuselage. Snug, compact, the cockpit is equipped with oxygen and pressurization, refrigeration and heating. In the “polar” temperatures of the upper atmosphere or at sea level, at excessively high speeds, these provisions will permit the pilot to live under conditions closely imitating normal existence.
A quick release emergency device allows the pilot’s compartment to be jettisoned and fall free until it reaches an altitude and speed where the pilot can bail out safely.
While having no provision for military armament, the Skyrocket carries a payload of myriad scientific recording instruments. Air pressures are measured on 400 points on wing and tail surfaces; control forces and stresses in the structure by 904 electric strain gauges. The battery of flight instruments are automatically recorded on motion picture film.
A diagram of the network of wiring and piping in the Skyrocket would resemble the human nervous system.
After usual contract demonstration flights by the Douglas Company at the U. S. Army Air Forces Test Center at Muroc Dry Lake, California, the critically fast Skyrocket will be turned over by the Navy to the NACA for an intensive research program.
Although tests are to be run at various altitudes and conditions of flight, a typical run is to take off with turbo-jet power. At somewhere above 25,000 feet rocket power is released. A fury of pent-up gasses roars from the rocket tubes for a lunge across the transonic speed range of about two minutes’ duration. During this short rocket flight one and one-half tons of fuel are burned. The Skyrocket returns to its base by turbo-jet. The entire operation takes about 30 minutes.
The exact rate of fuel consumption depends upon the method of firing the rockets chosen by the pilot. He may find that short selective bursts may be necessary so that he will not be thrust forward suddenly into new and unknown conditions of compressibility. For periods of a few seconds’ duration the machine may become a pure projectile independent of the air for power or lift. Such a flight pattern may permit the missile-shaped ship to close in gradually on the speed of sound under complete control.
An augury of the future, the Navy’s unorthodox (D-558-2) Douglas Skyrocket research craft is another progressive step in the series of laborious trials and techniques to propel man-carrying aircraft across the transonic zone of flight.
Begun on V-J Day, in the summer of 1945, as a result of a Navy-NACA conference at Douglas’ El Segundo, California plant, the Skyrocket is, in short, a highly-complex, scientific instrument built for the purpose of supplying aerodynamic data not otherwise obtainable for the design of future efficient and safe high-speed aircraft.
Supersonic Plane Seen in Few Years
N. Y. Times, Nov. 16.-—Regardless of the future performance of the Navy’s Douglas-built Skyrocket, the combination rocket and jet propelled plane, completed in California last Thursday, aeronautical experts said yesterday that they believed supersonic speed in piloted aircraft would be achieved in one to three years.
The experts stated that planes like the needle-nosed Skyrocket with its sharply swept-back wings and high tail are now “nudging” the transonic barrier. They added that there was a wide belief in the aircraft industry that supersonic speed was a certainty and “only a matter of time.”
Estimates as to when man will fly at the speed of sound vary, however, it was pointed out. But whereas a year ago a conservative estimate was “within ten years,” it is now only a third to a tenth that far away. Progress, they added, has been greater than was at first dreamed of by the usually conservative engineers.
Dryden Prediction Recalled
That the estimates are not those of unqualified persons was pointed out by a prediction of Dr. Hugh L. Dryden, recently named director of aeronautical research for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, in American Aviation Daily. Dr. Dryden was quoted as saying:
“At least by the end of 1948, and maybe a lot sooner, we will see planes carrying people flying at speeds in excess of the speed of sound.”
One of the reasons why so much progress has been made on supersonic speeds, it was said, is the number of projects now under way and the quality of the engineers and facilities.
The Skyrocket which soon will make its first public appearance was only little more than two years from the drawing boards of the Douglas engineers. This is considered a remarkably short period for the evolution of a modern aircraft.
Called “Augury of Future”
Dr. Dryden’s engineers at the NACA now get the sleek Skyrocket for an intensive research program that includes further flight tests. Apparently neither the Douglas Aircraft Company, the Navy nor the NACA feels that the Skyrocket is the final answer. They all refer to it as “an augury of the future” and call it “another progressive step” in the direction of the transonic zone of flight.
In spite of some predictions as to passenger flight at supersonic speed, aeronautical engineers believe that the chief significance of supersonic speed is military. They do not discount future passenger service at supersonic speeds, but they feel its first applications will be in military problems.
Army XC-99
N. Y. Times, Nov. 1.—The largest land-based plane ever built with six engines generating 18,000 horsepower, moved out on Lindbergh Field for the first time today.
The aircraft, Consolidated-Vultee’s XC-99 which has been under construction for several years, traveled the length of the main 8,750-foot runway to an apron where engine tests were begun.
Taxiing tests are scheduled next week, and the maiden flight of the Army transport may take place before Thanksgiving.
With a maximum load of 400 troops, or 100,000 pounds of cargo, it will have a range of 1,500 miles. With reduced load it will fly 8,000 miles non-stop.
The bomber version of the ship is the B-36, capable of flying the atomic bomb to any inhabited region of the world and returning without refueling.
P-84 Ready To Flight
N. Y. Times, Nov. 3.—The United States Air Force announced today that the Republic P-84 “Thunderjet” fighter plane was ready for combat. The new plane has passed firing tests of its six guns at the Republic Aviation Corporation’s plant at Farming-dale, L. I., and is now “fully qualified for operational service.”
This now gives the Air Force two jet fighter planes, the other being the Lockheed P-80 “Shooting Star.” The two planes will supplement each other as jet fighter weapons, an Air Force spokesman said.
In the P-84 the Air Force has the solution of the problem of high fire power from planes nearing the speed of sound. In the tests announced today it was stated that 70,000 rounds were fired from the six guns of the plane, with more than 75 per cent of the rounds fired while the plane exceeded 500 miles an hour. The first 10,000 rounds were fired to warm the guns and the rest with all guns firing together.
The Air Force announced several months ago that three fighter groups were set to receive P-84’s and that the first group would have eighty-three of the planes. It is understood that the fighter group at Dow Field in Maine is now outfitted with the Thunderjets.
The tests announced today showed that the P-84’s guns fired at a rate about 50 per cent faster than those used in aircraft during the war. The increase in the speed of firing is a great advantage because the higher speed of the jet planes gives less time than conventional planes for the discharge of a burst of bullets at a target. This diminution of fire power offset some of the advantages of higher speed, it has been learned from German experience with jet fighters.
While the firing tests were being conducted a special armament crew, consisting of George Zeiner and Frederick Atkinson of the Republic company, concentrated on the equally important job of reducing the time required for complete servicing of armament installations.
It was demonstrated that the entire operation, from the time a P-84 landed after a simulated combat mission until it was ready to take off on another mission, could be performed in less than half an hour.
This included setting up work stands alongside the plane, removing all ammunition boxes, unloading empty shell cases, and the removal, servicing, checking and replacement of all armament equipment, reloading the six ammunition boxes, closing all access doors and removing workstands, leaving the plane ready to take off.
In actual combat conditions refueling and other servicing could be completed simultaneously.
(Editor’s Note: See Professional Notes for January 1947 and July 1947 for description and employment.)
YB-49
Aero-Digest, Nov.—The USAF has taken some of the wraps off the Northrop YB-49, jet-propelled bomber of the Flying Wing type. What is believed to be the world’s most powerful airplane made its maiden flight in October. The flight consisted of a 34-minute hop to Muroc, where further tests will be conducted.
Viewed from above, the aircraft, expected to gross more than 200,000 lb, resembles a giant boomerang, because of the swept-back wing design and relatively undisturbed trailing edge.
Power for the YB-49 is supplied by eight General Electric TG-180 turbojets developing approximately 4000 lb of thrust apiece. This figures up to a total of 32,000 hp when the aircraft is flying 375 mph at sea level. There are those who contend that the output of each turbo will be boosted to 5000 lb of thrust, which would surely make the YB-49 Flying Wing the most powerful aircraft in the world.
The plane, a jet-propelled counterpart of the propeller-driven B-35 bomber is designed to operate at altitudes in excess of 30,000 ft, spans 172 ft and weighs 88,100 lb empty. A crew of 13 is indicated, including six relief men. The appearance of the YB-49 in flight will be identical with that of a B-35 stripped of its propellers, with the exception of four vertical “air separators” along the wing to provide proper lateral stability. Performance details have not been disclosed.
Flight controls are actuated through a powered-booster system, although the system is “loaded” with pneumatic devices to give the pilots an artificial “feel,” similar to that experienced normally in the operation of smaller planes. Northrop engineers designed an electrically-driven throttle to prevent over-speeding and excessive acceleration of the eight jet engines. This feature assures smoother operation and extends engine life by keeping tail-pipe temperatures within bounds.
The YB-49 has a tricycle landing gear; dual wheels on each main leg, measuring 5 ft 6 in, and a single nose wheel, 4 ft 8 in high, support the plane. The nose wheel retracts uniquely, being lifted sideways into the leading edge, to the left of the aircraft centerline.
The jet-propelled version of the Flying Wing is intended as a heavy bombardment airplane, although its design is adaptable to cargo and transport use. The second plan of this type is in an advanced stage of completion in the factory. Northrop is also filling an order for 13 B-35 bombers, propeller driven predecessors of the YB-49.
(Editor’s Note: See Professional Notes for April 1947.)
Jet “Flying Bike” Called Success
N. Y. Herald Tribune, Nov. 16.—The Air Force today rolled out its “flying bike”—the world’s first ram-jet helicopter—which opens a new field in the development of rotary wing aircraft.
The Air Force said six months of test flying have proved the helicopter successful beyond the expectations of the inventor. McDonnell Aircraft Corporation, which built the contraption, said it gave promise of becoming a service or military machine of great utility.
Looking like nothing more than a tripod with wheels, rotor and a conventional rudder, the “flying bike” weighs only 310 pounds. But in its test flights, the Air Force said, it lifted a load nearly equal to its own weight and attained a forward speed of fifty miles an hour. Flying the machine, it said, should eventually become almost as simple as driving an automobile.
The helicopter is described officially as “a three-dimensional aerial motorcycle consisting of a two-blade rotor, two tip ramjets, a small rudder, and an open steel tube structure supporting the pilot, fuel tanks and controls.”
Neither the Air Force nor McDonnell have decided yet whether the machine should be classified as an aircraft. In doubt, they compromised on calling it a “flying test stand.”
Fighter Planes Out of Storage
N. Y. Herald Tribune, Nov. 15.—The United States Air Force is bringing 650 planes out of storage, to build its combat fleet up to more than 4,000 aircraft. However, today’s air fleet would be sufficient to wage war for only a few days, said Air Secretary W. Stuart Symington, if this country should suddenly be plunged into conflict.
Mr. Symington said demobilization has brought the Air Force to such a low point that it would be adequate to maintain a war for only a short time before dispersion of strength and losses would require reserves of men and aircraft.
His views were expressed in an address to Sigma Delta Chi, national journalistic society. It coincided with an announcement by the Air Force that about 250 B-29 bombers and 400 P-51 and P-47 fighters are being drawn from reserves.
(An announcement that the 250 B-29’s were being taken out of storage was made last Monday by the Department of the Air Force).
By the end of next month the Air Force will have fifty-five groups, the limit attainable under present appropriations, in full operation. Without the addition of the reserve planes, the Air Force has about 3,500 first-line combat aircraft, made up of about 1,200 bombers, 1,900 fighters and 400 reconnaissance aircraft. About 10,000 Air Force planes of all types are in storage.
At the end of the war, the United States had slightly more than 3,000 B-29 Superfortresses. About 1,500 B-29’s were set aside for “cocooning,” the long term storage plan. Out of the other 1,500 came the post-war operating force and the so called “pickled” stock, from which replacements are drawn as operational planes wear out or are lost by accident.
The Air Force said the 650 being added to the first-line force will come from the “pickled” fleet, the more permanently cocooned remaining untouched.
Movable Seaplane Slip
The Military Engineer, Nov.—Seaplanes may be made fast in a few minutes in a new Movable Seaplane Slip developed by the Bureau of Yards and Docks at the Advance Base Proving Ground, Port Hueneme, California. Use of this slip obviates the necessity of maneuvering the plane ashore or securing it to a mooring buoy.
As tested at Hueneme, the apparatus consists of a length of wire cable some 600 feet long secured at one end to a dock and at the other to a buoy. The cable passes through a horizontal fairlead fastened on the under side of the slip, allowing the slip to move the cable’s length to any point between the dock and the bouy, and to pivot in any direction desired to permit the entering plane to taxi against the wind.
The highly versatile pontoon is again used in constructing this floating structure. It contains 134 of them in three levels, and can be raised and lowered in the water similarly to a floating drydock. When being towed, therefore, it rides high in the water, but while in operation it has only 18 inches of freeboard.
The bottom layer of the slip consists of five pontoon strings, each comprising six rectangular or box pontoons and two curved-end pontoons at the ends. The five strings are set parallel and are 17 feet 2 inches apart from center to center. They are joined with a system of horizontal and vertical truss work.
Topping the strings are groups of three box pontoons so placed as to overlap the ends slightly and leave the middle three pontoon lengths as a channel. Welded on top of the groups of three, and at right angles to them are the topmost pontoon strings, which form the operating level.
The operating deck is divided into two parts, each consisting of two pontoon strings. The strings forming the outsides of the slip are in straight lines.
The total length of the slip from port to starboard end is 125 feet and the width between the outsides of the bow and stern pontoons is 52 feet. The clear width of the channel at the center-line is 17 feet.
The slip has three propulsion units to permit self maneuvering, the two mentioned above being at each end of the stern side, and a third at the port bow end. This unit, which is in line with the longitudinal centerline, is used for pivoting the slip. The other two, which propel the slip forward or in reverse along the cable, are normal, or at right angles to the centerline. All three are modified Sea Mule units.
The fairlead, installed at the longitudinal and transverse centerline under the center 1 by 8 string, controls the slip’s course; hence, the rudders are secured in a direct forward-reverse position. i
The slip is submerged to its operating depth or raised from it by a system of pipes into the pontoons. The strings in the lowest tier have swing pipes into which water feeds by gravity in their downward position, or, when the pipes are swung upward, the water is pumped out by air pressure. The second tier is not flooded but remains watertight to give buoyancy to the slip. The top tier is flooded and emptied by pumping water into or out of each individual pontoon. On the lowest tier the curved-end pontoons have open plug holes.
Mounted along each channel side on the operating deck is a row of airplane tires, set horizontally 37 inches apart and extending beyond the edge of the pontoons so as to prevent the seaplane from being damaged by impact with the pontoons. Best results have been obtained with these tires by inflating them with 10 pounds air pressure.
A further aid in steering the plane directly into the slip is a system of six water jets, three on each side of the entrance, which push the plane away from the sides. These jets are powered by a Chrysler Fire-Fightei Pump, Gas Driven, with 500 GPM capacity The pump has 4-inch suction with 2-inch discharge lines through a manifold. The jets themselves have fire nozzles which reduce from 2 ½ inches to one inch and can be operated singly or in groups. Pressure developed through a single jet is 180 psi, through two jets 120 psi, and through three in simultaneous operation 90 psi. The nozzles can not be tilted vertically but may be placed anywhere between 12 and 36 inches below deck level. Horizontally they can be turned 360 degrees.
The entrance end of the slip is skeleton construction to allow easy access to the jets, and therefore does not have pontoons on the inner string. The stern side of the starboard end contains jets, a propulsion unit, and a pump well, while the bow side has pump well and jets. Vertical projections have been limited to 16 inches above the level of the deck.
Tests have shown that the slip can be modified. At present, for example, it can take a larger plane than a PBM. The width might be decreased where smaller planes were to be accommodated. Conversely, the slip may be enlarged to accommodate the larger planes of the future.
Other suggestions which undoubtedly will be incorporated in future models of the slip are a common power unit for propulsion and pump operation, installation of a radio to effect coordinated action between the slip and the entering seaplane, and a more efficient trolley action in the fairlead to insure a full 360-degree approach area for the plane without a mooring buoy. At present obstruction is possible if the offshore end of the slip is in less than 40 feet of water.
On the other hand, the slip was successful on many counts. Jet action, it was found, definitely controlled approach of the plane so that even the worst kind of an approach could be overcome and a facile entry made.
Most important, the plane was maneuvered into the slip quickly and simply. The pilot of the seaplane used in the tests declared, “It is much easier to enter the slip than to secure to a mooring buoy.”
All Weather Flying Test Center
Aviation News, Oct. 27.—Development progress on the critical problems of all-weather operations at the Air Force All-Weather Flying Center, Wilmington, Ohio is producing new equipment, techniques and operational data that are equally applicable to commercial as well as military flying.
Probably the Center’s outstanding development though by now so routine as to be unspectacular, is the all-weather airline directed by Col. Algene E. Key (Aviation News, Feb. 20). Last week C-54’s of the airline completed 678 out of 680 scheduled round trips over its 375 mile route between Wilmington and Washington, D. C. in 14 months of continuous operation. This record was compiled using equipment that is now available to Civil Aeronautics Administration and commercial airlines on the New York Washington Civil Airway where financial losses are heaviest due to traffic control jams under instrument conditions and schedule cancellations during bad weather.
Instrument Flights.—All flights of Col. Key’s airline are made under actual or simulated instrument conditions from takeoff to landing and carry full loads of passengers, cargo and military mail. Radar traffic control (CPN-18) is used at both the Wilmington and Andrews Field, Md. terminals (Aviation News, Feb. 3). Landings are made with GCA as the primary system and the Sperry microwave beam landing system as a supplementary cockpit check for the pilot. The all-weather airline discarded the CAA sponsored ILS some time ago as operationally inferior to the Sperry system both in signal reliability and cockpit indications.
Among the new developments under way since this writer’s previous inspection of the Center:
First three-dimensional radar photos of thunderstorms that reveal areas of heaviest rainfall and violent turbulence within a large thunderstorm. This development promises new aid in avoiding danger spots within thunderstorms particularly when the outline of the individual storm is obscured by frontal conditions. David Atlas, 23-year-old civilian meteorologist at the center, developed the new radar picture process which adds only one pound to conventional airborne scope radar equipment. Details of the process are still restricted pending patent proceedings.
First sizeable accumulation of data on flying in frontal type thunderstorms as a result of 1,300 penetrations of 78 distinct midwestern thunderstorms during the past summer. Operational experience of the Center’s specially instrumented squadron of Northrup P-61’s commanded by Capt. Lon C. Kappil, indicated that best penetration altitudes lie between 5,000 and 6,000 ft. with most violent turbulence generally found between 10,000 and 20,000 ft.
Experience also indicated the unpredictable quality of thunderstorms on the basis of ordinary radar warning. One P-61 made penetrations of a single storm at 10,000 ft. without encountering more than mild turbulence. On the eighth penetration at the same altitude it hit an updraft so violent that the pilot thought he had collided with another plane. Instruments in the P-61 indicated that it encountered gust loads increasing from 1 to 35G’s and went from 15,000 to 34,000 ft. altitude in 34 seconds. The pilot lost control completely and alternated between blacking out and fits of consciousness while the plane was twisted and battered by the gust.
He was finally blown out of the storm out of control and guided to Wilmington by radar traffic control. The P-61 which is stressed to 12 times normal strength had an 8 inch crack in its horizontal stabilizer and holes in the leading edges of both wings. Other planes in the same storm at the same time penetrating at 20,000 and 25,000 ft. experienced no unusual turbulence effects.
Examination of P-61’s encountering gust loads up to 4G’s in thunderstorms indicated evidence of severe metal fatigue. Heavy hail dented leading edges of wings, bent stabilizers and damaged propellers so badly that they had to be replaced.
Lightning strikes were experienced by 12 planes without radio failures. VHF radio equipment was heavily shielded in the P-61’s. A plane specially rigged to attract lightning strikes received none. One pilot had a strike at 28,000 ft. in the midst of heavy snow. He had taken off his anti-glare goggles to see the instrument panel through a haze of snow filtering into the cockpit when the lightning hit. He was blinded by a sheet of flame. The interphone was knocked out, the pitot head was bent 45 degrees, antennae and static wicks were burned off, and holes burned in both wings.
It was found that the long plastic canopy of the P-61 picked up negative electrical charges that built up to induce lightning strikes. Lightning blew the canopies apart. Canopies were neutralized by adding conductors of electricity. More lightning strikes were encountered at high altitudes and high speeds.
Instrumentation projects are aimed at increasing pilot efficiency when flying under instrument conditions. One project is combining instruments that now require several dials on the cockpit panel into a single dial to ease pilot eye fatigue and aid him in interpreting the information offered. One instrument with a dial about the size of an alarm clock combines air speed, rate of climb, artificial horizon, directional gyro, clock bank and turn indicator and ILS cross pointers. Other projects involve regrouping instruments in a C-54 according to pilot’s convenience rather than manufacturer’s expediency and a modified panel with all-electric instruments on the pilot side and all-vacuum instruments on the co-pilot’s panel.
Directional VHF communications have been developed to a point where it is possible to establish exclusive airground communications with any single plane in the 40 mile radar traffic control approach zone. Lack of positive communications with any specific aircraft that requires immediate traffic directions had been a problem under the previous system which used four VHF channels.
Among the new projects scheduled to begin before the end of the year are a high speed weather flying program aimed at determining effects of severe frontal conditions, ice and lightning on 500 mph. plus jet aircraft. Tests will be made with P-80, P-84, B-45 and B-46 jet fighters and bombers. Preliminary tests indicate an unusually fast rate of ice accumulation on aircraft in this speed range.
Another research effort will be devoted to a quantitative analysis of artificial rain-producing methods under joint sponsorship of the Air Force, Navy, Weather Bureau and NACA. Dr. Ross Gunn, director of physical research, will head the program to determine for the first time the exact physical properties and characteristics of clouds capable of producing rain or snow. All-Weather Center planes will fly the missions required to seed clouds with dry ice and other potentially rain-producing chemicals.
MERCHANT MARINE
War-Built Ships Sold For $1,400,000,000
N. Y. Herald Tribune, Nov. 1.—The Maritime Commission disclosed yesterday that it has turned in $1,400,000,000 to the United States Treasury by selling 1,555 war-built merchant vessels since the ship-sales act was adopted in March, 1946.
The figures, contained in a quarterly report to Congress by Vice-admiral William W. Smith, chairman of the commission, also showed that purchases of 171 of the vessels for $250,000,000 were approved by the commission between July 1 and Sept. 30. Of the 171 vessels approved for sale during the quarter, fifty were for American-flag operation and 121 for foreign-flag owners.
The 1,555-vessel total included 481 ships sold to American-flag operators and 1,074 for foreign-flag operators. Admiral Smith noted that 113 of the foreign-flag vessels actually went to American citizens with the privilege of transferring to another flag—a practice adopted by some operators to take advantage of lower labor costs abroad.
American operators bought 369 dry-cargo vessels and 112 tankers. American buyers were allocated the major share of the more desirable C-type vessels, receiving eighteen C-ls, 122 C-2s and eighty-eight C-3s. The remainder of the 169 dry-cargo vessels were composed of 110 Libertys and nine Victorys.
Foreign purchasers received forty-six C-ls, eleven C-2s, 577 Libertys, ninety-eight Victorys and 126 coastal-type vessels. The tankers comprised 208 large types and eight coastal tankers.
At the close of the quarter the commission had pending 348 applications for 869 vessels of which ninety-four were for American registry. Commission policy on foreign ship sales has been to approve them only after careful investigation. The policy was adopted last April after a survey showed that most foreign tonnages plus ships on construction ways were equal to or over 1939 totals.
The report showed that 1,313 ships were being operated under charter on Sept. 30, but later figures reduced this to about 1,150.
13 Lines to Drop Ship Charters
N. Y. Herald Tribune, Nov. 2.—Thirteen Atlantic Coast steamship operators signified yesterday to the Maritime Commission that they will cancel charters of almost 100 ships because of a slump in freight rates.
Yesterday was the first day under new charters which went into effect Sept. 1 on which these operators could take advantage of fifteen-day cancellation clauses. Although most of the ships are ready to be returned to the commission, charterers will be obliged to retain them and continue paying charter fees until Nov. 15 unless the commission takes special action before then. The commission is considering such action.
A survey of the seventy-four operators chartering 1,228 vessels from the commission showed that thirty-nine are not turning back any and that another twelve are doubtful. Others are unavailable for comment.
Foreign Lines Get Cargoes
A tally of the charterers Oct. 24 showed that at least 110 American ships were idle in east coast ports while cargoes were going to foreign carriers offering rates lower than minimums required by the commission. While this number may have increased during the last week, some operators are unwilling to let go of idle chartered vessels until Congress indicates the way it will act on proposals for European relief.
New Ships
Bowgran, Shipbuilder and Marine-Engine Builder, Sept. 1947.—A feature of current British shipbuilding activity is the substantial volume of tonnage under construction for overseas owners. These ships represent, in the aggregate, more than 25 per cent of the total volume of tonnage under construction in this country’s shipyards, and they constitute by no means an unimportant contribution to the export programme.
An interesting vessel in this category is the cargo motorship Bowgran, which has been constructed, by the Burntisland Shipbuilding Co., Ltd., and which, after having completed successful speed and power trials in the Firth of Forth in mid-July, was handed over to her owners, A/S. Nye Kristianborg (A/S. Rederiet Odfjell), of Minde, Bergen.
The new vessel, it may be noted, has been built to replace the motorship Gran, constructed at Burntisland in 1938 for the same owners, and which became a war casualty.
Leading particulars of the Bowgran are as follows:—
Length overall: 414 ft. 0 in.
Length B.P.: 397 ft. 0 in.
Breadth: 33 ft. 6 in.
Depth moulded to shelter deck: 36 ft. 0 in.
Gross tonnage: 4,509
Net tonnage: 2,579
Deadweight tons: 7,700
Load draught: 25 ft. 1 in.
The vessel conforms to the requirements of Lloyd’s Register of Shipping for the classification +100 A.1, with freeboard, and with those of the Norwegian Sea Control.
The Bowgran has been designed for the transport of all classes of general cargo on a regular express route; and, in order that she may maintain her schedule in varying conditions of weather, the hull form has been a subject of careful thought. In this connection, the forward sections have been designed with good flare, while the forecastle superimposed on the shelter deck will also help to keep the ship “dry” during heavy weather.
The vessel is of the open shelter-deck type, with two complete decks; in addition, an orlop deck is worked in way of No. 1 hold.
There are five main cargo holds, three forward and two aft of the machinery space. In way of No. 3 hold, a group of deep tanks, extending to the level of the second deck, provides capacity for the carriage of vegetable-oil cargo. Steel centre-line bulkheads are arranged in the lower holds.
The bottom-double tanks and the fore and after peak are available for water ballast; while all the double bottom tanks, with the exception of that below No. 1 hold, are also adapted to the carriage of fuel oil.
The Bowgran is well equipped with cargohandling appliances. Of the 11 derricks, eight are of 5 tons capacity, two are suitable for 8-ton lifts, and there is a heavy-lift boom designed for loads of up to 25 tons. In addition to the electrically-driven cargo winches, the deck machinery includes an electric windlass, an electric warping winch aft, and an electro-hydraulic steering gear, installed in the ’tween decks immediately above the rudder and operated from the navigating bridge by telemotor equipment.
Accommodations provide for a few passengers, who, together with the captain, deck officers, engineer officers and other executive personnel, have their quarters in the midship erection.
Stockholm, N. Y. Herald Tribune, Nov. 12.—The new 11,000-ton Swedish American Line’s motorship Stockholm went through a series of trial trips successfully last week preparatory to entering the line’s service between New York and Gothenburg early next year, according to an announcement by G. Hilmer Lundbeck, jr., managing director of the line in the United States.
The Stockholm, a yacht-like vessel of about the same size as the Drottningholm which she will replace, will carry 400 passengers in two classes, all in outside staterooms. The vessel, 525-feet long and built for a speed of nineteen knots, is the largest passenger vessel ever constructed in Sweden. The liner is expected to make the voyage between New York and Gothenburg in eight days.
Mr. Lundbeck said that in appearance the Stockholm differs materially from the conventional type of passenger vessel. Her lines are sleek and modern, and a streamline- effect is obtained in hull, superstructure, raked stem and cruiser stern. The Stockholm will alternate with the motorliner Gripsholm in the Gothenburg service. The Swedish-American line also operates a fleet of modern cargo vessels to replace those sunk while in the Allied shipping pool during the war.
Willem Ruys, N. Y. Times, Nov. 4.—The 21,500-ton liner Willem Ruys, new Rotterdam Lloyd flagship, will leave Rotterdam this month for her final technical trial cruise in the Bay of Biscay, it was reported here yesterday.
Built at Vlissingen, the Willem Ruys is the largest ship constructed in the Netherlands since the war. She has accommodations for 842 passengers and is scheduled for service between Rotterdam and Batavia.
The ship made her trial run in the North Sea for four days beginning Oct. 1. She is scheduled to leave on her first voyage to Batavia on Dec. 4.
Tug and Tow Threads N.Y. Harbor by Radar
N. Y. Herald Tribune, Nov. 8.—The first radar-equipped tugboat to operate in New York Harbor confidently threaded her way Friday night through shipping in the Upper Bay guided only by her skipper’s sure hands and the images on her radar screen.
Her wheelhouse completely blacked out to simulate zero-visibility weather conditions which frequently prevail here, the New York New Haven & Hartford’s tug Transfer No. 21 towed two loaded railroad carfloats three-and-three-quarter miles from Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, to Greenville, Jersey City, in fifty-five minutes without mishap. Officials of the New Haven Railroad and the Pennsylvania Railroads, which conducted the operation jointly as a public demonstration of radar’s value to harbor craft, termed it an “unqualified success.”
The Transfer No. 21 left the Pennsylvania Railroad yards at Bay Ridge at 9:30 p.m. after securing the two 330-foot floats, each of which carried twenty-two loaded cars of every description. As Captain Louis Larsen, master of the tug, kept the vessel on her course, Captain Beckworth Brown, marine superintendent for the New Haven, relayed warnings of approaching craft and the position of buoys as they appeared on the radar’s twelve-inch scope.
The screen gave a startlingly clear picture of a two mile section of New York Harbor. Solid objects, ranging in size from oceangoing vessels to navigational markers, stood out clearly and even the direction of moving craft could be ascertained through a phosphorescent impression, similar to an airplane’s vapor trail, observed astern of the ships as their movements were recorded on the screen.
Valued at $12,000, the tug’s radar is a special “surface-search” type manufactured by Sperry Gyroscope Company and has been in use since Oct. 1. A constantly revolving scanner, mounted on a thirty-foot mast above the superstructure, emits pulsations into space and the “echoes” returned by solid objects are then converted into images which appear as luminous areas on the screen’s dark background. The set has a maximum range of thirty miles and can pick up “targets” as close as forty-five yards.
While Friday night’s demonstration was the first made public, railroad officials said the tug received her most severe test during the dense fog that blanketed all of New York on Oct. 16-17. At that time, the Transfer No. 21 moved 302 cars between Bay Ridge and Greenville while the rest of harbor traffic was virtually paralyzed.
The New Haven, it was disclosed, has already placed orders for three more radar sets for as many of its tugs and aims eventually at equipping all of its harbor fleet with the electronic device. Seven New Haven tug captains and mates have received instruction in its use. Pennsylvania Railroad representatives pointed out that the company is “enthused” with the results of the experiments and is contemplating rigging out its own craft with radar.
Both roads employ a combined fleet of fifty-one tugs in New York Harbor alone, moving in a daily total of 3,500 railroad cars in transfer between New England, Long Island, New York City, and points in the South and West. The average time for a two-float tow is thirty minutes in clear weather, an hour in mist, and no departures in heavy fog. Eventual installation of radar on all their tugs, the railroads pointed out, will eliminate the necessity of ceasing operations during foul weather, which accounts for a monthly time loss of five to six days.
Miscellaneous
Mysteries of Naval Ordnance
Ordnance, Sept.-Oct., 1947.—By Rear Adm. G. L. Schuyler.—When something goes seriously wrong with naval ordnance material immediate diagnosis is often impossible, and those responsible for corrective measures may find themselves in difficult positions and subject to severe undeserved criticisms. Usually, but not always, the mystery is solved; but often much too late for the comfort of those initially involved. To discourage intolerance and to give a better insight, let us consider the following cases:
Losses of gun muzzles.—About forty years ago guns using smokeless powder were introduced into the Navy. Designers carefully computed higher muzzle pressures for the new propellant. They used on muzzle sections of these longer guns the same 1.4 factor of safety of previous designs; but a large number blew off their muzzles.
Designers eliminated this trouble by using muzzle factors of safety of 2.0 or more, then spent years unsuccessfully trying to find why this was necessary. There was nothing wrong with the metal, strength calculation, or pressure gage techniques. Pressure gages in holes piercing the guns showed gas pressures at the muzzle properly estimated.
The designers died without knowing why extra factors of safety proved necessary on muzzles of long guns. The service considered them blunderers with uninteresting “alibis.” Their successors found larger muzzle factors of safety well established, wondered at the stupidity of smaller values, and smugly and successfully applied the technique they did not have to learn the long, hard way.
The answer was found only recently when electric strain gages showed local pressures over rotating bands of projectiles as they travel down the bore often are nearly equivalent to the gas pressures at the muzzles (though of course much less than gas pressures near the breech). The need for higher factors of safety at the muzzle thus became apparent. But measurements of band pressures required electronic devices which appeared a generation after the affair was largely forgotten!
Excessive patterns of 14-inch, 50-caliber guns.—These guns all ranged well at eight degrees’ elevation at Indian Head but on shipboard developed entirely excessive patterns. All suspected causes were investigated. Operating personnel insisted that the projectiles were too vigorously rammed for them to become unseated, but unseating eventually proved to be the trouble. The charges were about eighteen inches shorter than the powder chambers, and when projectiles slipped back this distance (as about one-third did at over twelve degrees’ elevation) they overshot range tables much more than was possible in guns where charges nearly fill the powder chambers.
The guns had an extremely steep band-seat slope conducive to seating failures. With drill projectiles, repeated ramming mashed down rotating bands so that projectiles did not unseat. But target projectiles were rammed only once, so rotating bands did not stick, and at above twelve degrees’ elevation the projectiles slid back. Once diagnosed, a very simple remedy was immediately effective.
The Colorado’s 5-inch, 25-caliber gun explosion.—An antiaircraft projectile burst its gun on the Colorado and killed most of the gun crew. Test firings were made with fuzes specially weakened, parts removed or misassembled, and time settings on zero. But no prematures occurred nor were there any when projectile walls were reduced to half thickness and improper loadings simulated. About 6,000 of the 5-inch antiaircraft projectiles were then selected at random and were examined for soundness of metal. In the absence of better ideas, fuzes and fuze setters were modified to prevent zero settings. No further accidents occurred, but, in view of the great number of rounds fired previously without accident, this was no proof of a “remedy.”
Ten years later, when TNT was melted out of a similar projectile, a tiny stream of water was seen coming out of the base. In this and a few other projectiles tiny holes perforating somewhat unsound bases were discovered. By drilling similar holes in bases of test projectiles the Colorado’s accident was duplicated and explained.
It would have remained forever a mystery except for the merest chance and an intelligent report of abnormal behavior ten years later.
The 40-mm. loading accidents.—No accidents occurred during the first year that 40-mm. guns and ammunition were produced. However, shortly after extensive use began, there were occasional rounds which fired prematurely on being “catapulted” into guns by their loading mechanisms.
Though accidents were numerous, their frequency was extremely low, being only about one in the same number of rounds as had been fired without accident on all acceptance tests. Accidents were scattered throughout all production so that the withdrawal of specific lots would probably have been futile. A lucky diagnosis was that, in handling and shipment, the primer mixture sometimes broke up and sifted in such a way as to make primers supersensitive. It was possible to duplicate the accident by catapulting the same round some dozens of times; and a modification which withstood such treatment cured the trouble.
This testing method suggested itself when an officer remembered that thirty years earlier a primer fired when inserted in a 14-inch gun by a magazine lock (of a type later withdrawn from service) because the crew had loaded it repeatedly “to verify it was not supersensitive.”
Explosions of bomb-type ammunition by rough handling.—Such accidents usually leave no witnesses nor evidence. With fuze action not positively ruled out, accidental fuze action was usually featured as the probable or only possible cause. But early in the war there were accidents which forced the conclusion that such explosions frequently result (even with fuzes present) from impacts sufficiently severe to dent, but not rupture, the thin-walled metal containers.
The phenomenon differed essentially from that involved in any standard laboratory tests. For this action the container must be thin enough to permit local ignition yet thick enough to afford considerable confinement before rupture. Very peculiar types of impact are required; for otherwise, considering the usual evidences of denting, explosions of this sort would be very frequent.
Factual information was obtained by a strange accident which nearly escaped special notice.
An airplane on the ground inadvertently released a TNT-loaded depth bomb so that after an 18-inch fall it hit the rounded corner of a trailer-truck under it. A small part of the explosive burst open the case. Boosters and exploders were intact. No seam in which explosive might possibly have been “pinched” by the blow was involved.
An experimental rig was devised in which, by special impacts, occasional high-order detonations of various explosives with thin metal covers were eventually obtained and the true mechanisms of these accidents thus revealed. Handling techniques were modified (forbidding use of cargo nets and requiring tray loading for bomb-type ammunition), and it is believed this prevented many accidents. Improvements in “container-dent sensitivity” of modified RDX explosives were verified by this testing technique. In diagnosing ordnance troubles one must be sure .that no “experimental data” of importance escape notice because included only in inconspicuous routine reports.
Bore prematures due to missing tracers.— During the war there were a very few 5-inch antiaircraft bore prematures. From design characteristics it seemed impossible that fuzes were guilty, but nevertheless fuzes were replaced by others working on an entirely different principle. But still the trouble continued.
An officer recollected that a few years previously some 5-inch ammunition was turned in with a few loose and missing tracers. Projectiles with inert loading and with tracers removed were fired into sand and recovered. In one or two the gas pressure, entering the empty cavity for the tracer, had broken through the wall and reached the filler.
The reason for these prematures was thus disclosed after four years of disheartening investigation throughout which it was improperly assumed that tracers “naturally” would be in place, because there was only this single contrary report which one officer remembered.
Troubles with torpedo exploders and with torpedoes running too deep.—Submarine personnel normally would not criticize torpedo exploders unless the average percentage of apparent misses was unexpectedly large. But with U.S. torpedoes this was not the case, and only a few statistically unsupported rumors threw suspicion upon exploder performances during the first part of the war.
Investigation showed that more severe impact reduced the reliability of torpedo exploders and indicated that some percentage, fortunately extremely low, had probably failed when torpedoes, running at high speeds with nearly normal impacts, struck enemy targets at frames and other places where hull plating was doubled. A new type of exploder was therefore developed.
Operating forces meanwhile conducted experiments of their own. They also determined the trouble and modified existing exploders pending the arrival of the new type.
With the exploders which gave the trouble the spring-actuated firing pins moved vertically at right angles to the deceleration so that, with very severe impacts, the firing pin did not fire the cap before its motion was limited by friction or by deformation of its guides. Unfortunately, during development tests none of the impacts were severe enough to cause a malfunction.
Operating forces then reported the necessity of using shallower depth settings to make torpedoes run at desired depths. Torpedoes returned from ships and fired through nets ran deeper than depth recorders indicated. Originally running depths were determined by nets. After World War I depth recorders, carried in the war heads, were procured. They gave readings checking with depths determined by running all torpedoes of that period through nets. They also were more convenient and indicated depth as a continuous function of distance run.
The use of nets was discontinued; but later torpedoes ran faster, had different head shapes, more negative buoyancy, increased trim angle, were proved with exercise heads lighter than war heads, had inlets to recorders differently located, etc. In retrospect, it is not difficult to see that checks of depth-recorder readings against depths by nets should not have been omitted with these later torpedoes. This does not cover all troubles encountered with U.S. torpedoes but illustrates how seemingly trivial oversights can cause puzzling performances.
Static ignitions of powder charges.—In 1910 a powder tank transferred to a lighter from the U.S-.S. Culgoa exploded when laid down. The Joint Powder Board, after investigating for one year, ascribed it to “some obscure undetermined cause” like the presence of a match. During World War II after more such powder fires it was determined that powder tanks may contain explosive air-ether mixtures. Electrical charges are generated by friction of silk powder bags against interior of tanks when tanks are improperly rolled. This will charge a condenser, comprising end of tank, end of bag, and ignition charge (in which graphite on grains is a conductor). The spark occurs when, as in upending a tank, the ingition charge is separated from contact with the end of the tank. Adequate corrective measures have now been taken.
It is interesting to note that in 1910 the Board’s report showed it considered static electricity a possible cause until the laboratory reported inability to produce significant voltage by bag friction. It is clear from the laboratory report that an unsuitable instrument and an improper circuit were used. Diagnosis was delayed thirty-five years; so one must consider the disagreeable possibility of misleading findings if one reads only laboratory conclusions and skips details of experiments.
(Editor’s Note: This brings the story of ordnance mysteries up-to-date.)