This html article is produced from an uncorrected text file through optical character recognition. Prior to 1940 articles all text has been corrected, but from 1940 to the present most still remain uncorrected. Artifacts of the scans are misspellings, out-of-context footnotes and sidebars, and other inconsistencies. Adjacent to each text file is a PDF of the article, which accurately and fully conveys the content as it appeared in the issue. The uncorrected text files have been included to enhance the searchability of our content, on our site and in search engines, for our membership, the research community and media organizations. We are working now to provide clean text files for the entire collection.
United States.......................................................................................................................... 894
Medical Achievement—Young Governor—Lifeboat Test—Seasickness Cures
Great Britain......................................................................................................................... 896
Gas Turbine—Gliding Record—Sea-Air Guide
897
897
France......................................................
Air Reserve—Artillery School
U.S.S.R..............................................
Baltic Build-up—Defense Budget
Other Countries................................................................................................................. 898
Argentina—Panama—Poland—Sweden—Switzerland
Aviation................................................................................................................................... 899
New Anti-sub Bomber—All-Weather Jet Fighter- Anti-submarine Blimp—Over the Pole Hop—Helicopter Service—Refueling Record New Plane
Science........................................................................................................................................ 901
Homing Torpedo Compass Problems—New Two-way Radio— Harbor Radar Test—1,000 Radars—Battery Tester Plastic Ships— Arctic Survey—Guided-Missile Use
International.................................
European Naval Exercises
UNITED STATES Medical Achievement
New York Times, June 17. Atlantic City. —Last June, when the American Medical Association convened its annual meeting in San Francisco, questions of military medicine didn’t seem so important to most physicians in the United States. However, during the meeting this situation was changed dramatically by headlines announcing that the North Korean Communists had invaded the South Korean Republic. Military medicine again had become a matter of prime concern to the American medical profession.
That concern was clearly evident here this week at the 100th annual session of the A. M. A. Among the 13,000 physicians present was a liberal sprinkling of military uniforms, and scattered among the 297 scientific exhibits were demonstrations of new methods of collecting and processing donor blood, the effect of ionizing radiation, and new methods of preserving skin, bone and blood vessels.
Most significant, however, was the interest in the two sectional meetings devoted to military medicine on Thursday and Friday. At these, reports were given on such subjects as the treatment of burns, air evacuation, frostbite, man and the submarine radiation injuries and field orthopedic problems.
From these presentations it was clearly evident that American troops today are receiving a quality of medical care vastly superior to any ever before given to a military force and that this care is being given with a minimum of drain upon our civilian medical economy.
In World War II, with our fighting forces reaching a peak of 12,000,000 men in 1945, the military services, required more than
60.0 physicians, averaging from 5.6 to 6.2 physicians to 1,000 troops. In the last three years, however, the Armed Forces have constantly reduced their ratios and are now operating at fewer than four physicians to
1.0 men, a reduction of more than one- third. As a consequence, fewer physicians are being taken from civilian life for military duty.
This reduction of the physician requirements of the Armed Forces has resulted from better planning, improved utilization, unification of certain services, air evacuation, elimination of duplication and many other factors.
The effect of these factors was noted at Thursday’s meeting by Dr. Richard L. Meiling, who concludes a two-year term as Chairman of the Armed Forces Medical Policy Council this month to return to his faculty post at Ohio State University. Stressing the medical savings achieved by unification, Dr. Meiling said:
“We must realize that with a force of 3.5 million men under arms, many of the traditions so coveted for a force of 185,000 men (as of 1938) must be replaced by practical considerations. Today no United States military patient is more than 30 to 36 flying hours from the specialized and definitive care hospitals of the United States. We cannot build, staff or operate duplicating systems of specialized and definitive care hospitals in overseas areas and in continental United States as we did in World War II. Each military patient overseas requires five able-bodied non-combatants to provide for him. Each of these requires approximately 0.8 measurement tons of supplies (food, clothing, etc.) each thirty days. Military commanders recognize these facts today and expect medical plans to be developed accordingly.”
Dr. Meiling cited joint utilization of service hospitals as an example of how unification has resulted in tremendous savings of both scarce medical manpower and materiel. In November, 1950, he said, more than 7,000 military patients were in service hospitals in the United States other than those of their own parent service. Now it is common to find airmen in Naval hospitals, marines in Army installations, and Army personnel in Air Force medical facilities.
Young Governor
Christian Science Monitor, June 9.—A young Navy enlisted man is headed north from Guam to administer a group of islands dotting 30,000 square miles of the far western Pacific.
Chief Storekeeper Frederick A. Pobst of
Pueblo, Colo., is the first enlisted man in naval history to be assigned as a representative of the United States Government. He will administer the Bonin-Volcano group, part of the United States Pacific trust territory taken over from Japan after World War II. The islands include Iwo Jima.
The Navy said Chief Pobst will govern about a dozen tiny atolls with a native population of 145 men, women, and children. He will try to organize all of the outlying atolls under a single government and teach the Bonin Islanders to run their own government. The pattern necessarily will be a blend of American and native Pacific customs at the start.
The Navy said Chief Pobst is an all-round . man for an all-round job. He was chosen for his knowledge of mechanics, clerical work, cargo handling and farming.
Chief Pobst, accompanied by his wife, Loretta, and their 10-year-old daughter, Merrily Faye, will set up headquarters at Chichi Jima, 500 miles south of Tokyo, in a Quonset hut he is taking with him. The Pobsts only links with the world will be by radio and quarterly calls of a Navy supply ship.
The first government of the Bonin-Volcano islands was established in 1853 when Commodore Perry stopped at Chichi and encouraged the settlers to organize. One hundred years ago, the settlers were a mixture of American, English, Portuguese, Japanese, and Polynesian. Since then, nonPolynesian blood has thinned out, but the mixture remains in some of the present day names—Takeshi Washington Hu and Abraham Tatsuo Kapeni.
Lifeboat Test
New York Times, June 1.—The first of twenty-two all-aluminum lifeboats being built for the new United States Lines superliner United States, has been successfully tested by the Coast Guard at Perth Amboy, N. J., it was announced yesterday by the Welin Davit and Boat Division of the Continental Copper and Steel Industries, Inc. The tests also included strength and performance trials of especially designed davits and winches for the boat.
The thirty-six-foot lifeboat, capable of
carrying 140 persons, is non-sinkable, according to the builder and is constructed of non-inflammable material. It is operated by hand-propelled levers and has tillers and rudders all of metal.
Two of the future boats will be radio- equipped and powered by six-cylinder Diesel engines. In addition, Welin is building two rescue boats twenty-six feet long for the liner.
Aluminum davits for the boats have a new design in trackway and releasing gear and are of the gravity type, it was explained. Winches driven by 25 h.p. electric motors provide hoisting power.
Sea-sickness Cures
New York Times, June 19.—Man’s unrelenting fight against the sea—at least that phase of it that turns complexions various shades of green—is being renewed by our armed forces and extended into the air, according to a report of the Navy’s Military Sea Transportation Service.
Medical men from all three branches of this country’s defense department are now exerting every effort toward finding the best remedy against seasickness.
The drug dramamine, developed under Army supervision, was found in earlier tests to be 97 per cent effective in both the prevention and cure of seasickness. More recent experiments by the Air Force have showed that benadryl, hyoscine and artane are equally as effective as dramamine against seasickness, but that none of the drugs had so far been found to be both safe and effective for air sickness.
The first of the tests in this operation were conducted some months ago aboard the transport Gen. R. E. Callan. Running into rough winter seas, the Callan for eighteen hours carried an utterly miserable cargo of soldiers. The doctors checked the relative effectiveness of the various remedies by giving different treatments to groups of men.
Similar studies were made of troops on another transport, the Gen. A. M. Patch, and further tests are planned.
In addition to helping the sufferer’s motion sickness, the Navy said, the doctors wanted to be sure they have a drug with no unde-
sirable side effects. During the testing process they also check the pulse and respiratory rate and record the general effects of each remedy.
Planning and supervision of the studies has been under the direction of Maj. Herman I. Chinn of the Air Force’s School of Aviation Medicine; Col. Paul K. Smith, Air Force reservist and George Washington University pharmacologist, and Lieut. Comdr. Stanley W. Hanford, physiologist of the Navy medical field research laboratory at Camp Le- Jeune, N. C. The Military Sea Transportation Service, Atlantic Division, has collaborated under the guidance of Comdr. Thomas E. Cone of its medical department.
It is expected that the results of the tests will apply also to aircraft passengers and crew. The shipboard tests of hundreds of soldiers made it possible to conduct the experiments on a scale much larger than would have been possible with aircraft.
GREAT BRITAIN Gas Turbine
The Nautical Magazine, May.—The first ocean-going vessel to use a gas turbine as part of her propelling machinery will be the Auris (8,221 gross tons) of the Anglo- Saxon Petroleum Co., Ltd. The marine gas turbo-alternator which is to be fitted has been tested at the factory of British Thom- son-IIouston Co., Ltd., Rugby, since June, 1950. Its fuel consumption is said to be 10 per cent less than had been estimated. Auris is a diesel-electric tanker and the new gas turbo-alternator will replace one of her four diesel alternators.
Gliding Record
Manchester Guardian, June 4.—Mr. P. A. Wills, the chairman of the British Gliding Association, yesterday established a new British “out and return” gliding record. Flying a Weihe single-seater machine, Mr. Wills took off from Redhill, Surrey, soared to the R.A.F. station at Little Rissington, Oxfordshire, turned and glided back to Redhill, where he landed—a distance of 160 miles in six and three-quarter hours.
Mr. Wills whose home is at Maidenhead, has won the British gliding contests for the last three years.
Sea-Air Guide
New York Times, June 7. London.— Navigation for ships and planes approaching the British Isles will become simpler and safer tomorrow with the opening in Scotland of a new chain of radio transmitting stations.
The chain, erected under the authority of the British Government, consists of a master station in South Scotland with three “slave” stations in North Ireland, West England and East Scotland. The stations will send out continuous beams to allow pilots to fix their positions accurately in all weather up to 300 miles off-shore.
The station has been developed by the Decca Company of Britain from wartime developments in radio navigation aids. The system was approved for international use ' at the New York international meeting on radio aids to marine navigation in 1947 and by 1948 a chain had been erected in South England and another was under license in Denmark.
Used as an adjunct to—but not a substitute for—radar, the Decca system emits continuous transmission that intersect to form a stationary radio pattern—similar to stationary rings formed in water by two objects dropped side by side. The lines making up this pattern remain in known positions and are depicted on marine charts as intersecting lattices, each being numbered distinctively.
Aboard ships specially installed clocklike receivers can indicate continuously the number of radio position-lines intersecting at the ship. Thus the problem of locating a vessel’s position is reduced merely to reading off two numbers from a dial and finding the points on a chart where the lines intersect.
In an aircraft with new equipment a pilot can see at a glance and with no manipulation both his position and the course to steer. The Decca flight log now in general use corresponds to the invisible radio grid set up by transmitting stations and thus automatically plots a plane’s course while eliminating the need to transfer the position readings to a chart.
Use of the Decca system has been widely adopted in Britain since the war’s end. Last year it was installed on 800 ships; by June of this year more than 1,000 contracts
had been received. British warships are installing the new equipment and more than 362 foreign-owned vessels have adopted it.
Another Decca chain will be opened before the end of this year. It will be situated in southwest England and will extend the radio navigation network as far south as the Bay of Biscay. The French and West German Governments have approved the construction of Decca chains under license and by the end of 1952 it is expected the system will be in general use from the North Cape of Norway to the North African coast.
FRANCE
Air Reserve
Le Monde, February 19.—The new organization of Air Army reserves provides for 2 categories: ordinary reserves, and active reserves composed of officer specialists and petty officers holding a special contract. Moreover, the strength of the Air Army will be brought this year to 91,000 men.
Artillery School
Figaro, February 13.—The Practical School of Artillery was activated in Western Germany between the towns of Idar and Oberstein. It possesses one of the most extensive firing ranges in Europe, the Baum- holder camp. Artillerymen and technicians of Idar-Oberstein are working out a new system of fire-control: The first objective is to simplify methods; then it is proposed to improve rapidity of fire by the generalized use of graphic procedures, which will lead to the realization of a central graphic firing post. In addition, there is being perfected at the school a method of photographic processing1 for the use of aerial photos and a photographic range finder.
U.S.S.R.
Baltic Build-up
Rivista Maritlima, April.—The Soviet Union is systematically building up its positions on the Baltic with the intention, in the event of war, of transforming that sea into a Russian lake through a build-up of port establishments in Germany and the Baltic countries, as well as through the acquisition of ships from Finland, Belgium, and Holland.
Via direct and indirect acquisitions, the Soviets have obtained a great number of small craft which could be used in war time as mine layers or sweepers. Some of these units have been sent to Soviet ports to be altered for such tasks. The Soviets have salvaged many German vessels sunk in the Baltic during the Second World War. Some of these were towed to Antwerp, repaired in Belgian yards, and sent on to Soviet ports.
The long-range objective of the Soviet plans, according to dependable sources, is the construction of a mine-laying fleet which, supported by submarines and the old heavy units of the fleet at Kronstadt, would close the Baltic to enemy fleets.
According to some sources, in case of war the Soviets do not propose to dominate the seas, but would limit themselves to cutting maritime traffic between the United States and their principal allies and bases across the sea. They could achieve their objective if they succeeded in blockading the maritime passes by Kronstadt and Leningrad on the Baltic, Murmansk and Archangel on the North, and by Odessa. In such operations they would employ extensive mine fields and small coastal submarines.
The only fleet in position to constitute a menace for the European ports of the Soviet Union is that of Sweden. It is felt that the Soviets count on Sweden’s neutrality at the outset of a general war. They probably feel that a rapid conquest of Norway and Denmark would prevent Sweden from participating in the second phase of the war, even if the Swedes should see fit to intervene. Poland lines up with the Soviet plans. All private shipping companies have been abolished, and both construction and transport have been assigned to two State organizations.
Naval construction in Poland will be effected according to Soviet plans. Polish yards will build a certain number of mine layers and mine sweepers, plus certain small rapid transports for the Baltic trade. In time of war these transports would be used to carry supplies and troops across the Russian lake, relieving the pressure on rail lines crossing Poland. An added problem in the development of a strong commercial fleet has been the scarcity of trained personnel, traditionally recruited from the Leningrad area, Finland, and the Baltic republics. Some idea of the pressing need for seamen may be gained from the propaganda of the East German Communist Party urging former mariners to return to the sea.
Defense Budget
La Revue Maritime, May.—The Soviet budget for the fiscal year 1951 is set up as follows:
Receipts: 457,992 million roubles;
Expenditures: 451,563 million roubles.
The maintenence of the armed forces will absorb 96.4 billion roubles, or 21.3% of the total. At the present rate of exchange this is about 8,400 billion francs.
In 1950, the expenses of the national defense budget were only 79.4 billion roubles, or 18.5% of the total budget.
According to the press, the Navy will receive 22 billion roubles as against 15 last year.
It should be noted as usual that this budget does not include the following expenses:
Naval constructions;
Aeronautical constructions;
Armaments;
Army and Navy buildings.
OTHER COUNTRIES Argentina
Humonite, February 10.—The German engineer Kurt Tank, former technical director of the Focker-Wutf plant, has built a jet fighter plane in the Argentine.
Panama
La Revue Maritime, May 1951.—The International Labor Bureau has recently published the report of its inquiry into the situation of the Panamanian fleet.
In May, 1949, with 644 vessels totaling
2,600,0 tons, Panama ranked fourth among the world’s maritime powers, after the United States, Great Britain, and Norway.
An examination of data from Lloyd’s Register revealed that a certain number of
these vessels did not attain the required norms for classification.
Considering only the rated vessels, 30% are of comparatively recent construction. On the other hand, 50% were constructed before 1920, and this percentage of old units is higher than in most other maritime nations (198 Panamanian ships were built before 1900). This is explained by the fact that a large part of the Panamanian fleet comes from prior transfer.
Moreover, it was found that the transferred ships had come from thirty-three different countries: 306 from the United States; 90 from the United Kingdom; 20 from Greece; 16 from Norway; 14 from Germany.
The Commission pointed out that most of the ships of Panamanian register sail between foreign ports without returning to the country whose flag they fly. Ownership was vested in 384 companies, largely foreign, and established outside of Panama. In matters of social legislation, the Panamanian fleet was backward in matters of working conditions, rest, and repatriation of seamen. Lastly, it was noted that safety inspections were not always carried out, and conditions of navigability were in certain ships far below the norms prescribed by international conventions.
The Commission of the International Labor Bureau followed its report with certain recommendations to the government of Panama, the chief of which were:
—adoption of legislation in keeping with international maritime conventions;
—adoption of international rules for protection of human life at sea;
—setting up of an authority responsible in cases concerning navigation and seamen;
—drawing up of a type hiring contract.
Poland
Rivista Mariltima, April.—-According to the 1950-1955 five-year plan, the number of units of the Polish merchant fleet should be increased by 186% and the gross tonnage augmented by 208% with respect to the corresponding figures of 1949. Maritime traffic will be increased 392% in passengers and 316% in merchandise. The total capacity in freight loaded and unloaded by maritime ports for 1955 should reach 32 million tons.
The government would like to see its shipbuilding industry occupy the third or fourth place among European construction industries, but these pretensions appear somewhat excessive in view of Poland’s present potential.
Sweden
Rivista Mariltima, March 1951. The Swedish parliament discussed the appearance in the Kattegatt of some 20 fishing vessels of recent construction which put in at Sassnitz with crews of 3 to 5 men, ostensibly fishermen. According to the government, it is not possible to refuse such vessels certain possibilities of refuge in Swedish ports. Although it may be difficult to verify eventual acts of espionage, it is appropriate to institute surveillance services in strict cooperation with the police and civil population which can in certain cases furnish precious information. Such services will be equipped with a special radar particularly adapted for sea patrol, effected by special units, eight of which are still under construction. Five such patrol craft will be built of a light alloy.
Switzerland
Rivista Maritlima, April 1951.—Switzerland, which at the beginning of the year had an active fleet of some 20 vessels totaling about 71,000 tons, has decided—doubtless because of the gravity of the international situation—to make considerable additions to its merchant tonnage. Orders will be placed for about 60,000 tons, and German yards expect to fill a part of the anticipated program.
AVIATION
New Anti-Sub Bomber
Technical Data Digest, May 1951.—A new model of the Navy’s P2V bomber, developed for antisubmarine warfare, has been announced by Lockheed. President Robert E. Gross reported that first of a substantial number of the new P2V-5 went to the Navy in April.
Concurrently, Britain and Australia announced that they, too, will receive fleets
of the P2V’s. Under a policy permitting release of certain key U. S. military equipment to friendly nations, special interest in the P2V also has been indicated by the governments of South Africa, New Zealand, Canada, and the Netherlands.
This latest model, the P2V-5, continues the concept of aerial antisubmarine warfare explored and developed by the Navy and Lockheed in the P2V series. Increasingly important in defense of this country, the P2V’s already are in service patrolling both east and west coasts. Earlier versions have operated under such widely varying conditions as the cold and ice of Alaska and Newfoundland bases to the hot and humid Panama Canal Zone. Assignment of current models includes the Pacific theater, specifically the Korean area of battle. Their extreme long range permits the aircraft to roam far from shore and, with precise radar and electronic instruments, to intercept enemy intruders while they still are on the high seas. The special mission of the P2V’s is protection from ocean-borne attack.
This newest version of the P2V is distinguished externally from its predecessors by the addition of a nose turret armed with cannon, and by two tip tanks “center mounted” at the extreme end of the wings rather than slung beneath them. The P2V-5 carries appreciably more radar and electronic equipment in addition to its heavy armament than any previous model. Its range, speed, and other performance characteristics are substantially the same as earlier types.
In its primary role of sub killer, the P2V-5 is prepared to meet the enemy on whatever terms he may elect. If the sub chooses to dive and attempt escape, the Neptune can draw an exact bead with radar and sonobuoys. A pattern of sonobuoys dropped on the water will not only indicate position of the submerged sub but show its path of attempted escape. For the kill, the P2V drops torpedoes.
All-lVeather Jet Fighter
London Times, May 3.—The de Havilland Sea Venom, a carrier-borne all-weather jet fighter for use by day and night, is now in quantity production for the Royal Navy. It will go into squadron service alongside
the Hawker Sea Hawk and the Supermarine Attacker, both single-seat jet fighters. These three will provide the Navy with a fighter defence which should be capable of dealing with any enemy.
The Sea Venom, which has swept-back wings, is equipped with radar and carries a crew of two—pilot and navigator-radar operator. The wing-tip tanks, to increase range, are so designed that they do not affect manoeuvrability or speed. The engine is a de Havilland Ghost turbo-jet, at present rated at 5,000 lb. static thrust.
The Navy’s first all-jet carrier groups are expected to go to sea this year. These will be formed in H.M.S. Eagle, which, with the new H.M.S. Ark Royal, is undergoing acceptance trials. These will supplement the present carrier strength, consisting of H.M.S. Implacable, Indefatigable, Indomitable, Formidable, Illustrious, and Victorious. The Navy also has in service six light fleet carriers of the Glory class (H.M.S. Glory, Ocean, Theseus, Triumph, Vengeance, and Warrior). H.M.S. Triumph and Theseus have been in action in the Korean theatre, and the Glory has now relieved the Theseus there.
In addition, there are three specialist light fleet carriers, two of which (H.M.S. Perseus and Unicorn) are designed for aircraft maintenance and ferrying duties, while the third (H.M.S. Campania) is normally a ferry carrier. Four improved light fleet carriers of the Hermes class (H.M.S. Ilermes, Bulwark, Centaur, and Albion) are in course of construction.
Anti-submarine Blimp
Providence Journal, June 19. Akron, Ohio.—The world’s largest non-rigid airship —or blimp—made a one-hour maiden flight early tonight. The blimp was designed as the U. S. Navy’s prime answer to any future submarine menace.
The 324-foot craft, with a capacity of
875,0 cubic feet of helium gas, made its first flight from the airdock of Goodyear Aircraft Corp. At the controls was Walter Massic, Goodyear pilot. Present for the run was Capt. E. J. Sullivan of the Naval Air Base at Lakehurst, N. J.
The big blimp was designed for an air speed of 75 knots.
Over the Pole Hop
London Times, May 31.—Captain Charles Blair, a former United States Navy pilot, yesterday set up a new record with a nonstop solo flight in a single-engined aircraft from Bardufoss, Norway, over the North Pole to Alaska, a distance of 3,375 miles, in 10 hours 29 minutes.
He flew at an altitude of 15,000 feet after leaving Norway, but passed over the North Pole at 22,000 feet. Although the temperature along his course ranged as low as 25 degrees below zero his engine, a 1,760-horse power Rolls-Royce Merlin, functioned perfectly and there was no icing on his converted Mustang fighter.
Captain Blair left Fairbanks this morning for New York and covered the distance in nine hours, 31 minutes.
Helicopter Service
New York Times, June 2. London, June 1.—The world’s first municipal helicopter passenger service opened today between London and Birmingham. Two United States-designed Sikorsky helicopters plied the ninety miles between the two cities carrying three passengers each time.
Built by a British concern, the two single-engined S-51’s, powered by English Alvis Motors, did the trip in seventy minutes each way. They cruise at eighty-five miles an hour, make three trips daily.
British European Airways, which operates the service, described it as experimental to obtain data on integration of helicopter services with ordinary air traffic at Britain’s major airports.
Main objects of the flights are to link Birmingham, not so much with London as with the capital’s airports from which helicopter passengers can be flown to their ultimate destinations.
The company plans an inter-Britain town-center to town-center helicopter service within two years, using twin-engined Sikorskys with fourteen-passenger carrying capacities.
Refueling Record
Christian Science Monitor, June 15.—The Air Force has demonstrated a new, souped- up thunderjet fighter-bomber which can refuel in flight from a tanker plane within 2\ minutes.
Republic Aviation Corporation said the 600-mile-an-hour plane, known as the F-84-G, has been rolling off the production line secretly “for several months.”
The in-flight refueling capacity of the new plane will enable fighter wings to move quickly from one base to another throughout the world, permit pilots to strike deeper in enemy territory, and hover longer over friendly forces, Republic said. The F-84-G is a sister model of the Thunderjet F-84 which has won air battles in Korea.
Neiv Plane
Christian Science Monitor, June 18.—Aircraft with variable incidence whereby the angle of attack upon the air can be changed have appeared upon the scene, but Bell Aircraft Corporation now comes up with the first airplane whose wing sweepback may be varied in flight.
One of the notable series of “X” aircraft, the new X-5 is to begin test flights shortly at Edwards Air Force Base, Muroc, Calif., according to a joint announcement of Bell and the Air Force. The announcement discloses that the X-5 has completed its initial taxi tests at the Bell plant near Niagara Falls, N. Y., and now is available for airborne tests.
The X-5 will be used as a flying laboratory by the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics, according to Bell, to investigate the aerodynamic effects of changing the degree of sweepback during flight.
Bell explains that the X-5 is the product of three years’ research and development by the Air Force, the NACA, and the company. A small craft, the X-5 measures only 33 feet, four inches long, and 12 feet from ground to fin tip. The X-5 wings span 32 feet, nine inches, and it weighs approximately five tons.
Bell engineers say that one of the major developments in designing the X-5 was the mechanism for changing sweepback in flight while simultaneously compensating for the resultant change in center of gravity.
SCIENCE Homing Torpedo
Technical Data Digest, May 1951.—A
deadly new high-speed torpedo which will automatically “home” on an enemy submarine, on the surface of the sea or at any depth to which it can submerge, has been perfected by the Navy and will soon be in quantity production. The new weapon, the Navy says, “will present a positive threat to any submarine now in existence or being built.”
In a recent press conference the Chief of the Navy Bureau of Ordnance, Rear Admiral M. F. Schoeffel, declared that the torpedo could best be described as a “Sunday punch” weapon which would probably be reserved for use until an enemy undersea boat had been definitely located and identified.
He added that the torpedo could be fired from surface ships, subs, or aircraft, and predicted that its development would result in the Navy’s return to widespread installation of torpedo tubes on all its ships except cruisers and other large craft.
It was explained that the new weapon operates on the same principle of sonic homing on the noise made by an enemy submarine that was employed successfully, but only to a limited extent, during World War II. The torpedo is said to be at least twice as fast as those developed and used during the last war and can easily be equipped to home on a completely silent sub trying to wait out the threat of attack by fitting it with a radar mechanism which would pick up reflections of sounds sent out by the torpedo itself which are then reflected hack by the hull of the submersible.
* Admiral Schoeffel said that the new torpedo is propelled by a chemical fuel in which combustion starts when the weapon is submerged in sea water. This principle was first employed during the latter phases of the last war. The Admiral also declared that it is not only a great deal faster than earlier-type torpedoes but leaves less wake and would therefore be harder to detect and avoid. The weapon, he said, will be equally effective against surface craft and subs.
Compass Problems
Christian Science Monitor, May 9.—-Because the firing of large naval guns changes the pattern of molecules in the steel of naval ships, a search is being carried on in the Navy Materiel Laboratory in New York for a compass which will be more steady in reading, less susceptible to shock and heavy seas, and generally more reliable under adverse conditions.
The problem of designing a remote reading magnetic compass for vessels of the fleet came up early in World War II when critical shortages of nonmagnetic materials made it impossible to provide compass housings free from magnetic fields present in all metal structures and around all electrically operated equipment.
In the extremity of the moment, the Navy substituted for the old direct-reading compasses the then new, remote-reading compass that had been designed for aircraft use. The master instrument was installed high on the ship’s mast, where it was clear of the vessel’s magnetic fields. This was the first time that remote reading compasses had ever been used on combatant ships. Compass readings that were out by as much as seven degrees when guns of a twin five-inch turret were fired have been detected.
New Two-way Radio
Providence Journal, May 20.—-Especially designed to aid Civilian Defense with its communications problems, but also adaptable to use in a similar manner by police and fire departments and such trouble-shooting organizations as the American Red Cross, is a radio transmitter-receiver that has just been developed here in Rhode Island.
It has been developed by Northeastern Development Engineers, Inc., of 21 Lewis Street, Pawtucket. This company—headed by William C. Birtwell, formerly assistant professor of electrical engineering at the University of Rhode Island—-was organized purposely to do development work in the electrical field.
Soon after it came into being three years ago, Birtwell came to know Albert Fraser, a young man who had completed 10 years in the Navy. During most of that time he had been either studying or working on electronics.
He had often dreamed of designing and building a compact, portable radio transmitter-receiver. He advised Birtwell of his
ambition and out of it came an affiliation for Fraser with Northeastern and a green light on his idea.
The result is a two-way communications device that Birtwell claims is more compact and more adaptable to emergency use than any other available today.
The power pack is operable on either alternating or direct current and, can be changed from one to the other by a mere flip of a switch.
The transmitter unit and the receiver— both about the size of a midget radio—are attached to the power pack, making an easily portable unit weighing only 18 pounds and measuring 12 inches in height, eight inches wide and eight inches deep.
Its range depends upon the terrain, but generally speaking it has given satisfactory results over distances of 15 to 20 miles. With the main station at a central location it is possible to service a large area, fanning out 15 or more miles in all directions. Mountains, however, cut down the distance that can be covered.
Civilian Defense communications have been placed in the hands of the radio amateurs and for this reason these transmitter- receivers are constructed to operate on the amateur radio band. They can be made for any desired band or frequency, however.
Birtwell and Fraser report that Civilian Defense communications men who have seen the unit are enthusiastic because of the ease and speed with which it can be installed and placed in operation.
Harbor Radar Test
New York Times, May 25.—The invisible finger of radar stabbed through the harbor and waterway system of the city yesterday, locating scores of craft in the first official testing of the Port of New York Authority’s experimental harbor radar information center.
Enthusiastic sponsors and guests, including master mariners, experts on radar and shipping operators, believe the safety system offers great possibilities to users of the busy harbor. Most ardent were the station operators, who believe the time is not far distant when a man carrying a walkie-talkie radio on the bridge of a liner can have his vessel “talked” safely through the harbor in dense fog.
Atop the ramparts of old Fort Tomkins, in the present Fort Wadsworth reservation on Staten Island, the experimental station was manned by five experts representing the Port Authority, the Sperry Gyroscope Company and the Raytheon Manufacturing Company. The two electronics concerns provided the instruments for the stafion, and are maintaining it as a contribution to harbor safety.
At 10 a.m. a party of Port Authority officials boarded the Sperry laboratory vessel Wanderer at Pier 81, North River, accompanied by press representatives and a number of steamship officials. Walter P. Hedden, director of Port Development, and Frank W. Herring, chief of the Authority’s planning bureau, stood by as John H. Culbertson, project director, conversed via the “walkie- talkie” to the men in the distant radar station overlooking the Narrows.
From the station, with three radar screens in action and a plotting board laid out in the dimly lighted room, the five experts brought the Wanderer down the river. The vessel veered and twisted from one side of the channel to another, and changed course.
As “Nine Six” went down the Hudson the range locators on the three screens kept her pin-pointed until she slipped in to Pier 18, where the observation party boarded buses for the remainder of the journey to the radar center.
It was the first general exhibition of the proposed system to the shipping industry. Port Authority executives said one of the major obstacles to full use of the project was the need to “sell” it to the industry and to the Sandy Hook pilots who bring the ships in and take them out.
Captain Sawaska, a veteran seaman, said, “I would not be afraid to bring my ship through Ambrose Channel in a dense fog, right now.”
He and the other men at the center said that early this week seventeen vessels, including big liners, were “stacked up” at the entrance to the harbor, awaiting clearing weather. A freighter is “worth” $2,000 a day, and a big ocean liner delayed by fog costs her owners many times that amount.
1,000 Radars
London Times, May 2. Liverpool- Some post-war developments in the Merchant Navy were referred to by Sir Gilmour Jenkins, Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Transport, when he addressed the annual meeting of the Mercantile Marine Service Association here to-day. Conditions had improved out of all knowledge in the last few years, he said, and some crews’ quarters to-day would have been envied by first-class passengers not so long ago.
Comfort, however, was not so important as safety, Sir Gilmour said. There had been great advances in this direction also, largely as a result of war-time experience. More than a thousand British ships were now fitted with radar and, others were being equipped at the rate of 25 a month.
Battery Tester
New York Times, June 3. Fort Monmouth, N. J.—The Army Signal Corps announced today the development of a new type battery tester that gives an instant check on a storage battery’s condition.
When used with vehicles the indicator of the new device may be easily adapted for mounting on the dashboard or steering wheel column, apprising the driver whether there is enough juice in his battery to start the engine, the Army said. In central depots, the new tester will be able to check hundreds of batteries in a fraction of the time formerly needed for such operations.
The tester is the development of Grenville B. Ellis, chief of the power sources branch at the Signal Corps Engineering Laboratories. It works satisfactorily in the Arctic and the tropics.
Plastic Ships
New York Times, May 25. White Sulphur Springs, W. Va.—Dr. Albert Lightbody, chief of the chemistry division of the United States Navy Ordnance Laboratory, told members of the Society of the Plastics Industry here today that “the day of steel ships and steel men is rapidly passing,” while the day of “plastic men in plastic ships” is dawning.
Speaking during opening sessions of the annual meeting of Society at the Greenbrier
Hotel here, he said, experience gained in World War II with plastic armor will undoubtedly lead to improvements and “plastic missiles are becoming a reality.”
Dr. Lightbody pointed out the trend figuratively, emphasizing that what he meant was that when a shift to a better material is available to the fleet, it is the attempt of every man associated with these programs to utilize them to the greatest advantage. He said it is fair to assume that plastics will soon be used on a wide scale on the Navy’s fighting ships. He envisaged decks, masts, hulls, electrical gadgets, and hydraulic systems made of plastics.
Arctic Survey
Providence Journal, May 24.—The Navy last night took the security wraps off a Quonset Point plane and its 10-man survey team, including two Woods Hole scientists, who just returned from a two-month probing of the Arctic Ocean.
Operating with a conventional twin- motored transport the team flew 400 miles north of Point Barrow, Alaska, and established the feasibility of landing and taking off any type aircraft, from jets to six- motored bombers, on Arctic ice right up to the North Pole, according to Lt. Comdr. Edward M. Ward, who headed the team.
In the second phase of this “Operation Ski Jump,” preparations for which started last January at Quonset, experts from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution learned some of the secrets of the Arctic which scientists have sought for years.
Commander Ward said a series of 12 prolonged flights over the ocean with landings far north of Alaska revealed a series of natural airstrips of ice, six to 14 feet thick, proving for the first time the versatility and feasibility of using aircraft between Alaska and the pole.
Much of the time in the early spring Arctic weather, the team operated in temperatures 20 degrees below zero. Its plane, dubbed “The Thing,” was specially winterized for the region by Quonset technicians.
At dozens of “ice stations” where the plane landed far out on the ocean, the Woods Hole scientists got data which will
plug some of the big holes in the files of the Bay State institution, according to John F. Holmes, one of the scientists who made the trip.
Holmes said that the probings, the most extensive ever made, provided 10 per cent of the ocean’s depth soundings, where it is over a mile deep, revealed water temperatures as high as 31 degrees Fahrenheit, salt content of water and ice and the sole marine life—shrimp.
By detonating dynamite in the ice field and measuring the short waves, the scientists recorded ocean depths of two miles and estimated in other areas the depth at three or more miles.
Holmes, who made two earlier trips to the Arctic by dog team, motorized sled and light plane, said the trip in the Quonset plane was the first to be successful in revealing the comparatively warm waters which flow through the Arctic—data which will now be analyzed and placed on file at Woods Hole.
Holmes and the rest of the team, at a press conference at the Pentagon, before flying into Quonset Point last night, met Sir Hubert Wilkins, English scientist and explorer who flew out over the Arctic as early as 1913. Wilkins expressed pleasure that the Navy was showing interest in the area.
Commander Ward and Holmes agreed that there is a lot more research work to be done out on the frozen Arctic to benefit aviation and science and are hoping to return there soon.
“The Thing” was ski-equipped at Quonset but out on the ice fields, all landings were made on wheels. The skis were pressed into service, however, when the plane landed 170 miles southeast of Point Barrow at Oliktuk (place where man shivers, according to the Eskimos) on a mercy mission to fly out a man who had suffered a compound fracture of the leg.
Guided Missile Use
New York Times, June 3.—The Army says nearly one-third of the 200,000 Chinese and Korean Communist soldiers who have been taken prisoner were persuaded to surrender by psychological warfare.
Encouraged by the results obtained with conventional psychological warfare, the Army is considering seriously some new methods, including the “use of guided missiles equipped with broadcasting or loudspeaker equipment to circle over enemy troops,” said Brig. Gen. Robert A. McClure, chief of the Army’s Psychological Warfare.
General McClure mentioned, too, the possible use of remote-controlled planes with broadcasting equipment.
The advantage of the missile or pilotless plane with loudspeaker equipment, General McClure noted, is that it could spread “information and propaganda which no edict can keep from reaching soldiers or civilians.”
INTERNATIONAL European Naval Exercises
London Times, May 2.—The navies of European nations of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization are to take part in a further series of combined exercises this summer.
Exercises are being planned calling for cooperation on an increasing scale in the use of a unified system of communications and a common tactical doctrine. In all about 100 ships, including a large minesweeping force, representing six nations bordering on the European North Atlantic seaboard, will be assembled. The nations taking part will be Belgium, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Norway, and the United Kingdom, and the ships will comprise an aircraft-carrier, four cruisers, 12 destroyers, 11 frigates, 12 submarines, about 50 minesweepers, and some coastal craft.
★