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An Enlisted Annapolis for Chiefs
By Chief Communications Technician R. W. Jones,[1] U. S. Navy
There is a common feeling among persons lr> the Navy that years of experience qualifies a man for the leadership duties of a Chief Betty Officer.
The Navy CPO has a unique military Position in the Navy: his degree of control and his actual personal contact with the men °f his division is greater than that of his pay grade equivalent of either the Army or Air Force. If he learns by experience, he is actuary profiting from his mistakes. The modern navy cannot tolerate second attempts.
Without doubt the ability, experience and aptitude to efficiently control a division is mnate with many CPO’s. However, there are °thers, many of them recently promoted to CPO, who should be able to draw from this store of experience.
The Navy needs a school to train Chief Betty Officers, a school that could be a collection and correlation point for all the good 'deas and methods now used by the veteran CPO’s of the Navy.
Attendance at this school should be compulsory for every career first class petty officer and part of his preparation for the job of Chief Petty Officer. Since the time in rate requirement is three years minimum as petty officer first class, there should be a time during the three years when the man would be available for transfer to the Enlisted Annapolis.
The curriculum of this Enlisted Annapolis should be general with only a cursory study of the trainee’s speciality. If the man has advanced to first class petty officer, there is no doubt but what he knows the duties of his rate. But in the highly specialized, depart- mentation of the Navy he often needs some help on development of his leadership abilities.
Four months should be sufficient time to cover the necessary curriculum of military duties, naval history, leadership, organization of the Navy, Navy letters and filing systems, psychology, methods of instruction, and special work in the trainee’s specialty.
Since the course is devoted to leadership— military leadership—the school should hold daily formations and weekly inspections and provide opportunities for the students themselves to handle and drill the men. The morning muster and inspections should be given more than the perfunctory effort they receive at many Navy schools. Many of the senior petty officers in the Navy have been some few years divorced from the drill field and need the refresher. I know of one veteran CPO—ordered to duty at a Naval Training Center for a tour of duty as recruit company commander—who spent his first evenings on the station practicing the manual of arms with a pool cue in the CPO quarters so he could, in turn, instruct the men in his company.
A man will only have pride in his own outfit when he knows it was a great organization before he became part of it. The Naval history portion should naturally cover all possible, but it should be heavy with the parts played by courageous enlisted men. Studies of the origin and background of the CPO rating will give the man basis for pride in his upcoming rating.
Elementary battle tactics and study of some famous battles of the late wars would give the future member of the CPO mess an understanding of the complete picture during battles and engagements. I believe that any man will do better at his own small, but important, job when he knows the overall goal of the operation.
One of the hazards for the new CPO is often the paper work required with the rating. The academic part of the course should include organization of the Navy, filing reports and requests and other information relative to the voluminous reports and circulars originated by the Navy Department. The new CPO should know not only how to submit requests for his own wants but also how to advise the members of his division on requests that they may wish to submit through him. It is worth remembering that many times the chief is the only contact the recruit or lower rated man has with what he—-the seaman—considers the impersonal and impenetrable Navy Department. The CPO should be able to judiciously advise the men of his division on their requests and also know their rights and privileges. Some correct information on travel pay and reenlistment bonuses should be required subjects. Such information, used later, would help the reenlistment rate of the Chief’s division.
The division CPO may at times be asked to give advice to men of his division on their pending courts martial, masts or other legal problems. The only thing, of course, is for the division chief to direct the man to the legal officer. The man in trouble should be directed to good assistance and not allowed to accept the misinformation of irresponsible shipmates.
Much of the knowledge and information that the average CPO has of courts martial, legal proceedings or military law is based on Chief’s Quarters review of masts or courts martials. The Enlisted Annapolis trainee should attend, as part of the course, either actual or reenacted courts martial. He should graduate with a good knowledge of the Uniform Code of Military Justice and some understanding of legal proceedings.
Most of the veteran CPO’s use psychology. They use it more than they realize. It is a system that they developed from experience that is the best way to accomplish the division’s work. Their methods were not taught to them: they evolved. Some instruction in psychology and personnel management would save the time and trouble of each CPO developing individually the answers to some of his more troublesome leadership problems.
A refresher course in English and syntax would obviate the new CPO leaving himself open to embarrassment or ridicule due to poor choice of words or incorrect grammar in written reports and notices. The short course offered by USAFI would make an excellent text, and give the future memorandum originator some self assurance and peace of mind.
The excellent curriculum of the instructor’s training course now required by the U. S. Navy for all officers and men going to instruct should be incorporated in the Enlisted Annapolis in its entirety. Inclusion of the present instructor’s training course is consistent with the theory that every officer, CPO, and petty officer is really operating a training program with a constantly changing student body.
The curriculum of the school should include only cursory study of the trainee’s specialty. However, those portions of the CPO examination known to have been troublesome in the past should be reviewed.
The advantages of the Enlisted Annapolis would be manifold, but I believe the greatest would be the feeling of accomplishment and self confidence for graduates. They would be, without question, better leaders and better Chief Petty Officers. They would be better leaders for several reasons: from the knowledge gained during instruction they would start their leadership assignments using the methods and knowledge that others had gained through experience. The embryonic CPO would feel more confident and self assured that he could handle the leadership details of his division. The men of the division, knowing the course and the work and study necessary to complete it, would have more respect for him and consider his ideas and methods with good foundation.
As an indirect result of the future CPO’s Gaining, I believe the Navy generally would benefit. The reenlistment rate would undoubtedly increase if more men were correctly advised regarding shipping over bonuses and other reenlistment inducements. I believe that disciplinary problems would be lessened if the division CPO’s knew, not only bow to place a man on report or the extent of bis power in reprimand, but also how to assist a man in obtaining proper legal assistance. In time the school would add some needed tradition and meaning to the rate of Chief Petty Officer and give emphasis to promotion 1° that rate. There would be, I believe, more career men if they knew the Navy’s concern °ver the highest enlisted rate was enough to warrant their training them for their job.
I believe that more young men would investigate and use the excellent officer train- lng programs if they were encouraged and advised by well informed division CPO’s. Many good men are lost to these worthwhile °Pportunities because of their ignorance of the requirements and deadlines for application.
The men graduating from the CPO U Would be a reservoir of trained men for appointment to warrant or commissioned rank during national emergencies. The grades, Progress and attitude of the trainee during the course could also be some basis for future selection to warrant or LDO appointment.
The school should be located where, from a tradition and motivation standpoint, it would bring the members of the staff and student body to cultivate an avid interest in the school and its rigid schedule.
The pace should be fast, the studies difficult and the course should be a challenge to all. However, the attrition rate should be minimum. The lowest standards should be high enough that men unsuited for leadership assignments would not finish the course. A man who does not finish the course should be permitted examination and promotion to CPO but he would be assigned jobs not requiring leadership or control of personnel. I personally have faith in the U. S. Navy CPO and know that the percentage of failures would be below one per cent.
This school would be, in effect, a collection of ideas and methods used by all the U. S. Navy CPO’s—past and present—that have always been considered effective and laudable. This would be a correlation and dissemination of these ideas for all to use and would preclude the present tortuous and intangible methods of the practical do-it- yourself CPO.
It would make for all a better, more efficient Navy.
St. Elmo’s Fire
By Rear Admiral Bruce McCandless,[2] U. S. Navy (Ret.)
The meteorological phenomenon known as St. Elmo’s Fire can be very impressive—even awesome; moreover, it can interfere with radio reception and the operation of radar sets. While Navigator of the USS San Francisco in World War II, I witnessed a heavy and prolonged display of this “cold fire” that involved eight ships in company. I checked carefully the behavior of our radios, radars, and magnetic compasses, and recorded my observations in the Deck Log and the War Diary immediately afterward. In the belief that they might be of interest to mariners, they are here reproduced:
“This ship and others in company experienced a very spectacular manifestation of St. Elmo’s Fire during the morning watch on August 7th, 1943. The phenomenon commenced at about 0320 and continued until about 0600, Zone Time+9.
“The San Francisco was second ship in a column of four cruisers, screened by four destroyers, operating to the south and west of Kiska. The sky was overcast with many low clouds, and rain which varied from light drizzle to heavy. The sea was slight, but a more than usual amount of phosphorescence was present, causing wakes and bow waves to
I
be seen distinctly when not obscured by heavy rain.
“The first indication was the appearance of a large luminous ball, about one foot in diameter, at the forward upper corner of the SC-2 radar screen (on foremast). A junior officer at a gun station telephoned the Of- ficer-of-the-Deck and informed him that the “masthead light was on.” A similar ball appeared at the after upper corner, and the two remained there, varying considerably in intensity, for about two hours.
“A system of antennae extends from the forecastle to the foremast yard, then aft to the main yard, and then to the stern, one set being on the starboard side, and another on the port. The starboard antennae were very much affected but the ones on the port side with the same dimensions and characteristics were not. The antenna leading from foremast to forecastle became covered with phosphorescence until it appeared to be white hot its entire length of about 150 feet. This white deposit increased until it appeared to be about six inches or so thick, and the antenna then discharged with a blinding flash of light followed by low rolling thunder. The antenna was then entirely clear, and the process of building up and discharging was repeated several times. Other antennae on the starboard side similarly built up and cleared, though in a less spectacular manner.
“The T.B.S. radio antenna on the fore yard appeared to have bluish sparks of about six inches in length emanating from each of its five prongs, and the B.K. apparatus near it also appeared to have sparks coming from it. Slight sparking was noted at the ends of the fore yard.
“As the formation steamed along, similar conditions were apparently obtaining on other ships, for from time to time, what appeared to be lightning discharges from the other ships occurred, accompanied a few seconds later by slight thunder. The heavier the rainfall, the more accentuated appeared the phosphorescent conditions.
“Radio reception was definitely affected. A crackling noise would appear in the receivers in Radio Central and build up in intensity until it became impossible to copy Radio San Francisco through it, then there would be a loud “pop” and interference ceased abruptly. This was repeated at intervals which appeared to coincide with the glow, build up, and discharge of the phosphorescence on the antennae.
“The SG radar was in use at the time, and large areas of the screen would luminesce, blotting out the images formed by the other ships in company. The interference seemed to be centered about this ship, followed no regular pattern, and extended out to about ten thousand yards on the fifteen thousand yard scale. The taking of ranges and bearings on other ships of the formation could be conducted only intermittently.
“No influence on the magnetic compasses could be determined.
“It is well understood that the phenomenon of St. Elmo’s Fire is an old one and well known to mariners for centuries, but this particular instance is considered worthy of inclusion in the Log because of its unusually pronounced characteristics, and the apparent influence on radio and radar.”
New Radar-Equipped Helicopter
Aviation Week, December 10, 1956.— Early warning radar carried by Sikorsky HR2S-1VV makes a distinct chin outline for new version of the twin engine Navy heli-
copter. Radar is General Electric AN/APS- 20E search gear for detecting low flying aircraft. Dorsal fin, air cooling grilles on nacelles and concave-shaped fairing beneath rotor hub are other recent changes in the HR2S. HR2S-1W could be carried on escort carrier
0r other ship and flown to extend radar
coverage.
B-52’s Establish Endurance Mark
Aviation Week, December 3, 1956.—
1- SAF last week demonstrated the long- range capability of Strategic Air Command’s H'52 bombers and crews in eight non-stop Polar flights, the longest of which lasted 32j hours and covered 17,000 miles.
Operation Quick Kick also emphasized SAC’s round-the-clock readiness and the ability to set the eight-jet Boeing Strato- fortress down on civilian airfields in the event its own bases were destroyed in time of war.
Two of the planes landed in light snow on the 9,400-foot runway at Baltimore’s Friendship International Airport. The flights began °n a Saturday morning and ended on Sunday afternoon.
Pilots found the Friendship runway adequate for the giant hydrogen bomb carrier, which had a landing weight of about 250,000 IP*-, but outrigger wheels at the ends of the 185-foot wing hung over the edges of the taxi strips.
The operation, involving four B-52’s from the 42nd Heavy Bomb Wing at Loring AFB, Limestone, Maine, and four from the 93rd
Heavy Bomb Wing at Castle AFB, Merced, California.
* * *
Colonel Hill’s plane—The first B-52D produced—took off from Castle, flew east past Chicago, turned northeast toward a point east of Loring, made its simulated bomb run on Thule AFB, Greenland, flew over the North Pole, turned southward to Elemen- dorf AFB, Alaska, and San Francisco, and then flew directly east to Friendship. Average altitude was 40,000 feet.
The Loring plane carried Colonel Donald E. Hillman, commander of the 42nd Bomb Wing and leader of the four-plane Loring flight, and was commanded by Captain Joe B. Bruce.
It flew from Loring to Goose Bay, Thule, the North Pole, Elmendorf, Seattle, San Francisco (its simulated target), Los Angeles, Abilene, Houston, Tampa, Key West, Miami, Atlanta, Washington and Friendship—a distance of 13,500 miles in 26 hours.
It carried eight, maintained an average ground speed of 525 mph. to obtain maximum range and once hit a speed close to 700 mph. with a tail wind. Average altitude was about 35,000.
All eight planes broke the old record of 24 hours aloft for the B-52. Record setter among the eight planes was commanded by Major Sam Morris. It took off with the Castle flight, covered the counterclockwise route over the pole and along the West Coast and then flew east to Loring, covering 17,000 miles in 32^ hours.
“Jane’s” Reports Moscow Has More Than 400 Subs
Christian Science Monitor, November 26, 1956.—Jane’s Fighting Ships, the standard reference book on world navies, says the Soviet Union has a growing fleet of more than 400 submarines.
Jane’s classing the Soviet Union as a “major naval power second now only to the United States,” said the Soviet Union has built more cruisers and destroyers since the end of World War II than all other nations combined.
“The severance of North American Treaty Organization communications and the pre-
vention of the entrance of United States naval forces and shipping into the waters surrounding Europe and Asia would be the Russian strategic purpose,” Jane’s 1956-57 edition said.
The authority added that the Soviet Union was expected to commission another 75 to 85 modern submarines each year for the next two years.
In addition the Soviet Navy has built “numerous patrol vessels, minesweepers, motor torpedo boats and landing craft and also has vast minelaying potential and capabilities in ships of all categories,” the naval authority said.
The Soviet Union’s rapid ascendancy to second naval power has been an important factor influencing America’s current and future shipbuilding programs, Jane’s observed.
“In the short space of about 10 years many United States Navy ships will be powered by atomic energy and most United States Navy ships above and including the submarine category will have guided missile capabilities,” the book forecasts.
In 10 years’ time, it estimated the United States will have a fleet of 75 atomic-powered submarines.
In contrast to the United States and the Soviet Union, Britain—formerly the world’s greatest naval power—has no atomic-pro- pelled or guided missile warships.
Navigational Ship Fitted Out for Firing Ballistic Missiles*
Aviation Week, December 10, 1956.—The Navy commissioned a navigational ship designed to provide the high degree of accuracy needed for firing ballistic missiles from shipboard.
The 17,600 ton U.S.S. Compass Island (EAG 153)—converted from a merchantman in five months’ time—is capable of automatic photoelectric star tracking in daylight, gyroscopic measurement of latitude and accurate measurement of speed over ground, rather than the less accurate measurement of speed through water.
A second merchantman is now being con-
verted to a navigational ship at Portsmouth Navy Yard.
Its mission will be the same as the Compass Island’s. Although it has not been named yet, it will be designated EAG 154.
Used for Testing
Navy also expects to use the ships to test devices that will track radio stars and the sun and moon’s radiation. “We even expect this ship to be locating its position by taking radar ranges on the moon,” Assistant Navy Secretary for Air, Garrison Norton said.
The Compass Island's Ship Inertial Navigational System (SINS) is based upon research carried out by Dr. Charles S. Draper at Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Instrumentation Laboratory.
The Sperry Gyroscope Co.’s Marine Division is now refining the basic system and manufacturing first production units.
SINS determines latitude and longitude, true north and ship’s speed over ground.
A special type of sonar equipment for measuring speed easier and more accurately was developed by General Electric Co. and Navy’s Bureau of Ships.
It is housed in a large airfoil-shaped dome attached to the bottom of the ship’s hull.
“Revolutionary Changes”
Celestial trackers, mounted on a stabilized platform on a 67-ton tower just forward of the superstructure, will be used to check and correct SINS. The tower provides a rigid structure isolated from ship flexures to give fixed reference planes.
In addition to improving navigation deuces and techniques, the Navy hopes to bring about revolutionary changes in the field of cartography.”
The Compass Island once was the fast cargo ship, Garden Mariner. The Navy said ■t has the best automatic steering available and has activated fins for roll stabilization. 1 his system was developed in the U. S. by Sperry Gyroscope.
When her sister ships are rolling 15 degrees, the Compass Island will roll only about a degree and a half in the same seaway.
2,0, 000-Degree Navy Lab Temperatures Are Reported
Baltimore Sun, December 4, 1956.—Navy scientists were reported to have produced laboratory temperatures of at least 2,000,000 degrees Fahrenheit—the highest yet reported from an American laboratory.
Developers of the technique said it “might have possible use in the quest for harnessing fusion (H-bomb) power for peaceful purposes.”
They declined to comment, however, as to whether they believed the temperatures they have achieved are indeed high enough to cope with one of the two major problems in connection with efforts to duplicate—under controlled conditions—the titanic reaction which takes place in the H-bomb itself.
One of these problems is to produce a temperature high enough to make hydrogen materials “fuse,” and thereby release atomic energy. The other is to devise means of “containing” the materials in a reaction vessel at such high temperatures—that is, without vaporizing the walls of the chamber itself.
The Atomic Energy Commission has estimated that a temperature of “several hundred million degrees” would be necessary to trigger a fusion-power reaction and that there would remain the problem of insulating the walls of the reaction chamber.
However, a scientist at AEC’s Brook- haven (N. Y.) laboratory—Dr. Don Hughes —said last spring that a temperature of
1,0, 000 degrees “is almost high enough for the fusion reaction to take place.”
Hughes made his statement in commenting on a report by the Russians who declared that in their own quest to harness the H-bomb reaction for peaceful purposes, they had achieved laboratory temperatures of about 1,000,000 degrees.
Scientists ordinarily discuss extremely high temperatures in terms of the Kelvin scale. A million degrees on that scale would be equivalent, officials said, to 2,000,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
Scientists of the radiation division of the
Naval Research Laboratory said a technical report on their technique would be made at a meeting of the American Nuclear Society in Washington.
New York Leads in Port Volume
New York Times, October 23, 1956.—The Port of New York led the country’s sea ports in total value of waterborne exports and imports last year. It handled 34 per cent of the national total of $18,964,300,000.
The Port of New Orleans ranked second and was followed in order by Baltimore, Philadelphia and Houston, the Census Bureau reported today.
Exports of waterborne merchandise were valued at $10,081,100,000 and imports at $8,883,200,000.
The bureau said thirteen sea ports each had handled exports valued at $100,000,000 or more, while eleven had handled imports exceeding that amount. New York led in both classes with exports of $4,061,300,000 and imports of $4,098,000,000, for a total of $8,159,300,000.
Other Figures Listed
New Orleans was second in both groups with exports of $860,500,000 and imports of $592,100,000, for a total of $1,452,600,000. Baltimore came third in combined value with $988,300,000, and also was third largest in exports with $579,500,000. It ranked fifth in value of imports with $408,800,000.
Philadephia was fourth in combined total with $877,700,000, but was third in imports with $564,700,000. It was seventh in exports with $313,000,000.
Houston ranked fifth in combined value with $665,300,000. It was fourth in exports with $443,900,000, but eighth in imports with $221,400,000.
Others with exports topping $100,000,000 were:
Newport News, Va., $403,000,000; Norfolk, Va., $359,400,000; Galveston, Tex., $293,000,000; San Francisco, $240,000,000; Los Angeles, $220,800,000; Long Beach, Calif., $157,200,000; Brownsville, Tex., $138,600,000, and Charleston, S. C., $112,
900,000.
The six other sea ports with imports exceeding $100,000,000 were:
Boston, $424,000,000; San Francisco, $316,800,000; Los Angeles, $253,800,000; Portland, Me., $214,700,000; Norfolk, $128,900,000, and Paulsboro, N. J., $100,
600,000.
C-130 Plane is Delivered
By Albert Sehlstedt, Jr.
Baltimore Sun, December 10, 1956.—The Air Force has accepted first delivery of the Lockheed C-130 turbo-prop transport, a fast troop carrier with a major role in any future brush-fire wars or police actions.
Powered by four Allison T-56 engines, the C-130 is reported to be 100 miles an hour faster than any military transport now flying.
The new plane, described as an aircraft which can “airlift anybody or anything anywhere in the world,” will be assigned to three wings of the Tactical Air Command in the United States and several more wings overseas.
Fast Movement Emphasized
Although the C-130 was built to be a jack of all trades, the Air Force emphasized its ability to move troops fast to world trouble spots.
In accepting the delivery of the first plane here, Gen. O. P. Weyland, TAC commander, said that more than ever before TAC will be able to move quickly and resolutely over great distances with the forces required to fight either a small or a large-scale war.
General Weyland also said that the “C-130 will play a most important role in our composite air-strike force, for it will increase our capability to airlift engines, weapons” and other cargoes.
The C-130, which can carry about 40,000 pounds of cargo while cruising at 335 miles per hour, will provide the Air Force with a big, fast, support plane which can almost keep up with the speedy units of its jet fleets.
Plane from Georgia
One of the major drawbacks in the Air Force supply plan has been the inability to get cargo planes to the scene of action in quick time.
This first C-130 which arrived here from the production line of the Marietta (Ga.) P'ant of the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation, wiH be assigned to the 18th Air Force’s 463d Troop Carrier Wing, based on this field.
Quantity production has been ordered for ^e C-130, but the exact number of new planes to be built is classified.
Plane Highly Adaptable
Named the Hercules because of its exceptional lift ability, the airplane is highly adaptable. It can:
1- Carry 40,000 pounds of cargo.
2. Air-drop 29,000 pounds of supplies to ground units.
3. Fly 74 litter patients out of combat areas in its spacious pressurized and air- conditioned interior.
4. Airlift 92 infantrymen, and then land °n short, bump strips.
5. Hatch 64 paratroopers from side doors °r rear ramp in airborne assaults.
Flown by a crew of four, the plane can take off with a gross weight of 120,000 pounds >n only 2,800 feet, climb at 2,500 feet per minute and land within 1,000 feet.
Delivery by Parachute
The C-130’s most spectacular function, however, is its parachute delivery of heavy cargoes.
The ramp door opens under the tail, a pilot parachute zips out and pulls behind it a cluster of larger chutes which, in turn, haul out a large package of cargo which drifts slowly toward the ground. On impact with fhe ground, the cargo chutes automatically disconnect from the load.
The “DeGrasse” Commissioned*
Translated from La Revue Maritime, November 1956.—The De Grasse recently entered service after many delays. This 8,000- ton cruiser was originally planned before the war. Its post-war construction was effected in line with the most advanced anti-air combat ideas.
The vessel was launched at Lorient on 11 September, 1946, to make way for other construction at the dry-dock, but funds for the completion of the vessel were not available until 1950. In 1951 it was transferred to Brest.
Initial plans were modified not only to house up-to-date material, but also to make a more effective distribution of living spaces for operative personnel. The silhouette was considerably changed; the original tripod was replaced by a massive tower carrying numerous radar and radio antennas.
For close and medium range defense the De Grasse has twenty pieces of 57 mm. in six double mounts and sixteen 127 mm. pieces in 8 double turrets.
All of this artillery is operated for automatic pursuit by remote control from stabilized radar fire control stations.
For long distance aerial defense, its best weapon is the carrier-based fighter plane, which it can guide to the interception of enemy attacks by means of three principal radar stations directing fighter planes.
Equipped with the most modern detection and communication devices operated from well-placed stations, the De Grasse is an effective command ship for our squadron. This electronic material is entirely of French design and manufacture, as is all material in the ship.
Damage control gear is provided against both traditional weapons and nuclear devices. There are no portholes, and special installations enable the unit to pass through harmful radioactive clouds. The De Grasse is the first large unit of our new fleet, but at the same time it has been the testing ground for much experimental material needed for our future vessels.
Characteristics: length over-all, 617 feet; width, 60 feet; Washington displacement, 8,380 tons; maximum normal power, 105,000 HP; maximum normal speed, 33.5 knots; cruising radius, 5,500 miles at 18 knots; complement, 70 officers, 160 petty officers, 750 men.
Big Wheel for Big Sub
Electric Boat Company Release, November 26, 1956.—The wheel-like midship hull section of what will be the largest submarine ever built towers above a workman as the giant submersible begins to take shape at
General Dynamics Corporation’s Electric Boat shipyard in Groton, Connecticut Named the Triton and to be powered by twin nuclear reactors, the mammoth underseas craft will have a displacement of 5,450 tons compared with the 3,000-ton Nautilus, world’s first nuclear sub. Triton is designated as a radar picket submarine and will provide radar information to fast Navy task forces. The spokes, causing the wheel effect, are temporary supports used while fabricating circular hull sections.
“Universe Leader’’* in Maiden Voyage—Carries 79,640 Tons of Oil from Sumatra
New York Times, November 14, 1956.— The world’s largest cargo ship arrived on her maiden voyage carrying Sumatra crude oil.
The Universe Leader dwarfed two outbound aircraft carriers as she passed through the Golden Gate and anchored in the San Francisco Bay west of Treasure Island.
Except in length, the Universe is the largest ship of any kind in all dimensions.
She is 855 feet long and 125 feet wide. The liner Queen Elizabeth is 1,031 feet long.
American-owned and built in Japan, the tanker flew the flag of the Liberian Republic. It is under contract to the Standard Oil Company of California.
In fifty-two separate tanks below deck, each about the size of a schoolroom, the vessell carried 602,622 barrels, or 26,000,000 gallons of oil. The liquid cargo weighed 79,640 tons. With the weight of the ship itself this caused the vessel to displace 109,000 tons of water. The deadweight tonnage of the Universe Leader is 85,500.
The aircraft carrier Forreslal displaces 75,000 tons.
The $8,000,000 vessel, with a speed of fifteen knots, is under command of Captain Jesse F. Bird, sixty years old, of New York. Although the Universe Leader's capacity is that of six regular-sized tankers, Captain Bird said the maximum size in tankers had not yet been reached. He reported that the ship handled well. It is owned by National Bulk Carriers, Inc., of New York.
CAA Orders Radars
By Everett M. Smith
Christian Science Monitor, November 11, 1956.—As part of a sweeping, long-range plan for meeting the jet age and expanding coast-to-coast traffic controls, the Civil Aeronautics Administration has just placed an order for 23 radar installations with the Raytheon Manufacturing Company.
Each of the new long-range radars will be capable of spotting and tracking the routes of airplanes at distances up to 200 miles, and the order, amounting to approximately nine million dollars, represents the largest single purchase of electronic equipment in CAA history.
According to James T. Pyle, Jr., acting CAA Administrator, the expanded network “will give controllers a picture of aircraft from 15,000 to 70,000 feet in virtually all the United States air space, and of aircraft at lower altitudes on densely traveled routes.
“Thus radar will serve to track the civil and military jets which move at 600 miles or more in the higher altitudes, and the conventional aircraft traffic using the lower altitudes.”
Deliveries of the radars, which are a cental part of a CAA plan announced last April by Secretary of Commerce Sinclair Weeks, will begin next summer, it was stated.
Almost thirty million dollars has been obligated for new air navigation and traffic control facilities during the fiscal year which began July 1. A total of 75 million dollars was appropriated for the purpose.
The CAA plan as announced is designed to handle a fourfold increase in United States air traffic with minimum delay and maximum safety. Raytheon engineers point out that since World War II, air travel has increased at a steady rate of 15 per cent each year.
The new equipment will be installed at 23 °f the following 28 locations: Washington, Los Angeles and Oakland, Calif.; Fort Worth, Dallas, San Antonio, Houston and El Paso, Texas; Kansas City and St. Louis, Mo.; Cleveland; Jacksonville and Miami, Fla.; Benson, N. C.; Spokane and Seattle, Wash.; Albuquerque, N. M.; Phoenix, Ariz.;
Buffalo; Atlanta; Detroit; Pittsburgh; Indianapolis; Boston; Memphis; New Orleans; Atlantic City; Denver; and Salt Lake City.
Military radar will be used by the CAA at five of the 28 cities, which thus far have not been designated.
At Logan International Airport, for example, at least 350 take-offs and landings are made every 24 hours of scheduled airliners, not counting many private plane operations.
If all these regular flights were scheduled uniformly over the 24 hours, it was added, it would mean twelve planes an hour, or one every five minutes either landing or taking off.
But, with flight schedules generally concentrated on certain hours of the day, the congestion is even more pronounced. In poor weather, this traffic becomes a real and hazardous problem, it was stated.
The order was described by Undersecretary of Commerce for Transportation Louis S. Rothschild as “another giant step in preparation of the federal airways for the jet
age. By 1959, civil jet transports will be in operation, and the government intends to be ready with a system of traffic control that will insure safe separation and expeditious movement.”
Raytheon engineers said that need for the installation of the radars had been accented by the collision earlier this year of two airliners over Grand Canyon, an accident which might have been avoided through the use of such radar control systems.
It was stated that each radar uses a giant 40-foot antenna, and effectively covers more than 125,000 square miles of territory. A single set will be able to feed up to fifteen different monitor screens simultaneously, so that each controller on duty in a CAA center will have a picture of traffic movement in that wide an area.
At present, with the exception of the radar-equipped New York and Washington centers, CAA controllers depend on position reports radioed in by pilots while en route.
Pointing out that it would be impossible to carry such large equipment aboard an airliner, since it would take up all available passenger and pay-load capacity, Raytheon spokesmen explained that the equipment would tell those on the ground exactly where aircraft are located in space.
Ability of the new radars to detect and track aircraft in poor weather, which frequently causes excessive “clutter” or visual interference on the viewing scope, is an important advantage of the new equipment, it was added.
This benefit is obtained through the flexibility of the system which permits the operator to select either linear or circular polarization of the radar signal, depending on weather conditions.
Explaining this feature, a Raytheon engineer said: “Linearly polarized radar is often unable to ‘see’ targets in storm clouds, since both the target and the clouds reflect the radar beam. To eliminate this handicap, the antenna of the new radar can apply circular polarization to the outgoing beam, which is roughly like putting English on a billiard ball.
“When these ‘twisting’ microwaves strike the storm cloud, millions of spherical raindrops bounce them back to the antenna with a reverse twist. Their path to the receiver is blocked by an electronic filter so that they cannot register on the radar scope.
“When the microwaves strike the irregular surfaces of a solid object, such as an airplane, many of them return to the antenna retaining their original twist. Thus, they pass unhindered through the electronic filter to the receiver and register as targets on the radar scope.”
Another feature of the new system is an improved “moving target indication.” This is a built-in ability to select only moving objects, by filtering out reflections from fixed objects, such as buildings, mountains, and other undesirable reflections, from the viewing screen. This enables the operator to pick out aircraft in flight on his screen clearly and quickly.
IBM to Develop Super Computer for AEC; Sees It 100 Times as Fast as Other Units
Wall Street Journal, November 21,1956.— International Business Machines Corp. disclosed it will begin development of a “supercomputer” for the Atomic Energy Commission’s big Los Alamos, N. M., scientific laboratory.
Exact specifications, the company said, are still to be worked out by IBM and Government technicians. But rough specifications, it added, indicate the machine will be:
Between 100 and 200 times as fast as any comparable general purpose computer;
Able to solve problems of far greater complexity than present-day “giant brains” can handle;
Geared to perform 100 billion arithmetical operations in one day.
Dubbed Stretch by IBM, the mammoth computer will make use of new transistors, magnetic memory cores and other newly- developed components, the company said. The name Stretch was chosen, it added, “to symbolize the technological advances which will be represented by the development of the most advanced computer possible in the shortest period of time.”
Part of its great speed, IBM indicated, will result from the fact that it will be made up of a group of inter-connected machines with varying functions. This, it was said,
'V'U eliminate much of the waste time inherent in existing computers.
For example, the computer will be able to accept information from several input sources at the same time. So the flow of data into the machine won’t get hopelessly snarled, IBM asserted, it will pass through a multiplex system- roughly equivalent to a telephone switchboard—which routes calls r°m the various inputs to open circuits and delays messages if all lines are busy.
If it handles a billion arithmetical opera- ll°ns in a day, Stretch would put in the shade present-day giant brains. To perform a similar task, they would require about six months, according to IBM’s calculations.
One interesting sidelight: The company Said much of the design and testing of the new computer will be performed by its model 704 computers—large-scale machines adapted to scientific work. This means of Pre-testing various engineering versions of Stretch, the company claims, “will help to eliminate unnecessary design changes.”
Albacore” is Another “Believe it or Not”
A aval Aviation News, December 1956.— Flying under water sounds incredible, but it actually happens when the submarine USS AIbacore takes off. So like flight is the sensa- bon that a heavier-than-air pilot is bound to find aspects of this kind of submarine travel far more familiar that he dreamed.
The submarine was designed for undersea flight on the basis of scale models built and evaluated in towing tests at the David Taylor Model Basin and wind tunnel tests at the Langley Aeronautical Laboratory of NACA. Shaped like a fish with a blimp-like tail, the A Ibacore (AGSS-569) has a single five- bladed propeller eleven feet in diameter. Such is its configuration that, like a plane, it performs better and faster in its natural element, submerged. While going straight on the surface, the bow seems to want to submerge, just as a plane gets up speed and flies itself off. In a submerged turn, the bow tends to rise.
The Albacore, termed the world’s fastest submarine, is an experimental submersible. Conventionally powered, the vessel has, like other submarines, forward and aft diving planes. But there the resemblance ends. A conventional submarine has a diving officer who, by giving orders to a bow planesman and a stern planesman, as well as the helmsman, controls the path of the ship. I he time lag in this system caused by the necessary thought on the part of the diving master of what orders to give, and the time to relay the orders, is impractical for high speed submarines. At times, it could be dangerous.
In the Albacore, all of these functions are handled by the pilot. He has controls and instruments similar to those in aircraft. Seated at the controls, with safety belt fastened, the pilot can put the ship through gyrations which have been named “hydro- batics.” They consist of sharp climbing and diving turns which subs have heretofore been unable to duplicate.
Forward and aft movement of the yoke controls the diving planes for depth changes. A wheel on the yoke controls the rudder. Experiments on the best instrumentation are still going on, but some of the flight instruments are identical to those in all-weather aircraft.
To a man with wings, the artificial horizon is important. It is equally important in the
Albacore. A digital gyro indicator presents the course being steered. A rate of dive indicator shows the absolute rate of rise or dive in feet per second. As in a plane, its reading is the result of the speed of the ship and the pitch angle (attitude) being used. The depth error indicator is a linear gauge which shows the difference between the actual depth and desired depth. The desired depth is put in manually by the pilot.
And then there is the “iron mike,” or autopilot. When the pilot puts the craft on automatic control, the captain can make adjustments on a control panel which cause the ship to turn to a certain heading, climb or dive to a specified depth and at a pre-determined angle of attack.
With the pilot doing the flying, the ship is a bit sluggish in answering to movements of the diving planes, but not nearly as much as conventional subs. It answers the helm immediately and can turn well inside a highly maneuverable destroyer. A number of HTA pilots have flown the Albacore, including some from VT-82. Many have made helpful suggestions on instrumentation and control. One of these will be carried out in the near future, that of putting in “artificial feel” to obviate a tendency on a pilot’s part of overcontrol. A number of pilots describe flying the Albacore as like “flying instruments with the seat of the pants.”
The Albacore actually banks in submerged turns. Two things cause this phenomenon. First cause stems from the fact that the center of gravity is below the buoyancy, and then the streamlined sail, or superstructure, knifes through the water to increase the rate of bank. Consideration is being given to removing the sail in order to heighten speed and increase aerodynamic efficiency.
There seems to be no tendency for personnel to experience vertigo, and owing to maintenance of neutral buoyancy, no centrifugal force is felt. Also, because of neutral buoyancy, the ship does not gain speed in a dive, or lose it in a climb (30 degrees maximum). It does, however, lose some speed in turns.
Top speed of the Albacore is classified, but it climbs like an snb under normal power settings. On one such test climb, it went up 200 feet, climbing at a 20-degree angle, at eighteen knots, in 35 seconds, or approximately 350 feet a minute.
There is room for improvement in the Albacore design, but it is certainly a step in the right direction. As the Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Commander Jon L. Boyes remarked: “Flying submarines are today where aircraft were in the early 1930’s.”
Plans are being made to construct other submersibles in the Albacore design. These will undoubtedly be nuclear-powered. The Albacore will long be remembered as the pioneer design for flying under water. The ship’s motto, Praenulius Futuri, which means literally “Portent of the Future” or “Forerunner,” was indeed well chosen.
Rocket Test Bears Out Theory on Sky’s Glow
New York Herald, Tribune, November 27, 1956.—The glow of the night sky is not totally dependent on the moon, the Air Force says. Experiments conducted by scientists show that the glow is caused partly by photochemical processes in the upper air.
Carrying on rocket experiments at Holloman Air Development Center, Alamogordo,
a research team from the Air Force Cambridge Research Center has verified theories that the light of the night sky is partly due t° photochemical processes involving sodium vapor.
Scientists have long known, the Air Force sa'd, that moonlight and starlight alone c°uld account for only a fraction of the light reaching the earth from the sky at night.
Sensitive instruments could detect thenight glow characteristics of sodium. A rocket experiment November 1 at the New Mexico sUe of the Air Research and Development Command’s site supplied data about the cause of the sodium glow.
Previous rocket flights supplied studies of s°dium behavior at twilight when the sodium vapor ejected from a rocket at high altitude Was still in the direct rays of the sun. The ^ovember 1 flight, however, was a true night time sodium emission experiment, the first of 'ts kind.
When the rocket reached an altitude of thirty miles, sodium vapor release was begum This continued to the peak of the trajectory at eighty-five miles and back down again to forty-five miles. Approximately four Pounds of sodium vapor was ejected along the rocket’s trajectory.
A yellow trail clearly visible to the eye was formed in the region approximately thirty to sixty miles in both the upward and downward portion of the rocket’s trajectory. Above sixty miles however, there was no visible effect produced by sodium.
The intensity along the entire rocket trail 'ncluding the uppermost portion was recorded photometrically. The region of maximum intensity, centered at about sixty miles, was tracked by the photometer for about thirty minutes.
The visible portions of the trail were photographed by special cameras such as those employed by Harvard University for meteor photography. These cameras allow the determination of the altitude and the motion of the trail.
The rate at which the glow faded, the intensity at various altitudes and the sharp upper limit of the visible glow will furnish scientists information on composition and state of the atmosphere in that region.
French Ports Can Handle Large Tankers
Translated from La Revue Maritime, November, 1956.—During discussions of measures for effecting transport of petroleum to Europe as a result of the Suez crisis, it has been stated that only Antwerp, Rotterdam, or Southampton could handle the large tankers of 50,000 tons. The Association of large French ports states emphatically that
this is not the case----- Le Havre can, with
its present installations, handle at all tides 65,000-ton tankers fully loaded and drawing up to 46 feet; one installation is planned for tankers of 100,000 tons when such units appear.
The port of Lavera can handle tankers of 50,000 tons. Installations are under way for units up to 85,000 tons. In a short time, Marseilles will be able to handle vessels drawing 46 feet and more.
Bordeaux can receive at almost all tides ships drawing up to 44 feet (50,000 tons), and in the lower part of the estuary there are docking facilities where storage tanks could be set up.
Moreover, the large tankers can be received at Cherbourg, Brest, Le Croisic, and La Pallice, where moorings and sealines can be set up in a few months. A very long sea line already exists at Sete, where large tankers can be handled.
Within a short time, Dunkerque, thanks to its new deep-water wharf, would be able to handle tankers of 65,000 tons.
Jet Powered Skis
Lockheed News Bureau Release, November 29, 1956.- -Flying south this penguin-painted
P2V-7 Neptune is shown sky-skiing from its “jump-off” base at Lockheed Aircraft Service plant in Ontario, Calif., en route to a South Pole rendezvous with Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd’s Operation Deep Freeze. Specially outfitted with the largest skis ever installed on a jet-powered aircraft, four of the U. S. Navy’s long-range patrol bombers are scheduled for aerial reconnaissance duty with the Antarctic expedition. Lockheed Neplunes have two jet engines and two piston engines. Each main landing gear ski measures five feet wide and sixteen feet long. A smaller skidder is mounted on the nose landing gear. The skis, which can be retracted enough to permit landing on wheels, are made of composite aluminum alloy and steel. Without skis, the Neptune holds a 10-year-old record for nonrefueled flight, 11,236 miles from Perth, Australia, to Columbus, Ohio.
Nuclear-Powered Cruiser
Marine Journal, November, 1956.—Bethlehem Steel Co., Quincy, Mass., has been awarded a letter contract by the Navy for the construction of a nuclear-powered guided missile cruiser, CG(N), including the preparation of working plans. The contract provides a maximum liability of $2,500,000 on the part of the government. As soon as firm plans are available for construction, further negotiations will be conducted for the purpose of converting the letter contract to a definitive fixed price contract. This ship is included in the Navy’s fiscal 1957 shipbuilding and conversion program and will be equipped with the most modern improvements in electronic detection devices. It will be the first ship to be designed and constructed from the keel up as a cruiser since the end of World War II, as well as the Navy’s first nuclear-powered surface ship. Announcement of the award to Westing- house of a contract for furnishing of reactor compartment components for the ship was made previously.
Panama Canal’s Billionth Ton of Cargo
By Ralph K. Skinner
Christian Science Monitor, December 5, 1956.—A milestone in the history of the
Panama Canal is expected to be reached about the middle of December. This will be the transiting through the waterway of its one billionth ton of cargo.
The Panama Canal was opened to commercial traffic on August 15, 1914. In its 42 years of operating history, some 260,000 ships of all categories have transited the canal at Panama. More than 190,000 of these have been ocean-going vessels of more than 300 net tons. Tolls collected have exceeded $830,000,000.
This shipment through the canal of its billionth ton highlights the service to the world rendered by the Panama Canal organization. It has often been called the “ocean shortcut to world commerce.” And, in contrast to the Suez Canal at the present time, its continuous availability to the free nations of the world, and even the Iron Curtain nations, seems exemplary.
Cargo tonnage from the Pacific to the Atlantic is overwhelmingly composed of ores, lumber, wheat, mineral oils, sugar, nitrate of soda, canned foods, bananas, various metals, and refrigerated goods.
From the Atlantic to the Pacific, the principal cargo commodities are mineral oils, coal and coke, iron and steel manufactures, phosphates, soybean and soybean products, sugar, sulphur, paper and paper products, cement, and ammonium compounds.
Since some of these items are included in both lists, going in contrary directions, it appears to prove that in the shipping world, at least, everyone doesn’t think the same.
Canal Zone Governor William E. Potter, who is also president of the Panama Canal Company operating the waterway, plans a big celebration for that billionth ton and the ship bringing it.
Special cancellations will be used throughout Canal Zone postoffices on all mail that day. A specially designed scroll will be presented to the master of the ship carrying the billionth ton. Replicas will be presented to all other transiting ships using the Panama Canal that day.
The program, headed by Captain Warner S. Rodimon, director of the Panama Canal Company, will include representatives of world shipping interests and others directly concerned with the transiting of vessels from
°ne ocean to the other at Panama. Also Participating will be a representative group °f employees whose duties relate to the company’s prime objective of “putting ships through the Panama Canal.”
The increase in the size of ships using the Waterway in the past decade has caused tonnage figures to burgeon. In this period since the end of World War II, the increase of shipping through the canal has been marked.
argo in this ten-year span totals 350,000,000 tons.
1 Devices Help Pilot to bee Other Plane
New York Times, October 24, 1956.—The ivil Aeronautics Administration said it had eveloped two promising means of making airplanes more conspicuous—and therefore ess likely to collide—in daytime.
I he hazard of collision is less likely at night because of warning lights employed.
One of the developments, a powerful 1 ashing light, has extended the distance an airplane may be seen in daytime by more t ian 25%, the agency said.
The other, a new fluorescent paint, makes a plane stand out prominently whether viewed from below or against a backdrop of he sky, or from above against a green or irown background of earth.
At the same time, the agency reported that the gravest danger in the air was not that of head-on collisions, but of collisions that occur when one plane overtakes another.
The agency also made public reports that ? warning to a pilot that other planes were ■n the vicinity might have little or no effect °n his ability to sight other craft quickly enough to avoid a collision.
The agency made no attempt, however, to relate the findings to the collision over Arizona’s Grand Canyon last June, when one airliner overtook another. In that case one pilot had been forewarned and the other was ignorant of the fact that their planes were converging.
Studies of aerial collisions and airplane conspicuity, and projects for development of “proximity warning” devices were described by research engineers at the agency’s Technical Development Center here. They spoke to 400 electronic experts attending the annual meeting of the Radio Technical Commission for Aeronautics.
Soviet Bolster Adriatic Bases
By Hemen Ray
Providence (R. I.) Sunday Journal, November 18, 1956.—The Soviet Union is now building a major naval and submarine base in the Albanian island of Saseno in the Adriatic Sea, according to reliable sources in East Berlin.
Reports are that the Soviet Union is also enlarging the ports of Durazzo and Valona for larger ocean-going vessels and oil tankers. The southern Albanian port of Saranda is being developed as a modern naval base. The Soviets are linking the seaport of Valona to the open sea with an oil pipeline to speed up the refueling of Soviet ships, according to the source.
According to the same report, between 5,000 and 7,000 Russians, East Germans and Czechs are working around the clock to build the new Soviet naval base and develop Albanian sea ports.
Reports also say that Soviets are building air strips for Soviet jets in the Cape of Linguetta. At present, two squadrons of Soviet jets are stationed in the airstrips in the port of Valona, where Russians built a strip two years ago.
The Soviet Union has already transferred a half-dozen submarines to the Albanian naval and submarine base in the island of Saseno. A part of the Soviet Black Sea fleet will be stationed in the Albanian naval base for the operation in the Mediteranean.
The Soviet Union has virtually detached the island of Saseno, ports of Saranda, Valona and the Cape of Linguetta from the Albanian Republic and placed them under the direct administration of the Soviet Ministry of Defense.
★
[1] Chief Jones has served seventeen years in the U. S. Navy and is currently attached to the office of the Director of Naval Communications in Washington.
[2] A graduate of the U. S. Naval Academy in 1932, Admiral McCandless retired in 1952 and now resides in Claremont, California.