May 21, 1956

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AERONAUTICAL ENGINEERING

Patuxent River Tests Navy Aircraft for Sea Duty

Patuxent River, Md.—Four divisions of the Naval Air Test Center here have the last word on the suitability for Fleet use of all the Navy’s new fixed-and rotary-wing aircraft. Patuxent is to naval aviation what Edwards, Eglin and Wright-Patterson AFBs are to the Air Force.

By Dale W. Cox11 min

128

SAFETY

Wrong Prop Feathered, Viscount Fell

A Vickers-Armstrongs Viscount Type 701, owned and operated by the British European Airways Corp., crashed during takeoff on a training flight at Blackbushe Airport, England, on Jan. 20, 1956, slightly injuring all five persons on board.

AVIONICS

Predictions for Record Electronics Sales Upheld By Financial Reports

Mushrooming sales and profits reported by a number of avionics-electronics manufacturers on 1955 and first-quarter 1956 operations lend support to the predictions by officials of Radio Corporation of America and Hoffman Electronics Corp. that their sales will double in the next five to 10 years.

By Philip J. Klass6 min

154

Letters

B-52 Vs. Snark The past several issues of AVIATION WEEK have given me the impression that the USAF is somewhat undecided about our intercontinental weapons. The problem seems to be whether or not the U. S. should match the Russian’s Bison production with B-52’s or divert some funds for Snark SM-62 production.

104

EQUIPMENT

Gun Camera Tunes Exposure to Light

Syosset, N. Y.—A gun camera which rapidly and automatically adjusts its lens opening to within ½ an f. stop of correct exposure in less than a second in most conditions is under evaluation by the Air Force. Called KB-5, the gun camera has approximately the same volume as the current standard N-9 gun camera and weighs only 1 lb. more when fully loaded.

AERONAUTICAL ENGINEERING

Universities Will Evaluate Weapons

Washington—The Defense Department’s Weapon Systems Evaluation Group has radically changed both the scope and method of its operations. After seven years of failing to accomplish its missions because of a lack of qualified scientific personnel, the nation’s highest-level evaluations group is now contracting most of its work to a corporation of universities headed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

By Evert Clark5 min

AERONAUTICAL ENGINEERING

Usaf Report on Soviet Airmen Shows High Pay, ‘exalted’ Status

Washington—The Soviet military man generally enjoys a more exalted position within his own society than the U. S. military man, and Russian air force pilots and technicians fare even better than their Red Army counterparts. A U. S. Air Force study concludes that, contrary to conditions within the U.S., it is no sacrifice to belong to the service in Soviet Russia, particularly to the air force. Some of the reasons: “In the Soviet air force the member occupies a relatively high social status.

May 141956

May 281956

May 21, 1956

May 21, 1956