Showing posts with label Military. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Military. Show all posts
Guided missiles are passing from the developmental stage into limited production.
Approximately $26 million will be spent by the U. S. Air Force for guided missile procurement this year. USAF and Navy have approximately $28 million earmarked for guided missile procurement in the fiscal 1950 budget now being considered by Congress. This is in addition to research and development funds for guided missile experimentation.
Training Missiles-Gen. Hoyt Vandenberg, USAF chief of staff, announced that the $26 million appropriation recently approved by President Truman would be spent largely for training missiles and launching equipment needed to train USAF missile launching crews and technicians. Earlier Vandenberg revealed that USAF was expanding its first guided missiles group into a guided missiles wing (wings normally consist of three groups).
Legislation authorizing the USAF to construct a $200 million long range proving ground for guided missiles was introduced in Congress last week by Sen. Millard Tydings (D., Md.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
The proving ground would be oper-ated jointly by members of the USAF, Navy and Army.
New Missiles-Air Force also revealed two experimental missiles which it has tested successfully during the past six months. They are:
Convair 774-This is a 32 ft. missile roughly similar to the German V-2 (45 ft.) It was built at Convair's San Diego plant and will be put into use as a training missile for USAF missile launching crews.
The Convair 774 was first fired successfully last summer at White Sands Proving Ground, N. M. The 774 was designed primarily as a test vehicle for experimentation with new launching techniques, fuels, and rocket propulsion motors. The missile will also be used in upper atmosphere research since it has a potential altitude of 100 miles.
North American NATIV-This test missile is 13 ft. long and was first fired last summer at Alamogordo, N. M. It will be used to test aerodynamic research in the development of control systems and also as a training vehicle for launching crews. It is fired from a tall metal tower and is guided by rails within the tower during the first few seconds after firing. The missile has attained an altitude of 10 miles during test firings.
NATIV was built by North American at its Inglewood plant.
USAF now has nine basic guided missile development contracts in the aircraft industry and has developed military requirements for 13 basic types of guided missiles.
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Aviation Week | February 7, 1949
Bell's Supersonic Speedster: First flight picture of the Bell XS-1, flying laboratory, which will make the initial attempt to break through the sonic barrier and achieve supersonic flight. Carrying a full weight com-plement including rocket engines, fuel and instruments the XS-1 is now making test flights as a glider released from a specially equipped 13-29 at AAF's Muroc Lake testing center. First flight powered by Reaction Motor's 6,000-pound static thrust rocket engine is scheduled for late December with Bell test pilot Chalmers (Slick) Goodlin at the controls.. (AAF photo)
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Aviation News | November 25, 1946
New Navy Robot Bomb: One of a series of "tomorrow's-weapons-today" at which the public was given a quick peek at the Naval Air Material Center's "open house" is this turbo-jet powered KDN-1 guided-missile which is carried under the wing of a PB4-Y Privateer and launched from the air. It has a "seeker" head and a speed of better than 500 mph.
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Aviation News | Nov 11, 1946
New Weapon Tested: First published photo of the NACA-developed guided missile being test-fired at the Committee's auxiliary flight test station. Initial power comes from six rocket motors in the tail fin assembly which drops off after the rockets exhaust their power. Still classified are its range and perforrnance details. (NACA photo) | Aviation Week, 1946
Small flying wing fighter built experimentally for the AAF by Northrop Aircraft Co. is designated XP-79. Among the plane's "firsts" and distinctive features are that the pilot lies prone to enable him to withstand 12 G's on pullouts, and that this is the first U. S.-built flying wing to be powered by jet engines—two Westinghouse 19-B's. The aircraft was designed as a regular fighter, carrying four machine guns.
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Aviation Week | June 17, 1946
This forest of upended P-40 Warhawks, stripped of valuable items, are just a few of the nearly 4,000 surplus aircraft of all types neatly aligned at Walnut Ridge, Ark., awaiting the acetylene torch that will cut them apart and. the 10-ton tractor that will mash the metal into scrap. The field was established as a storage depot by the Reconstruction Finance Corp., which is scrapping $8,000,000 worth of combat aircraft per day.
"Missile Park" in front of Headquarters Building with Organ Mountains in the background. The Range is the Free World's largest overland missile range and covers 4,000 square miles. Rocket and guided missile tests are conducted here for the Army, Navy, Air Force and NASA.
Color Photo by Gene Aiken
Craig shelters are being used for missile ground support wherever proven performance and reliability are primary requirements. They are lightweight, fully insulated, can be transported by helicopter, plane, truck, or rail, and are constructed for world-wide operational use. This has been proven through extensive testing to determine conclusively that this type of equipment meets all of the military's requirements and characteristics, and assures reliability in field service usage.
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images and info provided by the Aviation Week ARCHIVE from the Zetu Harrys Collection
In 1939 the Romanian National Rail Company started the construction of civilian vaults, in preparation for WWII. Dioramas and scale models were displayed publicly the same year in the National Railway Museum. Those vaults varied from residential ones to specialized ones like: infirmaries, command offices, etc. A 1:1 scale of a railway command office vault was built inside the said museum. All the vaults had power generators, air filtration, water tanks, dry toilets, glow-in the dark signs, communication systems, etc.
Radio waves act as test pilot for the Navy when ramjet engines are put through their paces over the Pacific Ocean. Mounted on a tiny plane that looks very similar to the buzz bombs used by the Nazis, the ramjets are piloted on 10-minutes flights by the radio-operated remote-control system. Data is transmitted back to the observers by a complex telemetering device. Since ramjets have no static thrust, they can't take off by themselves. A specially modified Black Widow fighter carries the tiny plane aloft by means of a hanger under its right winge, upper right. Once over the test area, the ramjet is released and from then on it flies by radio control. Its flight is followed by radar. When its fuel supply is exhausted, the tiny plane autmatically releases a large parachute which brings it down without damage, enabling the technicians to examine the engine for any faults that might have developed in flight.
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images and info provided by the Popular Mechanics ARCHIVE from the Zetu Harrys Collection
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The Army's Restone missile, which is test flown over the Air Force Missile test Center's range, is being fueled at the Cape Canaveral, Florida, launching site. The gantry service tower standing beside the missile is used in pre-flight preparations.
The Air Force's ground-to-air BOMARC interceptor missile starts its journey from Cape Canavral, Florida, launching site of the Air Force Missile Test Center, leaving a trail of smoke in its wake.
Strangely clad men at secret research bases were rushing tests for a weapon which could well decide the outcome of any future war: the long-range guided missile. In scores of factories scientists worked full blast to develop a pilotless weapon which could span continents with a thermonuclear bomb. But in Wash-ington there was anxious questioning. Was the U.S. missile program, for all the effort, really lagging behind that of the Russians?
The Russians boasted that they already had "mighty guided missiles"—and some highly placed Americans believed this. Senator Henry Jackson, criticizing U.S. progress, had said that the Soviet Union was nearly ready to fire a ballistic missile capable of hitting a target 1.500 miles away. The U.S. Air Force's own missile expert, Trevor Gardner, resigned as assistant secretary of the Air Force because, he said, he was denied the kind of backing which would enable the U.S. to keep ahead. President Eisenhower himself stepped into the argument. "In certain fields," he said, "I am sure we are well ahead of the other side. In certain fields I think they are probably ahead of us."
Amid the arguments Defense Secretary Charles Wilson announced that he would appoint a missile "czar." The czar would be armed with an estimated 82 billion appropriation in the first year alone to run a crash program similar to World War II's A-bomb Manhattan Project. The goal would be 1) to meet the possible Russian 1,500-mile threat with a U.S. intermediate missile, 2) to maintain a defensive lead with a greater weapon, the Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM). Already in its arsenal the U.S. has the Snark which, however, has limitations as a long-range missile, and the Army's short-range Redstone .
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images and info provided by the LIFE Magazine / LIFE Magazine International / LIFE Magazine Atlantic ARCHIVE from the Zetu Harrys Collection
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This pot-bellied hull, shown crudely shoving water aside as she runs to sea from the U.S. naval base at Portsmouth, N.H., is almost as awkward on the surface as a fisherman's rowboat. But under water she is the fastest, most maneuverable submarine in the world and her tubby shape is the shape of the submarine future.
Called the U.S.S. Albacore, she represents the second stage of the underwater revolution which began with the atomic-powered U.S. Nautilus. Previously, submarines were designed for surface cruising because they had to spend a great deal of time above water recharging batteries. But as soon as the Nautilus proved the feasibility of nuclear power to keep a submarine under water indefinitely, work on the Albacore was rushed. Having proved that the unique bomblike hull shape will outperform any other undersea boat, the Navy revealed this week that it is "marrying" the Albacore to the Nautilus to produce a submarine which will operate almost exclusively under water. Construction of at least one such atomic submarine which will look like the Albacore, will begin soon.
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images and info provided by the LIFE Magazine / LIFE Magazine International / LIFE Magazine Atlantic ARCHIVE from the Zetu Harrys Collection
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If you like what I do support the project with a coffee
Operated by radio signals, a 17-foot model of a Navy blimp cruises along at 12 miles per hour and can be controlled up to a mile from the transmitter. The airship was built under the direction of Navy officers and is being flown in various parts of the country as part of the Navy recruiting program. A group of model-plane builders from Baltimore, Md., worked out the radio-control equipment, the fins and the two tiny gasoline engines which propel the small-size blimp.
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If you like what I do support the project with a coffee
The Navy has been given greater mobility for atomic war by radical adaptations like the refueling operation and weapons like the missile Terrier. Other equipment, including atomic power plants for ships already proved feasible in the submarine Nautilus, is coming.
The Navy, with these developments, envisions task forces of 10 combat ships, controlling 60,000 square miles of sea. As pictured above, such a task force can shift quickly while its three carriers launch strike planes for hit-and-run attacks or preparation for invasion. The force is ringed by antisubmarine defenses with helicopters acting as sonar listening posts. Seven missile-firing cruisers ward off enemy aircraft.
Coordinating blows are struck by missile-equipped submarines and by jet seaplanes which refuel at secret rendezvous with tanker-submarines, bomb targets and dart deceptively away to other submarine rendezvous.
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When Germany was admitted to NATO the foreign ministers of the West and permanent NATO delegates sat down in Paris for a family portrait. Only Italy's Foreign Minister Gaetano Martino missed the roundup.
Seated from left on the first level are: External Affairs Minister Lester B. Pearson, Canada; Anthon Vestbirk, Denmark; H. van Vredenburch, deputy secretary general of NATO; Foreign Secretary Stephanos Stephanopoulos, Greece, acting chair man; Lord Richard Coleridge, NATO executive secretary; Foreign Minister Antoine Pinay of France; Foreign Minister Paul-Henri Spaak of Belgium. Standing on the first level from left: Leolyn Dana Wilgress, Canada; Georges Exintaris, Greece: Alexandre Parodi, France; André de Staercke, Belgium. Seated on second level: Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, Germany; Prime Minister Joseph Bech, Luxembourg; Foreign Minister Halvard Lange, Norway, Foreign Minister Kristinn Gudmundsson, Iceland.
Standing on the second level: Herbert Blankenhorn, Germany: Nicolas Hommel, Luxembourg; Arne Gunneng, Norway; Adolfo Alessandrini, Italy; Pétur Benediktsson, Iceland. Seated on third level: Foreign Minister Paulo Cunha, Portugal; Foreign Minister Johan Willem Beyen, Netherlands. Standing on third level: Pedro de Lemos (Conde de Tovar), Portugal; A.W.L. Tjarda van Starkenborgh-Stachouwer, Netherlands. Seated at top: U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles; Minister of State Fatin R. Zorlu, Tur key; Foreign Minister Harold Macmillan of the United Kingdom. Standing at top: George Wal. b ridge Perkins, U.S.; Mehmet Ali Tiney, Turkey; Sir Christopher Steel, United Kingdom.
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images and info provided by the LIFE Magazine / LIFE Magazine International / LIFE Magazine Atlantic ARCHIVE from the Zetu Harrys Collection
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If you like what I do support the project with a coffee
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