Evening star., 1950-03-19

flying end of the speed scale,
without sacrificing any of the
progress made in fast flying, not
only would be good for civil and
commercial aeronautics, but is
rapidly becoming a serious need
for the military. For the faster
our combat planes fly, particularly
the new jets, the landing speed
increases and the takeof run be-
comes longer.
From the beginning, the plane
designers have been so continu-
ously harassed by the military
services and the commercial air
craft operators to turn out planes
that would fly faster and still
faster, that they have been sus-
pected of having completely for
gotten one of the airplane's
greatest needs--a landing speed
so slow that it would meet the
specifications of the Army'S first
military airplane-"land in a field
without requiring a specially pre-
pared spot and without damaging
its structure" This the Wright
brothers did in 1909.
A few days ago, this 41-year-old
requirement, long since compro-
missed for military aircraft in
favor of their higher speed, higher
altitude and heavier load-carrying
possibilities, was reaffirmed as a
primary need" for combat planes
working in close support with
ground troops as the result Of the
American-Canadian maneuvers in
the Yukon. It was reafirmed in
this modern language: A plane
with the speed and accuracy of
the present jet fighter -bombers
plus ability to take off and land
on short fields hastily built near
q fighting front.
This publicly admitted need
does not expose a shocking de-
ficiency in American jet combat
aircraft. That was discovered
early in the days of jet develop
ment, along with the high fuel
consumption of the jet engine, as
something inherent in all high
speed jet aircraft of all nations,
but it would have to be tolerated
until scientific research could
remedy these disadvantages here
tofore outweighed by the jet
aircraft's high-speed and high
altitude performance. Provided,
however, they could always op-
crate from the large airfelds that
are plentiful in the United States
and other developed areas.
Intriguing Problem
But in the rough, rugged, frozen
country of Alaska and the Ca
madam territory adjacent to the
U. s. S. R., such airports and air.
bases are not plentiful nor readily
established and as that region
continues to grow in Importance,
so does the need for swift, hard
hitting, ground support combat
aircraft, with built-in character
istics for short, quick takeoffs
and landings from improvised
clearings.
This is one Of the most in
triguing problems before the Ma
tional Advisory Committee for
Aeronautics, the Governments S
foremost agency devoted to fun
damental research on the scien-
tific problems of fight and the
manner in which it is being at
tackled cannot now be discussed
here. If and when it is con-
quered, there would be more JUS
tiflcation for keeping a low
landing speed short -takeoff tacti-
cal combat Jet aircraft security
secret than there is on further
high speed increased by our super
sonic research planes that have
no immediate combat capabilities.
In the meantime, stop-gap devices
in the form of rockets to boost
the takeoff of jet planes out of
small fields and parachutes fas-
tened to the plane and released
on landing to act as an additional
brake for the fast landing roll,
are being used.
Lest the modern aeronautical
engineer feel he is being accused
of having done nothing about the
long-troublesome matter of land
ing and takeof characteristics, to
his credit it can be said that he
most certainly has, else our current
airliners, for example, with 300
mile an hour cruising speeds and
weighing so to 10 tons, would be
landing at $50 miles an hour or
higher, in which event there
would be no such airliners in pub
lie use. Through advanced wing
design, wheel brakes, wing flaps
retractable landing gear and re-
versible propellers, these devices
help keep the landing speed from
increasing materially while the
engineers strive to boost the cruis-
ing speeds even higher.
Called Evolutionary
Unheralded as such, neverthe-
less there now exists an all-out
offensive against the accepted de-
ficiency of the conventional air
plane, jet or piston-engined. il
landing and taking off. though
there is no uniform Government
scientist-industry program being
followed, for both military anc
civil aircraft. But in the pro-
peller-driven civil aircraft field
new hope is being revived agair
in a little group of aeronautical
scientists who have been working
off and on for the past quarter
of a century for the slow-fying
aircraft and for their efforts, of
and on, they've been rewarded
with ridicule and sneers and
names like screwballs and nut
inventors.