Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1958-02-26

Ihere Is no such thlhg AS
DR.. Charles E. Valley. jr.. CHIEF
Air Force, told the Air Force
Age Conference at the Shera-
ton-Park Hotel. The confer
ence. which opened with a
preliminary missiles seminar
yesterday, closes Friday noon.
DR.. Valley and Mai. Gen.
James Ferguson. Air Force di-
rector of requirements, were in
agreement on the compatibility
which must exist between
manned and unnamed sys-
tems-theS missile and the
piloted bomber.
In addresses prepared for
delivery during panel dis
cusSion this afternoon, both
men also agreed. in the words
of Gen. Ferguson. that with
all of their cspability. the de-
structive power of the missile
is not equal to that of the
manned bomber"
Quesada on Panel
They shared the panel with
retired Air Force Gen. Elwood
r. Quesada, chairman of the
Anyways Modernization Board,
and James T. Pyle, admin
istrator of Civil Aeronautics
and newly designated boss"
of the Nations air space.
DR.. Valley, stressing the need
for continuing, realistic prac-
tice on the entire weapons
system-men and machines
declared:
The current belief is that
the missiles will be placed in
squadrons and batteries. that
various simulated tests and
partial component trials such
as running up the engines will
be done periodically. and that
the crews will periodically be
taken to proving grounds and
some of the missiles actually
fired at the proving grounds.
Gentlemen. if we ran an
orchestra this way, before a
concert the orchestra would
carefully practice. but the vio-
Inns would be without strings
because the sounds would be
considered harmful to the gen.
eral populace. nor would there
be reeds in the woodwinds, and |
the drums would be muffled.
Periodically. the orchestra |
as a whole would go to some |
distant city and practice music |
on borrowed instruments.
This would not be consid- |
cred as a concert. but only |
as practice. They would then |
come home and practice more
on their noiselesS instruments |
while awaiting a call to give
a concert.
Practice Need Cited
II assert" he said. that no
conductor in his right mind
would undertake to withstand
the criticism of the resulting
performance"
He said crews must practice
on weapons with which they
are expected to fight.
He also said at is danger
Gus fallacy to assume that mis-
siles once built. can be stacked
up like so much cord-wood I'M
til needed. Missile systems are
extremely complicated and the
missiles can wear out simply by
standing idle.
For this reason as well as
because of the necessity for
realistic training we should
reasonably expect to expend a
stable fraction of our missile
Stockpile each year"
The Jet Age Conference is
the 14th in a serie Sof special
meetings sponsored by the AFA
and its affiliate, the Air Educa-
ton Foundation to discuss all
elements of air power.
Panel QuizZed
Yesterday, some makers of
missile equipment indicated the
best way to spend money for
defense against Soviet inter-
continental ballistic weapons
might be to hire saboteurs.
A seminar arranged by the
Air Force Association quizzed a
six-man panel about missiles
antimiSsile missiles, satellite
excursions, rocket shots to the
moon and surveillance of Mars
There were predictions that
a rocket could be fired to the
moon this year to radio back.
automatically. informal ton
about conditions on that nat
ural satellite where the United
States and Russia hope to es-
tablish space stations.
Some time between 1865 and
1870 it should be possible to