Scrapbook 2: Nov 1962 — X-15, moon bugs, missiles

PLANS to build a bomber or civil airliner capable of flying at more than 15,000 m.p.h. at 250,000ft will be put before Mr. Fraser, Air Minister, this week.

Dr. Barnes Wallis, inventor of the dam buster bombs, has drawn up the plans for the Vickers Aircraft Co. Dr. Wallis’s new invention is for an aircraft capable of manœuvrable flight at 25 times the speed of sound. As an airliner it could reach San Francisco in about 30 minutes and Australia in 45 minutes.

Vickers has a Government contract to examine the problems of variable geometry, or movable wings, but is now in a position to produce such a plane.

Dr Wallis’s new invention depends entirely on the successful application of movable wings. So the building of this exploratary machine is a vital step to producing the bomber or airliner.

SKYBOLT REPLACEMENT

Immune to defences

Primarily the plans are for a bomber to replace Skybolt, the airborne nuclear ballistic missile due in the R.A.F. in 1965. Because Skybolt is airborne, and its location would be changing continually, it will be undefeatable for the next decade or more.

But Dr. Wallis’s plane, capable of orbiting the earth at will, using small airstrips, and with unheard of manœuvrability, will allow Britain’s deterrent to be effective into the distant future.

Dispersal possibilities, allowing it to be based anywhere in the world, would make the plane impossible to locate and destroy. Its speed, height and manœuvrability would keep it immune from any predicted defence system.

(Continued on Back Page, Col. 4)

PITTSBURGH (AP) — A specialist in rocket fuels said cosmonauts of the Soviet Union will beat U.S. astronauts to the moon.

The prediction was made during an interview by V. H. B. Whilihite of Ogden, Utah, director of technical operations for Thiokol Chemical Corp. a developer of solid fuels. U.S. space chief James E. Webb had earlier predicted Americans would get to the moon first.

We’d Be Ahead

“If America had invested solid fuel rockets eight years ago,” Whilihite said, “we’d have beaten the Russians into space. We would have orbited the first satellite and would now be close to landing a man on the moon.”

“The Russians are ahead of us because they started earlier and their leaders thought bigger,” he said. “There’s not a chance in God’s earth of the U.S. beating the Russians to the moon. We just don’t have the booster capability.”

In Six Months

He predicted that Russia will orbit two men in one capsule within six months.

Whilihite was here to speak at a solid fuels conference sponsored by the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineers and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

A COMMONWEALTH satellite communications system is, I learn, being actively considered by the British Space Development Company, the organisation which hopes to exploit the use of space commercially. It contemplates a number of satellites orbiting round the poles and the system could be placed in action within the next two or three years.

This differs radically from Government scientists’ plan to have 12 satellites in equatorial orbit, timed to appear at a given place at the same time day and night, and designed to give world-wide coverage. This proposal was made known in London last week.

The private system has the advantage that it would be easier to place in orbit and would probably be in working order up to three years before the official one.

Improvements in space communication, however, are so rapid that such a system could become obsolete in a few years. After that the official plan would have all the advantages.

Details of the official plan were given at the international conference on satellite communication, organised by the Institution of Electrical Engineers in London, which continues until next Wednesday. The plan was devised by the G.P.O. and the Royal Aircraft Establishment, Farnborough.

9,000 miles away

It would involve 12 stabilised satellites on a circular equatorial orbit operating nearly 9,000 miles from earth. The satellites would go round the earth three times each day, but because of the rotation of the earth each satellite would appear at a given point every 12 hours.

The alternative, which had been considered, was a synchronous satellite, which appears to remain stationary from earth, but in fact orbits the earth at a distance of 22,300 miles in exactly 24 hours.

In either case new launching sites on or near the equator might be necessary to achieve the required accuracy of orbit. But for the eight-hour orbit a smaller launching vehicle would be necessary.

The British Space Development Company is the private enterprise section of British space aspirations. Founded last February, it was sponsored by a number of leading industrial companies, including Associated Electrical Industries; Associated Television; Decca Radar; Hawker Siddeley Aviation, and Rolls-Royce.

Its object was then described as “to bring together a representative cross-section of that part of industry which is interested in the development and exploitation of space for commercial purposes.”

If it attempts a polar orbit system it would be able to use any launching site in the world, and at the same time substantially smaller launch vehicles since, presumably, smaller orbits would be contemplated.

Synchronous and semi-synchronous orbits are not possible on a polar route because the earth spins beneath the orbit at right-angles to its path.

What would be required would be more complex ground stations since accurate telemetry would at all times be essential. Three simultaneous orbits, each involving a number of satellites, would be necessary to ensure complete coverage and the satellites would be followed in the same way as Telstar.

The great advantage is that such a system could be established using knowledge and rockets which are at present available.

Telstar limitations

All these systems have considerable advantages over Telstar, particularly the G.P.O.-R.A.E. plan. Telstar is by way of being a demonstration piece.

It “wanders” in the same way as the moon does, and although its time of coming to any one place can be calculated up to nine days in advance, the period between passes is irregular. Its orbit is low and highly elliptical so that its signal range is limited and variable.

In fairness to the Americans their Relay and Synchrom systems of communication satellites are being developed under pressure. Both involve circular equatorial orbits and it seems likely that the Americans are tending to favour the idea of a synchronous orbit.

The British official plan is a compromise in terms of possible launching vehicles and the difficulties of keeping a synchronous satellite on station.

But space engineers and scientists are in a highly optimistic mood. Capt. C. G. Booth is in charge of the satellite communications project for the G.P.O.

THE first Russian or American returning from a moon trip might bring on his clothes or his boots, lethal germs for which the world has no antidote, a space medicine expert told the international astronautical congress here today.

Professor Carl-Johan Clemedson, of Sweden, said scientists already have evidence of the most deadly bug known on earth probably existing on the planets.

This is botulinus toxin, eight ounces of which could wipe out the world’s population.

The professor, head of the department of hygiene at Gothenburg University, warned the 500 scientists here that they are paying too little attention to the dangers of letting loose on the world a wildcat germ.

Tetanus

Studies of the atmosphere on Mars had shown botulinus germs could grow there and probably do. Other germs which thrive in atmospheres with little oxygen, such as Venus, could also develop.

He listed dozens of these germs, including tetanus and anthrax. In earthly form these were dangerous enough but from outer space they would be even more lethal because radiation and the different environment would have changed their character.

This would make it difficult, if not impossible, to fight them with drugs or vaccines.

The professor added: “In Sweden we have set up a special laboratory where we can duplicate conditions on the moon or Mars.

Polluted

“We are subjecting certain germs to radioactivity and different temperatures to see if they alter in any dangerous way. But I believe we should do much more to solve this and the other problems thrown up by manned space flights.”

There was also the problem of keeping the moon and planets free from the earth’s microbes. If the solar system were polluted with earth germs scientists would never be able to understand how the planets developed their life forms.

Minuteman Electronics

Los Angeles—USAF is evaluating industry proposals in a competition for USAF/Boeing Wing 5 and follow-on Minuteman ICBM ground electronic system.

The system will evolve both cable and radio techniques for data processing, communications, and systems support required to monitor, control, and launch the missile. Decision in the competition is due next month.

Electrical connection between control center and missile in the first four programed Minuteman wings has been by cable only.

NEW YORK, Friday.

THE American Air Force’s X-15 rocket plane rolled over and the nose gear collapsed in an emergency landing on the dry bed of Mud Lake, Nevada, to-day. The engine was unable to develop enough power after a drop from 45,000ft.

The pilot, Major John McKay, 39, was conscious when he was taken from the plane. But he had been trapped upside down as ammonia fumes seeped into the cockpit. A helicopter was instructed to hover overhead to blow the fumes away while he was cut out of his seat straps.

Officials said he was “smiling and talking” as he was moved to hospital at Edwards’ Air Force Base, California. He has a suspected fractured hip and superficial injuries.

It was the first really serious mishap to the X-15, which holds the world altitude and speed records of 314,750ft and 4,104 miles an hour. It was Major McKay’s seventh flight in the plane.

In to-day’s flight, one of a series of experiments, the plane dropped from 45,000ft.

Major McKay jettisoned his fuel and spiralled towards the emergency strip at Mud Lake.

RUSSIA has now nuclear submarines fitted with 350-mile range ballistic missiles. Although the existence of such submarines has been suspected for some time, Western naval intelligence officers have now confirmed that “a number” of them are in commission based in the Kola Inlet in the White Sea.

The Russian submarine fleet has again been reduced, by the scrapping of older boats, from last year’s total of 430 to 400, with more than 10 of them nuclear-powered. Some may now be able to launch at short range ballistic missiles from under water, but most have to come to an awash position to use three vertical launching tubes in conning towers.

AMERICAN RANGE

The American Polaris submarine-launched missile has a range of 1,800 miles, but by summer next year its range will have been increased to about 2,500 miles. This is likely to be the maximum range of which the missile will be capable.

Some Russian patrol craft as well as cruisers and destroyers are now fitted with surface-to-surface as well as surface-to-air missiles. This is the first indication that small ships are being equipped with missiles.

THE Army wants Treasury consent to place a multimillion pound order for a new American “pocket” anti-missile missile, the Mauler. This is the only weapon in sight to meet the Army’s desperate need for an up-to-date defence against low-flying aircraft and artillery rockets.

The first move would be to order just enough Maulers to get Britain “in the queue.” But as Rhine Army aims at enough logistic backing to fight a 30-day war, it is clear that ultimately this means spending at least £30 million in dollars on around 1,000 missiles.

At present, the Army’s only low-level defence is the virtually obsolete 40 mm. Bofors, an improved version of the gun with which it started the last war. Its British-designed replacement, the PT 428 missile, was scrapped in February.

Saving to taxpayer

It would have cost £40 million to £50 million in research and development alone. It is claimed that buying from America would be cheaper because the British taxpayer would not have to pay for the initial cost of developing the Mauler, on which nearly 40 million dollars has so far been spent.

But the cancellation of the PT 428 was one of a series of hammer-blows which have been dealt out to the British missile industry, culminating in the recent decision to dispense with Blue Water. Details of its latest offering, the anti-aircraft Tigercat, will be announced at Farnborough this week.

Its makers, Shorts, hope that the Army will buy it and thus encourage sales to N.A.T.O. This would boost employment hopes at the firm’s factories in Northern Ireland.

The only weapon

But what the generals really want is a weapon which can operate by day or night and in all weather against any low-flying aircraft or tactical enemy missile in its area.

The PT 428 was largely designed for this rôle, so is the Mauler. It is still in the development stage and cannot be in service for another two or three years, but even so, it is the only weapon of its kind anywhere on the stocks.

The Army has a powerful claim. It is now a case of either the Mauler or nothing.

This is one more example of the Army’s staggering deficiencies in its ability to meet emergencies.