| ||
Half Price A claim for $724,947 (£258,930) damages is being made against the Soviet Union following the destruction of a Neptune over the Bering Sea on June 22nd. The aircraft was shot down in flames by Russian jet fighters; its crew escaped, but suffered injuries. The United States agreed in July to accept a Soviet offer of 50 per cent of the expected claim. | ||
The U.S.A.F. has officially announced the award of a contract to the Boeing Airplane Company amounting to $248m (some £86m sterling) for B-52 eight-jet bombers. Although the announcement did not reveal the number of machines involved, it is reckoned that each B-52, including spares, costs about $8m: thus the order is likely to be for some 30 machines. | ||
A new landing strip for the Prestwick Pioneer has been opened at Fort Chabai, North Kelantan State Malaysia. Chabai, the latest jungle fort established to thwart terrorist attempts to exploit the aborigines, is manned by garrisons flown in by the Pioneers. It lies on the side of a deep valley with mountain peaks on one side and a sheer drop of 50ft into a river valley on the other. To allow the Pioneers to make an unrestricted landing approach, 200ft trees have been felled from the top of a nearby hill, and a corridor has been cut through the trees into the valley. The Pioneers approach from a height of 2,4000ft, fly over the shorn hilltop then along the corridor through the trees before touching down. | ||
Reports that all B-47s based in Great Britain were being grounded following the accidental dropping of a 1,000-lb practice bomb in an Essex village have been denied. The U.S.A.F. does, however, say that every aircraft is being checked. | ||
|
Source: Flight International
