Atomic Initiation On Thursday, October 11, the first British nuclear weapon to be dropped from an aircraft was released by an R.A.F. Valiant over Maralinga, South Australia, as part of "Operation Buffalo". A small bomb, as such weapons go, it was equivalent in explosive power to 10,000 tons of dynamite, and was detonated only a few seconds after it had been released from the aircraft. The height of the explosion - the actual has not been revealed - played strange acoustic tricks. People at Kingoonya, 200 miles away, heard a "thunderous double explosion," but others living less than 100 miles from Maralinga heard nothing. The Valiant's bomb-aimer, F/L. E. Stacey, set his sights on a target ploughed out by bulldozers in the grey-green desert foliage. His aiming was afterwards described as "bang on." Faster and Higher From across the Atlantic news has been flowing of remarkable achievements in speed and altitude and of the design performance of future vehicles. A recent announcement by Mr. Donald Quarles, Secretary of the U.S.A.F., revealed that records extracted from the instrumentation of the crashed Bell X-2 research aircraft showed that shortly before its destruction the machine had been flying faster than had any other man-carrying vehicle. The pilot, who was killed, was Capt. Milburn G. Apt, and his probable speed was in the region of 2.200 m.p.h. The same aircraft had previously flown to over 126,000ft. New Chairman Following the death of Sir Richard Fairey on September 30, The Board of the Fairey Aviation Co. announces the appointment as chairman of Mr. R. T. Outen, the deputy chairman. Mr. Roland Thomas Outen joined the Board in January 1943. On October 29, 1949, he was appointed deputy chairman of the company and thus has worked in the closest collaboration with Sir Richard. Back to the Antarctic The main party of the Hunting Aerosurveys expedition to the Grahamland Peninsula of the Antarctic continent is due to leave Harwich today in their base ship Oluf Sven, for their Deception Island headquarters. The purpose of the expedition (undertaken on behalf of the Governor of the Falkland Island Dependencies) is to photograph some 50,000 square miles of British Territory. This is the expedition's second season on this work. |
Source: Flight International
