Strength in Depth
It is natural that Canada should work in close co-operation with the great ally across the border, but it will not be to the exclusion of her ties with the home country. Many of her most flourishing aviation organisations are the daughter companies or partners of British concerns. The same is true of those in Australia. It is in turn a comfort for us to know that, should these islands ever suffer atomic attack, great industries abroad to which some of the best British brains and hands have been dispersed would be ready again to take over with materials as well as men at any point where help were needed.
Astronautical
To the tune of rumours that the Russians had sent a guided missile around the moon, the International Astronautical Congress got off to a flying start at Innsbruck. K. A. Ehricke, of the Bell Aircraft Corporation, showed that a small satellite can be established capable of maintaining four men in space. Dr. Hubertus Strughold said that space flight is now a reality. N.H. Langton showed that meteorites could be thermally dissipated by special screens. On the other hand, protection of humans from the heavy nuclei of cosmic radiation beyond the atmosphere was shown by H.J. Schaefer to be impossible. It is gathered from the congress that Man will fairly soon make short hops into space and that missiles will also be probing beyond the atmosphere. How soon true interplanetary flight will follow is a matter of conjecture. It would seem that the end of the century might still be a conservative estimate for circumnavigation of the moon.
Two Accidents
On August 23rd a DC-6B of K.L.M., PH-DFO Willem Bontekoe, descended into the North Sea some 17 miles north-west of the Dutch coast with the loss of 12 passengers and nine crew. On August 22nd, a Braniff International Airways DC-3 crashed at Mason City, Iowa, with the loss of 11 people.
Source: Flight International
