Pioneer Spirit Mr. D. F. McIntyre, managing director of Scottish Aviation, Ltd., on his return to Scotland from a two-week visit to Malaya, reported that 150/200-yd landing strips for the R.A.F.'s Prestwick Pioneers were being steadily constructed all over the jungle-covered mountains of Malaya. "It is a typically British type of operation," he added, "based on wise and far-seeing military and civil decisions. Understanding, the hand of friendship, daily contact and help are being offered to the aborigine population through these jungle airstrips and garrisons, as an alternative to indiscriminate bombing and harrying of terrorists, which in jungle country has in the main proved ineffective and tends to make more enemies than friends."
Napalm Notwithstanding its successes in Korea, napalm (jellied petrol) has a distinctly limited effect. A truck not carrying inflammable cargo would be stopped, but not necessarily destroyed, and it has been found that a man lying in a slit trench, covered with a blanket, can survive uninjured the flash and heat of a napalm burst.
Rolls-Royce V.T.O. Released towards the end of this week was a film showing development flying with the Rolls-Royce vertical take-off vehicle, powered by the two Rolls-Royce Nene turbojets. On the same occasion it was specifically stated that techniques are being developed in Britain to enable aircraft to take off vertically from the normal position associated with current American experiments.
Communist Action An assortment of Russian-built aircraft was used by the Chinese Communists in raids on Yi Kiang Shan last week. In the attack, according to one official Nationalist communiqu‚, there were 23 La-11s, 29 Tu-2s, four Mig-15s and four Il-10s.
Rational Security The description "watertight" is frequently, if optimistically, applied to security. Certainly we may regard the pool of knowledge as being contained in a sponge. The fingers of security are pressed into a few larger holes, while tit-bits of information trickle and seep out everywhere else - and a number of the fingers in the round holes are, in our opinion, unnecessarily square.
Source: Flight International
