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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 5, 1956)
.CO o iV- o o o O o o o0 0 o o 0 o o o o o Po o' O e" O J o o. r9 O o O Q O $?X MIDFOS D (0RZ00K) MATT. TRIBUNE WtiJni(S7. Beeertibe 8, 1131 o u o n u O ight Years Required To To Actual Plight o o Put First B52 If arplane p; O O O O O ( o O Co V Needless Time Lost By Acts of Pentagon, Kdilor'f not- ThT iff the wrcontf of Aci f sf artirles dot trmentinj; a fcffiw llfuation in military aircrall production which imperil;, our na- t tonal security. J j. y HOBEHT S. BIRD ; 3 a"nd TOM LAMBERT ' JC;.'G?ew York Herald Tribuna ' Q Newt Service ; Washington A new airplane begins as art idea. The design cjfnes later. In the beginning , pltoe exists as a rattier shapejess" concept pegged on the demands for speed,' altitude and i'if e foe prsjected possible mis- 'delay's B52, a 200-ton, swept i f. wing eight-jet monster that weis aleng 10 miles above ccnenl" and E6ceans at 658 miles an hour, began in such a a? back irP194S. e By January, 1948, this shad owy concept had crystallized in l,Hj military minds, and a month later tri (then) Army Air Force authorize several airplane man ufacturer to suWnit proposals for such an intercontinental bomberCiapable of carrying the -new atomic bomb 6,0) milts or Oso to an enemy target. At that date, the airplane was not' planned as jet-powered. Bui)Eight Years Later ' On March 18, 1954 " eight i-ears and three months, or 12,- (fifiO.OOO engineering ma'n-houii J.-tr the first production model of the Straio-Fortre.is.. now a jet .aircraft, was rolled out of the Boeing Airplane Co. plant in Seattle, Wash. '- ' Jn. Nathan F. Twining, Air FcMfce chief of staif, was the ifSnn speaker' at the gala roll-out ceremor.s at the big Boeing fac- "To say that this. is the great est bomber in the 'world today djgHting it ery,every mildly,", he saidifoudly. "And the prog ress that thit airplane has made since the prototype was put on Othe line is somefklng that has never been equalled." , PeiSaps. - '"' But 44 days alter on May u l,a954 fj,he U.S.S.R. delivered Q painful blow to American mili tary pride and cg'oplacency. At the aShual air, show in Moscow ' on tHflt day; Soviet officials stood by, faces dead-panned, as their . .own c intercontinental bomber, the Bison, ilew overhead. "Two years ahead of our esti mate of their schedule!" Penta gon officials exclaimed. Some tried to justify this grave mis calculation by calling tfce lone Bison "a prototype an experi mental model."" , . c d - Perhaps. 3 Actiilly, our" Air Force is not certain aeven now if that Bison was a prototype or a production model. Capatle of Carrying Bombs , oThe fact is othe Soviets had 'turned out anh intercontinental jet boSiber capable of carrying the nuclear bombs to our target cities,- a- had done it two years ahead of the date we had anticipated. o It is 9iow believed thet the TJ.SS.R. designed, developed and flew their strategic bomber within a five-year lead time period, as conjpared tr our lead time of eight years fr the first production model of the B52. q T2jiSs long led time for the B52, future backbone of the SSi z J-"' . ft"" pr I "KfiSSfZ ! domes. I -s -f iLJS-' your ctotditta-. r . Oik . Open Tonite Until 9 Burks for all h luggage Repairing 314' EAST MAIN & & H Green Stamps o Strategic Air Command, imperils the now questionable-air superi- ! ority of the United States, as military leaders have -admitted.. i-ven now, according to some estimates, the Soviets have more iutercontinental j e.t bombers than, this country. The exact number of B52e is secret, but some sources put the total at' 110. The Soviets are estimated to have possibly 200 Bisons. How much unnecessary lead time could have been .saved on the B52? Boeing officials would not' estimate specifically how many months or years might have "been shaved from lead time on , this bomber, but aircraft execu tives, talking with these aaport , ers, all said -that' Pentagon and Air Force indecision, red' tape, inept programming and too-close supervision of manufacturing de tails caused heedless stretch-outs of lead time. Underscores Accusation! An ,-exarnination of 'the -"life history" of the B52 illustrates and underscores many of the in dustry's accusations. The bomber development cycle, 'expressed in' time spans chosen by these "re porters only for the purpose of illustrating various "phases of the B52 program, went as follows: First Time' Span: (32 to '36 months)' After thinking about a big bomber -during 1945, the (then) Army' Air Force in Feb ruary, 1946, invited aircraft companies to submit proposals for "preliminary studies" on such a plane.. Boeing's proposal was accepted and the company was told in June,- 1346, to go ahead with further study and design work. The Army Air. Force'order, However", was down the wrong track for which, perhaps,- it cannot, be wholly blamed. ', The mistake was. in thinking of the future bomber as a turbo prop airplane; one 'powered by jet engines. hboked to propellers. At that time, the pure jet engine as we know it today was not re garded as a. long-range power plant.. " ' . . During this time span, how ever, both Boeing and the Air Force (which became a separate service in 1947) were studying the enticing new jets studying them in a quiet sort of. way, ap parently -without telling each other. .Boeing even made -some tentative designs of"a big bomb er powered by. jets. ' - Second- Time Spanf (approxi mate one week) -One day in October, ,1948 ' two years and four months" after telling Boeing to study and design a turbo-prop-bember the Air Foroe had a surprise for the company. "And Boeing had a 'surprise for the Air Force: Privately .Favored Jets '-'On that-day, according to offi cial Boeing accounts," company executives .went- to the Air Force's Air Materiel Command in Dayton, Ohio, to report on the turbo-prop bomber. They now were privately favoring the uje of jet engines. Then came the Air Force surprise. "In spite. of previous indica tions," an Air Force colonel told the Boeing officials, "we no longer believe this (turbo-prop) type of airplane can be counted styled by KALLA your luggage Heeds , Luggage Covers - PHONE 2-4472 .' With Every Purchase' on to do the job we now have ;n mind. "What' we're interested in as of now," he said, breaking the news gently, "is a look at what can be done in the way of a long-range bomber powered by pure jets." Though the " Air Torce had said nothing previously to Boe ing about its change of mind on power plants, ana had let the .company proceed with work on the turbo-prop . airplane, the colonel now went on to tell Boe ing officials about a hot new. jet engine being developed by Pratt &. wnitney, the-J57. Some quizzical glances must have been exchanged by the Boeing men. For they already had talked -with .Pratt & Whit ney about the J57-and bad even made certain suggestions which had been incorporated' into the new engine. "What can you do with this new engine in the way of a specific design?" the colonel asked. "We'll come in Monday morn ing with a new airplane," a Boe ing official said with a straight face. . ' . Not fUdicall y Different On Monday morning, after a week' end of overhauling of their "tentative designs of a jet-powered bomber and .after some happy' but furious recalculation of weight factors, the Boeing men were back in the colonel's office with a -33-page loose-leaf volume of drawings of a bomber, not radically different from to day's B52. They had worked out not only the basic mathematical elements of the design, but en gineering Vice President Ed Wells had whittled out a balsa wood model, -which is displayed proudly today in- the Boeing office jn Seattle, Wash. This is it,".- exclaimed the colonel. It may seem iurprisine that officials of. a big aircraft com pany should be dealing with an officer of' colonel's rank on : a project of this omportance. But the fact is that officers of 'even lesser rank majors, captains, even lieutenants are vested with liasison authority over multi-million-dollar-aircraft projects. Under, of course, the higher brass in the Pentagon. That's, one reason for the delays. Third Time- Span- (li months): One full yean later the Air Force- formally authorized Boe ing to go ahead with engineering work on two- prototypes of the jet bomber. The formal authori zation had been preceded by in- iomai approval from tha Air Force. Design Switch Processed During this period, the design switch from turbo-props to jet engines was being processed through the Pentagon mill which grinds out its decisions in its own fashion. But Boeing, sens ing :th'at the matter probably was -clinched, went ahead with a start pn the wooden "mock up" which precedes- construction of a flyable prototype, and with the first of an innumerable di versity of : engineering investi gations. . . . " And a 'good thing, too. The Truman" Administration was Columbia Pact Would Give Oregon Stronger Voice Salem CU.R)- Approval by the Columbia Interstate Com pact commission of a pact pro-, hibiting diversion of any Colum bia river, basin' waters, if rati fied by the 1957 Legislature, will give Oregon a stronger voice in planning comprehensive basin development, according to Word received here today. Charles H. Heltzel, Oregon public utilities commissioner, saia irom Spokane that approval of the pact culminates five years of work on the -part of the Ore gon commission. The pact was. signed yesterday afternoon following, a two-day meeting in Spokane. Fair. Equitable Share "The final draft of the com pact provides that Oregon , shall have a fair and equitable share of power produced in the Col umbia, river basin," Heltzel said. "A previous objectionable al location formula was stricken from the draft at the- insistence of the Oregon delegation" he added. State Sen. Paul Geddes, Rose burg, vice-chairman of the com pact commission, said approval guarantees an adequate stream flow for operation of Bonneville and other downstream power fa cilities. No appropriation for upstream irrigation will be permitted that .would interfere with the power capacity of the downstream plants, Geddes explained. . Heltzel said the Oregon dele gation was enthused over the .new pact. CHARRED POPCORN E.vansville, Ind. (U.R) The owner of a grain elevator which caught fire was looking today for someone to take 70,000 bush els bf charred, popcorn .off his hands. ' . . cracking down on defense ex penditures and the -military es tablishment was being pared to the bone. Boeing was forced to lay .off 7,000 of its 30,000 em ployees in Seattle. In September, 1949, the So viets exploded their first atomic Time Span:. (24-25 months) In the closing months of 1949, Washington, tensely re. viewed the nation's long-range bomber capability. But with the big B36 propeller-driven bomber at that time in full' production, a government-retained consult ing agency' said this country could not stand the cost of an inventoy of bombers as expen sive as the B52: Boeing had esti mated for the government that a tentatively - considered first production order of the bombers would cost a total of about $100, 000,000. Production models de livered at the factory now- cost about $6,000,000 each.) , .' By this time, the U.S.S.R., now with an atomic bomb, prob ably was starting production of a jet intercontinental bomber esM Check These into 0 Gift Sugg Tht Jimilj , awiiHi-iw iiiwww '' aaauiua ...ilium mi i ue.mun.onii. - -' " . if wr ) Modern Li vinq Room Set! UPHOLSTERED IN RICH NYLON FRIEZE AND CHROMSPUN COLORS: BROWN, BEICI 4 AND GREY No, 253 TWILIGHT 1 Mahogany U 2-PIECE BEDROOM SET. - Bed with Bookcato Headboard, Footboard and Double Dreer CHEST TO MATCH. Valu 69.95 -Now 54.95 7-piece DINETTE SET! Top 2-Tone Apron W M It mw I. a i uouoie weir Linen fiastic V Colors: Brown and Raven No. 29-420,3,546 estern mm capable of carrying the nuclear weapon to the United States. While the first prototype of the new bomber, the XB52, was being built under great difficult ties and delays, especially with jet engines, more direful news hit Washington. The Korean war started in June, 1950. By' No vember, the Chinese Commu nists had entered. the war, and the long-range bomber issue be came urgent all the more so because the United States was embarked on the hydrogen bomb project. Secretary Convinced The then-Secretary of the Air Force Thomas K. Finletter ,wa"s convinced, moreover, . that the Soviets were racing to make the hydrogen bomb. He called for haste in pushing the B52 into production; even before the flight of the prototype. But bud get officers cried "impossible!" They still deemed the cost of $15,000,000 per plane "to be too expensive for the United States. . In February, 1952, Secretary Finletter ordered 13 production model B52s. Group - " -"" ieeiieiiiitltniilt im'iei VALUE 199.95 95 15,00 Down 8.00 Monthly Bedroom Set VALUE 1S9.95 88 15.00 Down 8.00 Monthly VALUE 189.95 119' 95 l (.hairs .12.00 Down 6.00 Monthly 149 Fifth Time Span (about 24 months): In .1952, Boeing flew the two B52 prototypes, one in April and the other in Octo ber; and finally, in March, 1954, the first production model was rolled out of the plant. The .Present: Today's pro duction, rate of B52s is under military security. Sen. Stuart Symington (D.-,. Mo.) said last May that five or six B52s were being turned out monthly. That rate has been increased since. It is doubtful, though, if- B52 output is up to the Air Force schedule of 20 per month, -although Boeing officials say thai they can' turn out 46 bombers monthly if . ordered to do so by the government." "Whatever today's B52 produc tion, output is temporarily but seriously off schedule at the moment because of a fuel system defect. This developed during flight operations on models delivered earlier.- Boeing is making adjustments on .B52s on the production line to pre clude defects in their fuel sys tems: '-.'' . Your Purchases Swivel Chair J 9gg 1 VALUE 39.95 UpheUferod in Chromapun Assorted Color No. 804 ' Cedjr Chest lue i 95 yjf . 1 VALUE 79. Console Style Limed Oak Finish Larae" Storaae Soace and One Drawer V No. 271 1 I Storage Hassock 995 U 1 VALUE 15.95 Padded Lid . Plastic Covered 5ize 24 x 16 . 26.90 Also ' Many Other Hassocks .to Choose From 1 P A I 101 S. Riverside . Medford ' . V- OPEN TONIGHT UNTIL 9 P.M. The stark fact, however, is' that the United States is esti mated to have turned, out only a few more than 100 B52s since inception of the plan llo years ago. And the Soviets- are esti mated to have produced possib-1! ly 200 intercontinental Bisons in the seven years since they are believed to have launched their long-rang Jet bomber programs Tomorrow: Decisions on tie making of modern warplanes. o Copyright 138, Ie York Herald Tribune, Inc. SNOW WHITE LAUNDRY . OPEN UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT : Washing Drying Finishing , fftll k:kup and DalWery Downtown, Rogue River i Phone JU-2-3770 Fast Service esfifl G O Buy on Easy i Christmas. Check list! Sjjel, Floor No. 504 . ' . r ' ' a Uinps. - Ha(chfxc H4. S9S TtUt.Um'n No.. 134 s Dstk Ltmp " tnlP.i No- i3I Smoking Stand w'rfb Lijifir No. 1150 " 0 ComhiKalioB Smoker Kagazine Rack WROUGHT IRON No. 2 Gerfar. Chesl, walnul fiaisl, CavaHer No. 261 . ' 4 Cedar Chest," lime oak finish, Cavalier ' No. 263 Assorted Pieces . Corner table, 24x24x22, Mahogany, plastic fops No. X63 ! TV 1 amne . I shm Design.. : No. 8 . Magazine Racks. 13x9 Wrought Iron . . 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