Convairiety, Volume 7, Number 4, February 24, 1954 Page: 1 of 8
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Vol. 7, No. 4
Wednesday, February 24, 1954
Fort Worth and
Daingerfield
EDITION
Fort Worth Division news
office: ext. 5290.
Daingerfield Division news
office: ext. 424.
TEST MEN—This is flight crew that took No. 109 through countless tests. Back row: A. S.
Witchell, J. D. McEachern, J. G. Parker, R. D. Norvell; front: G. L. Whiting, B. L. Woods, I. G.
Haten, R. L. D'Abadie.
Veteran Test Aircraft
Reports For AF Duty
Convair’s most exhaustively tested airplane—a B-36
with enough flight test hours to span the United States
about 70 times—will be delivered to the Air Force soon,
but it’ll be “good as new” insofar as performance is con-
--------------------------------------- cerned.
Log-Jumping
Feats Told
Running a 200-ton B-36 over a
series of logs at 90 miles an hour
could hardly be recommended for
a leisurely Sunday afternoon
drive.
But if you were to try such an
unlikely taxi roll, chances are the
B-36 would come through with
nary a scratch nor a wrinkle.
Because it’s already been done
-—and scores of times—to prove
in advance that the B-36 and its
landing gear are sufficiently
strong to take off and land at
the more than 400,000 gross
weight figure of the latest Model
J’s (Convairiety, Feb. 10, 1954).
Now that publication of the new
gross weight is permitted, the
“stump-jumping in a B-36” story
can be told for the first time.
At the direction of flight test
engineers working in Plight Test
Chief Bob Moller’s group, small
logs were first placed at various
points along the runway. Then
B-36 No. 109—first B-36 to fly at
more than 400,000 pounds and one
of the most historic in the ex-
tensive B-36 flight test program
—was gunned down the runway
by Flight Department and en-
gineering flight test crews at in-
continued on Page 2)
An 8,700-mile non-stop flight
across the Pacific Ocean from
Japan and across the North
American continent to Limestone,
Me., was made by Air Force
R,B-36s early this month in
“Operation Wind Traveler,” it
was announced this week by the
English Architect
Studies FW Plant
A. E. Cresswell, English archi-
tect, visited Convair FW Division
recently to discuss architectural
and engineering features of the
Fort Worth buildings.
Cresswell has been engaged to
design the new Handley - Page
plant in England. He is on a tour
of the United States studying de-
sign features of various aircraft
companies. He conferred with
Frank Clayton, chief of plant
engineering.
Convair Men Advise
Hollywood on B-36s
Authenticity will be the key-
note in the Paramount movie
“Strategic Air Command”—at
least where Convair FW Di-
vision is concerned.
Clark Fewell, assistant super-
intendent of development manu-
facturing, will spend three
weeks with Paramount to in-
sure exacting reproduction of
B- 36 mock - up conditions. V.
Dolson, manager of develop-
ment, has recently returned
from Hollywood, where he also
helped on the movie. Fewell
will act as a technical adviser
to help the studio simulate a
B-36 for close up shots.
Art director for the film,
Earl Hedrick, and Paramount
business representative Curtis
Mick consulted with August
C. Esenwein, division manager,
and Malcolm Holloway, admin-
istrative assistant, recently at
the Fort Worth plant.
14th Air Division at Fairfield-
Suisun, Calif.
Purpose of the flight of the two
RB’s was to study upper air cur-
rents (commonly called “jet
streams”) to gain data for use
of such currents to the maximum
advantage in Strategic Air Com-
mand operations.
(At some altitudes such winds
have been found flowing at up-
wards of 100 miles per hour, and
thus could increase or decrease an
aircraft’s cruising speed by that
amount, depending upon direction
of flight of the craft.)
Taking off from Yokota AF
Base, Japan, at 7 p.m. on a Mon-
day (Limestone time), the non-
stop flight covered a period of
28 hours.
Air time and distance were of
secondary concern since the flight
was primarily a research project,
(Continued on Page 2)
The historic craft is No. 109,
which has long been the property
of the Air Force, but which has
been on loan to Convair FW Di-
vision for three years to accom-
plish thousands of tests which
have resulted in making virtually
every new B-36 even better than
the one which preceeded it.
The figures which have been
run up in the course of the tests
are fantastic. For instance:
During the tests, 12,700 feet of
temperature-recording paper was
used in flight. (That’s two and
one-half miles of paper—or, in
area, about three acres!)
The plane’s engines, other-
equipment and components had
their “temperatures taken” ap-
proximately 2,295,000 times!
Four miles of 35 millimeter
■film was used to take 3,500,000
instrument readings . . . and 105,-
000,000 pressure recordings.
Gasoline used was about 100
tank cars. (This is enough to
drive the average automobile
about 18,000,000 miles.)
Here’s some more:
Four and one-half miles of wire
was used to record temperatures,
while another 10 miles was used
in other instrumentation. Th'at’s
(Continued on Page 2)
Supervisors to Pay
Special School Visit
Some 35 Convair FW super-
visors are scheduled to visit Fort
Worth public schools during Texas
Public Schools Week, March 1-6.
The bus trip will be made one
day during the week, according
to L. L. Turner, special assistant
to the division manager and Con-
vair’s representative on the city’s
Public Schools Week committee.
“All employees are encouraged
to visit one or more public schools
during the first week in March,”
Turner said.
He pointed out that special em-
phasis is being given to the pro-
gram this year since 1954 marks
the 100th anniversary of Texas’
public school system.
Air Force RB-36s on Long Flight
Explore Mystery of Jet Streams
Area Cleared
For New B-36
Spares Setup
Convair FW Division this week was sweeping the decks
clean in the south half of the assembly building in prepara-
tion for production of B-36 spare parts and components,
and in preparation for eventual production of the aircraft
of the future.
As the last of the B-36s went
into or neared final assembly
work stations, areas behind them
were being cleared of tooling and
fixtures to make space for the
newly-created spares manufactur-
ing department (40), of which R.
D. Knowles is general foreman.
As Convair employees know,
spare parts and components pre-
viously have been manufactured
by the departments making items
for new production, or by com-
panies holding outside production
contracts.
But with the phasing out of
new B-36 production, scheduled to
bo completed before the end of
this year, it is necessary to pro-
vide a means by which spare
parts can be made to support both
the continuing SAM - SAC pro-
gram and the Air Force B-36s in
the field, especially since it is
anticipated that B-36s will be
used by the Air Force for a num-
ber of years to come.
The new spares department, one
of those which are the responsi-
bility of Supt. J. E. Harwell, will
be located adjacent to the ship-
ping area near the south end of
the assembly building.
Basic assembly fixtures for
large B-36 components, such as
rudders, ailerons and the like,
will be permanently located in the
Dept. 40 area.
Tooling for other components,
which will be stored in the area
just south of the 50-foot aisle,
(Continued on Page 2)
Tower Raised
For New FW
Radio Network
Four antennae high on a
new 100-foot tower are part
of a new two-way radio set-
up now in operation at Con-
vair FW.
This new radio equipment gives
the industrial security depart-
ment a plant-wide communica-
tions network which delivers and
receives messages almost instan-
taneously.
“With our new radio, messages
may be relayed to any of the
posts within seconds,” said C. E.
Doering, civil defense coordinator.
“This provides better protection
for every area in the plant and
for every employee in case of a
disaster or emergency.”
Receiving and transmitting sets
for one of the two frequencies are
located in guard and change
houses in the north end of the
reservation, guard headquarters,
fire stations one and two, and
civil defense control center in the
industrial security building.
“All industrial security vehicles
and many others are also equip-
ped with two way radios so that
communications may be relayed
instantaneously,” Doering said.
“For instance, if fire breaks out
in a plane, this message can be
(Continued on Page 2)
ON UP AND UP—New 100-foot radio tower moves skyward
during installation above FW Division. It will improve plant com-
munications system.
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Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation. Convairiety, Volume 7, Number 4, February 24, 1954, periodical, February 24, 1954; Fort Worth, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1117946/m1/1/: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company, Fort Worth.