Hooray and up she rises
QUESTION Did the Ryan X-13 Vertijet take off from the hook on which it would hang?
IT DID. In the US in 1947, it was realised that the thrust-to-weight ratio of new jet engines would make it possible for an aircraft to take off and land vertically without needing long runways.
The US Navy was interested in this, hoping to dispense with large aircraft carriers.
It awarded a contract to the Ryan Aeronautical Company (later Teledyne Ryan) for an aircraft that would become the Ryan X-13 Vertijet. Its Avon engine was the first axial flow jet engine developed by Rolls-Royce.
To determine the flight characteristics of the prototype aircraft when flying conventionally, it was fitted temporarily with a fixed tricycle undercarriage. The first flight, on December 10, 1955, revealed it had a serious oscillation problem about all three axes. This was quickly solved by fitting roll and yaw dampers.
The vertical flight characteristics were tested by fitting a temporary tubular steel frame that enabled the aircraft to sit on the ground vertically. It was able to take off, manoeuvre and land successfully. Altitude was limited to 50 ft and a transition to horizontal flight was not attempted because the frame would have interfered with this manoeuvre.
After various tests, a second X13 fitted with a fixed tricycle undercarriage took off conventionally on November 28, 1956, ascended to 6,000 ft, slowly pitched up, hovered for a few seconds and then pitched forward into conventional flight before landing. This was the first such transition of a jet-propelled aircraft. Finally, a ground service trailer was used to transport the aircraft on the ground and raise it into a vertical position for take-off and landing.
In the vertical position, the aircraft was supported by a retractable nose hook attached to a 6ft long cable supported by two arms on the trailer. On April 11, 1957, the X-13 took off from its trailer, ascended to altitude, transited to horizontal flight and performed a number of manoeuvres before going into hover mode. It was the first time this manoeuvre had been performed.
Eight demonstration flights took place, including one in front of the Pentagon on July 30, 1957.
However, this did not lead to any aircraft orders. This was because the X-13 had a relatively small payload; it did not have the capability of Britain’s Hawker Siddeley Harrier, which did not require special ground handling equipment and so could land vertically almost anywhere; and US Navy budgets were being cut in the aftermath of the Korean War. Denis Sharp, Littlehampton,
W. Sussex.
QUESTION Why is there a memorial in Liverpool Docks to Chinese merchant seamen of World War II?
THIS reflects a shameful episode in Britain’s post-war history. At the onset of World War II, Liverpool was home to 20,000 Chinese merchant seamen recruited from Shanghai, Singapore and Hong Kong. They contributed to the war effort, working as engineroom crew and deck hands, though paid a third of what British seamen made.
In a terrible show of ingratitude, as part of Clement Attlee’s postwar reconstruction programme, there was a drive to get rid of Chinese sailors.
Rumours spread that they were troublemakers. Some had started families with local women, which was frowned upon, and had taken part in a 1942 strike demanding higher pay and bonuses for working in danger zones.
A Home Office document claimed: ‘That they were an undesirable element in Liverpool was shown by the fact that in the last three years there had been 1,000 convictions for opium smoking.’
In October 1945, the Home Office ordered the ‘compulsory repatriation of undesirable Chinese seamen’.
From December 1945 and throughout 1946, the police and immigration inspectorate began the process of sending them back to China. Because the men had never become British citizens, the conditions of their stay were changed, designating their home port as Shanghai.
By July 1946, nearly 5,000 Chinese seamen had been sent back to the Far East.
On January 26, 2006, the men’s families unveiled a memorial plaque at the pier head in Liverpool. It reads: ‘To the Chinese merchant seamen who served this country well. Who gave their lives for this country...For their wives and partners who were left in ignorance of what happened to their men. For the children who never knew their fathers.’
Kirsty Foxwell, Dagenham, Essex.
QUESTION Did any members of the Glenn Miller Orchestra go on to form their own bands?
GLENN Miller’s death in December 1944 – his aircraft disappeared in bad weather over the English Channel – did not spell the end of his orchestra. In 1946, his estate authorised a reformed Glenn Miller Orchestra with sax soloist Gordon ‘Tex’ Beneke as its leader.
Tex led the band until 1950 when he rebelled against the estate’s insistence on playing Miller’s music as he had conceived it.
He formed his own band and toured under the banner Tex Beneke And His Orchestra Playing The Music Made Famous By Glenn Miller.
Jerry Gray, a violinist with Artie Shaw and Glenn Miller, wrote many of Miller’s arrangements. His band, Gray And His Orchestra, were the house band at the Fairmont Hotel, Dallas.
He was best man at the wedding of film composer and flautist Henry Mancini, who played in an Army Air Force band with Miller during the war.
Harold Lewis, Bedford.
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