Word: convairs
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Last year Convair's propulsion-engineering laboratory was assigned to test the raindrop effect. On a U.S. Navy firing range outside San Diego, Convair's engineers developed a simple but effective experiment. To approximate supersonic flight, test pellets of aircraft materials (e.g., light metals, plastics, fabrics) were fired from a standard 20-mm. cannon through a "rainstorm" produced by a 500-ft. series of sprinklers. The pellets' speed was kept constant-1,520 m.p.h.-and a parachute, timed to open after 1,500 ft., brought the projectile to earth...
More important, say Convair's experts, is the possibility that raindrops can puncture a jet's fuselage or cockpit blister, causing the pressurized cabin to explode at high altitudes. At 1,520 m.p.h. (Mach 2), a raindrop smashes into a plane with a force of 70,000 Ibs. per sq. in. At higher speeds, raindrops may be as deadly as enemy bullets...
...Supersonic aircraft already in production or being tested for the Air Force: North American's F-100, McDonnell's F-101, Convair's F-102, Lockheed's 104 For the Navy: Douglas' F4D Skyray...
Flight 712, from Geneva to London, began routinely one balmy summer's night three weeks ago. Aboard the 40-passenger Swissair Convair there were only five passengers: four Englishwomen and a ten-year-old boy, returning from holidays in Switzerland. Over the English Channel. 35 minutes from flight's end, one engine gave out, then the other coughed and went dead. The plane landed on a calm sea, only a mile from shore, but it carried no lifebelts, jackets or dinghies (required only when a flight is more than 30 minutes over water). Before boats from shore could...
...return to its base, the XFY-1 will rear back into a nose-up attitude; then it will sink gently to its landing space. Convair engineers are confident that it can do this even on a rolling, pitching freighter plunging through dirty weather...