Convairiety, Volume 8, Number 10, Wednesday, May 18, 1955 Page: 3 of 8
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May 18, 1955
CONVAIRIETY
Page 3
Try Out Atomic Power
First in Underdeveloped
Areas,' Hopkins Advises
Atomic power for “underdeveloped” countries was
viewed last month in Los Angeles by John Jay Hopkins
as a tremendous step toward world peace and possibly a
shattering blow to the Communist ideological appeal.
“The quickest way to make
atomic power available generally
in our country is to make it avail-
able first abroad, and particular-
ly in so-called ‘underdeveloped
areas,’ ” the chairman and presi-
dent of General Dynamics Cor-
poration declared.
Hopkins based his reasoning on
these main points:
First: though atomic power
now would be too costly to com-
pete with present power sources
in the U. S., this is not true in
many other countries where
conventional power is extreme-
ly expensive. Atomic power
would be definitely competitive,
price-wise.
Second: industrialization with
the help of atomic power will
sharply raise the income of
these countries and this will
create major markets for
American products.
Third: experience gained with
atomic reactors abroad (manu-
factured and engineered with
U. S. know-how) and the im-
provements that are hound to
come will speed the day when it
is feasible to make general use
of atomic power in the U. S.
Lastly: the international in-
dustrial atom is a means of
eventually placing our domestic
nuclear industry on an inde-
pendent basis, with all the in-
creases in efficiency that result
from competition and private
enterprise.
Hopkins stated that industriali-
zation has been held back in
underdeveloped countries largely
by the high cost of conventional
fuel.
“Without power, industry
cannot develop; without indus-
try, living standards have little
chance to improve. The logic
of costs has developed a power
vacuum in these nations which
the atom alone can fill,” he
continued.
"Income in any country is di-
rectly proportional to power con-
sumption. In 1946 the average
Chinese—counting men, women
and children—used the equivalent
of 170 kilowatt-hours of energy
from all sources, including his
own muscles, and had an income
of $22. His opposite number in
Japan used 1,250 kilowatts and
earned $114. . . . The American
used 7,000 kilowatts, and the
average income of every man,
woman and child in this country
was $508. ...”
“Our per capita consumption of
kilowatt energy in 1953 was 500
times that of Pakistan—more
than 100 times that of India—30
times Turkey’s—15 times Bra-
zil’s; ten times Peru’s. ...”
“Atomic energy is a great
boon to mankind, not just a
bane. Fire was dangerous, too,
when it was first discovered. It
was probably considered very
destructive until men learned
how to strike it from flint, and
how to warm their hands over
it, and how to extinguish it
when they wanted to. . . .
“Now that the atom has been
mastered technically, it is up to
us to master it socially. ...”
Hopkins foresaw “a massive
atomic offensive against world
poverty and misunderstanding”
as resulting from industrializa-
tion of underdeveloped areas.
“The rapid development and ex-
port of peaceful atomic resources
would remove much of the inter-
national friction which has be-
deviled our world since the dawn
of the 19th century.
“The concept of massive atomic
creation, peaceful in purpose but
revolutionary in effect, can bridge
for all practical purposes the
abyss between those who have
and those who have not. By un-
locking and sharing the secret of
the atom, we might in due time
reduce the difference between the
‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots’ to
something like the present income
ratio between the Americans and
the British—say 4 to 3—rather
than the ratio between us and
I the Chinese—say 25 to 1.
“The difference between East
and West cannot be resolved by
military means, by Marxian
dialectic, or by the conference
technique. A reconciliation of
man to man can be effected only
by bringing under human control
the basic causes of difference—
fear and^want, greed and hate.
“Thus, by wiping out the prob-
lems which Marxian claims that
it alone can solve, we may shatter
the heart of the Communist ideo-
logical appeal in Asia and Africa,
in Indonesia, Indo-China, China,
India, and Arabia. . . .
“It must be our task, not to
conquer the world, but to help
the world win a new and better
way of life. ...”
Director of Auditing
Conference Speaker
H. Ransom Taylor, Convair di-
rector of auditing, this week
spoke before the International
Conference of the Institute of
Internal Auditors in Boston,
Mass, on “Effectiveness of Inter-
nal Auditors.” Taylor, associated
with Convair for more than 12
years, was founder and first
president of the San Diego Chap-
ter of the IIA.
Carswell B-36s Join
*Air Fleet* Abroad
A fleet of B-36s took off early
in May for what the Air Force
described only as “temporary
duty outside the continental lim-
its of the United States.”
The flight was made up of ele-
ments of the 11th Bomb Wing at
Carswell AFB, Fort Worth. The
Air Force did not disclose how
many planes, how many men, nor
how long they would be abroad.
//A*"*
"Today being your day off, I thought I'd pack your lunch pail
and we could go to the park ..."
ROUGH TREATMENT—Materials get going over by process control at Fort Worth, to spot any
defects. Top left, Earl Rubush peers into Metalograph that magnifies up to 2,000 times. Top right,
Chief Chemist S. Witkoff examines specimens in corrosion test. Lower left, Chemist J. Guy checks
solutions used throughout FW plant. Lower right, Bill Gray uses machine to determine defects pres-
ent in material under test.
Testers Give Materials The Works/
Paving Way For B-58 Manufacture
Making old parts out of new
ones—by “accelerated corrosion”
—is one of the stranger jobs in-
volved in coming up with a new
supersonic bomber at Convair
Fort Worth.
That particular job is one in
the process control department,
where analysts, test mechanics
and chemists use all types of
laboratory equipment to keep a
continuous check on two things:
One, the metals that go into
the B-58; and—
Two, all the non-metal proc-
esses to be used on the plane.
“Making old parts out of new
ones” is part of the testing of
the chemical section to assure
that the new bomber, when it
rolls off the production line,
won’t suffer if it operates over
the salt water of the ocean.
In the words of S. Witkoff,
FW chief chemist:
“Our work is typical of any
advanced chemical laboratory. In
these particular tests, we use a
special tank in which we simulate
the atmosphere over the ocean.
Since salt spray corrodes most
metals, we’ve got to make certain
that we use metals which resist
corrosion.
“In a week, we can subject
parts to as much corrosion as
they would get on an airplane in
five years.
“We’ve got to make sure that
the plane and its parts will stand
up under the worst possible con-
ditions. Then we know it will be
superior under better conditions.”
Further checks of the metals—
such as aluminum alloys and the
new “glamor” metal, titanium—
are made by process control’s
metallurgical section under Fred
Stanley, chief.
“Our job,” says Stanley, “is to
make sure that whatever metals
we use are the best for the par-
ticular job to be performed.
Sometimes that’s aluminum,
sometimes titanium, sometimes
steel, for instance.
“We determine physical proper-
ties, make chemical analyses and
check how metals respond to
Knaplund Speaker at
Engineering Society
Paul W. Knaplund, IBM tech-
nical representative at Convair
Fort Worth, was principal
speaker at the annual Engineer-
ing Society dinner May 4 at Ar-
lington State College. About 300
guests attended. Knaplund is a
data processing machine special-
ist.
heat.”
Tests on heat are especially
important, since for the first time
Convair Fort Worth will be build-
ing an airplane which operates
faster than the speed of sound.
And the friction encountered by
a plane flying at supersonic
speeds generates terrifically high
tgpiperatures. jf
Earl Weiher, chiet of process
control, puts it this way:
“Our big job is to make sure
we supply the Air Force with
the best possible product at the
most economical cost.”
To do this, process control uses
a vast array of elaborate labora-
tory equipment. This includes
everything from a test tube
to thermometers, metalloscopes,
quantometers and the like.
The metalloscope, for instance,
is a means of analyzing sub-
Convair Fort Worth gets a na-
tion-wide pat on the back in the
May 21 issue of the Saturday
Evening Post which hit the news-
stands yesterday (May 17).
Its atomic powered aircraft
program gets a plug, as well.
The article is by Hugh Morrow
and is titled, “The Most Air Force
for Your Money.” It says, in
part:
“ . . . B-36 tools, dies and jigs
were being moved out of the fac-
tory, and tooling was starting for
production of the B-58, the first
supersonic bomber and still a very
secret item.
“There were plenty of B-36s
around the factory, however, for
Convair is servicing, maintaining
and updating the B-36 fleet,
around 50 airplanes at a time,
even though the original building
job is complete.
“In another screened-off area,
atomic radiation tests were being
conducted with parts of the first
B-36 seeing service once more in
airframe experiments looking to
the day when aircraft will fly
with nuclear fission engines.
“And in a room filled with that
frightening electronic equipment
that has a memory, thinks and
even gets neurotic, engineers
were ‘flying’ the B-58 by mathe-
matical calculations much too
complicated to bother your pretty
head about, Imogene ...”
In another section, Morrow re-
fers to Convair’s efficiency in
stances by magnification. Most
magnification done in medical
work is of the order of 500 times.
But the metalloscope magnifies
up to 2,000 times.
“Lab workers, by inserting a
small piece of metal, can tell if
it is properly sound, and if it
has been properly heat treated,”
| explained Stanley.
In addition, there is a built-in
camera if a permanent record is
necessary.
The quantometer is another
valuable tool. With this, a lab
worker can tell in a matter of
seconds exactly what elements
make up a given piece of mate-
rial.
“More and more we’re going to
use electronic equipment such as
this,” said Stanley. “It is almost
always more efficient and highly
accurate.”
building more and more B-36s for
less and less money:
“How well they have succeeded
in this may be illustrated by the
case of the last two B-36 produc-
tion contracts.
“Funds are allotted to contracts
on the basis of an estimate of
what the final bill is likely to be.
More often than not, there is an
overrun—that is, the allowable
cost turns out to be more than the
allotment—in which case it takes
some scrounging for more money.
“But on the last two B-36 con-
tracts, there was an underrun of
more than $62,000,000—due en-
tirely to Convair’s savings and
efficiency, with no cutback in the
number of planes.”
“Due to the large number of
commercial announcements we are
going to dispense with the en-
tertainment.”
Convair Efficiency Recognized
In Post Article on B-36 Work
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General Dynamics Corporation. Convair Division. Convairiety, Volume 8, Number 10, Wednesday, May 18, 1955, periodical, May 18, 1955; Fort Worth, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth777362/m1/3/?q=Lamar+University: accessed June 4, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company, Fort Worth.