'THE CHINA' MAIL, MONDAY, JULY 19, 1954.
FLYING into DANGER-test pilot BILL WATERTON continues his story
TRAPPED...and FIRE ALL AROUND ME!
THE pinne went BANG
T
the
and I do mean bang. Later on, people
on
ground auld they thought I was deliberately making through-the-sound- barrior explosion.
i was not. There was this enormous sound around me and then smoothness and silence.
It had all happened in two and a half seconds. And everything seemed exactly as it had been before---ex- cept that, as we dived gently towards the ground. I pulled back the stick to level her. And the stick flopped like a
dead man's urin.
I was 3,000ft up with
The
nose going down and the ground
three seconds
speed
Ht it Way
was travelling.
th
A monent before i had been
#ying this plane.
dying me.
Now it won
My plan
MY unmediate impulse was to
use my paraohule
and get
oul. And then I rolled the my mind.
possibilities over in
Getting out at this high speed and low altitude what being ripped to pieces.
nurse
might, on the other hand,
the plane back into good
behaviour.
Keeping the Javelin's wilig
(11)
level by jockeying L between my knees, I 11 hand on the jettisong handle -ready to rject myself clear of the plane if I could not bring the Javelin's nose up-art began to "trim what was if of the tall,
I knew now that part of the tuli,
which the plane
15
BILL WATERTON, for 10 wears a test pilot, has taken up the Gloster Javelin a new and revolutionary plane. Suddenly, when he is flying at hundreds of miles an hour the plane begins to shudder. And then -BANG ... Today Bill Waterton tells you what came after . In the second instalment of his story of ile beyond the sound barrier,
Drawing by ROBB
As I closed the throttles, the Javelin settled on the runway with a slight bump. Such stight bump. in
Jnct, that I
thought I was home.
Almost immediately whether because of the
But now the test pilot (rather wind or a bump in the runway than the human betur looking I shall never know the plane's for a way out of an emergency) triangular wings caught the air and lifted her off the ground began to take over.
again.
Could I get the plane doton so the designers and technicians could look at 17
She went up. And then came down again. Went up again. made hesitant overtures And came down again.
Each time the towards my wounded plane, and
showed found that she
some, strong liquid Though reluctant, response, undercarriage There seemed to be a reasonable and higher. tih l
chance.
normally controlled, had broken
oft.
1
was in the position
7
driver would be in if the steer-
ing wheel came off.
So long as the route is straugh!
Decision
my
control and growing
immensely her of springs flung her higher
I sat there and hoped that a leg would collapse and drug a wing so killing our speed TOLD
flying base people at the
But in a succession of ever- that I the would try to land at Boscombe increasing bounds, the Javelin
testing kangarooed down the
he would be all right. But what
bend in the road!
if there
ere is
It was my
plan, with
try
to take
the Down,
the
Javelin to straight road out of an emer- establishment
gency.
That nicant climbing Plain,
to 10,000.. making sure that
was over country or the sea-s that no one else got hurt and baling out.
R.A.F.'s
runway, on Salisbury higher and slower, heavier and
time every more jarring
the
Vertical drop
I wedged the useless stick be- earth got in the way. tween my knees, couldn't go wild on me, and
that 50
aled the runway.
And that was ni it meant t
Self-preservation. gun. the moment.
At last, 10,000ft, and cruising at 350 miles
1t
bale-out speed. 1 headed to speed before its wings would James, slithering sideways wards the Severn, over which I lose enough of their planned to let the Javelin free.
to the runway.
い o keep the plane Armly on
ground.
say
in
And there was 1
RAF.
as they
messes
trapped in the cockpit with fro all round me and the escape hood jammed.
I remember haltering at it and, at the same time, watch- ing two spectators of the crash racing like ding-bats across the grass out of range of the shoot- ing flames dx
tanka exploded;
more
I remember getting the hotch half opened and climbing out- and directing the firemen to put their foam on tho places where the flight records and the vitally Important parts of the plane
lay.
After which (an hour Inter. In fact) the doctor led me away to hospital.
I will not say it was a typical
day's flying for
pilot. I never
chief test
wani
10
EX-
perience the like of
But it had its moments.
again.
In spite of everything I did go to Fighter Command's de monstration at West Raynham, fur which I had been the Javella. By road!
testing
TOMORROW: In pursuit of a world speed record
EAST IS EAST
(BUT NOT EXCLUSIVELY 30, WE TRUST)
Asia for
Ve Asians
RUSSIA'S
ONE WORLD
WEST IS WEST
(BUT WELCOMING,
WE HOPE,
MEETINGS ELSEWHERE )
World Copyright by arranorment wtih the Manchester Guardian
VIRGIN
SOIL CAMPAIGN
INCE the beginning of 1964 there has been unusual activity on the Soviet agricultural front, and conferences have another in followed quick succession.
one
By Walter Kolarz
the prophet of that teach- ing,
Denisovich Trofim Lysenko, was at his zenith.
The
Soviet
leaders
about
climates
areas.
and
to
plenipotentiories, each of whom would supervise four or five State farms. These officers do
bo not seem
agricultural experts. They are party officials who, before their dispatch
assignments, underwent their a short but apparently intense
and training in agrarian In ganisational problems, the
area
""
measure
to
ot-
newly-
No less virgin and waste land. than thirteen million hectares of land (32,500,000 acres) are to be developed during the next two years, mostly
Siberia still Kazakhstan, At the end of January
dispense Urals.
Their appointment is clearly responsible workers of the thought they could
an emergency
and machine-tractor stations with all the words of warning which generations of Soviet
The opening up of an
shows how serious conditions (MTS) were summoned to scholars and soll experts hack
equai in size to Bulgaria and
on the Soviet agricultural front after before and Ho on for ever. Moscow; early in Febru- uttered both
Albanta put together the big gamble had be- IT could not
must be. Obviously controllers A gust of wind, a bump Something must go, and it did.ary an All-Union conference the October Revolution
In the unparalleled limitations of Soviet operation Getting home to the girl-trieved an the runway, and H would The Javelin dropped almost ver- of State farm directors and the
history of the Soviet Union. It on the spot, with extraordinary (wife now) for an evening date, fail.
tically from 100 feet up, drove
will necessitate a migration of powers, are required to mould The plane bad ia lose
at her undercarriage through the officials was held and in the "gricultural production.
Into middle of the same month exploded An hour a safe least a third of its touch down wings and
three to four million people to the heterogeneous labour force For
the example,
great off another conference of lead- Mendeleev said the the USSR the virgin soll and waste land that will populate the
migra- cultivated areas, agricultural
workers han one of the worst
This will be a ing
the West-European (peredoviki) was in session. In the world for agriculture. If tion from
one thinks of the large areas of Russia and the Ukraine to the All these conferences re- permanently frozen soll and of East, and to some extent it will
the USSR's extensive desert also incan Q ceived considerable publici- and semi-desert areas, one can-
move from the towns to the countryside. ty, all were attended by not but agree with him, In
Apart from the State farrae,
tractor leading figures of Party and fact, Professor Prokopovich, an Thus, the new measure, if it the machine
stations Russian Government, and all cul- eminent
emigre succeeds, will, in parts at least, will also gain In importance that put a stop to the drift from through the virgin soll scheme. mimated in the
acceptance economist, has estimated
only 19
Soviet percent of
village to town which has been of an appeal for increased territory is suitable for agricul- such a characteristle feature of In this connection It must
of the the recalled that control since working efforts in agricultural production. ture. In fact, however, they
MTS over the countryside has
seemed
been tremendously strengthened to prepare the
since September 1993. The ground for plenary session
staff of the MTS has increased of the Central Committee of
over three times-from 600,- the Soviet Communist Party
de 000 to 2,000,000, a severe blow which lasted for at least ten days and finally adopted on
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31 "APPOINTMENT
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Soviet development early twenties.
How this
Severe Blow
ALL THIS AND A CONTESSA
By JOHN WREN
66
our
MI still in the 20th contury ?" I naked myself as black-lacquered, 200-year- old, flower-banked gondola floated past the House of Gold (Ca d'Oro).
The gondolier, in tradi- tional colourful costume, serenaded បង with love songs, sung since the first gondola plied the Grand Canal.
I was enjoying an away-from- it-all week-end in Venico. And now, with a full moon hanging over a floodlit Grand Canal, it seemed as if the clock had been turned back to a more peaceful and romantic age,
The blonde contessa at my side whispered something to me as if she were purring.
I later learnt that evory attractive girl in Venice calls herself 1
Less contessa; tho attractive ones principessa, or princess.
How did all this come my way? A gondola, love songs, a contessa.
Simple, it was laid on for me by a well-known travel agency. I slapped down a pound to sev "Venice By Night."
A gondoln plcked me up at my hotel. Then I joined a con- voy. Under the Bridge of Sighs, the Rialto Bridge down the floodlit Grand Canal.
I was sharing the gondola with four British tourists whose North Country accents mingled with the purring of my contessa,
A short time ago crists faced Venice's gondollers. Their prices were undercut by the motor- boats, Few tourists could afford the gondollers' high tariffs,
The "Verrice By Night" trips, which attract hundreds of tour- ists every night, has saved the gondola.
Was my contessa Included in the ticket? Not exactly. She sat at the next open-air cafe inble in St Mark's Square, and had no light for her cigarette.
A word of advice: in Venice always carry matches, contessas never do.
ST. Mark's Square Is without a doubt the world's most beautiful piazza. A vignette ut my week-end-away-from-the- tront-page.
At six o'clock on a Sunday evening, three British tourists at a cafe table on the Bat spacious square.
A walter in while appeared frosted cocktail shaker.
with
be
The setting sun glittered on the silver shaker and the rich gilt of the eleven-hundred-year-old Basilica of St. Mark's in the background.
vast number of
There, three lee-cold White for the new placer settlers
Ladies for three thirsty holiday-. Agricultural areas will be re-
makers. Sunday afternoon in The men in the
13 Kremlin eruited
still
Venice. Little wonder the town has obviously thought that all these Soviet propaganda
which is packed with foreign tourista, by
enthusiasm of to the collective farms statemen's
of the nuch
best getting away from it all. Now ther are to in the newly
considerable in fluence these institutions wield In the Soviet State,
or
Bober
least at
of
Main Job
Although the virgin soil plan: is born of a state of economier
to
Russialan
of the Soviet
VENICE la celebrating
the
700th anniversary of the
birth of one of its most famous one, Marco Polo, the world's first tourist and globetrotter,
Marco Polo travelled to the for Himits of the unknown Orient at a time when the Journey from London to York was fraught with danger..
At a party in Marco's memory was told the story of his homecoming after a a decade In China
When Marco, dressed in travel-stained, strangely - cut Oriental clothes, knocked at the door of his home, the maid ro fused to let him L.
"bourgcols Komsomol members who have lost some of their* scholars" were outdated and young March 2 a decree "to in- counter revolutionary. They have volunteered to participate personnel. crease the production of pinned their hopes on the Stalin in the great trek. One need not be more MT3 grain by developing virgin Plan for the Transformation of doubt that such enthusiasts do cultivated areas, thus increasing
Nature,
ure, whereby a system of exist, but whether they are the already and waste land."
sheiter belts was to prevent numerous is another question. future
also droughts.
They All these conferences and expected that Irrigation scheines, meetings struck a note of and the building of new dams realism alien to the Stalinist and canals, would give Russia
emergency, at the same time it
further era. In Stalin's day the many millions of hectares
Many hundreds of thousands, meare a arable land. entire Soviet
If not millions, of people will the East, of propaganda apparatus was out to create
living space. Stalin's successors have to be ordered to take up Today, more
counsel their residence in the areas to are determined to carry out the the impression that Soviet seems to prevall and an attempt be cultivated. In other words, European colonisation of certain
The Soviet Police Ministry may
Oriental areas agriculture was on the way is being made to discriminate
I and without to abundance and that there between propaganda and theory have to take a hand in the re- Union ruthlessly
settlement campaign, just as it regard to the interests of local was nothing to worry about on the one hand, and reality on the other. This has become
was associated with other so far as the USSR's bread imperative with the abandon
scale schemes which the Soviet nationalities. supply was concerned.
This applies in particular to radical regime launched in earlier years ment, modification, of some of the the building of the Baltle- Kazakhstan, the republic into Stalinist projects, especially the White Sea Canal, the Moscow which about half the new set Flan for the Transformation of Volga Canal, the Volga-Don tiers will have to be directed.
Canal, and practically all pro The
mass colonisation Joets aimed at the development Kazakhstan must soorier This false optimism was
to the of the Russian Far North. the
put an ond
nominal autonomous status ..of the fed in particular by the pre- official report on the fulfilment
The detailed provisions for Kazakh republic, the largest knife, silt the seams of his un- sent Premier, Malenkov, who all reference to the planting of the Soviet virgin noll plane on husstan republic of the kempt clothes, and out pourved Sovlet Federation nuggets of gold and precious at the 19th Party Congress the formerly much advertised flect the doubts of the Come Russian) in October 1952, made the forest
in a
moment
nent tho bold assertion: The grain Salin's successors seem to have elective problem, previously most dropped completely the building acute, has been solved; it of the Main Turkmenian Canal,
was to provide which has been solved finally and additional nine millice hectares irrevocably,”
of irrigated land in Western
So far it has been assumed, Turkmeniston and the Am This is hardly surprising, for for the sake of argument, that the Soviet State is interested the virgin soil plan will be in mcreasing the quantity of smoothly carried out, kerespec-
grain, and not in five both of the opposition of VENICE'S marketable providing
Jand
for, pensant the Central Asians and of the re- settlers. So Stato farms appear luctance of the European settlers to be more suitable than the to go to the new arons. But the maccors of the plan can by kolkhogy.
no means be considered as a
conclusion.
False Optimism
Nature.
It is significant that
of the State plan for 1933 omits
bella.. In
addition,
Discrepancy
an
Too Vast
the (RSFSR). munist leaders concerning
and rellability of the farms, which wili have only a subordinate role in Implementing the
the new scheme. formed by The job is
main
is to bo per- Stato farmE.
the
Malenkov's words were Darya valley. not merely empty boasting; his statement reflected the dominant ideological trend. of the period-bellef in the almost unlimited power of In these circumstances, the the human being, and in his claim that the grain problem
In Kazakhstan alone as many foregone cond has been solved finally; and ability to change the climate revocably is no longer main as 92 new State forms are to
and First reportą from, of the country and the na- tained, and, the decres of the be established on virgin
-lìnd... to, be brought flon areas), show ture of the soil in accordance Communist Contral Committee, waste
March 2
stated daily that, under the plough. The new time tables for with the needs of the na- there was a difcrepancy bo farms will be under the direct machinery the tional economy and the Five tween the existing level of guin content of the Central Com and the cru Year Plans. It was the production and the growing mitte den prom many cases,
of the Communist Party, have not Dour period when Michuriniam, ends of the country. the teaching about the man made evolution of nature, was in its heyday and when
announcement Coinbathe that thà, budpa the way out of this altuation. Soward freed on April-ipp Tile walk for an inde be provided by the newid tus asa: Central Com manifold Erding plan, for the development of mities had appointed spécial every/aphare of lis
of
Neighbours threatened to call
Inter or im not leave
the polleo. this "tramp” did
Then Marco Polo pulled out.
Jewels,
Venetians
who were threatening arrest throw their arms around him. The world has changed ‘Uttle' in 700 years.
newest summer. drink-a Bellini. Fresh beach' Ittle mixed with champagne, "Why Bellini?!! I arked Harry (Sitnor Ciption!), Venicea mort famous barman, who features in Hemingway's "Across the River Into the Trees
"Bellini was a famous Vanico arlist. I, too, em an artist. три
enjoyed
hot weathe dish thinly sliced **4#1!! anoked ham erved fim*. Alsok curled
Md2-from-the