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Ne ws Digest

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Army-Martin Pershing Unveiled

First photo of Army-Martin two-stage solid propellant missile (left), made during President
E isenhower's trip to Cape Canaveral, Fla., shows the present configuration, as compared
with an early Pershing test vehicle (right). Test vehicle is mounted in a mobile transportererector. The Pershing is assembled at Martin's Orlando, F la., facil ity; two Tbiokol engines
are static-fired at Hun tsville, Ala. (AW F eb. 1, p. 24).

Vertol Shareholders
Approve Boeing Pact
V ertol Aircraft Corp. sharcholdcrs
have approvcd a plan for acquisition
of V crtol by Boeing Airplane C o.
On M ar. 31 Vertol is sch eduled to
become th e V ertol Di,ision of Boeing,
continuing opcrations at its Morton.
Pa ., location uncler cxisti ng management (AW o,. 23, p. 29). Allied Research Associates, Inc., of Boston. a
wholly-owned V crtol subsicl ia ry, will report to Boeing h eadquarters after th c
acquisition. Canaclian Vertol Aircraft,
Ltd., of Arnprior, Canacla, anoth er
wh ollv-ownecl subsidian , will continuc
to report to the Vcrtoi' D iYision.
Out of 547,5 12 sha rcs of stock included in thc ,oting, 5-f 3, 121 , or
99.2% , wcrc in fa rnr of th c acquisition
a ncl 4, 391 shares, equal to 0.8 % , werc
aga inst the plan . V oting stock rcpresented 8 1. 5% of 67 3,093 sharcs outstandi ng and cntitled to rntc.
Tbc voting sha reholders authorizecl
sale of V crtol's assets and business to
Boeing in exchangc fo r the assumption
by Boeing of Vcrtol's liabilitics, and thc
issue to V crtol of Bocing's capital stock
at the rate of two shares for each th rec
sh ares of Vcrtol's common stock th en
outstanding.
Last weck Piasccki Aircrnft Corp. announccd that o,cr thc past ~-ear it had
AVIATION WEEK, February 22, 1960

clisposcd of all its 126,630 shares of

V ertol, valued at $2,700,000. These
shares representecl about 19 % of thc
total sharcs ou tsta nding. Equit~ G eneral C orp. is believecl to havc exercized
an option to buy th em. Laurancc S.
Rockefeller owned 138,3 35 shares of
V ertol (also abou t 19 % ) on Jan. 18.

USAF Boron Award

Goes to Callery
New York-Air F orce put boron
fuels back in the limelight last weck
with th c announcement of a $9 million
contract to Callerv C hcmical C o. for
procluction of pentab oranc.
The fixecl-pricc-plus-inccn tivc contract calls for thc procluction of 300,000 lb. of pentabora ne over th e next
two years. T h c spccial boron fucl will
be usecl in USAF rocket cnginc clcvelopmen t progra m. "\Vith S9 million sct as
the limit, actual cost of the 300,000 lb.
is expectecl to be somcwhat lcss. P rocluction will start within six month s.
Countecl out as a jet cnginc fuel
with th c cutback in the Torth Amcrican B-70 progra m (A,~, Aug. 17, p. 26),
the borons now look attracti,c as potential rocket cngine fucls. A number of
cornpanies, such as Aerojc t-Gcneral,
have Air F orce con t racts for the stuclv
ancl cvaluation of the boron compouncfs
in rocket applica tions.

Modifications in Boeing 707 and 720

series of jet transports-ranging from 35
in . vertical fi n extension, full y-boostecl
rudder a ncl small ven tral fin (AW Feb .
8, p. 39)-will be madc on aircraft now
in service, along with those in production. Kits will be furnished to presen t
opera tors.
American Airlines last week reported
total net ea rnings of $21,013,000 for
thc ycar cncling D ec. 31, including
$7,68 3,000 net profit from the clisposal of property ancl cquipm en t. The
carricr cndccl 1959 wi th total revenues
of $377,700,000, an increase of 19 %
over 1958 . Provision for obsolescencc
ancl clepreciation for the ycar amountecl
to $ 31, 306,000 as comparccl with 5 22,901,000 in 19 58.
Soviet Tu-114 turboprop tra nsport
noise tes ts were conductecl las t weck at
Icllewild by the P ort of New York Auth ori ty. The Russians previously hacl
clccli necl Port Authority requests to test
th e T u-114 ancl the Tu-104 turbojet
tra nsport, both of which have come
into the N ew York airport uncler special
waivers from the noise clearance requi rccl for operation thc re. Further tests
of th c T u-114 were schecluled fo r F eb.
20, wh en the aircra ft was to depart for
1oscow.
Italian air force is consiclering purchase of thc Lockheed F-104G. Reprcse n ta tives of thc Ital ian government
havc visitecl Lockheed Aircraft C orp.'s
facilities at Burbank, Calif., to talk ""ith
execut ivcs of th c company a nd to tour
th e procluction area. I talv also is consiclcring thc R epublic F-105 and C onva ir
F-106.
Thiokol C hemical C orp. has complcted a pre-fligh t rating tcst program
on th e XLR-99R M- l liq uid propellant
rocke t enginc rated at more than 50,000
lb. thrust which will power the 1orth
Amcri ca n X-15 rcscarch aircraft.
Convair Division of G eneral D vnamics C orp. received a 5 25,200,000 follow-on contract from Bureau of Naval
\ ~ea pons fo r additi onal p rocluction of
acl vancecl T errier missiles.
Lycoming T55-L-5 gas turbine engine, powerplant for the V crtol YHCl B C hin ook h elicopter, has been upra ted to 2, 200 shp. from its fo rmer
1,940 shp. (AW Feb. 15, p . 120).
"\~eight rcmai ns constant at 370 lb.;
power-to-weight ratio is 3.87. Increased
rating makcs possiblc a turboprop
moclel.
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