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U. S. AIR FORCE'S FASTEST BOMBERS

[[image - photograph, —INS Photo]]
This unusual photograph of the Air Force's newest and fastest bombers, the Northrop B-49 Flying Wing, TOP, and the Boeing B-47 Stratojet flying wing-to-wing was made during a recent flight over Dayton, Ohio. The Flying Wing is powered by 8 jet engines and is capable of speeds over 500 miles-per-hour. The Stratojet has 6 jet engines which push it along at more than 600 miles-per-hour.


Research Council Hears ALPA Head

Editor's Note: Since the Second Executive Board, which named him as ALPA's representative, President Behncke has represented the air line pilots on the Committee of Aviation Psychology of the National Research Council. The Committee is composed of persons prominent in the fields of aviation, psychology and medicine and has a deep interest in making a sound approach to the problems of aviation psychology, not in a witch-hunting way but from a scientific viewpoint. The purpose of ALPA's acceptance of the Committee's offer of a seat in its group was to present the air line pilot viewpoint. Following are the highlights of President Behncke's statement made extemporaneously [[at the Annual meeting of the Committee on Aviation Psychology.

This is a very interesting Committee. A man in my position, of course, has an opportunity to serve on many committees, but I have found this one of the most interesting of all the committees I have had anything to do with. 

The thing I like mainly about this Committee is that there doesn't seem to be the usual people on it or connected with it—people who have some sort of axe to grind. In other words, in the committees I have normally been connected with, there has always been a certain amount of lobbying, special interest activity, and that sort of thing, but this Committee is purely scientific; they have a job to do, and they do it, and it is free of all these extraneous influences which, indeed, is a very pleasing aspect.

Shouldn't Choose Sides—In this field of development in civil, military, and air line flying, and in any field of development for that matter, I think that the


AT 4,000 M.P.H

[[image - photograph, —INS Photo]]
SUPERSONIC MODEL.
A Picture of 4,000 MPH

Ever wonder what happens to air when something plows through it at, say, 4,000 miles an hour? Here's a picture of what happens, shown by means of shock waves from a model, traveling more than five times faster than the speed of sound in North American Aviation's new supersonic wind tunnel. Note how shock waves at nose are almost straight due to terrific impact. Photo was taken with a special optical system that permits pictures to be made of the shock and airflow patterns around scale models during tests.


biggest thing we should strive to stay away from is to choose up sides. My experience in aviation (and I have been in it a long time) has indicated, it seems to me, that there has been a breach between the learned people, scientists, engineers, and psychologists, and the people who fly and the people who take care of the practical side of things, in other words, the people who do the work of putting the products of science and invention into actual service that are developed by science and engineering.

What should happen is that they should work more closely together, because if they work separately they can never be completely successful, because science and technology and psychology need to be connected up very closely to the practical problems to serve their maximum worth. Any one aspect of the business of aviation development by itself cannot get nearly as far as it can together. In other words, they each have a very difficult problem and they are very limited in their own fields; but if they work together, the possibilities are completely unlimited and that is what they should do. That is the idea I have in the small part that I play in this program.

The Human Element—As far as the air line pilots are concerned, they are all human beings and there is the problem of the human element. And when we get into the field of human relations, it is a very difficult and a very meticulous and a very delicate problem. It is not a matter of so many machines; so many gears; so many instruments; it is a matter of human beings; and air line pilots, as you know, are taken from a stratum of American life and manhood, people, that is, considerably above the average, and they all think for themselves.

I have learned from eighteen years of experience representing the pilots that the way to secure their cooperation is to present the problem to them and say, "Here it is. What do you think about it? What do you think ought to be done to solve it?" I have never yet had an experience when, using such an approach, they didn't come up with a constructive answer. That is really the right way to do it.

Many Pilot Problems—In the work of this Committee on Aviation Psychology, we have many problems involving the pilots of all branches of flying—civil, military and air line—and I am certain that with the utilization of that type of approach, we can get much more good from the pilots in the cockpits than by any other method and, after all, they are the ones who have the firsthand knowledge of what many of these problems are all about and what might best be done to solve them.

When we bring aviation psychology into this picture, we also run headon into the problem of labor relations, and that is also a very delicate problem. It is one thing to create a system in evaluating pilots and checking pilots and create a form covering this very important part of flight training and evaluating, but it is something else entirely different to create a system of checking air line pilots that will actually fit into a labor relations picture so that undue friction between pilots and management will not be enhanced and unfairness to individual pilots will not be facilitated. And that, of course, is something that has to be watched very carefully. I am a great believer in the old American axiom that there is no problem that cannot be surmounted if it is properly approached and if the people that are involved are properly informed of the various problems involved and what is necessary to solve them, and, principally, what is the target.

JUNE, 1949           PAGE 13