FYI October 23, 2019

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On This Day

1939 – The Japanese Mitsubishi G4M twin-engine “Betty” Bomber makes its maiden flight.
The Mitsubishi G4M (long designation: Mitsubishi Navy Type 1 attack bomber: 一式陸上攻撃機, 一式陸攻 Ichishiki rikujō kōgeki ki, Ichishikirikkō) was the main twin-engine, land-based bomber used by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service in World War II. The Allies gave the G4M the reporting name Betty. Japanese Navy pilots called it Hamaki (葉巻, “cigar”, lit. “leaf roll”) due to its cylindrical shape.

The G4M had very good performance, especially in operational range; this was achieved by its structural lightness and an almost total lack of protection for the crew, with no armor plating or self-sealing fuel tanks. These omissions proved to be the aircraft’s weakness when confronted with American fighter aircraft during the Pacific War.[1]

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Born On This Day

1894 – Emma Vyssotsky, American astronomer and academic (d. 1975)
Emma Vyssotsky (October 23, 1894 – May 12, 1975[1]), born Emma T. R. Williams in Media, Pennsylvania was an American astronomer.

Biography
She received a Ph.D. in astronomy from Harvard College in 1930. She spent her career at the McCormick Observatory of the University of Virginia, where her speciality was the motion of stars and the kinematics of the Milky Way.

She married the Russian-born astronomer Alexander N. Vyssotsky in 1929. They had one son, Victor A. Vyssotsky (a mathematician and computer scientist), who was involved in the Multics project and creator of the Darwin computer game.

Awards
She was awarded the Annie J. Cannon Award in Astronomy by the American Astronomical Society in 1946.[2]

 
 

FYI

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