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Aviation History
1935
1935 - 1090.PDF
5i8 FLIGHT. MAY 9, 1935. THE INDUSTRY A "SAFEGUARD" CONTROL THE Dixon-Bate Safeguard Control has been produced to provide means whereby an aircraft (or, for that matter, a car) can be protected against fire resulting from dam age to electrical equipment in a crash or due to the continued operation of the engine after such an accident. A further object is protec tion against theft. The device has been approved by the Air Ministry for use in civil aircraft. Essentially the control, which is con tained in a metal box, consists of a weight so arranged with relation to its point of connection with a link that up-and-down movements of the machine in which it is fitted do not tend to affect its position. Should the aircraft strike an obstruction '' head on," however, the sudden check to its momentum will cause the weight to carry the pivotal connection of two links (to the upper one of which it is attached) to the left of a line joining their pivoted ends. The lower link is connected with a spring-loaded lever which, when its position is altered by the movement of the weight, causes two points to make contact with the electrical leads, and, in the case of the particular control illustrated, earths the igni tion system to the metal container. The device in this form is also applicable to each engine of a multi-engined aircraft. By means of the action described a variety of objects can be attained. For example, the electrical system may be rendered dead, the fuel supply cut off, the magneto earthed, the coil disconnected, and the dynamo rendered inoperative. By adjusting the position of the weight along the link to which it is attached, the. sensitivity of the: device can be controlled so as to ensure that no degree of braking will bring the mechanism into operation, but leaving it free to operate only on the impact of the machine with an obstruction. The manufacturer is B. Dixon-Bate, Bridge Works, Chester. SPLIT SECONDS In the usual run of things stop-watches are fairly expensive items—in so far as highly accurate work is concerned, at any rate—but there are many occasions in aviation when the posses sion of a stop-watch is really desirable. A. Arnold and Co., who are specialists in this kind of instrument, have recently placed on the market a very useful watch, fitted with a large second-hand and stop mechanism, giving readings in L sec, selling at only 10s. 6d. (or 15s. in the wrist model). It is a 30-hour watch, also suitable for general use as a time piece. This firm also supplies various other models in stop watches, ranging in price from 25s. to £5 10s., the latter model, calibrated in | sec, having speeds (m.p.h.) over quarter-mile distances marked around the dial. Incidentally, the firm has just moved into larger premises at 19, Clerkenwell Road, London, E.G. 1; their telephone number —Clerkenwell 6240—remains unchanged. TOWARD FUEL TANK SAFETY With the object of increasing the safety of fuel tanks in the event of crashes or aerial combat. Air Venturers, Ltd., of 4, Woodvale, Cowes, I.O.W., have been developing tanks made of fabric, and others protected against incendiary bullets. Capt F. L. M. Boothby, R.N., is the designer. For the fabric tank the makers claim that it can be tucked away in places where a metal tank could not be inserted, that the seam is as strong as the rest of the material (about one ton per yard run), and that it is not weakened by dis tortion in a crash. A fabric tank of the company's manufac ture has completed its tests at Farnborough, and has been approved for trial in civil aircraft. A tank of this type stood a crash test of 40 ft., and was also tried from 50 ft., behind five bars of pig iron representing an engine. Only one seam, round the lid of the tank, opened for about a foot. Two other tanks of similar pattern scored highest marks in the crash test during the Air Ministry Safety Fuel Tanks Tests, being the only ones fit to repeat this test in spite of the fact that they were the lightest examples entered. It is desirable that the tanks of service aircraft be protected against incendiary bullets So long as oxygen is excluded from contact with the fuel, no fire can occur. The Boothby The Dixon-Bate switch in the attitude it would assume in an aircraft descending at an angle of about 45 deg. In the second view, impact has taken place and the weight has sprung downwards, closing the contacts. fireproof fuel tank comprises an inner and an outer tank, both of which are filled before the machine leaves the ground. All the fuel in the outer tank is used first, and is automatically replaced by an inert gas, so that the outer tank becomes a protecting gas chamber. It is probable that by the time the aircraft became involved in an action the balance of the fuel would be fully protected in this manner. Tanks of this type have had every type of British and German incendiary bullets fired into them, and no fire has resulted. The weight is about 0.6 lb. per gallon capacity for normal-sized tanks made of metal. MISS BATTEN'S FLIGHT K.L.G. sparking plugs were used in the "Gipsy I" engine of Miss Jean Batten's "Moth." PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED. Annual Report of the World Power Conference, 1934. Cen'.ral Office of the World Fower Conference, 36, Kingsway, London, W.C.2. Planes Directory of the Aviation and Allied Ind stries. Price 12s. 6d., Planet Publishers Ltd., London. Menace—A Novel of the Sear Future, by Leslie Pollard. Price 7s. 6d., T. Werner Laurie, Ltd., London. England-Australia Race Covers, by Major Alan Goodiellow. Obtainable gratis from A. Phillips, Air Mail Specialist, 4, Dock Street, Newport, Mon. Victoria Glencairn. By Glenda Spooner. Price 7s. 6d. net, William Heinf mann Ltd., London. Crack Up I By D. Bartlett (3s. fkl., John Hamilton, Ltd., London). The Air V.C.s, by Capt. W. E. Johns (3s. 6d., John Hamilton, Ltd., London). Photographic Records of the Great War (Air Services), published at 6d. by the Imperial War Museum, London. Elements of Practical Flying, by P. W. F. Mills (4s. 6d., Technical Press, Ltd., London). Aeronautical Research Committee Reports and Memoranda. No. 1547. Experi mental Investigation of Boundary Layer Flow. By L. F. G. Simmons and A. F. C. Brown. Price Is. 3d. net; No. 1612: Consumption Measurements in Flight with Variable Ignition. By J. L. Hutchinson and E. Finn. Price 9d. net. H.M. Stationery" Office, London, W.C.2. New Catalogue of Wellworthy piston rings and pistons. Wellworthy, Ltd., Lymington, Hants. New Catalogue of Hoffman needle roller bearings. The Hoffman Mfg. Co., Ltd., Chelmsford, Essex. Electrical and Wireless Equipment of Aircraft, by S. G. Wybrow. (Aeronautical Engineering Series for Ground Engineers.) Price 5s. net. Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons, Ltd., London. Aeronautical Research Committee Reports and Memoranda : No. 1626. Interference Effect of Surface of Sea on a Flying Boat, by W. L. Cowley and G. A Mill-in. May. 1934. Pricels.net: No. 1627. Tests of Six Aerofoil Sections at Various Reynolds Numbers in the Compressed Air Tunnel, by E. F. Relf, R. Jones and A. H. Bel! September, 1934. Price Is. 6d. net. H.M. Stationery Office, London, W.C.2. Aeronautical Research Committee Reports and-Memoranda: No. 1621. Cine- Photographic. Measurements of Speed and Attitude of " Southampton " Aircra.t when Taking-off and Alighting, by A. E. Woodward Nutt and G. J. Richards. September, 1934. Price Is. net: No. 1623 Effect of Discs on the Air Forces on a Rotating Cylinder, by A. Thom. Januarv, 1934. Price 9d. net. H.M. Stationery Office, London, W.C.2. VAironautique en Pologne, by Bogdan J. Kwiecinski. Edition de L'AerokluD Rzeczypospoljtej, Poland, ( Lubricity—House-organ of Fletcher Miller, Ltd., makers at " Cooledge" cutting lubricants.
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