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Aviation History
1936
1936 - 1177.PDF
d FLIGHT. MAY 7, 1936. Peepshow : The Barr and Stroud range finder, which gives height-range by optical triangulation. (Flight photograph) any intelligent man can be trained to become an efficient anti-aircraft gunner. All ranks have to attend the annual camp for a fortnight in July every year. For a number of years past the 51st Brigade has had its camp at Watchet, in Somerset, which is conveniently near the R.A.F. summer camp at Weston Zoyland, whence aeroplanes and drogues as targets are supplied, but this year the Brigade is going to Weybourne, near Sheringham, in Norfolk. There is also usually a voluntary camp every Easter. It is during annual camps that the guns fire live shell, and, of course, every gunner enjoys that. There are two methods of firing. In one case an aero plane tows a drogue (at the end of a safe length of cable), and ordinary H.E. shell is used to destroy it—the drogue, not the aeroplane—if possible. The other method is for the guns to fire direct at an aeroplane, using reduced pro pellent charges, so that the burst occurs far below the machine. Firing in this way, one of the officers told me that he once got fifteen effective shots out of sixteen rounds fired. The shooting is not always quite up to that level —if it were, an air raid on London would be an especially parlous affair for the enemy—but it shows that an occa sional bull's-eye is not beyond the hopes of the gunners. METALLISATION Some Facts About an Ingenious Process THOUGH the existence of the Metallisation process is now well known, together with the fact that it has applica tions to aircraft work, the number of directions in which this system can be applied is far larger than the casual observer would imagine. This statement is prompted by a study of a most informative handbook recently issued by the sponsors of the process, Metallisation, Ltd. In brief, the system makes it possible to spray almost any article with almost any metal or alloy that can be drawn into wire form. Primarily intended for the prevention of corrosion, the process also lends itself to, inter alia, decorative work, to the production of electrically conducting surfaces, and to building-up worn metal. The makers state that although the metal employed is liquified and atomised in the spraying pistol, it reaches the job in a cold state, and can be used even on fabric. The process makes possible the application of coatings of such metals as tin and lead and their alloys; bearing metals; cad mium and its alloys; copper and its alloys, such as brass and bronze; nickel and its alloys, such as nickel chrome( chromium itself cannot be sprayed); iron and steel; and alloy steels. One of the most popular anti-corrosion coatings is zinc, which finds application in a very large number of industries, but of more interest, perhaps, to the aircraft industry is aluminium coating, while to engine manufacturers particu larly the Aluminising process is of the greatest interest; this is a system whereby metal articles can be protected against high-temperature oxidation, up to a temperature of i,ooo° C. The coating of aluminium is sprayed on the articles, which are afterwards heat treated. The aluminium coating alloys with the metal of cylinder head, or whatever the job may be, giving an iron-aluminium alloy surface highly resistant to extreme temperatures. Apart from its " internal " uses in high-efficiency engines, the process has proved a very popular one for such items as exhaust collector rings. To return to the "cold" metal spraying processes, tin ning offers a method by which coatings of very widely vary ing thicknesses may be applied; nickel gives a very hard corro sion-resisting surface; coatings of the copper alloys are par ticularly useful in electrical work and also lend themselve for decorative purposes; and iron and steel spraying valuable for filling blow-holes, building up worn parts, etc. Full details of all these processes are obtainable from Meta - lisation, Ltd., Pear Tree Lane, Dudley, Worcestershire.
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