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Aviation History
1936
1936 - 1890.PDF
JULY 9, i93&- FLIGHT. 45 The Outlooks A /a F The Defence of Egypt OR control of a desert country an Air Force has no equal, and so there is nothing surprising in the report that the new Anglo-Egyptian Treaty will provide for a larger proportion of R.A.F. units m Egypt in place of units of the British Army. For dealing with riots in cities, aircraft are not so suitable—in fact, they are almost use less but, presumably, the Egyptian police force will under take to deal with the outbreaks, which are, unfortunately, of periodical occurrence. One other thing may have to be considered. Italy is established in Abyssinia, and that makes it necessary for Egypt to have greater air strength than she has previously needed. Lessening the Load S OTH amateur and transport pilots will be glad to read an Air Navigation (Amendment) Order which frees private aeroplanes from the necessity of carrying, while in this country, any document whatever, and frees transport aeroplanes from carrying more than a certificate of airworthiness and the crew's licences or certificates. Five days are now allowed in which the other documents may be produced on demand—though presumably this demand will only be apparent after a crash, a forced land ing, or some incident in which the police are interested. Probably very few amateur pilots fiave ever bothered to carry more than the engine and journey log-books, but cases have been known in which the more zealous police have actually raided aerodromes and demanded the pro duction of all manner of documents which were, in fact, legally necessary. The new Order, which is a direct result of the findings of the Gorell Committee, will at least prevent another attack of nerves after, perhaps, a frightening forced land ing by a private owner, and will prevent the necessity for a search and questionnaire before the departure of a trans port machine for an internal destination. The certificate of airworthiness is normally kept in the journey log-book, and it is convenient, in any case, to have this in the machine so that immediate entries can be made, especially on tours of a protracted nature, when the pilot's memory as to facts and figures may easily become confused. I At the N. P. L. M UCH of interest was seen at the National Physical Laboratory last week when, according to custom, visitors were permitted to see the great establish ment at Teddington on the occasion of the annual inspec tion by the General Board. It is always difficult for the jayman to visualise the flow of air around a solid body, and ] t was thus small wonder that the film of air flow had to be shown twice in the Duplex Tunnel. This film, which was made at the N.P.L. at the request of the Air Ministry, renders air flow visible by producing in the air current a number of tiny electric sparks which heat up minute s Pots of air. A shadowgraph of these hot spots can be pro- uced by suitable illumination, and can be photographed y a cinematograph camera. Photographs were taken at . e rate of 2,300 per minute, and when the film was pro- J cted at the ordinary rate, a very slow-motion picture esulted. The behaviour of the air flow beyond the stall ,as *ascinating to watch, and the effect of slots was very clearly brought out. on /Au In its Jast annual report, the Aeronautical Research Committee referred to forthcoming investigations of a number of airscrews placed along the leading edge of a wing. A model of such a "set up" was on view under the Duplex Tunnel. In the No. 2 seven-foot tunnel Flight had the good fortune to find in charge of demonstrations Mr. H. B. Irving, who had recently been carrying out tests on models for determining the effects of landing flaps and similar devices. In the course of his work, Mr. Irving made the discovery that a wing with taper produced by sweeping the leading edge back-stalled first at the tips, whereas a wing tapered by sweeping the trailing edge forward stalled first at the root. Mr. Irving had not, when Flight discussed the matter with him, formed any theory to explain this observed tact, but curiously enough in the meantime a Flight reader, Mr. W. E. Gray, has found confirmation of the same thing and has evolved what is at any rate a plausible explana tion. He has promised us an article on the subject for a forthcoming issue, and in the meantime it is interesting to learn that Mr. Gray has found his theory confirmed by flights in a B.A. Swallow, the wings of which were pro vided with wool tufts. Alexandria Accident Echo DELAYED by serous illneis, the report of Major Cooper, Air Ministry Inspector of Accidents, on the accident to the Imperial Airways flying boat City of Khartoum was published last Tuesday. The flying boat, it will be remembered, was wrecked with considerable loss of life off Alexandria on December 31, 1935. Major Cooper finds that the cause of the accident was loss of engine power due to the petrol supply becoming exhausted. The tankage of the machine did not provide adequate reserve on the particular route except in favour able weather, and alterations to carburetter jet settings, carried out due to a misunderstanding of orders, further reduced the fuel reserve. A fault in one or both petrol gauges, causing the pilot to believe he had, towards the end of the flight, more fuel left than was actually the case, is not dismissed as a possible contributory cause of the accident. The sudden and complete loss of engine power created a difficult situation, and Major Cooper considers that the pilot did all that could be expected of him in the circum stances. The evidence derived from salved parts causes Major Cooper to think that the flying boat flew, almost on a level keel, into the water at comparatively low speed, and the pilot, who was strapped in, states that, to the best of his knowledge, the boat made normal contact with the water but was swamped by the heavy swell over the shoal outside the harbour breakwater. He was not injured by the shock and had no difficulty in making his escape from the machine. Although blaming no one in particular for the delay in instituting rescue measures, Major Cooper considers that the loss of life would have been reduced if there had been efficient communication between the flare path and the airport. Normally, these arrangements of Imperial Airways are considered satisfactory, but it is pointed out that the presence of the Fleet in harbour at the time had made it necessary to lay the flare path a great distance from, and out of sight of, the airport station, the only communica tion being by motor boat
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