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Aviation History
1937
1937 - 0295.PDF
FEBRUARY 4, 1937. FLIGHT. in The Outlooks ornm Keeping Them Up A PLAN for bringing the unapproved firms directly ^Aj into the expansion scheme was put forward by Lord Sempill in the debate in the House of Lords on December 17 last year. The--Secretary of State for Air, Lord Swinton, misunderstood this and other parts of Lord Sempill's speech, and said, somewhat rudely man ' thought, that he had no intention of abandoning the '' Shadow Scheme'' for any of those Lord Sempill had put forward. In point of fact, Lord Sempill did not sug gest anything of the kind, but however that may be, evidently his outline of bringing approved and unapproved firms closer together did not find favour. During the debate in the Commons last week, Mr. O. E. Simmonds made what appears to be a very sensible sug gestion. Looking ahead, he pointed out that with relatively inexperienced pilots on the new fast types of aeroplane now being produced, the number of crashes was likely to be large. Hitherto the manufacturer has, in the case of a fairly extensive crash which could not be repaired by the squadron, carried out the necessary repairs. Mr. Simmonds suggested that in future the manufacturers will not wish to have their production flow interrupted by having to do repair work, and that it might be a good plan to select a number of unapproved firms. That there are certain difficulties in the scheme may be admitted, but they should not be insurmountable. The manufacturers would have to supply the '' Approved Unapproved Repair Companies " with parts such as spars, ribs, longerons and so forth, otherwise the repair firms would need to set up rolling and drawing mills and other machinery, but provided the parts were supplied, there should be no great difficulty. World's Records / T is now a good many years since the French Air Minister of that time, M. Laurent Eynac, delivered the dictum that a nation's air publicity is its world's records. The details published recently of the prizes which the French Government is offering for the establish ment by a French pilot of new world's records is an indica tion that the present Socialist Government of France agrees with M. Laurent Eynac in his views of the importance of a nation holding world's air records. The records for which it has decided to award prizes are: The out-and-out speed record over a measured course, the speed over 2,000 km. with useful load of 1,000 kg. and 2,000 kg., and speed over 5,000 km. course without useful load. That the French Government is very much in earnest concerning these records is proved by the fact that the total amount of prizes offered is no less than 2,750,000 francs. It is perhaps significant that included in the class of record for which prizes are offered, one does not find the altitude record nor the straight-line distance record. It is known that the French pilot, Detre, has his eyes on the former, and is likely to make an attempt before very long, while the latter is already held by French pilots, i.e., Codos and Rossi. The offer of the French Government is open until May 30 of this year. Doubtless we shall see a number of French attempts made on the records mentioned before that date, and it would be well for Great Britain not to overlook the importance of world's records, particularly at the present time, when aeronautical prestige riounts for a good deal. At present the only record held by this country is the altitude record. New York—Paris r HE wheels of the New York-Paris Race organisation are beginning to '' rev up,'' and the first British entry was received last week—a Burnelli Clyde Clipper with two Rolls-Royce Kestrel XVI engines giving a cruising speed of about 225 m.p.h. There are three official French Air Ministry entries so far, the Marcel Bloch with four Hispano-Suiza engines, the Amiot mail-carrier as shown at the Paris Show, but with a third engine fitted in the nose, and the Makhonine with retractable outer wing panels. It is reported that one of Signor Mussolini's sons may enter. The first prize is ^15,000, and the second and third are £10,000 and ^5,000 respectively; total prize money of £30,000 is no mean reward even if a different division is decided upon. The regulations are designed to cause as little difficulty to the competitors as possible; in fact, the main articles merely stipulate a qualified pilot and wireless operator to fly the aircraft, which itself should have plain markings on air-frame and engine and large identification symbols. These, together with full radio equipment and 5,000 francs for the entrance fee, complete the requirements. Competitors are asked to arrive at New York a few days before departure to allow time for the air craft to be inspected. The remaining regulations are, roughly, " play the game" and "bring who you like." The take-off and landing grounds will be announced shortly. These will almost certainly be the Floyd Bennet airport and Le Bourget for aeroplanes and a reach of water near New York and a stretch of the Seine near Paris for seaplanes. Plastics D R. NORMAN DE BRUYNE deserves to go down in aviation history for two things: his paper on plastics and his remark, which deserves to become a classic, that "It is better to have blundered than never to have thought at all." But for the moral courage expressed in that sentence we might have had to wait for years before being told anything about the progress made with the application of plastics to aircraft structures. That Dr. de Bruyne did not wait until everything connected with this subject was cut and dried is to his very great credit, and even if he does, at some future date, as he himself put it, '' have to eat his words,'' he has made people think of plastics, and he has given them a very good idea of the immediate prospects. To summarise the present position, one might, perhaps, say that already it is proved that synthetic resins, suitably reinforced, can be used with advantage for certain parts of an aircraft structure and probably for airscrews. That in sheet form it can replace plywood if the cements used to glue the joints together can be definitely proved to be strong and lasting enough. A good many years ago an American firm introduced a material which was given the trade name Plymetl. This material consisted of a layer of wood or plywood sand wiched between two layers of sheet aluminium or duralu min. It does seem possible that a modern version of that scheme could conceivably take the form of two layers of synthetic resin sheet with balsa wood between them. In that case, the glued or cemented surfaces in contact would be very large, and unless the very porous nature of the balsa wood in conjunction with the hard smooth surface of the resin cause cementing troubles, a system might result which would be good both structurally and fcr absorbing noise and vibration.
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