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Aviation History
1939
1939 - 0425.PDF
FEBRUARY 16, 1939 FLIGHT. a HERE and THERE The Scottish Exhibitions T HE two Scottish Aircraft Exhibitions, held primarily with the object of allowing Scottish engineering firms to see the class of work they would be required to undertake on offering themselves as aircraft sub-con tractors, are now in full swing at the McLellan Galleries, Glasgow, and the Waverley Market, Edinburgh. They were due to be opened by Sir Kingsley Wood last Monday and Tuesday respectively, and will remain open until Saturday, February 25. The Air Minister flew to Scotland on Sunday, and was faced with a crowded three-day programme, including visits to Abbotsinch, Leuchars and Turnhouse, the Reserve School at Perth, and the Blackburn factory at Dumbarton, in addition to opening the two exhibitions. He was accompanied by Major J. S. Buchanan, Deputy Director-General of Produc tion, and the Secretary of State for Scotland, Mr. J. Colville, was with him at the opening of the exhibitions. The exhibitions have been promoted by the Air Ministry in co-operation with the Corporations of Edinburgh and Glasgow Apart from the production aspect, opportunity has been taken to include other features which will be of interest to the general public as well as to potential contractors. For this purpose two examples of modern fighters, the Hawker Hurricane and the Vickers-Supermarine Spitfire, are displayed. A range of engines is exhibited by Armstrong Siddelev, Bristol, Napier and Rolls-Royce. Each exhibition includes a section showing R.A.F appren tices under training for various skilled trades, and specimens of their work are exhibited. There are Air Ministry bureaux at which full information is available as to the exhibits and to the opportunities in the Royal Air Force, its Auxiliaries, and Reserves. The Edin burgh Exhibition has, in addition, an exhibit of Service cloth ing and a meteorological display covering both Service and Civil flying. Admission to each exhibition is free. In both cases the public are admitted daily from 12 noon until 10 p.m. A special period, from 10 a.m. to noon, has been reserved each day for the visits of manufacturers, admission being by busi ness card. Air Ministry technical officials are in daily attend ance. The King Inspects Powered Turrets O N Friday last His Majesty the King paid a private and informal visit to the works of Nash and Thompson, Ltd., at Tolworth, Surrey. The King had intended to stay only about half an hour, but he was so interested in what he saw that he extended his visit to an hour and a half. He was received on arrival by Capt. A. Frazer-Nash, Capt. E. Grattan Thompson and Air Marshal Sir Wilfrid Freeman. The King was greatly impressed with the ease and accuracy of operation of the Nash and Thompson power-driven turrets, and was particularly interested when Mr. C. B. Lowe (a director and chief engineer) wrote His Majesty's name with a pencil placed in the muzzle of one of the guns. The King also signed his name on a parchment, which was received by Miss J. Frazer-Nash, Capt. Frazer-Nash's daughter and principal secretary. The King recalled that he had seen a prototype Nash and Thompson turret demonstrated at Martlesham in 1936. During his tour of the factory the King showed particular interest in the jobs of Mr. E. J. Hallett, of the drawing-office staff, and Mr. B. Seager, in charge of a special jig-boring machine. A Film Worth Seeing p anybody wants relief from the all-shouting, all-faking, all- sobstuff kind of million-dollar production which is too often passed off as a flying film, he should make a point of seeing an unassuming little picture called Prelude to Flight. It would probably come under that unsatisfactory and mis leading heading of "documentary" film. Made by Messrs. J-jarcy Cartwright, A.R.P.S., and Graham Tharp, of the Shell aim unit, with Mr. Geoffrey Bell as technical adviser, it has M g a"d soaring as its subject. Most of the picture was made at Dunstable, with members 01 the London Gliding Club as " actors "—only since they are "My seen doing what they do there every week-end, and uoi&g it with complete unselfconsciousness, we have an effect of commendable realism, translated into sheer beauty by the com- Jjositjon and lighting of every shot. H A pupil is seen listening to his instructor, and the dialogue is so phrased that it will be comprehensible to the average audience without sounding silly to the initiated—no mean feat, this, and one that is achieved throughout. The film then takes us through the various stages of instruc tion, until finally we accompany a practised pilot—played by Mr. Hugh Bergel—on a soaring flight in a thermal current. More clever work here; he describes his progress skyward as though thinking aloud, and his voice is heard against a back ground of gently whispering airstream, while terrestial noises— dogs barking, factory hooters—float upward from the receding patchwork. No one will imagine that sound-recording apparatus was actually carried in the sailplane, but the effect is perfect. Prelude to Flight—which runs about 15 minutes—finishes with some superb but all-too-short cloud impressions. Gliding clubs should persuade their local cinemas (if cinemas can be persuaded) to book the film, which will appear in a week or two at the Regal, Marble Arch. Technique Distri butors, Ltd., are handling it. Mr. Kronfeld on Gliding MR. ROBERT KRONFELD, who is now instructor-manager of the Oxford University and City Gliding Club, gave a lecture on " Gliding and Soaring " at the Royal Society of Arts on Wednesday of last week. Illustrated with slides and films, the lecture was an extremely informative exposition of the whole subject. It seemed to be primarily intended for the uninitiated, but the amount Of laughter at the mention of such things as the charac teristics of primary trainers showed how large a proportion of the audience actually consisted of the very much initiated. Discussing the various methods of launching, Mr. Kronfeld described in some detail the flat-field winch launching method used by the Oxford Club. Pupils start ab initio on the cable, and the expert winch driver has them under full control. If a pupil, told to keep within three feet of the ground, goes too high or over-corrects he can be safely brought to earth imme diately. Over 4:000 launches were made last summer, and with negligible damage to the gliders. The horizon bar, originally fitted to the power-driven Kron feld trainers, was being successfully used on gliders at Oxford. One of the chief difficulties of the gliding pupil, like any other flying novice, was to keep his machine in a more or less horizontal position, but with the horizon bar in front of him this difficulty disappeared, and after a number of flights he could dispense with it and fly by the feel of the machine alone. After describing some of his own pioneer soaring flights (and he has a really remarkable record of achievement) Mr. Kronfeld related some of the more hectic adventures of Continental sail plane pilots. Two Germans, for instance, in a two-seater sail plane, had ascended in a thunderstorm and found themselves in such a violent up-current—of the order of 75ft./sec.—in the centre of the cloud that they were carried to over 20,000 feet. They were without oxygen and began to feel extreme discomfort. It was impossible to dive the machine against the up-current without reaching a speed dangerous to the structure, and it was impossible to leave the cloud horizontally since there was violent turbulence in its fringes, which would have had a similar disastrous effect. Their only alternative was to escape by parachute, and this they did; even then their adventure was not finished, because they were still in the up-current when their parachutes opened, and they were held suspended in the cloud for an uncomfortable length of time. Mr. Kronfeld concluded with a plea for a more generous subsidy for the gliding movement, pointing out that the present £5,000 was less than the cost of one fighting aeroplane. An excellent cine film by Mr. Philip Wills ended the evening. His Master's Buzzer TV/TOST of us regard morse and radiograms, in association, -J-"-*- as an unmitigated nuisance, but an enterprising signals instructor to the R.A.F.N.R. has effected a happy union. Mr. C. E. Masters, late of the Marconi Company, has found his work facilitated by teaching his pupils morse-code reception by means of gramophone discs which he has recorded. He has had a number of records made, giving various mes sages and reception speeds from 4 to n and 12 to 20 words per minute. These records, which are loin, double-sided, are available at 2s. 6d., and full details may be obtained from Mr. Masters at Orchard House, Finchampstead Road, Wokingham.
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