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Aviation History
1940
1940 - 0498.PDF
Commercial Aviation FEBRUARY 15, 1940 TOWARDS SAFER FLIGHT Flutter, Fire, Stratosphere, and Instrument Landing ResearchT HE Civil Aeronautics Authority, through its Tech- nical Development Division, has embarked on a two-year plan for developmental work, almost all of which is concerned with safety in flight. Work on in- strument landing systems is prominent, and the system developed by the C.A.A. and installed at its Experimental Station at Indianapolis has some noteworthy features. The glide path, formerly a straight line from a height of 600ft., has now been curved slightly and carried up above 600ft. There is also the C.A A.-M.I.T. system working on the very high frequency qf, $50 megacycles per second, so that it is virtually unaffected by any kind of disturbance. A single instrument gives the pilot all the information needed for a safe landing. When three dots of light thrown on a small screen are lined up horizontally, with the middle dot central, the 'plane is on the glide path and in line with the runway. The blind-flying gyro instruments control the outer dots, and the centre dot is controlled by the radio landing system. The ultra-high-frequency "'radio range" is also being pushed ahead, as it has the advantage of freedom from atmospheric disturbance. An experimental set will be in- stalled on the New York-Chicago airway. In the conven- tional four-course radio range there is no distinctive signal to identify each quadrant, and to overcome this deficiency a new visual two-course range with aural sector identifica- tion is under development. An aural broadcast will identify in which sector the aeroplane is flying. Substratosphere flight is a live subject at present, and flight at 20,000ft. offers some advantages. To determine the minimum requirements of cabin pressure and oxygen supply and so avoid the provision of unnecessarily elaborate respiratory aids, work is going on to test pilot reactions under varying degrees of oxygen deprivation and low pressure. The C.A.A. Medical Science Station at Kansas City has an apparatus which simulates upper air conditions. In this a Link Trainer is set up which not only simulates ordinary flight conditions, but all the diffi- culties as well. There are varying winds from changing directions, and radio troubles, such as multiple courses, static and fading. In this trainer the pilots will be tested and information will be collected to enable the atmospheric conditions to be determined at which pilots can fly without their mental and physical processes becoming impaired and so leading to error and bad judgment. Graphical recordings will be made of pulse, blood pressure, and respiration during the tests. Flutter studies will be carried on, particularly from the statistical point of view, in order to collate all available information on the subject. Vibration of the airframe will also receive attention, and apparatus will be made avail- able to manufacturers to measure engine vibration and so guard against dangerous resonance conditions. Airport size is another troublesome project to be tackled. From a study of accidents, the Authority has established the fol- lowing as one of its standards: Runways should be long enough to permit aircraft to roll safely to a standstill in the event of an engine failure occurring during the take-off at the point where the wheels are just leaving the ground. That much-feared but infrequent occurrence, fire in the power plant, is also being investigated by the use of a full- scale engine nacelle and wing section complete with engine, airscrew, and cowling. Set up in the open air, a "syn- thetic" wind is blown over it from a tunnel. Fires are started and extinguished, and the subject is studied from the fire-warning and fire-prevention angles. Telegrams From Planes A NEW Trans-Canada Air Lines service enables passengers- to send telegrams from the air to the earth. Messages handed to the stewardess are radioed, without charge, to the nearest ground station and from there go to their destination by Canadian National Telegraphs. The Wilbur Wright Lecture THE Koyal Aeronautical Society announces that the 28thWilbur Wnght Memorial Lecture will be delivered on Thursday, May 30th, 1940, in the Lecture Hall of the Institu- tion of Electrical Engineers, Savoy Place, Victoria Embank- ment, W.C.2. by Dr. Roxbee Cox, F.R.Ae.S., on "The Future of Civil Aviation." Congo Service Resumes QLSPENDED since the outbreak of war, the Sabena line to v-5 the Congo is now resuming. The flight across France has been eliminated by the establishment of a base at Marseilles, and there is a departure from there every Sunday, with arrival at Leopoldville and Stanleyville the following Wednesday and Elisabethville on the Thursday. Except for these alterations, the itinerary remains as given in the July, 1939, issue of the company's timetable. Passengers from London can fly to Brussels by the daily Sabena service and thence by rail to Marseilles, or they can fly to Marseilles via Paris. The fast Savoia-Marchetti SM83 aircraft are still in use on this route. The usual connecting lines in the interior of the Congo are also still in operation. The first flight was scheduled for February 11. Warning to Pilots AN aircraft recently made a forced landing, just on black-outtime, on the main road close to a village. The pilot was hospitably accommodated in a house overlooking the field where the machine was safely picketed. Next morning the pilot took off, knowing that when he landed the previous after- noon he had more than sufficient petrol for the return journey, But after being less than ten minutes in the air the port engine stopped. Fortunately he made his destination on the other. The tanks and petrol system were then checked, and it was iound that the port tank had been syphoned almost empty during the night. In these days of rationed petrol this story may perhaps serve as a warning to all pilots under similar cir- cumstances. In any case, it is wise to make sure of one's petrol supply before taking off after the machine has been left for a long spell. Oxygen Metering Device THE Douglas Aircraft Company announce a device thatautomatically keeps cabin oxygen percentage at the re- quired amount, independent of altitude. The release of oxygen is started at 10,000ft. and continued in increasing pro- portions as the aeroplane ascends. It is stated that this apparatus renders a pressure cabin unnecessary. There stems however; to be some misunderstanding in this as not even pure oxygen will make up for a gieat deficiency of pressure. But for comparatively low altitudes, the device might eliminate pressure cabins. Seeing Through Fog IT is reported that a device which will enable the pilot to seethrough fog is under development at Glendale, California, by Mr. Guy M. Ball. A special television camera is to be mounted in the nose of the plane. This has an iconoscope lens and a photoelectric cell which is specially sensitive to infra- red rays, even those of 25,000 Angstrom units. On the pilot's dashboard is a fluorescent viewing screen, similar to those in television sets and to this the camera transfers an image of the terrain ahead, so giving the pilot eyes to see through the fog. New D.F. Station in Mozambique THE new radio direction-finding station at Gnacha deChiloane, about two miles from Beira, in Mozambique, on the east coast of Africa, has now been completed. The appara- tus is similar to that which is being used in other parts of the Colony, manufactured by the Marconi Company under the Adcock system. Erected for the Empire air route to South Africa, the installation consists of two transmitters, one of medium wave and another of the short-wave type. Their power output is 15 kw. on C.W. and 250 w. short-wave aerial power. Telephony can also be carried on when necessary.
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