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Aviation History
1941
1941 - 0687.PDF
MARCH 2OTH, 1941. Z27 STARTING EARLY : Here is a demonstration of keenness by one of Flight juniorartists, Arthur Bowbeer. In his spare time, for years past, he haE built up these scale models of aircraft, some of the types going back to early days. No youthdesiring to familiarise himself with the detail and characteristics of aircraft could adopt a more instructive hobby than model aircraft manufacture. Canadian-trained Airmen /"^ANADIAN air training schools will,v-7 it is reported, be turning out gradu- ates at the rate of 2,000 a month by theend of the present year. Cool Customers! •\7"OUNG Dominion airmen in the•*- Empire Air-training Scheme are known to be cool customers, but theboys of Alberta must be the coolest of the lot to judge by a notice issued to allofficers at a certain station in this Canadian province. The notice reads:"In future the morning parade will be at 0800 hours (8 a.m. in common par-lance). The officer in charge will carry out drill or a route march exceptingwhen the temperature is below minus AJ deg. IV Whether de-icing equipment is pro-vided for the leading-edge of their noses is not stated ! Parachute Testing AN American firm of parachute manu-facturers have an ingenious device for testing their products which isdescribed in a recent issue of' Aviation. It is a 50ft. tower, on top ofwhich is a 100ft. boom capable of being rotated at a tip speed varying from 70to 300 m.p.h. A dummy, wearing the harness andpack, is attached 'by flexible streamlined rods to the tip of the boom, and, as therevs increase, is swung up from the ground until, at high speed, "he"travels in the same horizontal plane as the boom. A light cable attached tothe ripcord enables the operator to release the chute at any desired speedand position, a suitably mounted camera filming the opening process in slowmotion. Valuable data have been btained from this testing device, but1 he suggestion that it might also be used for the examination of pilots underhigh "G" conditions sounds a trifle grirn 1 Keep the Air Lines Running HpHE future of British commercialJ- aviation is exercising the minds of our more far-seeing M.P.s and questionson the maintaining of certain lines (notably across the North Atlantic)which can be of service in war have recently been asked in the House. Replying to one Member's query aboutthe availability of sufficient experienced navigators, Sir Archibald Sinclair, Secre-tary for Air, said that it was intended to keep existing services running andthat the greatest possible use would be made of skilled aviators available inferrying aircraft from America. The present intention was to resume regularair transport across the North Atlantic this summer, to be operated by theBritish Overseas Airways Corporation. When the larger bombers are flownacross they will, no doubt, be able to carry a certain amount of freight, andthe ferry service will itself be able to function to some extent as a supply line. PLEASE SHARE YOUR COPY OF FLIGHT! READERS will forgive ourrepeated requests that they should share copies of Flight and so enable us to effect a drastic reduction in paper consumption, but the matter becomes more vital every •week. If you have a friend who is also a regular reader make a point, this very week-end, of arranging to buy only one copy to share between you and then place a definite order for that copy with your newsagent to guard against possible disappointment. HERE AND THERE Some of the most experienced com-mercial pilots have already been ear- marked for this important service. Schoolgirls' A.T.C.?I N response to enquiries it was recentlyintimated by the Air Ministry that there is not, at present, any officialscheme, nor have they approved any organisation, under which girls youngerthan 18 can receive training with a view to their joining the Women's AuxiliaryAir Force on reaching the age for enrol- ment. Motor Industry Fighter Fund jT" 100,000 is the sum aimed at by the7J recently launched Motor Industry lighter Fund, the object of which is toprovide a complete squadron of fighters for the R.A.F. Mr. W. E. Rootes is thepresident of the fund, the address of which is 58, Gordon Square, London,W.C.I, and Viscount Nufheld, Lord Austin, Lord Perry and Lord Kenilworthare patrons. An appeal is made to everyone con-nected with motoring—the maker, the trader, and the user—and some £50,000has already been received, including eight donations of ^5,000 or more from variousfirms and individuals. Pyrotechnic Propulsion WITH the object of increasing theirbomb loads the Germans are re- ported to be experimenting with variousforms of assisted take-off, including the use of rockets, or, to be more precise,jet - propulsion. Simultaneously, news from America of parallel experiments hasjust been released by the Daniel Guggen- heim School of Aeronautics in NewYork. Some years ago, it may be re- membered that experiments were madein Germany, America and elsewhere with solid fuel rockets as an alternativeto the I.C. engine on cars and aircraft, but the problems of obtaining sustainedpower-output and of cont tolling it remained unsolved ; many oi the models,in fact, promptly blew up! Jet - propulsion by liquid • fuel" rockets," however, holds out definite promise, especially in the form of a briefburst of extra power to assist take off, and the fact that the Germans were ex-perimenting along these lines has been known to Flight for some time, thoughit has only just been released for publi- cation. American Aviation now reportsa device under development by E. B. Myers and Dr. A. Klcmin which consistsof several cylinders 4 ft. long and 6in. in diameter. Fuel is released into anasbestos-coated auxiliary chamber and heated until it becomes gaseous. It isthen fired by a suitable ignition system and the expanding gases, issuing througha nozzle on the rear end of the chamber, develop a forward reaction. After thusassisting the take-ofl the device is dropped by parachute
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