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Aviation History
1941
1941 - 0688.PDF
228 MARCH 2OTH, 1941. Correspondence The Editor does not hold himself responsible lor the news expressed by correspondent Tht mimes an.l adiresses of tin writers, not necessarily tor publication, must lit all cases accompany letters. CARBURETTOR DESIGN The Case Against the Designer IN your recently published article called "The Case for fhcCarburettor,", the author makes the following statement : "Cutting-out troubles during aerobatics could be overcome bycareful design of the carburettor." This remark is so true that perhaps the writer of the articlewould like further to enlighten us as to the reason why such a design has not yet been incorporated in our fighters. Forthe last ten years our fastest single-seaters have been pathetic- ally subject to engine cutting-out during negative acceleration.The word " pathetic" is used advisedly as it is a sorry sight to see the awkward manoeuvres, followed by trails of blacksmoke in the air, forced on the pilots of our modern single- seaters when suddenly entering a dive from" level flight.Many Germans have escaped with their lives from air com- bat because of this very defect, yet we- have it on goodauthority that careful design would eradicate it. Can any of your readers justify this state of affairs.F. H. DIXON. The Case for the Merlin X " T^ME Case for the Carburettor" article should have beenJ. headed "The Case for the Merlin X," since it seeks to prove that this excellent engine has a better performance thanthat of the Junkers Jumo 211 (and quite right too!). But does the Merlin necessarily owe that superiority to the car-burettor? I can think of many more relevant reasons. Be- cause of these many differences in the design of the twoengines, I submit the case for the carburettor is not proved. Iu any case, comparative results are required above, say,30,000 feet, and not only at sea level. To obtain a fair and convincing comparison between the carburettor and petrolinjection systems, the same basic engine design-should be used', modified only to give each system the best possible chance.Even then, the comparison should be made by flight trials at all altitudes, and not deduced from bench tests (with theirattendant debatable "corrections"). The power output and fuel consumption figures, of course, would have to be obtainedwith the assistance of a torque meter or the equivalent. The complexity of the P.I. system must be admitted, butsurely it depends on what you get in return for the extra money or man-hours involved? UNCONVINCED. THE OBSERVER CORPS Hours of Unrecognised WorkM IGHT 1 answer your correspondent with reference toobservers being overpaid. I should like to draw his atten- tion to the following facts, which I feel sure will apply to themajority of O.C. posts. I myself have been in the O.C. six years last February, and we were then under the police. OurPC. came round for six volunteers to form a crew with H.O. making seven, lie was only able to get four volunteers, myselfIxing one, and it «.vas then understood that the work was on- u purely voluntary basis; the trouble then was, there was.no pay There are thousands ot observers to-day who took on thejob then and we were putting in hours of work when people did not even know we existed. We did the job cheerfullyand are still doing so in all sorts of weather and conditions of get tint; to the individual posts. There are thousands of observers doing the job voluntarily,and there is an opening for him if he is one of the voluntary type. The voluntary men put in from 20 to 28 hours a weekon a four-hour rota of duty, and there would be more volun- tary observers if the working men could afford to do it, asin some cases the employers stop pay for the time a man is on duty with the O.C1 Umik if your correspondent, when he is getting into his bed at night, would just think lor a moment of the thousandsof men standing out doing their bit, helping our boys home after their spot of work, if they are lost or crippled, keepingtabs on "Jerry ' coming so that all the services connected with A.R.P. can function and sirens sound so that people can take shelter if they want to—he might form a differentopinion regarding us overpaid observers. But if he is still in doubt he must belong to a class I know ; the class who ^iabecause there is some pay, and also because there may t*e a chance of exemption lrom other service. I can assure yourcorrespondent there is a waiting list here for the O.C., and if he would send his address through your paper I would liketo tell him a few home truths. In the meantime we shall still carry on, smiling and grousing. KEEN OBSERVER. Even Observers Must Eat I FEEL, that "Observing Enquirer's" letter re paying theObserver Corps absolutely demands an answer. Is he aware that an observer post is manned for 24 hoursper day? This means that during daylight hours men must give up their ordinary work to perform the duty. Surely itis not too much to ask that these men should be partly recom- pensed for loss of earnings. If it was not for the work of theObserver Corps the bill for enemy damage would rise to still higher " astronomical proportions." It may be a strange idea to "Observing Enquirer" to beinformed that even an observer possesses a stomach. OBSERVER. On Different Footing from Home Guard I DO not know in what part of the country your correspond-ent "Observing Enquirer" resides, but in this district at any rate the whole-fame observers have, in most cases, todepend for their living on their 48 hours at is. 3d. per hour. Part-time observers also, hereabouts, are for the most partworking men who could not afford to spare the time unless they were paid for it. The-observer is not on the same footing as the Home Guard,inasmuch as the former is given appointments which he must at all costs keep, whereas the Home Guard, while he isexpected to attend practices, etc., when possible, is at the same time told that his own occupation must take precedenceexcept in case of national emergency, such as invasion. Those observers who are independent financially can, and inmany cases do, refund their remuneration to the Observer Corps funds. In any case this type of observer would lose asubstantial portion of his is. 3d. per hour to the income tax collector. It might be mentioned that many observers joinedthe Corps years before the war or remuneration started, and were not in those days considered particularly smart becausethey put in sonic time for no reward. Finalfy, if " Observing^! Enquirer" had ever put in a spell of four hours standing in vthe snow from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m., with a three-mile tramp in a blizzard preceding and following the aforesaid spell, hewould probably consider that 5s. had, to say the least of it, been well earned. PART-TIME OBSERVER. More Points for Consideration WITH reference to "Observing Enquirer's" letter of 6thinst. As an ex-observer of several years' standing, I should like to make a few points clear. At least 80 per cent, of the personnel were enrolled sofhetime before the '' crisis'' periods and were all voluntary mem- bers doing a very important job of work. ' With regard tothe "staggering" (??) amount of pay they receive, they most certainly did not ask for it. In fact, their attention waSfirst drawn to it by the B.B.C. announcement. The expenditure incurred by the Observer Corps is so smallthat, when included in the astronomical war expense, it is probably 0.0005 per cent.—a truly colossal amount! Alsopart-time members ha\e to pay quite a considerable amount of their earnings to the Inland Revenue. The number of membersallowed per "Post" is definitely limited, and there is also a very large waiting list for enrolment. The reason for thetemporary reservation must be very obvious to everyone. Lastly, it seems to me that for all his professed willingnessto give free service to the cause "Observing Enquirer" does not seem willing to sign his own name, but prefers to use av.om-de-plume instead. P. C. MOODY, R.A.F.V.R.
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