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Aviation History
1941
1941 - 2374.PDF
* F LIGHT OCTOBER O/TH, 1941. JET PROPULSION OF AIRCRAFT high pressure is led forward and delivered to annular grooves E at positions of relatively low pressure. The aim is to project a thin layer of air along the wall of the funnel. From the same annular grooves, rearwardly inclined pas- sages F lead to the external surface with the object of preventing the foimation of a boundary layer. It would seem that all such schemes fall short of the minimum requirements for practical propulsion of aircraft. Tn the main this appears to result from the inefficient combustion of the fuel at relatively low compression. Present day thought inclines to positively draw in and com- press the maximum quantity of air and re-expand it through a combustion turbine which drives the compressor. In some schemes a portion of the air is diverted through a reciprocating engine to provide a high pressure cycle to furnish motive gases tor the turbine. To reduce the com- parison to popular language, the admittedly ingenious schemes of "inducing" the surrounding air to join the propulsive stream savour too much of the idea of "getting something for nothing " to be really practical. An Imaginary Design With these views in mind, the subject was discussed with M A. Millar, Flight's chief technical artist. He has pro- duced a fine, part-sectioned drawing of an imaginary jet- propelled craft (reproduced as a leading illustration) in which is embodied a combination of ideas based upon pro- positions which suggest practicability. The plant is housed in the fuselage of a small low-wing monoplane, although plants of similar type could be mounted in the wings of larger craft. Air is picked up from a region of high pres- sure on the streamlined fuselage by a circumferential scoop and conducted to the intake of an axial-flow, rotary com- pressor. This unit compresses the air and delivers to a series of combustion chambers into which the liquid fuel is injected."* The combustion gases, with an excess of air, are then expanded through an axial-flow gas turbine which drives the main air compressor. Only part of the energy of the stream is absorbed in this work and the remainder is available for propulsion as a jet of high momentum which finally discharges through the tail nozzle In continuous operation heat will present problems at the combustion chambers and the turbine. Chambers can be of special heat-resistant steel or, possibly be lined with refractory material. The turbine casing and, if necessary, the rotor shaft and hub can be fluid cooled. In the draw- ing fluid cooling is depicted for the chambers and the tur- bine casing. Heat abstracted from these units is not lost but delivered to the air in the compressor intake duct by means of a shallow, annular heat exchanger. A header tank for the fluid is mounted above. All auxiliaries are conveniently grouped ahead of the intake duct. A four- cylindei engine serves for the initial starting of the pro- pulsion plant and thereafter provides an independent power source for driving fuel pumps, cooling pumps, lighting dynamo and hydraulic pumps. The aircraft is of extremely low build, as is shown in the small inset sketch, in remarkable contrast to a normal plane with engine and airscrew. Landing gear is of the tricycle type with a retractable nose wheel. The main wheels are fixedly mounted and half-submerged in the wing. It is hoped that this drawing will be of some interest to students of the problem. Certainly it will be of value to those who may not have been able to visualise a com- plete jet-propelled aircraft from the bare outline drawings and diagrams. For much of the material drawn upon for this series of articles acknowledgement must be made to the Ministry of Aircraft Production abstracts and translations; certain records from the technical library of the Royal Aero- nautical Society and the German journal, Flugsport, oi 1939- BOOK REVIEW Fighter Pilot. A Personal Record of the Battle of France. (B. T. Batsjord. Ltd., 15, North Audley Street, W.I.) 6s. net. F would Ije difficult to overpraise this excellent book. Theonly unfortunate thing about it is that it has the same title as another good book by " McScotch " about the lastwar. The author of the new book was a memljer of No. 1 Squadron, and admits that he was known to his friends as'• Paul." He was probably more concerned with making history and he made quite his share of it) than reading itor thinking about it, but here it may not be inappropriate to recall that in the account of" No. 1' (Fighter) Squadron inFlight's book. Squadrons of the Royal Air Force, it is written: " It is wry improbable that any passage of time will preventan otlker of No. 1 (Fighter) Squadron from taking pride in the number of his squadron." And what a history thesquadron has! One need only mention its three first C.O.s, C. A. H. Longcroft. F V. Holt and Geoffrey Salmond. Itsfirst battle was Neuve Chapelle. Its machines were eight Avros and four fi.E 8s. But we must not linger over thestirring days of 1915, for the equally stirring times of 1940 demand our attention. No. 1 Squadron was one of the two fighter units whichwent to France with tne Advanced Air Striking Force, and its exciting times begar on May 10th, 1940 Its machines wereHurricanes with wooden airscrews. Its adventures on its second tour in France are fully described by Paul. Of hissquadron he writes: "The squadron had developed, in the nine months preceding the blitz, from an excellent peacetimeteam into a pretty formidable wartime combination. I do not write this boastfully at all. I mean that we all had a fairamount of war experience on top of considerable flying ex- perience in peacetime: there was not one of us who was notcapable of leading a section, for we had all done so; we knew every position in our formations; and, above all, we knewench other's flying intimately, knew what we had to do in any normal circumstances, and knew what each one oi uswould be likely to tio under abnormal ones. In short, we were a thoroughly trained and drilled team, each having con-fidence in the others, and, most important of all, in the leaders.' One cannot here tell all of Paul's adventures, but on oneoccasion he fought five Me 110s single-handed for 15 minutes, aftet all his fellows nad run out of ammunition in shootingdown the othei ten membeis of the Hun formation (Paul himself had got two ol them), until his Hurricane was seton fire, and then he came down by parachute, his first ex- perience of what he calls " Brolly-hopping." He had to doit a second time, and the second time he " honestly rather enjoyed it." lr a later fight a bullet struck him on the sideof the neck, exposing the jugular and lodging against the spine, which caused temporary paralysis of both arms. Hehad some bad moments as his Hurricane came down, but recovered the use of his aims just in time to land it with thewheels up. Then he went to hospital, and in due course he and nine other of the original officers of the squadron receivedthe Distinguished Hying Cross, while three sergeants got the Distinguished Flying Medal. Apart from Pauls gift tor vivid description of a fight, with just enough technicalities and not too much, one enjoys his comments on men and things. He writes with a literary skill unusual in such a young man. He discourses on courage; he is never ashamed to admit that he sometimes felt frightened, that he praj'ed (once by night on the steps of a chapel for a German whom he had killed that day); and he is never either boastful or falsely modest. His anecdotes are well chosen and very well told. In fact, this book is a model of what a book on air fighting ought to be.
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