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Aviation History
1942
1942 - 2148.PDF
4io Topics of the Day FLIGHT L^ OCTOBER 15m, 1942 POINTERS TO PERFECTION Stressing the Vital Importance of the Test Pilot : The Difference Between Routine and Prototype Work : Introducing Varied Experience and Open Minds to Initial Development : A Mixed "Pool'? AWEEK or two ago the somewhat aimless chatter on this page wandered on to the subject of test pilots and their somewhat anomalous position, so to speak, between God and Mammon This particular nonsense had, naturally, been written a ueek or two before it actually appeared in print, and it was distinctly encouraging to read, in the interval between production and publicati" a letter in the correspondence columns dealing withsnu same subject and voicing more or less the same doups. In fact, things work pretty wellas they are, and? nine out of ten test pilots are as hojidu and rigorous Ms (-ould possibly be expected to be in a somewhat disftppoi ing world. But there is no reason at all why the ;figul shouldn't be ten out of ten and why the other nine shouldn't be freed from what the correspondent so aptly called "economic and politico-domestic influences." Of course, he cannot be entirely freed from such influences^ Generally speaking, nearly all firms are pleasant to woi for, and the most vitally individualistic and Air Ministry- minded person must inevitably come under the influence of the various individualists who make up a "firm"—if each test pilot is permanently attached to that fyrm ; and there is no reason why he should be. The ordinary R.A.F. pilot is shifted about like a railway truck for the good of his soul. It is a nuisance—and, if he is married, a great deal more than a nuisance—to be moving about the place all the time. But only by organising a continuously mobile group of test pilots can any possible weaknesses in the present system be properly exorcised. I don't, for Heaven's sake, suggest that the moves need to be made more than once every six mootns, or that they need to be made with out due notice, or that they should be haphazard. Changes in the Team It would probably be enough for the test pilots to be changed about between each of the many branches or sub sidiaries of a firm, since it is obviously a good thing that the pilot who is experienced on a 4;>articular type (and who knows exactly where to look for and how to deal with the various .snags inseparable from this type) should be allowed to stick 1<> it so long as he is not being wasted. And I consider that the really expert aiyr experienced test pilot is being wasted if he is merely concerned with the routine testing of proved types which have been in production since the year dot. When people use the generic term " testing " to describe the work, they are overlooking the whole crux of the matter. There is all the difference in the world between routine production testing and the work involved in the flying ol an entirely new type. Needless to say, the same pilot can be equally proficient at either job, but each demands an entirely different set of values, The prototype test pilot is starting frpfn zero, and on his experience and honesty depends the whole future of the type, and possibly even of the war. It is terriblv important that his opinions should be entirely unbiased and that bte should not only be free of all " politico-domestic " influences, but also be in a position -nay, be compelled— to call in outside advice and opinion. He may be com pared with a doctor who is called on to deal with an entirely new disease. Needless to say, the details of the present-day prototype have been thoroughly thragfe^a out by all the people con cerned before it even begins to look like a flying machine. All the equipment and the requirements have been pre viously organised, and the test pilot is not normally called upon it 'Hy it and to sary to i designed .j1 on 1 its suitability for the purpose for which , knowing the purpose, he is expected e for any alterations which are neces- mpro* \i either as a flying aircraft or as a fighting machine. M IKW tyV>e may be the sweetest and most " perforniabJ^Sfcut it! is no good if the pilot has a poor view, oY ifMf*js unabll to get out easily in emergency, or if the cotlRLjiyout i^ tiring on long flights. The proto type teswfkiio,t must mave experience both of operational and o^M'ing requirements. testing, gin the other hand, requires skill so that 1 wastage of material and effort in unnecessary s, and so/that the pilot can cope precisely with am ities, su£n as the inevitable engine-failures or partial fajjCtres ancj4he strange control reactions which may appear i thjflgs have not been put together quite as they should Jtf requires experience of the type in question—and, better stdl, of a number of other types—so that the pilot can make intelligent suggestions to the flight shed people and so reduce the number of retests. Above all, it requires an honest and meticulous mind. But it does not require the degree of all-round experience and skill needed for prototype development. "Passers-out " The ordinary daily work of a production test pilot is that of a "passer-out" of aircraft, nothing more or less. It is no stooge job, and the pilot concerned probably has more fights than the halo-ed chap who is dealing, from time to time, with a prototype. After about three teste the production rtianager begins to get angry, and there may be a tendency to say, in effect, "Oh, hell. What's the good of bothering too much ; the wretched thmg will probably be a pack of useless rubbish within a week." And nothing in the world is so utterly stupid and useless as a wrecked aircraft. Well, rather than pass it out, the pilot may suggest that it is wheeled away and forgotten. Just one bad machine can cause the death or the capture of the world's finest fighting or bombing crew. So either it should be wheeled away and forgotten or made into a good aircraft at whatever cost in man and machine hours. It is because aircraft do not, in spite of '' mass pro duction," turn out in exactly the same shapes that a routine test pilot is necessary at all. Not only are there differences in jigs, but the various parts are not all made in the same place, and, furthermore, people make mistakes. Any test pilot will tell you that each and every machine, as it is produced, feels and behaves unlike the last. There are even "bad" ones and "good" ones, with differences so slight and so mixed that the best pilot cannot always quit< explain what it is all about. Service pilots, too, have their pets and otherwise. It is up to the routine test pilot to reduce the number of duds to an irreducible minimum if necessary, by the most stringent and even expensive means. Drastic Cures That is where "independence" comes in. There arc occasions when the only and obvious final cure for a par ticular trouble is to change, say, the ailerons, or even the wings, and to begin all over again. Nobody wants to do it; the change is expensive in time and material, and the firm's paid test pilot might be bullied into letting the thing go with, say, the maximum amount of droop, or cord, 01 other adjustment, to produce an averagely good result. And some poor operational pilot is given an aircraft
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