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Aviation History
1943
1943 - 1769.PDF
JULY 8TH, .1943 FLIGHT CORRESPONDENCE The Editor does not hold himself responsible for the views expressed by correspondents. The names and addresses of the writers, not necessarily for publication, must in all cases accompany letters. SAILPLANE EFFICIENCY High Lift and High Resistance I T Jis refreshing to see Mr. J. R. Lawson boldly introducinga branch of flying which is not (and I hope never will be)of the slightest military or commercial value, namely, sail- planing. Though I cannot give the expert opinion he desires,his 400 lb., if empty, weight seems high, unless he is using unusual load factors. The very low landing speed is doubtlessto be obtained by means of high-lift devices, which would partly account for the weight. In general, the performance is goodfor a machine of that size and weight, as far as can be judged, hut is a long, way from being the best obtainable from any sail-plane. More details are really needed. V W. E. HICK. ENGINEERS AND SERVICE MEN Wasting Man-power DEFERRING to J. H.'s letter'in Flight of June 24th, in Iv which he says that the fighting man is still at the very least as important as the engineer. In this, I must agree, ^vhere it is applied to the early part of this war and to previous %ars, because the importance of engineering has not been fully appreciated. Even now, there must be numerous occasions where courage and bravery are the essential qualities in winning battles. But, on the whole, modern mechanical warfare is finding far less use for these time-honoured qualities. Consider, for instance, a bomber pilot faced with an over- whelming force of fighters on his way to an objective. A brave man would go on and take the probably inevitable risk of (a) losing his machine and the man-hours it took to build; (b) failing in any case to reach his objective, and (c) losing his life and the lives of his crew. The quality called for here is a strongly developed instinct of self-preservation, which might be labelled cowardice or common sense." In my opinion, it is the latter. Consider now the essential qualities of a modern Service man such as an air pilot, he being the user of a more modern form of fighting tool. His scope of operations is strictly limited to **hat his machine will do. He must be proficient at exploiting what mechanical advantages, such as speed, ceiling, range, fire power, etc., his machine has over his enemy. He becomes, in effect, the servant of the tool, rather than the tool being his servant; and the qualities that best equip him for the job are an engineering knowledge. Just as in modern industry, machines do the work and operators serve the machines; so in modern war the soldier and airman are becoming the servants of the tools they fight with, and their whole training should be (and I hope is) directed to that purpose. Success or failure in battle is becom- ing more and more dependent on the quality of the tools he fights with. When Hitler has lost this war I predict that historians will find that the chief cause of the German collapse will be his failure to appreciate until too late the importance of engi- neering. He, like our "brass hats," has been brought up with the old-fashioned military mentality, and it has made him pull too many engineers into the Forces like our Ministry of Labour seems to be doing, so that the quality of the tools they fight with has suffered. And nothing will reduce the moral ot fight-ing men more than to know they are going into battle serving inferior tools! Hitler's-only hope now, if he realises his mistake, is that our "brass hats" will continue to think th<- Forces more important than their tools and let the tools suflrrin consequence. There are perhaps few engineering firms who have notsuffered from their employees being called up and replaced by women, or by C3 men, who are becoming conspicuous bytheir absenteeism. There are also no doubt-numerous examples of qualified engineers in the Forces who would be better em-ployed in the factories; one such man I know (he" has an engineering training and eight years' factory experience inposts worth up to ^800 per year), who is now a private in the Army. Surely, it is time that the much-advertised Ministryof Labour Appointments Board worked properly and prevented such waste, and also time that the Forces released their man-wasting grip on engineers who could be better used in industry. Might I suggest, for instance, that grounded pilots andair crews be given the option of going into the aircraft industry where their experience would be useful, instead ot going intothe Army as privates, as some of them do. R. IX LEAKEY. IGNITION TESTING Different Aspects of a Controversial Subject •^PHE question of ignition testing-, whether on the ground 01-»- in the air, is always apt to produce controversy especially amongst the engine experts. The pilot wants to make SUMthat both ignition systems are doing their stufT, but the engine maker does not want any test to be carried out which maystrain an already overburdened ignition apparatus to bursting point. Originally, dual ignition was laid down as a sine qua non foraircraft engines purely on the score of reliability, so that if a defect occurred in one set of magnetos, leads or plugs theother set could keep the engine going comfortably. In the course of development, boost and M.E.P.s have risen to thepoint where, if one plug is cut out at max. power, the resultant single ignition may cause detonation. It is therefore all themore essential for the test pilot to ascertain, before passing a machine out, that both ignition systems are absolutely freefrom defects, but I entirely agree with your corresponded in advising that single ignition checks should be as short aspossible. Moreover, except when the engine is being tested in the air for the first time, or some adjustment has beencarried out to the ignition, there is a strong case for advising pilots not to earth magnetos at full power as a general rule. On the other hand, the need for a single ignition check atmoderate power every time the engine is restarted seems justi- fied, particularly in the case of radial engines. With this typethe chance of a carbon particle being washed into one of the plugs of the lower cylinders so as to cause a short, whilst theengine is standing, is considerable. At any rate, I have had reason to regret not checking the switches at zero boost aftera restart and finding myself airborne with an engine shaking like a jelly through a fouled plug! "WITNESS." THE MESSERSCHMITT Me 323 FURTHER details are now avajlable of the MesserschmittMe. 323. This aircraft is a high-wing six-engined trans- port with a span of 181 ft. and a length of 93 ft. 4 in. It wasdeveloped from the Me. 321 glider and has, in fact, almost an identical airframe. The engines are Gnome-Rhone 14 N14-cylinder, two-row, air-cooled fadials of 965 h.p. at 13,200 ft., which give it a maximum speed of approximately170 m.p.h. at sea level. The normal crew consists of two pilots, a radio operator andtwo engineers. The pilots' cockpit is forward of the leading edge and is heavily armoured. The radio operator's cabin isactually inside the main spar of the wing on the port side. In the leading edge of the wing on each side of the fuselagethere is a cabin from which the engineers control the three port and starboard engines respectively. Up to eighteen 7.9 mm. machine guns can be mounted invarious positions in the aircraft. Access to the main loading space, which measures 20 ft. longby 9 ft. wide by 11 ft. high t is through the nose of the fuse-lage, which is split to form two vertical doors 11 ft. high. Alt there is another loading space measuring 19 ft. long by 9 ft.wide with access through doors in the side of the fuselage. It is "reported that a 3-ton lorry, a light tank, or as many as 100troops can be carried. The undercarriage is composed of six rear main wheels andfour smaller front wheels housed in fairings along each side of the fuselage. Cheapness of production seems to be the main feature elmanufacture, as the aircraft is constructed mainly of steel tubes, plywood and is fabric covered.
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