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Aviation History
1943
1943 - 2368.PDF
356 FLIGHT SEPTEMBER 30TH, 1943 Behind the Lines Service and Industrial News from the Inside of Axis and Enemy-occupied Countries German Transit "DEPLACING the German - Swedish-tv Convention of -July, 1940, a new agreement regulates the condition underwhich German air transit traffic is allowed to cross Sweden. It will berecalled that difficulties have arisen through the forced landing of a Germanaircraft on Swedish territory in F'ebruary and again in June, because of the dis-covery that these so-called transport air- craft were carrying arms. The new agreement gives the followingconditions under which the Swedish Government is prepared to renew its per-mission for a German air courier service: all aircraft must be specially markedwith streamers attached to the wing tips; they must not carry any arma-ment, mounted or unmounted. Crews must wear mufti and must be in posses-sion of civil identity papers. Finally, the aircraft must follow acertain prescribed route and an inter- mediary stop is allowed only on thesouthernmost route at Stockholm- Bromma airport. Focke-Wulf Loss THE head of the designing departmentof the Focke-Wulf Flugzeugbau, Andreas v. Faehlmann, has died at theage of 45. Faehlmann was first con- nected with the German aircraft industryjust after the last war. He was project engineer of the Arado Company, and in1933 joined the Focke-Wulf concern as assistant to Kurt Tank. Me sharedresponsibility for the design of several German types, such as the Fw'56Stoesser, the FW58 Weihe, trie Fw 187 twin-engined interceptor, the Fw 189, theFw 190 fighter and the Fw 200 Condor. German Estimate ACCORDING to German reports,Soviet aircraft production concen- trates mainly on single-engined fightersand heavily armoured aircraft for ground support, while the proportion of multi-engined types is said to be smaller than in other belligerent countries.The Germans now appear to have no doubts about the Russian productioncapacity, for the report says that the Russian output is at least sufficient tomake up for the current losses, or perhaps considerably more, although it estimatesthat the 1943 losses alone will reach a figure of 16,500 aircraft! Tailless Messerschmitt A GERMAN patent granted to theMesserschmitt Company deals with an arrangement of landing flaps on a tail-less aircraft. The aircraft is equipped with landingflaps placed in each Vee of the trailing- edge, and it is claimed that in this waythe trim of the aircraft is not upset and the tendency to nose-over, prevalent inother tailless types, is eliminated. A Different Commando A NEW and somewhat ambiguous termcoming into use in Luftwaffe reports is the Luftkommando. First mentionedon April 3rd, 1943, the term appears to indicate a large formation of theLuftwaffe of a size between a Flieger- corps and an air fleet (Luftflotte). Recruiting A tailless Messwschmitt design showing a new flap arrangement. THE Rumanian Air Minister, Gen.G. Yienescu, accompanied by Maj. Gen. Gerstenberg, German AirAttache in Rumania, and Col. Stetten, Chief of the German mission for recruit-ing labour, have jointly inspected the centre of the Rumanian youth organisa-tion at Braeza. It is presumed that this visit was con-nected with a new German recruiting drive for the Luftwaffe's Rumaniansatellite. From Japan OF the seven members of the JapaneseCouncil of War Economy, at least three have had some association withaviation: Admiral Toyada, president of the Federation of Iron and Steel Indus-tries, is the former Chief of the Naval Air Force; M. Goko is president of theMitsubishi concern and chairman of the Aircraft Production Committee of theWar Ministry, and Suzuki is president of the Showa- concern which controls anumber of leading aircraft factories. Other members ofthe council are the president of theBank of Japan, Yuki, Count Okochi,of the Riken con- c e r n, Yamashita,president of the Yamashita ShippingCompany, and Fuji- hara, a former pre-sident of the Federa- tion of Heavy In-dustries, and until recently adviser onSouth-western Paci- fic affairs to theNavy Department. Because of bottle-necks in the war jn- d u s t r y, Fujihara, now appointed Inspector of Administra-tion, has been entrusted with the task of making a thorough investigation of themost important branches of that indus- try, and requested to submit proposalslor their improvement. Latest,Tokyo reports state that he isat present engaged on an investigation of aircraft production which, togetherwith shipbuilding, is given first priority rank in the Japanese war effort.* Silk /^ERMAN reports reveal that thevJ supply of silk for German parachutes is provided to a considerable extent byvlocal silkworm breeding. While the, centre of this industry, established somi150 years ago, is still at Celle, the Reich Research Institute conducts extensiveexperiments and investigations into the possibilities of expanding the industry inother parts of Germany. According to recent reports, the institute succeeded inimproving the breed of the silkworm and producing a yarn which is longer andbetter than that of China. To foster local silk production, schoolchildren are being instructed in breeding methods, and secondary schools, orphan-ages and similar institutions are said to contribute considerable quantities of theimportant raw material. A French Engine THE S.A. Obstructions Mecaniques duBeam have developed a new small, air-cooled in-line engine at their plantat Jurancon, Pau, Pyrenees. Designated Beam 6D and claimed to be the world'smost powerful six-cylinder engine of this type, it has a bore of 5.12m., stroke5.32m., total swept volume of 656 cu. in. and a compression ratio of 1 to 7.2.Take-off power output on 87 octane petrol and at 2,850 r.p.m. is 375 h.p.,on 100 octane 425 h.p., and rated power . at 6,560ft. and at 2,750 r.p.m. is 350 h.r^-' Including supercharger, boost control,two fuel pumps, screened ignition harness and six accessory drives, the dry weightis 640 lb. Power loading (at 425 h.p.) is 1.5 lb./h.p. and output 39.5 h.p. perlitre. It is said that considerable difficultiesarose in the course of development work, mainly with the cooling system, in thetorque compensation, and in the design of a safe reduction gear.The cooling air is guided by cowlings and baffles mounted on the cylinder headsand removable with the latter; the cool- ing fins arrangement is said to be respon-sible for the large cooling area and advantageous cooling air circuit. Amechanical damping device approximates the torque forces of the crankshaft totheir average value so that the simple planetary gear employed, for the airscrev^drive is completely safe in operation. The valve rockers are fully enclosed andlubricated from the oil circuit, and surplus oil is removed by a special pump.A small centrifugal pump eliminates all oil sprays from the air leaving the crank-cass, and a Roots-type supercharger is installed.
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