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Aviation History
1944
1944 - 0458.PDF
238 FLIGHT MARCH 2ND, 194$- SIMPLIFICATION AND SAFETY on one's back with a properly " held " harness, or of doing a safer belly landing and subsequently breaking one's face against the assorted items below the screen because one wasn't held back by the harness. I defy anyone to make 3 successful choice! That is, of course, an extreme example and the aircraft in question is not in service. But the experience reminded me once again that undercarriage retraction after take-off is the one action which should, if not actually made auto matic, lie at least as simple and quick an operation as is mechanically possible. At this moment the aircraft is (lying near the stall, the engine or engines are giving full jKiwer (and therefore liable to be least reliable), the ground is dangerously near, and quite big control movements are necessary to maintain level flight while holding the aircraft down to gather speed as quickly as possible. With a high- efficiency twin the throttle-hand shouldn't really leave the controls in case one of the engines cuts before a safe single- cngined flying speed has been reached, and it certainly shouldn't be necessary to change the stick-hand or even to leave the throttles to their own devices for more than a fraction of a moment. The situation is not so acute in single-engined types or in big four-engined aircraft, when an engine cut will not necessarily produce an uncontrollable swing, and certainly not a flick roll into the ground, but some kind of automatic device might be applied to all twins and particularly to twins with a high single-engined safety speed. There should be no insuperable mechanical difficulties involved, and, since the action will obviously be dependent on speed as well as on "load-off" conditions, the risk of damage by any unpremeditated return to earth will be no greater than at present; a second bounce, in any case, is usually caused by the pilot's preoccupation with the busi ness of raising his undercarriage. We already have under carriage control safety catches working on the "load-off" principle, and fully automatic retraction is only going one stage farther. Just before take-off the control would be selected to " up '' and the mechanism would do the workâwith, of course, an emergency override in case something goes wrong. The rest of the undercarriage "drill," including that for the approach, can be quite normal, and the selec tion will only be automatic with the lever in the " up" position, the weight off the undercarriage, and the speed above a certain pre-determined low level. There doesn't seem to be any particular difficulty or danger involved in the idea, and it will be more than a blessing to the pilot of twins whose observer or what-not cannot reach the1 control. ^ We'll see what we s>a11 see. "INDICATOR." Flying Bristol's in Piccadilly Netu Aviation Corner TNSUSPECTED by the vast majority of passers-by, *-' British aviation has for a good many years been well represented, unobtrusively as befits a "family circle," in the Piccadilly district of London. The Royal Aero Club and the Royal Air Force Club are there, side by side, and the Royal Aeronautical Society is but a few yards away in Hamilton Place, while the Society of British Aircraft Constructors is only a few minutes' walk away. From to-day the more permanent as well as the present floating'' population of this part of London will have a more obvious aviation centre, destined to become a favourite meeting place. The Bristol Aeroplane Co., Ltd., has decided to establish on the corner of Piccadilly and Dover Street an aviation shop window where, at first, Bristol products will be shown, but which,' later, will be available to others with an interest in furthering British aviation, such as the Air League of the British Empire, the Air Training Corps, and so forth. The object will be to bring home to all who stop and look, or who elect to inspect the exhibits at closer quarters inside, the fart that aviation is an essential part of the life of the British Empire. The main exhibit for the first few weeks will be a beautifully sectioned Bristol Hercules engine, run at low speed by its electric starter motor. The somewhat con fusing relative movements of sleeves a»'- pistons are shown very clearly, and me working of other parts as well, since even such small items as pumps are sectioned. '' Bristol Corner '' is being opened at an official ceremony to-day by Lord Brabazon of Tara.
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