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Aviation History
1944
1944 - 0686.PDF
354 FLIGHT APR1L 0TH< x944 politicians from all parties, and preferably including the Dominions, on his council, and therefore its views could not be lightly disregarded. We all have to face the possibility that a pacifist Government may be in power at some time in the future, and we all want to guard against the danger of its once more cutting down the fighting Services below the danger level. It is likewise most necessary to see that the Army (however small it may be) has an adequate Tactical Air Force at its disposal, not a mere handful of tactical reconnaissance squadrons camouflaged under the impos ing but misleading title of army co-operation squadrons. The Air Defence of Great Britain Command ought always to be adequate to deal with a surprise attack on the British Isles. The peacetime composition of Coastal Command should be a matter of careful con sideration, because on it and on the Royal Navy depend the nation's ability to withstand attempts at blockade. Airborne troops may perhaps be found the best means of guarding against attempts to arm in secret by possible aggressor nations. In the inter-war years few politicians cared for any of these things. They told the experts to discuss them, and disregarded the findings of the experts. Lord Chat- field's scheme would at least rule out the possibility of any political party assuming the role of Gallio. 130 Million Horse-power M OTORISTS who grumble because of their small petrol allowances may find some comfort in the announcement that the ioo,oooth Rolls-Royce Merlin aircraft engine has just been produced. The Merlin started, when it first went into production in 1937, at 1,000 b.h.p. for take-off. The power of the latest type of which details have been published is over CONTENTS The Outlook - War in the Air Here and There Turbine-Compressor Units - Jets versus Airscrews Behind the Lines Aircraft in Flying Attitudes Continental Air Transport - Siebel Si 204 - Plywood and Plastics Correspondence Service Aviation - _ . . ' - - '- - - - - - - - 353 355 358 360 362 363 . 364 366 369 37i 375 377 1,650. Thus in seven years the output from this amaz ing engine has been nearly doubled, without increasing its capacity or its frontal area. Although a rather academic speculation, since obviously it could not occur in practice, it is interesting nevertheless to reflect that if all those 100,000 Merlins were run at the same time, and if we assume that theii'| average power was 1,300 b.h.p., they would develop 130 million horse-power and consume, at half a pint per horse-power per hour, 8 million gallons of fuel in one hour! It is not, of course, claimed that all these Merlins were produced in the Rolls-Royce parent factory. They are the result of hard work by hundreds of thousands of people in the Rolls-Royce main factories and the works of their numerous sub-contractors, as well as by the American Packard Company. The Merlin is very far from being "finished" yet, and in the Griffon it has a successor which may well be destined for just as great development. VOi fv INVASION MOTIF : A photograph which typifies the co-operation of the three services in amphibious warfare. The Navy transports the Army and covers the landing with its guns, while the air forces put an umbrella over the whole operation.
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