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Aviation History
1945
1945 - 1908.PDF
SEPTEMBER 27TH, I945 FLIGHT 337 N GERMANY TO-DAY diameter and 7-metres long (suitable for large turbine or piston engines) was found intact, the damage caused by one large bomb in 1944 having been repaired. I chatted with the designer Herr Ch. Soestmeyer on the site. This modern and costly test plant with dynamometer and water brakes requires so much current that it is operated only at night, and pro- vides for engine tests up to 50,000ft. altitude. With refrigerated air (F.R.I.H.O.) down to 70 deg. below zero and exhausters, a wind velocity of 560 m.p.h. is possible ; high alti- tude conditions can be safely and faithfully simulated on the ground, and the behaviour and output of the engine observed through a periscope and maze of instruments. Thrust augmentors and assistors were also produced at these works, but the factory is now practically at a standstill. Another large laboratory at Gottingen is also lavishly equipped with research apparatus of every kind. Enough has been said to indicate the measure of the long-term research and scientific study of fundamentals on which German technicians approached their problems. Unquestionably British technicians ' can benefit—indeed are already benefiting—from a study of the methods and first-class equipment employed. The tunnels, for example, are more advanced and bigger than any existing in this country or America, and the pro- jected Bedford research establishment will take years before it is equipped and ready for use. All these Ger- man stations named can be put to useful work by Britain almost at once, and advantage taken of the experience in finally planning costly research stations in this country, the need for which this journal has frequently stressed. First-class training schools such as the former gliding school high in the mountains at Scharfoldendorf, south of Hanover, have been taken over by the R.A.F. Here officers assured me that Germany had nothing we had not already developed in radar, but their method of testing pilots for high-altitude flying in decompression chambers were of considerable interest. I was told also of a novel form of ribbon-type parachute for pilots of jet-propelled aircraft. Such machines travel so quickly ..that a pilot baling out might be killed in somersaulting • or failing to get clear. Therefore, an explosive cartridge —or compressed air charge—is arranged to eject the pilot and his seat complete in emergency. To prevent somer- saulting, a parachute is attached to the seat, which descends at 90 m.p.h.—the pilot presumably sitting pretty! He then bales out of the seat at leisure, so to speak, using his own small ribbon-type parachute. The novelty of this parachute is that it has loose circular rings rather akin to a lady's fancy parasol, but curled over at the edges like a mushroom. Inside there are vertical ribs to prevent air surge which checks the para- chute from any tendency to swing. The pilot's parachute permits an even and slow descent, the inside fins col- lecting pockets of air to prevent twisting. As to aircraft, a study of the latest and projected types cannot fail to prove valuable. The pages of Flight are now including many interesting and instructive details of revolutionary German designs of aircraft, turbine and Devastation in Ruhr cities iscomplete. Only main roads have been cleared for traffic. piston engines and flying missiles, notably of the rocket bi-fuel types. The latter employed concentrated hydro- gen peroxide and a mixture of hydraulic hydrate and alcohol in separate tanks delivered to the combustion- chamber jets under pressure by turbine-driven pumps. • A notable weapon on the verge of completion was the Vergeltung (Destroyer) for the defence of vital targets against air attack. B.M.W. were making 500 of these anti-aircraft rockets which were initially started from the ground in similar manner to the Vi. The parts lie around the B.M.W. works to-day. The missile was pro- pelled by a bi-fuel rocket unit, and its speed kept below sound by means of a control switch. The pistons were of about 14m. diameter and in the nose was 42 kilo- grammes of very high explosive. Radio-controlled or guided, the intention was to direct such missiles into bombers, and it is said that when the switch was blown, the missile would " home " on its prey. At the damaged B.M.W. factory I saw a 28-cylinder, four-row liquid- cooled radial engine, designation 803, the product of the Spandau works, as well as an experimental V-12 liquid- cooled engine with fuel injection much on the lines of the Daimler Benz. (The conclusion of this article will appear in the next issue.) P.o.W.s FLY TO FREEDOMM ORE than 18,000 Allied P.o.W.s have already flown onthe first stage of their journey home from Japanese in- ternment camps in South-East Asia. Most of them will com-plete the journey by sea. Comfortable travelling conditions will be available. In the occupied territories, however, Alliedair attack has so disrupted communications that it was decided to carry the liberated men and women to the ports by air, atsome sacrifice of comfort, so that repatriation could be speeded up. AIRCRAFT PRODUCTION '"PHE main article in the October issue of our associateJ- journal Aircraft Production is the first oi three devoted to production of hydraulic equipment by Dowty Equipment,Limited, and has particulai reference to the manufacture of the undercarriage for the Avro Lancaster bomber.Other articles are the second of a series of three on resistance- welding practice, devoted this month to stitch and projectionwelding, a review of time study and its applications, and an interesting account irom an American practice of the use ofgrid lines photographed on to metal specimens to serve as a means of measuring the flow and stretch of the material undertest or during forming operations. Also included are reviews of the latest machine tools, shopequipment and small tools, which appear month by month as regular features.
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