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Aviation History
1946
1946 - 0540.PDF
276 FLIGHT MARCH 14TH, 1946 CORRESPONDENCE becomes 175 lb at 100 m.p.h. Thus we see that the ratio of drags at 100 rr.p.h is 175 to 133, and not 7,000 to 2500. Incidentally, the Mach number associated with 460 m.p.h. at 20,000 it is 0.65 and that corresponding ta 585 m.p.h. at sea level is 0.77. We all agiee that the Fury and Meteor are both excellent aircraft, each in its own particular role, and it would be helpful if you would publish these comments in your next issue to avoid any misunderstanding that might arise in the minds of anyone not conversant with the two types. J. LOBLEY, Senior Aerodynamic Assistant, Gloster Aircraft Co., Ltd. [In taking 7,000 lb thrust for the two Derwent units we followed the figures officially released at the time a descrip- tion of the aircraft was published. Our correspondent* is, of course, in a good position to know the results obtained in service. We must plead guilty to overlooking momentarily the fact that the Sea Fury's speed of 460 m.p.h. is attained at height, and that therefore an allowance should have been made for this in the comparison.—ED.] LIGHT AIRCRAFT Scope for the Flying RepresentativeI READ with interest the points raised by Mr. Monkhouse, in his letter headed "Light Aircraft," in Flight, February 14th. It seems to me though that he is slightly off the beam in stating '' there is no ready-made market for light aircraft''; and still further off in saying "no one really wants to fly." Surely, the very fact that a high value can be set on speedier travelling is an indication that a ready-made market does exist. Such a market can be found in the commercial world. Many industries could operate their own light aircraft, to increase their home and overseas markets. The trouble lies in overcoming the prejudice against the use of aircraft: The key to this problem, surely, is in the fact that there are people who want to fly. Many experienced pilots are available to-day who have a good commercial and administrative background. These men would make excellent flying representatives. Also, as skilled pilots, their introduction would effectively clear the air of such cloudy problems as too dangerous and too complicated. The argument that it would be too expensive does not apply, because 'it would be a sound investment. Many industries spend more on useless forms of advertising than it would cost to operate several light aircraft. There is opportunity in this, too, for using that fully co-ordinated, non-competitive, fully sponsored initial effort that Mr. Monkhouse speaks about. An agency could be formed, representing all light aircraft manufacturers, to operate a scheme of flying representatives, backed by an efficient ground service. In fact the main duties of such an agency could be as follows: (i) Select suitable applicants as flying representatives. (ii) Direct high pressure publicity campaign. (iii) Organise ground service stations. (iv) Carry out market research. Each manufacturer would be required to allot a certain percentage of his output to the production of aircraft for fly- ing representatives. As Mr. Monkhouse points out, what brings business to one brings business to all. Furthermore, once the light aircraft was established as a practical means.of boosting our export trade, the Government might well give free rein to the manufacture of these aircraft. When that happy day arrives it will mark the beginning of a new era in civil flying. There is a host of Skilled personnel ready to take part in it. Can they be denied? ROY H. BRETT. FOR THE BOOKSHELF "Alone Over the Tasman Sea," by Francis Chichester;105., George Allen and Unwin. IN the nicely organised brave new world towards which, sub-ject to our escape from atomic disintegration, we are inevitably moving, books like this will need to be read bycandlelight in the cellar, or by fiashlamp under the bedclothes, after they have been bought in an underground market. For,obviously, and in all commonsense, it will not be advisable to remind the well-nourished and fully rationalised citizen ofthe incidental grandeurs of the old anarchic world which, for the sake of the happiness of the majority, have been duly over-laid with chromium plating. Even now it is not conceivable that anyone should beallowed the personal freedom of movement which was Francis Chichester's when he set off in a Gipsy Moth seaplane to crossthe Tasman Sea in 1931. At the merest mention of the pro- ject he would probably be taken into protective custody untilsuch a time as he could find a four-engined aircraft, pass a First-Class Navigators' examination, find an experienced crew,obtain some coloured card to prove his blind-flving ability, and pass a very stringent medical examination. Even then,he would only be allowed to leave after depositing an unheard- oi sum to cover the possible costs of a search—regardless of thefact that such a search would provide as useful an exercise for the local Air Force and Navy as it would be possible to imagineand that such an exercise (without the human interest) would piobably have been carried out anyway. For those who have not read Seaplane Solo—the title of theoriginal edition—and for the benefit of the younger generation of flying people, it should be explained that this is the trueand well-written story of a most extraordinary navigational adventure. The author wanted to fly from New Zealand toAustralia; his Gipsy Moth would not cover the distance non- stop, so he borrowed some floats, studied astronomical naviga-tion, and made the crossing by way of two tiny islands in the Pacific, each one of which had to be hit spot-on. He used amarine sextant in an aircraft which was longitudinally un- stable, and plotted his position lines in a tiny open cockpit.Furthermore, his Moth was wrecked overnight after arrival at Ins second landfall—Lord Howe Island—and, with the helponly of the islanders and with no technical knowledge, he re- built the entire aircraft before continuing to the Australianmainland. In his tiny cockpit world, tied round his neck or stowed elsewhere. Francis Chichester's equipment included aBygrave position-line slide-rule, Roper's Practice of Naviga- tion, charts, three protractors, two rulers and a pair of com- passes, a sextant, a camera, spare -magnetic compasses andwatch, spare spectacles, films and knife, chronometer and barometer, a wireless transmitting key, a logbook, and, pastedto the cockpit side, a page of the Nautical Almanac, and con- version, dip and refraction tables. I should find no difficulty in writing several thousand wordsboth about the flight itself and about the literary merits of the book. There is .space only for a few quotations and com-ments. Word Impressions Everyone who has waited, while daylight ebbed away, foran aircraft to be made ready, either for a ferry or test flight, will, in his small way, remember how "every second was nowto me like another ant coming to devour a man staked to the ground." Of the force of false instinct, he writes: "... mark-less and signal-less for hours had been this desert of air, not one hundred cubic miles differed from any other. Yetalways I had flown in one direction until the idea had become stamped in my instinct that the island lay dead ahead. And,now that I had turned almost at right angles to the former course, my whole nature rose in revolt to repudiate such anunwarranted change in mid-ocean." About the work of re- construction: "... Eighteen months previously a whole long-'eron had had to be renewed because a Government inspector could detect in it, by the aid of a powerful magnifying glass.an otherwise invisible fracture. Poor fellow, not to have a branch office at Lord Howe Island; I must deputise for him.On his behalf, I passed the longeron as good enough . . . the wings, the book said, must be dihedrally rigged 31 degrees iupwards and measured with a variable inclinometer. In othei f" words, must be cocked up at the tips; but when I asked several ^men to lend me their variable inclinometer, thev looked posi- ' tively shocked." Of the sensations of oceanic flying:"... passed through the curtain of rain and entered an im- mense cavern of infinite space bounded only above by thevault of dull sky, and below by the immeasurable floor of dull water ..." Foiled in several attempts to take a more active part inthe air war, Francis Chichester, with the exalted rank of Flight Lieutenant, became an Air Ministry navigation expert. Yetthe principles which he worked out for himself are identical with some of those used by R.A.F. Bomber Command in it-attacks on Germany. One of his plots on the Tasman flight used, in fact, to hang up in the mess of the Empire NavigationSchool at Shawbury—and probably still hangs there. H. A. T.
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