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Aviation History
1946
1946 - 0772.PDF
398 APRIL I8TH, 1946 This smoke tunnel twenty feet long and seven feet high for studying airflow characteristics has been designed by students of theschool, who are also building it. The construction is now almost complete. Miles Technical School Private Scheme for Training Factory Practice A NEW aircraft is being built at a factory belongingto Miles Aircraft, Ltd. Both the aircraft and thefactory, however, are unusual, for the factory is part of a school and the new aircraft, except for its engines, is being constructed entirely by the students of the school without any aid other than consultation with their instructors. These students, whose ages are mostly between sixteen- and nineteen, also designed the aircraft, and are carrying out all the detailed drawings and stresswork. Some time ago, Mr. F. G. Miles, the managing director of the company, conceived the project of running this technical school in order to ensure sound practical, as well as theoretical training in aircraft engineering for junior employees. With the collaboration of Dr. Csato, and under the directorship of Mrs, F. G. Miles, who has had much to do with its success, the school was opened in 1943. Some 24 girls and 30 boys made up the first course. The system of training thus begun has steadily expanded until at the present time there are now over 100 students, and there is the prospect of further expansion in the future to a maximum of about 180 students. A year or two before the school was opened, a small training centre had been started for junior draughtswomen with the approval of M.A.P. who had supplied the neces- sary hut accommodation. Fresh building being out of the question in wartime, these huts were moved to a new site alongside some disused farm buildings and the latter were converted to machine, fitting and assembly shops. Thus there was an excellent nucleus of buildings for a school for the new technical training scheme. The* scheme itself aims at giving not only adequate practical and theoretical experience to the trainee, but at giving also as much responsibility as possible in order that ch iracter and initiative are given every chance to develop. Young Students : Complete in Classrooms To this end, the students carry on with the minimum of supervision, and in fact their practical training savours more of normal "work" than of student exercises. Entry to the school is by careful selection after personal interview. The chief qualifications demanded are that the prospective student should show intelligence and be of the right age and type. It does not matter whether his education has reached secondary or only elementary school standards provided that the standard of knowledge One of the students at work with a parallel-action draughting machine on drawings of the school's aircraft. Much of thedetail designing has been carried out by gir1 students.
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