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Aviation History
1946
1946 - 1280.PDF
FLIGHT JULY 4TH, 1946 FARNBOROUCH DISPLAY riding air-to-air guided missile—were available for demonstra-tion. By way of the 0.303m gas-operated Vickers and Brown- ing, a half-inch Colt and 20 mm Mark I and V Hispanos, theguns ranged to the 40 mm Vickers " S" gun (rate of fire no r.p.m.) and the experimental Rolls-Royce of the same calibre.On the tarmac nearby stood a Mosquito FB Mark VI used for the determination of R/P ballistics, and having zero-lengthcarriers under the fuselage for some awesome projectiles the characteristics of which had been deleted from the placard.The port wing was decked with four 3in rockets with 251b A.P. heads, and the starboard wing with the same numberof 6olb projectiles having S.A.P.H.E. heads. Lancaster Barbette Guns Hangar exhibits included a formidable Bristol B.17 turretwith twin Hispanos, some gyro gun-sights, carrier units and a smoke screen bomb. It was not, unfortunately, possible todisplay the mechanism of !he remotely controlled barbettes, each with two 20 mm guns, as fitted to ah experimental Lan-caster parked inconspicuously behind the hangar. The gun- layer in this machine has a special position in place of thestandard tail turret. The capacious supply container designed for dropping fromHalifaxes and Lancasters seemed to many visitors mis- classified as an armament exhibit—until they fell to countingthe number of boxes of S.A.A. and oilier munitions it con- .tainedOther R.A.E. exhibits in "A" shed included a mobile gas- turbine test stand on which a Jumo 004 was mounted for prooftesting prior to flight trials; a mobile decompression chamber for training pilots in the use of oxygen; various examples ofoperational instruments; specialized materials and their use in the latest clothing for aircrew; examples of the most recentdevelopments in aerial cameras and the mobile equipment for "rush'' printing; demonstration models of controlledweapons; and a Schlieren apparatus for rendering fluid flow Bristol's new four-piece crankshaft has separate crankpinunits joined at the centre bearing withhollow dowels and set-pins. formation visible.In the radio part of the exhi-bition were in- cluded examples ofvarious long- and short - range com-munication equip- ment, includingthe latest inter- comm. sets. TheConsol system de- vised by the Germans was of particular interest since it is tobe officially adopted for our own civil aircraft use, utilizing the existing German-built station at Stavanger in Norway tocomplement a new station now being built at Bush Mills, Antrim, Ireland. The structural and mechanical engineering department ofthe R.A.E. displayed the "Temple," "Abbey," and "Cathe- dral" strength-testing frames, a half-scale 115ft span modelof the Brabazon I wing being installed in the latter frame. In addition there were drop-test rigs for undercarriage test-ing, and resonance tests being carried out on a Seafire. A seemingly light-hearted demonstration took place in theDitching Tank, where scale models of various types of aircraft are catapulted at a scaled speed into the tank to determinetheir ditching qualities. The last R.A.E. exhibit we visited was the high-speed wind-tunnel, which has a working section of 10ft by 7ft, and two D.C. motors of 2,000 h.p. each arranged on a single shaft todrive the 16ft dia 13-bladed fan which produces a maximum flow speed of 600 m.p.h. A development of the Airspeed Ambas-sador (left), the A.S. 60, is a high- speed military transport with a loadingramp in the rear. The Saro trans- port flying boat (model below)makes an interesting comparison with the jet-propelled fighter flying boat(lower left.) Bottom right is the Vickers trans-sonic rocket with amodel of the Mosquito to be used for launching it.
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