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Aviation History
1946
1946 - 1976.PDF
362 FLIGHT OCTOBER 3RD, 1046 American Newsletter The 110'ton Consolidated : Record Attempts : New Civil Types ; The Fire Hazard By " KIBITZER ' AFTER a mid-summer lull in aviation news, there havesince been a number of interesting flights. Thefirst take-off, flight and landing of the Consolidated-Vultee XB-36 did not receive as much publicity as was expected; in tact, the Army seem to have done their bestto prevent any extreme reporting. One paper suggested that they did not want any photographs to be taken or published,but. nevertheless, managed to reproduce an excellent " in- flight " picture In view of the size of -the aircraft concerned,however, oar would only need to stand around Fort Worth to be able to get some sort of photograph—which was what thephotographer probably did. In view of the ballyhoo which generally accompanies such first flights—and particularly asthis is the world's largest aircraft—the Army's attitude is interesting. But the fact remains that this 250,0001b aircraftflew and flew well. The Nortnrop tailless XB-35 has also been doing its i ighttrials at Muroc Lake. Here again, these are reported as being very successful—which forms a tribute to the careful researchwork which went into the development of this machine. As previously suggested in this Newsletter, and now reportedofficially by the Air Corps, the Bell supersonic machine has more or less finished its "dry" tests, which consisted of anumber of drops, 01 releases, from the bomb-bay of a B-29. The next step is to make a power-driven flight, and this wasto have been done by the Bell pilot, Jack Woolams, but he was unfortunately killed in unexplained circumstances whileflying a hotted up P.63 which he had entered for the Bendix Trophy Kace. * * • News of American attempts on the world's speed and dis-tance records is becoming hotter minute by minuter Lock- heeds are said to be after both of them. Rumours of a specialP-80 with a somewhat different wing section and air entry duct are now current and speeds of 630 m p.h. are being forecast.This machine may fly in a week or two, and if it is satisfactory no time will be lost in going after the record—particularly asthe P-84 Thunderjet is said to have done only some 608 m.p.h. and they know very well that we cannot have suitable weatherin England until our next alleged summer. The American-held long-distance record may also beattacked by Lockheeds. Although everyone thought that the Army would try to improve the existing figufe with a B-29flight, starting in the Pacific, it is now said that Lockheeds are grooming a special Navy Neptune patrol bomber and willmake an attempt in the near future. Once more Army-Navy competition may benefit the American aircraft industry as awhole. » * « Another flight which created excitement here was that oithe prototype Douglas C-74. This machine had successfully completed some overload trials at a figure of over 165,000!!;and was actually engaged in tests requiring shallow dives at fairly high speed, with normal maximum permissible load,when it shed both wing tips. It sounds as though this was caused by aileron flutter, but, whatevei the primary causeof the failure, the final result was. to say the least of it, spec- tacular. Apparently the crew, realizing that something stillmore awkward might occur at any moment, decided to abanJ :i ship, which they did in good order leaving the pilot time.for z last look around to jnake sure nobody was left on board. The aircraft went on by itself and finally finished up throughsome high tension wires where it burnt up without hurting anybody. When the Grumman Aircraft Company pioneeredthe breakable wing-tip as a safeguard against the possibility of pulling the whole aircraft to pieces, they could scarcelyhave visualized its application to a 150,0001b military transport.Apropos of unorthodox-looking aircraft, anybody might reasonably have taken a second look recently when theysaw a Constellation streaking across the American continent with only three engines in situ. But that is what they couldhave seen when a Pan American "Connie," which had made an emergency belly landing in Connecticut, was flown back taCalifornia with only three engines and dural fairing in place of the fouith. The Lockheed test pilot who did the flightreported a perfectly satisfactory trip. I Almost every day one reads of fresh orders for multi-engined transports. The latest records give 1,013 as the figure of multi-engined aircraft on order. Incidentally, and for thespecial attention of British manufacturers, engine costs in the States work out at rather less than three pounds sterling perhorse power, and in the light aircraft market it is largely this low engine cost which enables the manufacturers to sell socheaply and to give their distributors reasonable discounts. The fact that Boeing have announced the Stratofreighter,an all-cargo version of the Stratocruiser, is interesting since it indicates that one of the leading manufacturers believes thatthere is a need for a really big freight-carrying aircraft—• which I have always thought would come in the end. Themachine will have ventral loading, will be pressurized and will have refrigerating and heating systems, thermostatically con-trolled in each of its four freight compartments. The payload will be 4i,ooolb, but no range has been given at this loading. As for medium transports, Martins say that they will flytheir 202 very soon now and the 303 at the end of the year— so that by next summer there should be a lot of new types onthe American domestic routes. Not the least interesting and welcome of these will be the Douglas DC-6 trans-Continentalsleepers which are to be delivered to American and United^ Airlines. ff * • * ..-^iT The Constellation accidents have focused everyone's atten-'tion on fire prevention. A number of new requirements are likely to be introduced in the States in the near future, cover-ing such points as the fire-proofing of the inside of the baggage compartments, the improvement of fire-fighting installations,the use of shut-off valves for all inflammable fuel or hydraulic lines, and the development of better fire-resistant qualities forall pipes in the engine bays and wheel wells. Frankly, one feels that such a programme is long overdue.During the war military aircraft with bad fire histories had to be used and machines and crews were lost as a result. lacivil flying bad aircraft must never be allowed to operate. During the last year fire has, perhaps, become the biggesthazard we have, and too little has been done about it. We make our engines and aircraft super-reliable, we introduceevery form of safety device into the machine, we spend millions on radio and meteorological aids—but we don't seem to havedone much about the one thing which is almost certain to kill everybody if it occurs Fires nearly always start in the engines or engine bays(electrical wiring fires are rare), and one wonders whether it would be possible tn use explosive engine bearer bolts, sothat the whole engine could be jettisoned if it went up in flames. After all, a machine will fly perfectly well on threeengines, and however shocking it might be for the passengers to see-their outer starboard engine parting company wii.li thewing, it would be better than being roasted alive either in «- the air or on the ground. p^ » * * ™ The many R.A.F. and R.N. pilots who flew behind Pratt& Whitney Double Wasp engines during the war will be mildly interested to know that this unit has now received itscertificate of airworthiness for commercial use. It is, in fact, the first engine to receive ah approved type certificate whenusing water injection for take-off. The civil engines will be ; known as the " CA " series and will give 2,400 h.p. for take-off, with a maximum cruising power of 1,800 h.p. on TOO/I^Ograde fuel. While on the subject of engines, it is interesting to note that all the reciprocating units in the Cleveland airraces were water-cooled. Furthermore, the majority of them ' were Rolls-Packard. Even the P-8os were powered with jetunits built in the States but based on the Whittle patents. >'
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