FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1947
1947 - 0035.PDF
JANUARY 9TH, 1947 FLIGHT BOSCOMBE DOWN a staff composed mainly of civilians. Under his control comes the Defects and Installations Section, which investi- gates minor accidents, and reports and remedies faults, and the Engineering Technical Section, which studies carbon monoxide contamination, cabin heating, gun heating and cooling, flame damping and similar problems. Likewise in the Engineering Wing is the Mechanical Engineering Sec- tion. Here new types of aircraft are appraised from the engineering standpoint, special attention being paid to simplification of maintenance and servicing. In addition there is a special section which studies electrical systems and their defects. The Superintendent of Engineering, further, has control h of the Intensive Flying Development Technical Section jf which works with the I.F.D. Flight in turning intensive air-testing to the best account. It is usual for one or two early aircraft of a new type to be flown, within as short a time as possible, for 100-1.50 hours. Experience of im- mense value to the Service is thus accumulated. The Naval Engineer Liaison Officer, of whom mention has already been made, transmits advance information on engineering matters to the Admiralty. Separate sections are responsible for Signals and Navi- gation equipment on aircraft arriving at Boscombe to be passed out, and there is a busy Photographic Section which • handles the various types of cine and still cameras now so vital to the work of the A. and A.E.E. One type of ultra A test rig used for static functioning trials of a twin-20 mm.gun installation in the wing of a fighter. high-speed cine camera takes 3,000 frames a second; another is used for stereoscopic photography and a third is specially adapted to record take-off and landing charac- teristics. The Photographic Section is further responsible for camera installations on aircraft arriving for test. Head of the Maintenance Wing, under the Technical Direction of the Superintendent of Engineering, is Wing Cdr. Fletcher. A preferable title to that of Superintendent of Perform- ance would be "Superintendent of Aircraft Tests." Mr. Hufton, who succeeded Mr. Scott-Hall as " S. of P.," con- trols the Aircraft Research Section, which studies testing technique, e.g., measurement of speed by radar, the Civil Test Section and the Engine Performance Section. Reports are channelled to the " S. of P." from A, B and C Squadrons through Messrs. Truran and Cushing, the Senior Handling and Senior Performance Technical Officers. The Civil Test Section will soon become the Civil Test Flight, with an authorized establishment. For the time being much of the maintenance work on civil aircraft is being done by the firms concerned and the principal com- panies have resident representatives at Boscombe. Statistics It will have been gathered that the workings of the A. & A.E.E. are vastly more complex than those of a normal R.A.F, Station and, in view of the importance of his commitments, Air Commodore Fraser had been at great pains to assess the loading and capacity of his organization. He was unashamedly a statistician and business-efficiency enthusiast, and the "Stats. Room," his pride and joy, had greatly lightened his task of running the establishment. Every detail he designed himself, utilising the cheapest materials, such as strips of paper, price tags and paper clips. Each type of aircraft he "charged" a number of points, according to the man-power needed to maintain it, one point equalling 450 man-hours, and it was possible within practical limits to gauge the load of work. "Con- tinuity '' and '' skill'' factors were introduced in assessing the capacity of the station. Statistical returns were made on special forms and the data presented were reproduced graphically on wall boards before being concentrated in a hanging-file system from which at an instant's notice, Air Commodore Fraser could quote the history of any aircraft after its reception at Boscombe. Thus his "Stats. Room" recorded the influence of all important factors on the everyday work at what is probably the most interesting air station in the world. THE STORY OF A.T.A. QTRIKING a nice balance between the simple factual record»-J and any over-dramatized or glamorized account, Brief Glory * gives very nearly the perfect picture of six year.s of workby Air Transport Auxiliary. And, as such, it was badly needed. For, despite the publisher's words on the dust-coverconcerning the organization's " romantic rise to fame," the A.T.A. somehow never managed to achieve any appreciablepublic recognition. Even in 1945 the ferry pilot's uniform still . mystified the ordinary citizen, who, peering at the insignia,supposed that its wearer must belong to the Tasmanian, Tan- ganyikan or Turkish Air Arm. Perhaps even the publication of this book will do little toincrease the ordinary person's knowledge, since the author has been intent on capturing the true spirit of the organizationrather than on straining to appeal to wayward popular tastes. To anyone who was directly or indirectly concerned with thevarious ferry pools, the historical vignettes dealing with the life and character of those at Whitchurch, Hawarden, andso on, will be appreciated to the full. Nicely balanced variations of personal report, semi-apocryphal story and plainfact are used with good effect. From the mud of Hawarder to the terrifying meteorological situations in the Kirkbride areathe ferrying picture at each has the stamp of realism. Ths photographs, also, have been well picked; they are neither toe-posed nor too amateur, and the personalities are as their *" Brief Glory," by E. C. Cheesman; Harborough Publishing Co., Ltd., 15s. friends in the A.T.A. or at the M.U.s and factories knew them. To each person who knew the A.T.A. there will seetn tobe omissions—such are inevitable in a book which is not arranged to run into a whole series of volumes. There are,too, some minor anachronisms in the record of the A.T.A.'s earlier history, and one or two names have somehow beenmissed from the roll of A.T.A. aircrew—R. A. F. Farquharson, for instance, who left to join the Service and became a 41 GroupR.F.S.O. at Kirkbride, and J. C. V. K. Watson, who eventually lost his life on blind-approach instructional work with theNavy. I mention those two because they were among the very early pilots of the A.T.A., and because " Watty," with F. D.Bradbrooke, Carill S. Napier and myself, was one of the first to be tried out at C.F.S. on " real " aircraft—and veryfrightening it all was for us. I was the baby in experience among them—temporarily replacing, if I remember rightly,Keith-Jopp whose disabilities Upavon would not at first agree to face. Brief Glory gives a very real idea of the meaning of ferryflying—which was a much tougher job than anyone outside the business could possibly imagine. The combination of newtypes, strange country and doubtful weather could, faced day after day, eventually knock the bottom out of anybody'snervous system. And in the early days, at least, the pilots took practically no leave; it was a seven-day-a-week job. Ileft the A.T.A. in October, 1940, on commissioning in the R.A.F.V.R. as a test pilot; my next five years' work was,by comparison, quite a rest-cure. H. A. T.
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
