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Aviation History
1947
1947 - 0419.PDF
Editorial Director G. GEOFFREY SMITH, M.B.E Editor • -CM. POULSEN Assistant Editor • and AIRCRAFT ENGINEER Art Editor MAURICE A. SMITH, D.F.C. (WING COR.. R.A.F.V.R.) - JOHN YOXALL FIRST AERONAUTICAL WEEKLY IN THE WORLD .• FOUNDED 1909 Editorial, Advertising and Publishing Offices -. DORSET HOUSE, STAMFORD STREET, LONDON, S.E.1 Telegram* : Hightpres, Sedist, London. Telephone : Waterloo 3333 (50 lines.) COVENTRY: 8-10, CORPORATION ST. Telegrams : Autocar, Coventry. Telephone : Coventry 5210. BIRMINGHAM, 2: KING EDWARD HOUSE, NEW STREET. Telegrams : Autopress, Birmingham. Telephone : Midland 7191 (7 lines). MANCHESTER, J : 260, DEANSGATE. Telegrams : Iliffe, Manchester. Telephone : Blackfriars 4412. GLASGOW, C.2: 26B, RENFIELD ST. Telegrams : Iliffe, Glasgow. Telephone: Central 4857 No. 1996. Vol. LI. SUBSCRIPTION RATES : Home and Abroad : Year, £3 I 0. ' Registered ot the O.P.O. as a Newspaper March 27th, 1947 6 months, £1 10 6. Thursdays, One Shilling. "We Outlook IV o Sorts of ProgressT WO events took place last week which served to focus attention on the way flying is shaping. One was the presentation to G/C. Donaldson of the Britannia Trophy for 1946, and the other the first annual dinner of the Helicopter Association of Great Britain. The Britannia Trophy is awarded for the most meritorious performance in the air each year, and obviously the 1946 award was thoroughly well deserved. To paraphrase the famous Punch saying, "if you like speed, this 616 m.p.h. is the sort of thing you like." A. V-M. Sir Charles Longcroft, the first holder of the Britannia Trophy, admitted that he had not piloted an aircraft for five years. He thought he co.uld do it, but the vast array of instruments frightened him. Capt. Pritchard put it differently at the helicopter dinner. He considered it crazy, in commercial aviation, to have aircraft landing.at 120 m.p.h. .and expect to "get away with it" every time, especially as the num- ber of suitable airports was so limited. His view, and it is also ours, expressed on more than one occasion, is that aviation has run away from itself; that before we l^talk of cruising at 400 or 500 m.p.h. we should learn liow to keep an aircraft in the air at 60 m.p.h. or so, under full control. When we have learnt how to do that it is time enough to see what is the highest cruising speed we can couple with the low landing speed. _ In the meantime, and unless and until high-lift devices far more effective than any now available have been dis- covered, we should pause in the mad race for high cruising speeds and be content with reasonable wing loadings and their associated lower landing speeds. The operators are to blame, not' the designers and construc- tors, who produce what is demanded. The helicopter covers the low-speed end of the scale, imt it is complementary to, not a competitor of, fixed- wing aircraft. Airscrew-Turbine DevelopmentT WO significant announcements have recently been made in the aircraft gas turbine field, namely—that Bristol Theseus power units have made a successful start on their air test schedule, and tha't this type of airscrew-turbine is to be put into pro- duction at the request of the Ministry of Supply. Power units comprising an airscrew driven by a gas turbine have flown before in this country r nd in America, but they have all been of a strictly experimental nature. The Theseus has reached a more advanced stage than any other unit in its class, and it stands albne in hold- ing a full type-test certificate. That it is considered highly promising is indicated by the decision to go into production, and it is certain that a number of installa- tions are in mind, in addition to the Hermes V. Details of the Theseus installation in a Lincoln modified for duty as a flying test-bed, and some preliminary data concerning the Hermes V will be found in this issue. With heat exchanger the specific fuel consumption of the Theseus at current transport speeds and altitudes is low enough for it to be fairly claimed that a gas tur- bine for the first time approaches the economy of a com- parable piston engine. One more indication that this country is holding, if not improving, its lead in aircraft gas turbine development, and the knowledge that the months of research and development which have gone into the airscrew-turbine in particular are now being rewarded with some success, is very welcome. Air Transport EconomicsS AFETY in air travel, or the absence thereof, is a subject which all have been discussing freely of late. The economics of so-called commercial flying are shrouded in mystery so far as this country is concerned. In the United States there are available voluminous statistics which enable one to form a picture
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