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Aviation History
1947
1947 - 1125.PDF
July 10th, 1947 FLIGHT rarthest East. Atypical ice sketch by Flight Navigator Jock Milroy- maintaining a weather look-out had to be practised, both by the Flight Captain from the air and by Flying Control from the ship. Much has been said about the .danger of lumps of semi- invisible black ice floating mostly submerged, which are liable to cause severe damage to the hull or floats during landing. From my own knowledge of Arctic and Antarctic flying, I can only recollect one accident, and that in the Hudson Bay, due to this cause. There is no doubt that the risk exists, but perhaps by good luck it neVer developed as a serious danger in the area where Balaena was operat- ing. On the other hand, we did find that a machine could survive collision with quite large lumps of ice during slow taxying, without sustaining any damage at all. External and Internal Heating Keeping the aircrew warm in a small flying-boat is a hardy annual, rendered more acute by thei conditions of the Antarctic. We tackled the problem in three ways— by fitting larger generators and batteries and wiring the aircraft to supply plugs for electrically heated clothing; by installing a petrol combustion heater to circulate and heat the air in the hull; and by carrying the usual vacuum flasks of hot tea, supplemented by self-heating tins of soup. Worn beneath the Naval immersion suit, which has already been described at some length in Flight, the electrically heated under-garments. comprising body liner, gauntlets and bootees; are very suitable for the flight captain, since he never leaves his seat during flight. On the other hand, a suit that has to be unplugged and replugged every time the wearer moves is a nuisance for the navigation .officer and the radio operator. Here the petrol combustion proved a great asset and kept them warm even at 10,000ft. We had only one mishap with this heater. This occurred when ice formed on its fuel drain pipe and caused a series of intermittent explosions in flight, but no damage resulted. Correlation of the needs of flying with the demands of the ship's management has always been a difficulty whenever aircraft have been located in a ship, whether naval or mer- cantile, From the captain's point of view, seaplane opera- tions have certain disadvantages. During a launch and recovery the ship's head and speed may have to be altered, a crash-boat has to be manned and members of the ship's company will be needed to form a handling party. More- over, whilst the aircraft is flying, the ship's course may have to be changed in order to avoid an area of bad visi- bility, or an icefield, and in the event of a forced landing' the seaplane becomes the ship's liability. In whaling, further complications are added by the fact that whales are often in tow, so that there may be a whale-boat alongside, thus limiting the ship's speed and much reducing manoeuvr- ability. This makes it sometimes difficult to provide the Flight Radio Operator Leslie Holmes, who proved that one man could function effectively as combined wireless-op, and navigator. Alec Bryce, the cinema cameraman, prepares to be catapulted off. He obtained a complete cinema record of an aerial hunt for a whale, right up to the moment of harpooning. A complete film of the expedition will be shown to the public later in the year. ft ' O Flight Captain Geoffrey Collyer, who grew the bushiest beard of the aircrew. He pulled off a safe forced-landing in the open sea.
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