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Aviation History
1947
1947 - 1410.PDF
2O8 FLIGHT AUGUST 2IST, 1947 CORRESPONDENCE The Editor does not hold himself responsible for the views expressed by correspondents. The names and addresses of the writers, not necessarily for publication, must in all cases accompany letters. THE BIRD How Should Wyvern be Pronounced ? IT is noted in Flight oi Aug. 7th that beneath some excellentphotographs of the "Wyvern" we are instructed that the name is pronounced '' WIVVERN " ! ! Presumably thus by official decree! Apart from long use as the name of a ship in the Royal Navy, the briefest consultation of any recognized dictionary will pronounce this mythical bird as WIVERN or WYVERN. How is it that correct English is insufficient or too '' high- brow " for some people? Perhaps it is beneath the dignity of the " Powers-that-be ' to speak good English and to resort in their paucity of knowledge to the creation of further mean- ingless garble? Can we not rise higher than perpetuating "official" inaccuracies? I hope so. J. D. WALSH. [While agreeing wholeheartedly with our correspondent, we would point out that it is, apparently, the Navy that insists on " Wivvern " as the correct pronunciation.—ED.] . DESIGN FOR LANDING Approach Control a Matter for Better Design IN talking to a number of civil airline pilots recently I wasdisturbed to find an almost unanimous agreement among them that the approach controllability of modern commercial aircraft is, generally, far from satisfactory. The key to the matter seems to be that the most stringent approach limita- tions should be taken as a design norm since these are the most difficult to satisfy—as far as the pilot is concerned. That is to say, in visual or "contact" conditions the pilot's job will be far less difficult than when coming-in by the aid of an instrument landing system. On this basis SCS-51 can be taken as a standard since this imposes on the pilot the requirement that he places and main- tains his aircraft within an ever-narrowing conic zone from the start of his final approach until actual touch-down, and it is unlikely that any future instrument landing system will call for more accurate positioning of the aircraft than this. In turn, the ease with which the pilot can do this is dependent solely upon the aircraft designer—given basic airline quality of skill on the part of the pilot—since it is the design of the air- craft which governs its behaviour in any given flight cir- cumstance. Patently, then, if the airline pilots are to be heeded, not enough attention is being paid by design people to the absolutely essential quality that every passenger-carrying air- craft should have inherently stable glide path characteristics. Landing is the worst feature of a pilot's duties, and in Q.B.I, conditions no pilot should be called upon to have to keep re-trimming and fiddling with throttles in order to keep in the beam. He should be able to place his aircraft for the final run-in with everything set for a steady 300ft/min (or what- ever the sinking "speed is for the particular airfield concerned) FORTHCOMING EVENTS Aug. 20th to 29th.—Twenty-Second Model Engineer Exhibition. New Royal Horticultural Hall, Vincent Sq., S.W.I. Aug. 22nd to 25th.—Norwegian Aero Club : Air rally, Tonsberg, near Oslo. Aug. 28th to Sept. 13th.—^Engineering and Marine exhibition. Olympia, London. Aug. 30th and 31st.—Cinque Ports Flying Club. Folkestone Air Races meeting. Lympne airport. Sept. 3rd to 6th.—Royal Aeronautical Society : Aeronautical Congress. Sept. 6th.—Naval Aviation : Air display and static exhibition. Lossie- mouth air station. Moray, Scotland. Sept. 6th.—Air display at R.N.A.S. Yeovilton. Sept. 9th to 12th.—S.B.A.C. Exhibition and display. Sept. 13th to 15th.—Cannes Aero Club " Ailes d'Azur " Film Festival air rally. Cannes-Mandelieu airfield. Sept. 14th.—Royal Aeronautical Society : Garden party. Radlett airfield. Sept. 14th.—R.A.F. Association (Yeovil) : Battle of Britain air display at WestUnd's airfield. Sept. 17th to 19th.—Federation Aeronautique Internationale : Annual General Conference, Geneva. Sept. 20th.—R.A.F. Association (Cardiff Branch) Battle of Britain week air display. Cardiff Airport. Oct. 19th to Nov. 24th (approx.).—Royal Aero Club of Belgium. Air rally to the Belgian Congo. (Brussels to Le Kivu.) and leave his aircraft to it. This can be done on Dakotas with no trouble at all. Is it that the constant calls for ever- greater speed, climb and range performance have diminished in designers' minds the importance of landing performance? One knows, of course, that there is great concern with keeping landing speeds as low as possible, but this has only an indirect bearing on the approach problem. It is not putting it too strong to say unreservedly that it is imperative that everything which can be done to make control of an aircraft as simple and unstrained as humanly possible during the critical approach period should be given top pjjtj""" in design offices. '' CONTACTOR* HOLLOW STEEL BLADES Another Case of History Repeating Itself ? AMONG the many interesting items in the very excellent •**• review by Mr. L. G. Fairhurst of the airscrew position as it is affected by the coming of the gas turbine, there was one •which I found particularly illuminating: the reference to hollow steel blades in last week's issue. Flight has often referred to the way in which history repeats itself in aviation matters, in that an idea which was tried in the early days and then discarded as impracticable has been revived and made a success in modern times. The hollow steel blade seems to be a case in point. Sometime in the "twenties" (I think it was) a good deal of research and development was devoted to this subject, and the Leitner-Watts hollow steel airscrews were subjected to spinning tests and actually flown on aircraft. The first tests were very promising, and it was not until the blades had been run for a considerable number of hours that trouble came to light. The cause appeared to be resonance causing fatigue and cracking of the steel, in spite of the fact that the wall thick- ness of the blades was graded by laminar tapering. Mr. Fairhurst gives one hope that, when coupled to a smocth turbine, the steel blade may be revived with considerable benefits, not only in the matter of de-icing but in actual weight-saving when the diameter is in excess of 13ft. As the majority of gas turbines of the future will, presumably, be of high power, calling for large diameters, it looks as if this bit of British pioneering may receive a new lease of life. " FERROUSITE." BOOK REVIEWS "Blue Pencil Admiral," by Rear-Admiral G. P. Thomson, C.B., C.B.E. Sampson Low, Marsion &• Co., Ltd. 15s net.N O one would attribute to our Press Censorship of the early war days the virtues of efficiency or consistency, but as the organization evolved it gained the trust not only of the Press (which does not lightly repose its confidence in any official body) but of the. public. How this came about is told by the new book, the interest of which lies chiefly in the illustrative anecdotes which abound, rather than in the accounts of internal organization, much of which was of a purely tem- porary nature. The part played personally by the Admiral in the perfection of an extremely complex and delicate mac is evident throughout. A book of this nature will automatically become a standard work of reference and accuracy will be of paramount import- ance to the student. That this is generally present can hardly be doubted, but the Admiral's account of one incident— admittedly trivial—needs to be rectified. According to the Admiral "a Service adviser, an ex-civilian, wanted to ban a picture of a Beaufort in the days when the armament of this type of aircraft was still being kept secret. ' But why? ' asked the (newsreel) exhibitor. ' The picture doesn't show any armament.' 'Oh, yes it does,' was the reply. 'What about those two holes in the front? Obviously they are for two cannon.' Fortunately the exhibitor had a fairly good tech- nical knowledge. 'Pardon me,' he retorted, 'those holes are the two air inlets for the engine.' " The picture was, as a matter of fact, submitted, not by a newsreel, but by Flight. Knowing the terms of the relevant regulations we respectfully—and successfully—challenge" authority. The holes, of course, were not "air inlets for the engine " but the intakes to the oil coolers.
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