FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1948
1948 - 0837.PDF
and AIRCRAFT ENGINEER Editorial Director G. GEOFFREY SMITH, M.B.E. Editor - -CM. POULSEN Assistant Editor - MAURICE A. SMITH, D.F.C. (WING CDR., R.A.F.V.R.) Art Editor - - JOHN YOXALL FIRST AERONAUTICAL WEEKLY IN THE WORLD .• FOUNDED 1909 Editorial, Advertising and Publishing Offices : DORSET HOUSE, STAMFORD STREET, LONDON, S.E.1 Telegrams : Flightpres, Sedist, London. Telephone : Waterloo 3333 (60 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, 3 : 260, DEANSGATE. Telegrams : Iliffe, Manchester. Telephone : Blackfriars 4412. GLASGOW, C2: 26B, RENFIELD ST. Telegrams : Iliffe, Glasgow. Telephone : Central 4857 SUBSCRIPTION* RATES Home and Abroad Year, £3 I 0. 6 months, £1 10 6. No. 2059 Vol. Llll June 10th, 1948 Thursdays, One Shilling Outlook Safer Flying ^R ECENT correspondence, and more particularly the article "Towards Greater Air Safety" which we published on May 20th, has served to focus atten- tion on a subject which is causing disquiet throughout the world: the frequency of air accidents arid the high percentage of them in which, there is reason to believe, the occupants could have been saved if the aircraft had not caught fire. We have received from readers a large number of letters, some of which are published in this issue, in which the causes of accidents and fires in crashes are examined and solutions offered. As was to be expected, opinions vary greatly, and it is necessary to retain, among the wealth of detail, a clear appreciation of the fact that the whole subject divides naturally into two aspects: £#uses which, directly or indirectly, lead to accidents; and how to prevent catastrophic fires from breaking out when an aircraft does crash. The former is, unfortunately, not a matter for the air- craft designer. Numerous aids to navigation and flight control are in existence, most of them good; but the equipment is expensive, and no nation can well be ex- pected to launch out into large commitments if, in a short time, international agreements might render the equip- ment redundant. Agreement is obviously necessary, since it would be impracticable to equip airports to cater for every possible system of airborne equipment. It would be equally impossible for an aircraft to carry all manner of " systems " so as to be able to work with a variety of ground installations on a route which traversed several countries. I.C.A.O. is often accused of being too slow, of doing a lot of talking and arguing with little to show in actual practical results. To us this appears unfair in view of the many, and often conflicting, interests involved. But there is no denying the fact that the matter is urgent, and that until general agreement is reached on the type of equipment used on the main air routes of the world, accidents will continue to happen. Fortunately summer is just beginning, and a short breathing space is thus afforded us before autumn and winter, with their greater accident proneness, are upon as once more. The Fire RiskW HEN everything humanly possible has been done to avoid crashes, there still remains the problem of ensuring^hat when an accident does occur, the effect is less serious than, unfortunately, has been the case hitherto. The letters which we publish this week, and others that will appear in the next issue, disclose considerable dis- agreement as to what should be done. That is not very surprising, in view of the number of different approaches which are possible, and some of which are impracticable for one reason or another. One of the most obvious—and seemingly simple—ways of giving the occupants of a crashed aircraft a chance to get out of the machine is to increase the number and size of emergency exits. The problem is, however, not as simple as it appears. In the early days of civil aviation, when forced landings due to mechanical troubles or to weather were frequent, it was not difficult. Coverings were mainly fabric, and failing everything else a pocket knife could soon force an exit. With all-metal construc- tion, sound-proofing of cabins and so forth, the problem has become rather more complicated. Frames of doors and hatch covers are apt to be distorted in a crash, and it does appear possible that a fair number of fabric- covered emergency exits might provide a workable tem- porary solution, at least in aircraft which do not have pressurized cabins. The tendency in future aircraft will be towards high flying and pressurization, and what the answer to that puzzle may be we frankly do not know. It may be that there is none unless an unacceptable weight penalty is
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
