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Aviation History
1948
1948 - 1063.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 VfbRLD .• FOUNDED 1909 Editorial, Advertising and Publishing Offices -. DORSET HOUSE, STAMFORD STREET, LONDON, S.E.I Telegrams : Flightpret, Sedlst, London. COVENTRY : BIRMINGHAM, 2 : R in CORPORATION ST KING EDWARD HOUSE,6 - 10, CORPORATION ST. N £ w STREET. Telegrams : Autocar, Coventry. Telegrams : Autopress, Birmingham. Telephone : Coventry 5210. Telephone : Midland 7191 (7 lines). Telephone : Waterloo 3333 (60 lines.) MANCHESTER, 3 : 260, DEANSGATE. Telegrams : Hiffe, Manchester. Telephone : Blackfriars 4412. GLASGOW. C.2: 26B, RENFIELD ST. Telegrams : Uiffe, Glasgow. Telephone : Central 4857 SUBSCRIPTION RATES : Home and Abroad : Year, £3 10. 6 months, £1 10 6. No. 2064 Vol. L!V July loth, 1948 Thursdays, One Shilling me Outlook Accidents and Fire f CORRESPONDENCE in this journal, preceding and 1 , following the article '' Towards Greater Air Safety" published on May 20th, has served to focus attention on the regrettably high proportion of air- craft accidents which are followed by fire and loss of life. It has been suggested that the use of diesel engines, with their fuel of high flash point, would be one way of reducing this particular danger. Sound reasons why the development of the diesel type of power plant is not now a practical proposition have been convincingly stated, first by Air Commodore Banks and, last week, by Sir Roy Fedden. Both have had extensive experience of aircraft engine development, and their views cannot be disregarded. It appears obvious that the diesel is "out" so far as aircraft is concerned, except possibly in the "triple-expansion" form referred to by Sir Roy Fedden last week. In a very timely article in the July Journal of the Royal Aeronautical Society, Mr. R. E. Hardingham, Secretary of the Air Registration Board, examines the general position of aircraft accidents and the problem of how the survival rate can be increased. His researches have shown that more than 90 per cent of all accidents are caused not by lack of airworthiness but by opera- tional circumstances, and that something like 70 or 80 per cent of all fatalities are caused finally b / burning. Of these, Mr. Hardingham considers, probably 20 to 30 per cent co "d have escaped in time but for physical injury, or through having been trapped in the wreckage. - To minimize the risk, Mr. Hardingham suggests that fuel tanks of the bag type are the safest, and that tanks should be mounted in the wings as far as possible from the fuselage but not so far out in the wing as to be liable to rupture in a one-wheel or sideslip landing, and never in the centre-section of a low-wing monoplane. As for the sources most likely to start fires, Mr. Hardingham mentions engines and the electrical system, and advocates* a^rftomatir*' crash switches to actuate fire-extinguishing systems Jvhtch drench the engines and isolate the battertes.Jrorn ~iX\ heavy-duty circuits and ficafi as much other wiring as1 possible. Tank sumps, pumps, collector boxes and fflej. lines should be mounted in stcong "parts of the structure and not in an excrescence unde/ the aircraft, where they will be ripped off. Crash Survival /~)THER sources of fatalities in aircraft crashes are physical injuries and the trapping of occupants. Mr. Hardingham comes out as a strong advocate of backward-facing seats, a subject which has been much debated, and which airlines generally tend to avoid because, they say, passengers dislike facing aft. We do not believe that passengers feel very strongly on this point, and if they were assured, as they should be by Mr. Hardingham's statement that this type of seat can be designed to afford protection at decelerations as high as 25 " g," that facing the tail is a real safety measure, we believe few would object. Mr. Hardingham proves himself something of a psychologist when he states that, after a crash, passen- gers forget everything but the door through which they entered, and he suggests that there should be at least one main door on each side at the rear where distortion is least. It might be argued that all these suggestions are im- practicable because of the weight entailed and the in- roads it would make in the payload. We do not accept that as a valid argument. If crashes continue to occur, as we fear they will until better ground organization has become universal, and if passengers continue to be burnt to death after too great a proportion of accidents, as they will do if strong measures are not taken, the number of empty seats in airliners will reduce payload to a far greater extent than would the safety measures suggested.
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