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Aviation History
1948
1948 - 1098.PDF
84 FLIGHT I5TH, I948 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. SAFETY v. CONVENIENCE Northolt Machines Should Have Been Diverted TO be brief, and with sympathy for those that went down atNortholt, I would venture to ask why are multi-engined liners allowed to wallow in the murk around any airfield forij hours? Surely past Bomber Command experience of diversion to airfields within remaining fuel range in the eventof 10/10 over base on return showed profit. As you know only too well, hundreds of multis were often involved, and Irealize earthbound liners cost money, inconvenience, etc. But surely the reward is worth the diversion. F. C. FORSTER.Aston, Birmingham, 6. ' ' ; EMERGENCY CONTROLS Does Anyone Remember those Fitted in Early Bostons?A TOPIC that was brought up in conversation recentlyhas not, I think, ever been discussed in the pages of Flight. That is, instances of successful use, in emergency, ofthe rudimentary control system, as fitted to early Boston air- craft. I saw an example myself at Squires Gate airfield. Thedorsal gunner's position (facing rearwards, or was it a swivel seat?) was the site of the controls in question. None of uscould possibly see how the gunner could use them. No for- ward view, no engine controls. What was their actual duty, does anyone know? Also,have any aircraft been so fitted before or since? Or did I dream T saw this oddity in 1941? J. WESTHEAD. Fleetwood, Lanes. MULTI-WHEEL UNDERCARRIAGES " Comparator " on the Convair XC-99 PERMIT me to accept the challenge of "Imperator," whoseamusing letter in your issue of May 20th, caused several ripples up and down my flimsy nom de plumage. I am onlytoo happy to give him the real lowdown direct from San Diego —in place of his long-distance guesswork inspired by second-hand information. My criticism of the single-wheel undercarriage system of theConvair XC-99 is clearly borne out by subsequent events, as '' Imperator'' himself tacitly admits in his reference to itssubstitution by a multi-wheel bogie on the production version of the B-36 bomber. Where "Imperator" neatly boxes him-self out of the literary ring is in the equally tacit assumption that the XC-99 will automatically follow suit. However, Ihave before me as 1 write, a recent official announcement from Consolidated-Vultee stating that "present plans do not callfor the XC-99 to be equipped with multi-wheel landing gear." Strange that both "Imperator" and H. G. Conway (May27th issue) are guilty of the same false premise—could they be fooling one another, I wonder? They apparently take it forgranted that the XC-99 is destined for the production line, whereas present evidence indicates that it will end up at WrightField as an experimental "one-off" guinea-pig, just like the Douglas B-rg behemoth before it. In the course of experi-mentation it will probably have several different varieties of bogie and caterpillar landing gear—which strikes me as goodplanning for the future. All this must be left to history, of course, but if I see a production version of the XC-99 witha multi-wheel undercarriage within, say, the next 12 months, I will cheerfully swallow those two spurious half-crowns—onelor each of my fighting friends. The final form of the Brabazon undercarriage is anybody'sguess, although I'll stake my silver dollar on the combined know-how of the Bristol-Dowty team in this case. Anyway,1 feel tolerably assured that the Brab undercarriage cannot possibly match the catastrophic possibilities of the single-wheel system on large aircraft, or the downright clumsy solu- tion seen in Lockheed's new drag reaction shock-strut. An-other odd thing is that several British undercarriage designers have now outmatched their American contemporaries in thetechnique of nose-%vheel design, a fact which I trust will not too badly ruffle the feathers of " Imperator's ' own command-ing nom de plumage. "COMPARATOR." Los Angeles, U.S.A. PASSENGER PARACHUTES Might Have Saved Lives in Northolt Disaster SOME time ago, on the occasion of the Sabena crash atLondon Airport, I pointed out that lives were being lost in passenger aircraft which could be saved if parachutes wereprovided. You added a footnote saying that the Sabena crash was not a case in point, since the machine crashed througha misjudged landing, but overlooked the fact that, since it was an emergency landing in zero visibility, the passengerswould no doubt have been told to bale out if parachutes had been carried. The disaster over Northolt on July 4th might have causedless loss of life if parachutes had been carried. True, there was not much time to jump, and no doubt most of the occu-pants might have found it virtually impossible to reach an exit with the aircraft twisting and turning so violently. Butthere is such a thing as seat ejection, while the provision of cabins which could be ejected in toto and supported by amaster parachute is not so absurd as it might sound—the latter suggestion was put up to the M.A.P. Emergency EscapeCommittee more than two years ago. Have any steps been taken to develop such ideas in passenger-carrying aircraft? E. Twickenham, Middx. D. G. H. "FLATS REQUIRED" Twins and Fours with Interchangeable ComponentsT HE news that the Nuffield Flat Four engine has beenshelved must have come as a great disappointment to many people. Without being unduly optimistic, hopes hadbeen raised that this country would eventually have a 100 h.p. flat-four design available at a reasonably low price and backedby a company sufficiently important to guarantee continuous development, reliability, adequate spares and service organiza-tion, and so on. In answer to an earlier letter of mine in your journal onthe subject of ultra-light engines, G/C. Mole, of the U.L.A.A., mentions the availability of a small number of Aeronca J.A.P.engines—good little units but too low-powered to be of any- thing but limited use—and of some progress made with Crossand Coventry Victor designs. The fact still remains that the light power unit outlook is very grey and, as far as I know,we have no horizontally opposed desjgfns likely to offer or reach production* stage in the foreseeabjg future. There is certainly a need for '50 and io<f hv.p. engines. Canwe affordf "a"s a country, to'be so poorly placed <in this class. Some important «eiw .aircraft designs are slready^moii ^>r lesshanging on eng3ie amiability. "* •'' The development of ^^fiat-twin ,and. flat-four design couldvery well go along side by side,'using interchangeable main components, and thus reducing the devrfopment cost whilepreparing to meet the two needs. A round figure of ^106,000 was mentioned to me recently ."•]£.as representative of development costs for a light engine. This is a formidable sum for any but the largest companies toconsider. Is this matter not of sufficient home and export importance to justify a development contract from the Ministryof Supply? A. G.-J. BROWN. Dolgelly. FORTHCOMING EVENTS July 17th.—Southend-on-Sea Air Rally. July 17th.—Women's Junior Air Corps : Summer rally at Hendon airfield. July 18th.—City and County of Newcastle-upon-Tyne : Air display at Newcastle airport, Woolsington. July 19th to 31st.—Swiss International Gliding Competitions. Samedan. July 21st.—R.N.A.S. Arbroath (Angus) H.M.S. Condor : Visitors Day. July 24th to 76th.—Private Air Rally for members and associate members of the Royal Aero Club at La Baule-Escoublac, St. Naiaire. (Guests of M. F. Andre). July 24th and 25th.—Aero Club de Suisse : International Air Rally Blecherette airfield, Lausanne. July 31st.—Aero Club of Orange Air Rally. Aug. 1st.—Boroden Cup for Model Aircraft with mechanical engines, London Region. Aug. 7th.—Air Meeting and Competitions at Ypenburg, Holland. Aug. 7th.—Midland Aero Club : " At Home," Elmdon airport. Aug. 28th and 29th.—Cinque Ports Flying Club : International flying meeting, Lympne airport. Sept. 7th to 12th.—S.B.A.C. Exhibition and Display, Farnborough airfield Hants.
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