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Aviation History
1948
1948 - 1291.PDF
and AIRCRAFT ENGINEER Editorial Director G. GEOFFREY SMITH, M.B.E. Editor' • -CM. POULSEN Assistant Editor - MAURICE A. SMITH, O.F.C. (WING COR., R.A.F.V.R.) ^Att Editor - - JOHN YOXALL ; . ; FIRST AERONAUTICAL WEEKLY IN THE WORLD .- FOUNDED T909 Editorial, Advertising and Publishing Offices: DORSET HOUSE, STAMFORD STREET, tONDON, S.E.I Telegrams : Flightpre*, Sedist, London. Telephone : Waterloo 3333 (60 lines.) COVENTRY: 8-10, CORPORATION ST. Telegram : Autocar, Coventry. Telephone : Coventry 5210. BIRMINGHAM, 2: Telegrams : Autopress, Birmingham!Telephone : Midland 7191 (7 lines). MANCHESTER. 3 : 260> DEANSGATE. Telegrams : Iliffe, Manchester. Telephone : Blackfriars +412. GLASGOW, C.2: 26B. RENFIELD ST. Telegrams : Iliffe, Glasgow Telephone : Central 4857 No. 2069 Vol. LIV SUBSCRIPTION RATES : Home and Abroad : Year, £3 10. 6 months. £1 10 6. August 19th, 1948 Ihe Outlook Thursdays, One Shilling For All to SeeN EW uses for aircraft are rapidly being added to an already long list. Recent experiments in America appear to promise yet another. The idea itself is not new, but the success of tests made in connection with the Republican National Convention gives cause for believing that our go-ahead American friends will adopt and apply it before very long. Stratovision is the name given to the scheme which, as we recorded in an article on September 6th, 1945, owes its origin to Mr. C. E. Nobles, of the Westinghouse Elec- tric Corporation, and which has since been developed jointly by that firm and the Glenn L. Martin company. Briefly the scheme is to lift an aerial and a transmitter high into the air for the broadcast of television pro- grammes. On the occasion of the recent Republican National (.Convention, subsequent reports from "televiewers" showed that reception had been good over an area represented by a circle of more than 500 miles in dia- meter. The aircraft, a modified B-29, was flying at 25,000ft above Pittsburg, and the programmes were heard in nine States. They were picked up b ' the air- craft from two ground stations, one in Washington, D.C., and one in Baltimore, and rebroadcast. Television is making slow progress in Great Britain, at any rate compared with the United States, and among the reasons for this is undoubtedly the very short range of a groundborne transmitter. It is estimated that a total of 14 Stratovision aircraft would be required to cover the significant parts of the United States. .The British Isles are so small that even a single aircraft (assuming a transmitting range of 250 miles) would suffice for bringing television into homes as fara part as Cornwall and the southern parts of Scotland. Two machines would appear to be capable of ensuring reception from Land's End to John oJ Groats or even the Scottish islands and portions of Ireland. B I The American tests were an experiment, in which a modified B-29 was used, but the Westtnghouse corpora- tion has applied for the allocation of a channel for the first regular Stratovision station, and the Glenn Martin company has designs for a modified 2-0-2 which would be capable of flying in all weathers and would carry 7,000 pounds of equipment, including a crew of four. Perhaps we in this country could make good use of a few of the Tudors which no one seems to want. The cost should not be excessive, and the fact that the Tudor would be rather too large and powerful for the work need be no serious deterrent. A television aircraft should have 100 per cent reliability, circling at 25,000- 30,000ft. This would be facilitated by flying at much less than full load and with the engines well throttled back. As the Martin vice-president said : " For once we are not trying to go anywhere in a hurry, but instead want to go nowhere slowly." Explosive ExodusP ROGRESS in high-speed flying in the sonic and supersonic ranges must be regarded as good if one takes into consideration the many new and difficult problems which have arisen, and which continue to arise. We are slowly—very slowly—finding out what the airflow is like when a body moves at these high speeds. As knowledge of these phenomena increases, it becomes possible to estimate what sort of structures are necessary to withstand the loads imposed, and so the general form of future aircraft begins to take shape. There is still the human aspect to be considered. The people most directly concerned in the early stages are the test pilots, who have to provide many of the answers which the designers require. Not a few have given their lives in that cause, and if such sacrifices are to be re- duced to a minimum in the future, every effort must be made to provide the test pilots with effective means of escape when things go wrong. One such life-saver
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