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Aviation History
1948
1948 - 1544.PDF
354 FLIGHT SEPTEMBER I6TH, 194S THE S.B.A.C. DISPLAY . . . STATIC DISPLAYT HE atmosphere that pervades the annual S.B.A.C. display and exhibition is somehow quite different from that found at any other event, and this applies equally as strongly to the static side of the show as to the more active and spectacular sections. Perhaps it is due to the employment of standard lettering for the name boards of the stands and to the uniform colour scheme of cream and blue. Yet this is not all, for no matter how intangible, there is, nevertheless, a quite recognizable air of purpose and quiet efficiency throughout: the absence of ballyhoo and the effulgent glitter which seems to be symptomatic of most other industrial shows is a very pleasant relief. Naturally enough, when about two hundred exhibitors are concerned, it is impossible to give even a condensed pr6cis of all the exhibits, so that in making this review of the static display, we feel it to be of greater value to present a concise statement of some of the more interesting novelties which engaged our particular interest. But before making our tour of the East and West exhibition halls, it might well here be stated that so far as organization and cumula- tive effect were concerned, the static section of the display this year achieved a new high level. Although the display and exhibition took place at Farnborough, the Royal Air- craft Establishment took no part and was in no way con- cerned. Nevertheless, the R.A.E., as the cradle of British aeronautical development, was represented in the show—a Westland-Hill Pterodactyl iB of circa 1925 was slung from the roof in the north-west corner of the West exhibition hall. It is, of course, entirely possible that, in the flush of organizing the exhibition the removal of this ancient aero- dyne was overlooked. Itemized Interests. ' .•••:_;.*•;•»'.. In a sense as advanced as was the Pterodactyl in its day, the Planet Satellite aircraft, which could be examined in the aircraft park, was also exhibited in model form, together with some full-scale structural components, on the Redwing stand. Redwing, Ltd., were the constructors of this machine and no small credit is due to them for pioneering the construction of an all-magnesium aircraft. Among the numerous filtration units exhibited by Vokes, Ltd., were a pair of air filters used in the rear bearing cooling circuit of the de Havilland Goblin. The actual units shown were as taken from the engine's recently con- cluded 500-hour test. They are about gin long and 2in in diameter and pass 0.05 lb of air/second at 35 Ib/sq in at 80 deg C. Hordern-Richmond, Ltd., featured the Aeromatic pro- peller which they now manufacture under licence and, in addition to examples of Hydulignum improved wood in a variety of forms ranging from helicopter main and tail rotors to press-form tools, also exhibited the airscrew blades Ine two sizes of new type spill burners could be seen in section on the Dowty stand. to be used in vcon junction with Rotol hubs for the Bristol- Braba^on I. An entirely new development by Dowty Equipment, Ltd., were spill burners and fuel galleries for gas turbines. The prime feature of this new form of burner is that the degree of fuel atomization given remains constant irre- spective of fluctuation in fuel feed. Of the two types shown, the larger has a flow capacity of 80 gall/hr at 1,000 lb/sq in inlet pressure, whilst the smaller unit delivers 40 gall/hr under the same feed pressure. Whilst on the subject of gas turbine combustion, it is appropriate to refer to the new annular combustion chamber shovyn by Joseph Lucas, Ltd. The unit exhibited was suit- able for a 1,200 h.p. engine, and for a length of 27m had a maximum diameter of about 21 in. The main features of the design are downstream injection, using nine equally spaced burners, with primary air injection by the conven- tional colander principle, each colander being attached to a flat backplate; dilution is introduced by the flower-pot principle. This particular chamber has been tested under inlet density conditions of 0.23 Ib/cu ft and inlet velocity of 220 ft/sec. Under full load conditions, the blow-out value is reached when the air /fuel ratio is 1,000:1. One of the latest innovations by the Marconi Co. is their Type AD7092 aircraft automatic direction finder which, in its simplest form, weighs only 30 1b. This gives auto- matic visual indication of bearings with simultaneous uninterrupted aural reception, and remote or direct manual control of the loop. Normal communication reception by telephony, MCW and CW signals is provided either on the loop or on the non-directional whip aerial, whilst radio range reception, with simultaneous voice, is given on all these functions. The latest form of loop aerial devised by Marconi is their Type 1324 suppressed aerial unit, which, (Left) The new Grav'mer wide-range flatne detector was mounted on an asbestos back- ing and blow-torch demonstration given of its actuation. (Below) The working model reception coupling and windlass shown by Flight Refuelling came in for considerable attention. B 20
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