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Aviation History
1949
1949 - 0139.PDF
and AIRCRAFT ENGINEER Editorial Director G, GEOFFREY SMITH, M.B.E. Editor - -CM. POULSEN Assistant Editor - MAURICE A. SMITH, D.f.c. (WING CDS., R.A.F.V.A.) An Editor - JOHN YOXALL FIRST AERONAUTICAL WEEKLY IN THE W>RLD .• FOUNDED WOO Editorial, Advertising and Publishing Offices: DORSET HOUSE, STAMFORD STREET, LONDON, S.E.I Telegrams: Flightpres, Sedist, London. . - ' Telephone: Waterloo 3333 << lines), COVENTRY: £- 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(3 lines) Deansgate 3595 (2 lines) GLASGOW, C.I: 26 B, RENFIELD ST. Telegrams: Iliffe. Glasgow. Telephone : Centra. 4857 SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Home: Twelve months, £3 Is. Od. Six months. £1 10s. 6J. Overseas: Twelve mon:hs. £2 Us SI 8Y AIR : To any country in Europe except Poland). Twelve months, £5 Is. Od. Six months, £2 10s. 64 To Canada and U.S.A >ix months. $IS No. 2092. Vol. LV January 27th, 1949 Thursdays, One Shilling Outlook Another MysteryO NCE again we have to mourn the loss of lives in an air accident; once again the aircraft involved is an Avro Tudor belonging to British South American Airways Corporation ; and once again the machine has disappeared without trace. The very deepest sympathy must be felt by all, not only for the victims in this latest mishap, and their relatives, but for A. V. Roe and the Corporation. Both do appear to have had more than their fair share of bad luck, and the mystery which surrounds the disappear- ance makes well nigh impossible the formulation of any opinion as to plausible causes. Bermuda is the common denominator in the two cases, of vanishing aircraft, but there the similarity ends, and no conclusion can be drawn from the fact. In the case of the Star Tiger, the machine was on its way to Bermuda, was flying at night, and possibly at fairly low height. The Star Ariel had but recently left Bermuda, was flying at a considerable height and, it seems, in good weafeer. The only thing that appears certain in this puzzling disappearance is that whatever catastrophe overtook the aircraft, it must have been of a nature so sudden that there was no chance for the radio operator to send out any signal. Several possibilities exist, none of whicii caa he held to amount to probabilities. It is conceivable, but un- likely, that an airscrew, burst and in so doing damaged the front part of the fuselage in such a way that the pilot's controls became inoperative and the machine went into a violent spin which prevented the Tadio operator from working his equipment, even if it were in working order. Sabotage could be the cause, but again it is not a very likely explanation. Or again, although the weather is reported to have been generally fine, one can visualize the possibility that the pilot flew into the top of cumulo-nimbus, in which disturbances are known to be sometimes so severe that they would break up any aircraft. It is unlikely that an experienced pilot would do this deliberately. Finally, it appears just possible that the aircraft may have flown into an area of clear-air gusts of a violent nature, such as those for the exploration of which the B.E.A. Gust Research Unit at Cranfield was formed. Of the unlikely possibilities which we have outlined, this is, perhaps the least unlikely. Putting It Across HAS refuelling in flight a future, or has it not ?That is a question to which it is high time ananswer was given. Sir Alan Cobham has struggled for years, not only to develop a system but to convince people of its technical practicability and economic usefulness. It would be hard to say which task has been the more difficult. Sir Alan's chief engineer, Mr. Latimer-Needham, read a paper on January 13th before the annual meeting of •the American Society of Automotive Engineers, in which he stated the case very thoroughly. It is to be hoped that he found his audience sympathetic, for the Ameri- •carsrs have by themselves, and in conjunction with Sir Alan, done quite a lot of experimentation with refuelling in flight, and recently gave a demonstration by flying a large bomber farther and with a greater bomb load than ever before. In the summary of Mr. Latimer-Needham's paper which we pabiish tiias week, there was not the space to deal "with all the -details,, tot sufficient has been included to enable readers to form a fairly clear idea of what is involved. That refuelling in flight is feasible from the technical and operational points of view was indicated by the tests made some time ago by B.S.A.A. and B.O.A.C.
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