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Aviation History
1949
1949 - 0465.PDF
MARCH IOTH, 1949 FLIGHT 297 f 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. THE S.R.45 Not a Boat, but a Ship LET us not belittle the S.R.45 140-ton air liner now underconstruction for B.S.A.A. by calling it a "flying boat." This revolutionary machine is definitely a "flying ship." Secondly, we must coin a word to describe the home for such a monster. Coastal Command refer to "flying-boat bases " and B.O.A.C. call Berth 50 at Southampton a " marine airport." Why not "seadrome"? London, VV.i. SIMON WARRENDER. I" Seadrome" was the name used to describe the Armstrong "floating airstrips" proposed for the Atlantic before the war. —ED.] AIRCRAFT CARRIERS Are They " Superfluous White Elephants " ? ARE aircraft carriers superfluous? This may seem astartling question when one considers the importance attached to the 45,000-ton and 60,000-ton carriers and to our own Ark Royal Class by the navies concerned. But, I repeat, are these giants merely superfluous? What function can aircraft based on them perform that cannot be more efficiently carried out by land-based aircraft? What kind of protection to carrier-based bombers can the fleet fighters provide when opposed to the overwhelming numbers a land- based air force could put up against them? And what weight of bombs can a squadron of fleet bombers drop compared with a squadron of the already obsolescent Lincolns? What part, indeed, of the world is not within range of the American heavies based in America, Britain or their dependencies? These, and other, reflections have sprung from reading that the brand new H.M.A.S. Sydney will carry only 24 aircraft— 12 fighters and 12 light bombers! It appears that both in Britain and in the United States responsible senior naval officers, at last realizing the impotence of the battleship against air attack, are now attempting to drag out the expensive existence of their ancient and indeed honourable Service by absorbing large numbers of men, scarce materials, and untold millions in the creation of these white elephants—or should it be " white whales '' ? Their usefulness in an atomic bomb war will be undoubtedly nil—nor will the Navy's pathetic experiments in avoiding the effects of such bombs by dispersal avail them when a shower of such bombs is directed at them—if indeed, of course, such boinbs are wasted on such a secondary target. Even in a war from which atomic bombs are excluded, they "ill form nothing but scurrying helpless targets for the boinbs of the strategic air forces, or for the even more deadly guided missiles. CHAIRBORNE. Bournemouth, Hants. S.O.S. MARKS THE SPOT Another Suggestion for Automatic Radio Transmission of Crash Location \ LTHOUGH philosophically I suppose it may be stated that **• as long as aircraft fly, aircraft will crash, the acceptance of this should not prevent the continued efforts to make air- craft as safe as humanly possible. Reading your recent edi- torial on the B.S.A.A.C. Tudor crashes, I was struck by the terrible significance of an aircraft being lost at sea with no indication to searchers as to the precise location of the crash. Knowing how difficult,it is to sight small objects at sea in poor surface conditions—even from the air—it occurred to me that the provision of some emergency signalling apparatus might well be of great value. With no specialized knowledge of the subject at all, it appears to me that there should be no particular difficulty in designing and building an automatic radio transmitter housed, complete with batteries, in a sealed container, either of suffi- cient natural buoyancy or with automatically inflatable buoy- ancy bags, which could be ejected from • the aircraft and descend by its own parachute. If means were provided of ejecting the device at the instigation of an inertia crash switch ((•£•, as used in the Graviner anti-fire system), the ejection being made either by mechanical spring or low-velocity cart- ridge, break-up of the aircraft in the air, as perhaps might happen in severe gust conditions, would ensure that the tranS- lS 31 mitter was thrown clear to send out its call. What sort of signal strength could be made a practicable proposition I have no idea, but surely it would not be impossible to give a range of perhaps 200 miles for 2 hours, thence decreasing as the batteries became weaker but still with an effective signalling life of perhaps 10 hours. In the case of a crash at sea, whilst it may well be that the aircraft would sink, it is just possible that, by getting rescue to the scene with a minimum of delay, a life might be saved, and even the evidence of an ordinary passenger as to the crash is better in giving some indication of the cause than " no evidence at all. It is, of course, the complete lack of known reason for these Star Class Tudor crashes that is stulti- fying in its effects. The incorporation of an emergency signalling device such as I have suggested would, of course, be of equal service in the case of aircraft crashing in remote land areas. Perhaps some of your technically erudite readers could offer suggestions as to the construction of a suitable apparatus, or illustrate the fundamental difficulties involved, for it is only by ventilating the subject thoroughly that snags can be overcome or by- passed. CLAUDE ALDBURY. London, W.i. [The above suggestion was received at the same time as a somewhat similar one, from Mr. G. S. Orchard, which we pub- lished on February 24th; space has not permitted its inclusion earlier.—ED.] AIRCRAFT VARIANTS A Reader in Search of Information I HAVE been preparing a very comprehensive survey of allaircraft variants used by the air forces of the British Empire during the recent war. I should be very glad to hear (c/o the Editor) from any of your readers who have knowledge of par- ticular modifications made to standard aircraft—for example, unofficial "mods" made in the squadrons, such as the Tiger Moth modified to carry a stretcher case, as mentioned in Flight of February ioth. I should welcome a few details, e.g., the serial number of the aircraft concerned, if possible. Oxford. G. R. SATCHLER. MANNING THE R.A.F. " Give us the Tools " T IKE so many others, I have been reading with considerable -Lrf interest the series of articles which are appearing in Flight concerning the R.A.F.'s recruiting drive and the arguments appertaining to it. Might I be permitted to add yet a little more to the deluge of criticism, and express my consternation at failing to have found any comment on one very great deterrent to ex-trades- men coming forward in answer to the national appeal. My criticism is, apart from views already adequately ex- pressed, that far too little attention is given to tradesmen's tools and equipment throughout the R.A.F. During the last war one heard with loud acclaim, "Give us the tools and we will finish the job." But what, may I ask, was actually given to the flight mechs. and fitters to do the job with? On this point I speak with experience, limited though it may be. The tools we received were, in more cases than not, quite inadequate for the task in hand, especially when it came to working on machinery and equipment of American manufac- ture. The average fitter who possessed the magnificent R.A.F. range of tools under the nomenclature of "Fitter's Tool Kit," found work under such conditions extremely harrassing, to say the least. For anyone to possess anything like a decent kit of tools was almost unheard of in the R.A.F. Whom, may I ask, of those employed by civilian firms could or would work with such inefficient and extremely ill- planned tools as we were expected to use in the '' mob '' ? I doubt if any of our R.A.F. planners—technical side—have ever experienced working in very inaccessible places with the incorrect tool. But I am sure there are many thousands of ex-R.A.F. men who have had similar experiences countless times. I, for one, would never contemplate returning to such antiquity, and I am convinced that these sentiments are also shared by thousands more. There is one way, in my opinion, in which this state of
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