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Aviation History
1949
1949 - 0719.PDF
478 FLIGHT TRANSPORTS FOR TOMORROW THE post-war evolution of British commercial flyingwas gravely impeded by a policy of makeshift, nowhappily receding into the past. Combined with a series of technical and operational setbacks, this had the effect of minimizing in the public estimation a number of meritorious achievements, the more significant of which are detailed in the following brief survey. Especially gratifying has been the expeditious construc- tion and testing of airliners with turbine power. Of these, the medium-range Vickers Viscount and Armstrong Whit- worth Apollo, elsewhere described, are literally in a class by themselves; comfort and safety of an exceptionally high order are afforded without prejudice to performance and economy. It must be recognized, however, that, being powered by new types of turboprop units, the Viscount and Apollo have yet to undergo a lengthy period of develop- ment. Some severe, but salutary, lessons have been learned from the operation of inadequately proven equipment, and overselling of these unique turboprop transports before all technical "snags" have been eradicated could hardly fail to injure gravely the prestige now being re-established by Great Britain. The essential qualities of the Viscount (which may be presumed also for the Apollo and the Handley Page Miles Mamba-Marathon) are not fully apparent in the performance data, though the high cruising speeds possible on a low power-output are striking enough. It is necessary to fly in one of these machines to appreciate the new standards of quiet, vibration-free travel conferred by the Rolls-Royce Dart and Armstrong Siddeley Mamba. Similar virtues, no doubt, will be manifest in the experimental Handley Page Hermes V (similar to the piston-engined Mk IV, but with Bristol Theseus turboprops) and in the Bristol Brabazon II, Saunders-Roe SR45, and the ultimate version of the Bristol 175. The last three-of these types are designed to take the new Proteus turboprop. But it is not on power plants alone that Britain is founding her plans for future commercial supremacy. The refined structural and aero- \ As an exploratory precursor of new pure-jet transports the Vickers- Armstrongs Nene-Vik'mg is proving a sound investment. The Viscount might be similarly adapted for turbojet poweHer. dynamic design of the Brabazon landplane and the SR 45 Princess Class flying boat (both of over 290,000 lb all-up weight) are equally noteworthy, and the degree of comfort allowed should be unrivalled among the transports of the world. Unlike the fuselage of the Brabazon, the hull of the S.R.45 is of "double-bubble" cross section. To achieve their designed range at their cruising speeds of 300-350 m.p.h., the Brabazon and SR45—like all turbine-powered transports—will commonly fly at higher levels than the most advanced airliners in service to-day. The problems of pressurizing alone are immense (on the Brabazon an area of nearly one acre is pressure-sealed) and safe, efficient operation will involve a mass of the most complicated devices. In the nose of the Brabazon's 177- foot fuselage, for instance, a gust detector will be fitted, which, by indicating the presence of a gust to special apparatus, will cause the ailerons to be suitably adjusted, thereby reducing sudden variations in wing loading. Various analogies have been ad- vanced to convey an adequate impres- sion of the immensity of the Brabazon and SR 45 (the spans respectively are I , 230ft and 219ft 6in), and while having no wish to vie with their authors, the writer offers for meditation the fact that the empty weight of the Brabazon I is greater than that of a fully laden Boeing Stratocruiser—the largest type of American airliner likely A glimpse of the future is afforded by the full- scale mock-up of the Saunders-Roe SR 45 transoceanic flying boat, tB be powered by ten Bristol Proteus turboprops. c 10
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