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Aviation History
1949
1949 - 1493.PDF
SEPTEMBER IST, 1949 FLIGHT 259 NON-SKID BRAKING An Ingenious Automatic Control THE Boeing Airplane Company recently announced suc-cessful use of a device which, it '.a claimed, automatic-ally prevents skidding and is therefore capable o£ sub- stantially reducing -stopping distances after landing. A furtheradvantage claimed for the development is its potential for lengthening the life ot tyres. Following successful operationon an XB-47 Stratojet bomber and a YC-97A Stratofreighter, the system is now being installed on a Stratocruiser. Further development of the system has been undertaken byHydro-Aire, Inc., of Burbank, California, to whom have been accorded all manufacturing and sales rights. Operation of the normal hydraulic wheel-brakes actuates anelectrically controlled valve unit whereby the braking pres- sure is thereafter kept to a value just below that which wouldiesult in skidding. In that the control 13 automatic, the pilot is given the advantage of maximum friction between tyreand runway no matter what the nature of the surface. When the brakes are applied, the normal retarding action results untila fraction of a second before the point is reached where a skid would normally set in. At this point, the deceleration of thewheels causes a supplementary valve in the hydraulic system to open, and reduce braking pressure just enough to retainmaximum braking action without skidding. Should wheel- speed decrease again to a point where a skid becomesimminent, the valve is again actuated and, in fact, will repeat the action a» often as necessary. The new device consists of a rotary inertia mechanism incor- The Hydro-Aire device is small and compact. porating a flywheel, electrical contacts and a slippage clutch,the whole being sea;ed in a light-alloy housing, together with an integral " fail-safe " unit to permit normal braking shouldthe non-skid system fail to operate. In this country, Hydro-Aire are represented (as announcedin Flight of July 7th) by Mr. James R. Ccen. 2, Dartmouth Park Avenue, London, N.W.5. Pioneer Designer Passes WITH the passing last Thursday of Col. J. VV. Dunne, at theage of 74 aviation loses another of its rapidly thinning sentient links with the earliest days. John William Dunne, F.R.Ae.S., was that rare combinationof man of action and pure scientist, and it is debatable whether his greatest fame was earned as a pioneer pilot and designer oras the author cf An Experiment With Time and The Serial Universe, books which caused a sensation in the scientific worldand gave rise to discussion that has continued ever since the first was written 22 years ago. His aviation experiments—made first" with paper models—began at the opening of the century, when he was serving with distinction in the Boer War, and it is a remarkable tribute tohis foresight that the swept-back wing attracted him from the outset—though he had faith in its potentialities for automaticstability rather than in those other aerodynamic attributes which have suddenly brought it to the fore to-day. In 1906,with War Office assistance, he built a full-scale glider of the tailless type, later installing a 20 h p. engine which, however,failed to provide sufficient power to make the venture a success. He continued his experiments—made under a cloak of official secrecy at Blair Atholl in Scotland—and, in collaboration withProfessor A. K. Huntingdon, evolved a biplane version of his "arrowhead " design; powered with a 50 h.p. Green engine,it flew successfully at Eastchurch in 1909. Probably owing to the combined effect of the sharply swept-back wings andthe inter-wing vertical "curtains" which were a feature oi many biplanes at that time, it had over-strong directionalstability. Nor did the biplane's lateral stability altogether fulfil its designer's expectations, and it is now clear that hewas faced at the outset with many of those problems still peculiar to aircraft of this type. He constructed and flew several other machines, and earlyin the First World War the French Nieuport company built biplanes to his design. Col. Dunne's love of action drew himback into the Army service during that war—and, incidentally, he was to serve in the Home Guard during the last war. That his intensive study of tailless-aircraft design was re-garded seriously by much later experimenters was proved by the fact that in the nineteen-twenties he was invited to servein an advisory capacity in the design of Professor G. T. R. Hill's Pterodactyl monoplanes. COWES THIRD DISPLAY A CHEERFUL holiday crowd enjoyed the third and lastof the season's air displays at Cowes Airport, Isle of Wight, held last Sunday. After the arrival cempetition Alder- man R. Acheson Webb, O.B.E. (Chairman of the Isle of Wight County Council), introduced by Mr. R. II. Turlington, pro- ducer of the display, declared the programme open. He voiced his support of flying and said that he believed that "flying clubs are the spawning-ground for civil aviation." Although there were no high-speed aircraft available to take part in the display, the various club types included set, in our opinion, an exceptionally high standard of flying. For example, the three Tiger Moths from No. 14 R.F.S., Hamble, led by W/C. Stratton, A.F.C., did some remarkably good formation flying, including changes of formation on the turn. Although the height was only 300 to 400 feet their efforts looked clean, precise and safe. Competitions included balloon bursting and sawdust bombing, and the climax of the meeting was a para- chute descent by volunteers (twenty local lads) of the 14th Parachute Battalion (5th Royal Hampshire Regiment), Terri- •torial Armv, Isle of Wight Detachment. S/L. Neville Duke D n did several minutes' low aerobatics on the Hawker Tomtitduring which, in contrast to his usual very high-speed flying, he made some ot the tightest and lowest and slowest loops andturns to be seen for a very long time. He provided an im- promptu and breath-taking incident at the end of his exhibitionwhen, on completion of the second of two very well judged low loops, he was caught in his own slipstream and a wing-tip andone wheel brushed the grass before recovery. The instructor-pupil team, which received well-deservedpraise at Gatwick, went through their antics, finishing up with the terrifying head-on landing, and " Doc." Morrell, Hawkertest pilot did some crazy flying on his Tiger Moth. It might have been wiser if some of his unconventional, low evolutionshad been made parallel with the spectators' enclosure rather than straight towaids it. C Nepean Bishop, of the Redhill Flying Club, certainlymerits a mention for his very finished display of aerobatics— particularly slow rolls—on a Magister. The afternoon's enter-tainment was completed by a height-judging competition and almost continuous joy-ridin™.
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