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Aviation History
1949
1949 - 1673.PDF
FLIGHT, 29 September T949 437 last-ditch case to prove that turboprops would be able to match the jet with a propulsive effi- ciency of 80 per cent as far up the speed scale as 550 m.p.h. If, then, it be true that the S.A.E. is now going overboard on the turboprop, one is prompted to enquire where suitable U.S. power plants are coming from and when they arc- likely to be available for civil aircraft construc- tors. Certainly, at the moment, the outlook in the U.S.A. does not appear too encouraging in this branch of the turbine art and one cannot help feeling that Douglas and Lockheed—and, possibly, Boeing—are displaying the more for- ward-looking imagineering in jumping the turboprop ditch and going all-out for the jet, especially bearing in mind that a transport de- signed in 1950 for 1955 must really look as far ahead as 1965. The advent of the Comet is the ghost-writing in the sky. That the Comet gives Britain a wide edge over the rest of the field in jet-transport de- sign is readily acknowledged by the more pene- trant engineering observers over here. Robert McLarren, Engineering Editor of Aviation Week, writing in the August 8th issue of that journal, remarks, apropos the Comet, that: "Its inaugural test flight on July 27th opened a new era in commercial air transportation, and put the United States and the rest of the world at least three years behind technologically in this field." We can certainly confirm that our engineering friends at Douglas and Lock- heed have been working overtime with their electric erasers since the Comet appeared over the horizon. The same well-informed writer (a trained engineer, by the way) goes on to say that: '' The small area of the vertical surfaces is causing considerable controversy among American engineers. Despite the close-in location of the power plants, U.S. engineers are confidently predicting Death-dance of the prancing pistons : A " vibrant " caricature on windmilled transport design for (" Don Quixote ") 1955 by Lockheed's Johnson. chief research engineer, Kelly A Lockheed " paper - dart " which may (or may not) presage America's first civil jet trans- port. This is a more serious design proposal by Kelly Johnson for a 1955 four-jet 40-seater airliner weighing 150,000 Ib and cruising at 530 m.p.h. at 37,500ft. Fuel would be carried in mid-section of fuselage with passenger cabins fore and aft. added fin area in the not too distant future if adequate control during landing and take-off is to be assured." In other words, the betting on this side is that the Comet's tail will spread out a bit before it gets much farther along its orbit. Remembering the classic example of the Boeing Clipper boat, whose vertical tail deficiency was obvious to every engineering observer except the designer thereof, we will keep our fingers crossed (and pencil in pocket) and await further development. We might as well sign off this page of our notebook on a piquant note by quoting another old acquaintance of ours—one of America's leading airline executives, in fact. Like most American airline operators—who have just got back into the black after several post-war years in the red—Ralph S. Damon, President of Trans-World Airlines, is conservative on the subject of jets. During a recent visit to Los Angeles, when asked by the local news-hawks to comment on their commercial possibilities, he is reported to have said : "Not for about ten years would be my guess. Jets are much too expensive in terms of fuel weight." F5 .;- •-:...• • • ••• -• "•-.'" . "• In the land of the biggest, the fastest, the richest, and all things superlative (and downright supernal), it is a strange new experience to hear airline executives and their engineering directors defending the status quo—and mean- while the jets are whistling a torch-song for the demise of the prancing pistons. Even stranger is the thought of Damon and Pythias (in the background shadow of Howard Hughes) being satisfied with the piston-engined transport for another ten years—a prospect which is neither pleasing nor logical, since it presumes that jet-unit and airframe designers will be content to concentrate on the military exploitation of the jet to the exclusion of the civil. Happily, de Havilland, Avro (in England and Canada) and Vickers now bear witness as torch-bearers for civil aviation. Now that- Damon has joined forces with m u 1 t i - millionaire Hughes, one might have expected a little more imagineering in the jet-transport future in America, for Ralph Damon has a long and excellent manufactur- ing background with Curtiss-Wright to but- tress his later airline record with American Airlines; while Hughes certainly can put up financial backing and, has the sporting urge to risk it—as shown in his big flying-boat venture, into which he has recently sunk a further couple of million dollars of his own money for repairs and redesign. All the same, we find it hard to believe that there is any place in the sun for a piston-engined wooden flying boat in the jet half of the 20th century; nor do we think that the Americans will permit jet transports to be " damoned " for a decade, especially in view of the competitive urge engendered, oddy enough, by a so-called " Welfare State." From where we sit in the grandstand we can see the jet horses rounding the bend and coming up much faster than that. Perhaps (who knows?) the austerity oats of the British stable have improved the breeding strain. It has happened before in the long and rough island story. JETS BE PRAISED! : r^r H WE were just on the point of licking the envelope andwaving the foregoing thoughts goodbye when along came some very interesting and frank comments on the same subject from Wellwood E. Beall, Boeing's Vice-Presi-
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