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Aviation History
1949
1949 - 1863.PDF
JFT.ICJHT, IO November C27 CORRESPONDENCE The Editor of "Flight" does not hold himself responsible /or the views expressed by correspondents in these columns. The names and addresses of the writers, not necessarily for publication, must in all cases accompany letters. AIRMET "DEFERRING to Mr. Church's letter in Flight of October -I*- 13th it would be useless to deny that the Airmet broadcast is technically below the standard of perfection to which we are accustomed in B.B.C. broadcasts. It would, indeed, be sur- prising if broadcasts made by meteorological staff as part of the day's work in an improvised studio closely adjacent to noisy technical installations could rival the best efforts of the B.B.C. I can assure Mr. Church that those responsible for the broadcasts are fully, conscious of these imperfections and will remedy them just as quickly as limitations of staff, accommo- dation and equipment will allow. Your columns are not, perhaps, the best arena in which to discuss the musical merits of the interval signal. I very much doubt, however, whether listeners would acclaim the idea of playing the opening bars of " Auld Lang Syne" over and over again, as suggested by Mr. Church. The present trumpet theme has at least some relevance to '' Airmet,'' and after hearing it once no listener could possibly fail to recognize it again. That, after all, is the principal merit which any interval signal should possess, especially in the case of a broadcast which listeners on airfields and elsewhere want to tune in as quickly as possible. ' E. B. BILHAM, Dunstable, Beds. .. ,. Deputy Director, : •.!.- •• ,i ....'•-•'...';w. Meteorological Office. THE STRIDENT HARVARD IN your editorial "The Noise about Noise," published inFlight dated October 27th, you quote Grantham as an example of a town which had to put up with Harvards for several years during the war. According to my log-book R.A.F. Grantham first received Harvards early in 1939 and they were all allotted away before war was declared. So Grantham Town only had to put up with them for approxi- mately seven months. When the Harvards first began to fly at Grantham the pilots were not used to the constant-speed airscrew. Because there were many night workers who had to sleep in the daytime in the town the '' Harvard noise'' raised a storm of protest which, I think, eventually reached the House of Commons. I believe the many protests resulted in the Harvards being re- placed by quieter aircraft, although seven months elapsed before the replacement was effected. My real purpose in writing this letter is not to quibble with your facts, but to mention an incident concerning the noise of aircraft which occurred whilst the Harvards were at Grantham. After they had been operating- for about three or four months, when there were many more than at the beginning, when the protests were loudest, and when night flying with Harvards was in full swing, I was asked by the Mayor of Grantham what had happened to all the Harvards! I was somewhat astonished that the people of Grantham had apparently got used to the noise so quickly; but it was too late; the wheels had been set in motion and we unfortunately lost our Harvards. Beds. • R. F. F. INSTRUMENTAL PROGRESS - THE article "Flying to the Limits" in Flight of October27th proved very interesting reading; but may we, as one of the leading aircraft-instrument manufacturers, take exception to the statement: '' Quite obviously, until instru- ment development catches up with fighter performance ..." It is true that present-day fighters and fighter-trainers are still fitted with instruments similar to those used at,the end of the war, but this, as regards gyro instruments at least, is not because development has lagged behind requirements. At approximately the same time as the first practical jet- propelled aircraft—the Gloster E28/39—was undergoing its initial flights, the Sperry Gyroscope Company was testing a new compass—the Gyrosyn—and an electrically operated gyro- horizon, both designed to meet future operational require- ments of such aircraft. Continued liaison with the Admiralty, Air Ministry, Royal Aircraft Establishment and the Ministry of Supply was neces- sary to make certain we were developing what was actually required, and the usual.procedure of service trials following prototype trials was followed. This entails a long develop- ment "period but it does ensure that only the most suitable B 2-j instruments are accepted for use by the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force, and they are well tried before going into general use. We would not wish present and future pilots of the R.A.F. to feel that instruments still have to be developed for their aircraft, and so hasten to assure them that gyro-magnetic compasses and electric gyro-horizons (topple-free) designed by us have passed service trials and are now in production. We believe the same is also true of the electric turn and bank indicator manufactured by Pullins, so Service pilots can look forward to flying with gyro instruments designed to meet operational requirements of the new fighter and bomber air- craft. Our research and development group—which, incidentally, is by far the largest in the aircraft instrument field—includes a flight research department that flew over 1,500 hours in the last twelve months, and very much in their minds is the fighter pilot's problem so aptly put in your article "... 20,000 feet of cloud and ten minutes' kerosene between aircraft and runway." May we assure them that we are working hard to make life a little easier for them. Brentford, Middlesex. COLIN A. RICHARDSON, .•.-.,,•. v1'• . ' .•;. Manager, Aeronautical Department, • •••••<• ' " ' The Sperry Gyroscope Co., Ltd. GLIDER LAUNCHING I HAVE only just seen a copy of Flight of October 27thcontaining a letter by Mr. Tilghman-Richards, in which he describes his 1912 method of launching gliders by means of a derrick, a heavy weight, and a deep hole. In the days when this method was evolved by the Wright brothers, suitable rubber rope was not available, but now that it is, the weight and derrick method can be forgotten, because of its lack of mobility, its complication and its expense. I appreciate that by the weight method the launch can be made with only one person besides the pilot, but rigging and ground handling usually take more than this number. A bungey launch could be made by stretching and pegging the ends of the ropes separately, with no greater hazard of a prema- ture start than is involved using the weight and derrick method. But as, in practice, a car is usually necessary either to take the glider to the top of the hill to begin with, or to retrieve it if it lands at the bottom, this car can be used to stretch the bungey if sufficient people for an ordinary bungey crew are not available. The launching of gliders from hill-tops presents very little difficulty; there is, however, vast scope for improvement in the methods of launching them from flat sites. Under ordinary conditions a winch launch to 1,000ft can be made only from a field at least 3,000ft long. A launch to a height lower than 1,000ft makes it very much more difficult to catch thermals. But as 3,000ft fields are unnecessarily large for all aspects of gliding except the actual winch launch, an improved method whereby 1,000ft of height could be achieved from a shorter ground distance would allow gliding to be carried out from normal fields instead of from a large airfield. : Redhill, Surrey. ANN DOUGLAS. FORTHCOMING EVENTS Nov. 15. R.Ae.S. Graduates : " Visualization of Airflow at High Speeds," by A. D. Young, A.F.R.Ae.S. Nov. 16. R.Ae.S. (Brough) : "Stiffness and Strength," by Prof. A. R. Collar, M.A.. D.Sc., F.R.Ae.S. .( Nov. 16. Royal United Service Institution: "The Services in the Far East,1' by Admiral Sir Denis Boyd, K.C.B., C.B.E., D.S.C. Nov. 18. Institute of Navigation : "Navigation in High-Speed Flight," by W/C. E. Anderson. Nov. 19. British Interplanetary Society : Symposium, " Medical Problem; of Space Travel." Nov. 19. Colleges of Automobile and Aeronautical Engineering: Annual Reunion Dinner. Nov. 20. Society of Model Aeronautical Engineers: Annual General Meeting. Nov. 22. R.Ae.S. Section Lecture: "Engine-driven Gearboxes," by G. W. Bubb, A.F.R.Ae.S. Nov. 22. R.Ae.S. (Belfast) : Lecturettes and Films. Nov. 23. R.Ae.S. (Reading) : " British Airships," by Lord Vantry. Nov. 23. R.Ae.S. (Luton) : Brains Trust. Nov. 24 R.Ae.S. ; "Aerodynamic Cleanness," by E. J. Richards, M.A., F.R.Ae.S. (at Bristol). Nov. 26 Helicopter Association : " Aero-elastic problems of Rotary Systems," by Prof. A. R. Collar, M.A., D.Sc., F.R.Ae.S. Nov. 29. Society of Instrument Technology : " Instrumentation on the Martin Open-hearth Furnace " by G. Husson and P. Rodicq.
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