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Aviation History
1949
1949 - 2009.PDF
FLIGHT, 15 December 194-3 pnotugraph.Long, low tankers provide the fuel for world-route airliners at Idlewild, New York. Later, as we continued to climb, I walked back into the cabins and made a careful check-up on noise and vibration levels. The two main cabins I found very pleasant, the sound of engines and airscrews becoming more and more remote towards the tail. In the small front cabin and in the toilet compartments (which coincide with airscrews and engines) the noise and vibration are considerable. This, one feels, should be the subject of further examination with a view to improvement. The cocktail bar, however, is per- haps the most comfortable spot of all, and here one can sit and chat as peacefully as in a hotel lounge. It is said that the Stratocruisers wag their tails, and this is true—true, in fact, of almost all large and long aircraft, particularly those with a single fin and rudder; but this effect, and the counter-shudder felt by the crew in the nose, are experienced only in rough air. At the intended cruising height of 25,000 ft there should be little or nothing in the way of turbulence. .. . . No Boredom After this preliminary examination in flight I movedforward again towards the cockpit, having sensed that we had levelled off, and it struck me as significant that onlyabout two of the dozen or more passengers—by no means all seasoned air travellers—had remained in their seatsafter take-off. The others were wandering around, chat- ting, examining the passengers' instrument panel, or takinga drink below. This was something new ; in my experience of aircraft with which the Stratocruisers will compete, theodd passenger who does anything on a long trip but sit and read, sleep, eat or looked bored, is an exception. Thesepeople were not bored and did not become so during the whole of the 9 hr 5 min flight. Admittedly, several turnedin on the roomy and comfortable bunks for an hour or two of sleep. I later had a refreshing three hours on an upperport-side bunk myself. Arriving in the cockpit, I noticed that we were flying at19,000 ft at maximum w.m. cruising condition. This I knew to represent 1,750 b.h.p. per engine. Moreover, wewere riding in and out of cloud and picking up some ice. It seemed that although the Stratocruiser would climbwillingly to 28,000 or 30,000ft, it would not hold more than about 19,000ft on the permitted cruising power until theweight had gone down a little. At this time we had covered about 240 miles in a little over an hour. With the wing-inspection lights on and thermal de-icersworking we watched the ice disperse from the hot parts and heard small lumps fly ofi the airscrews. More builtup, however, on spinners, parts of the nacelles and around the aileron hinges. Soon some slight tail-buffeting couldbe felt on the controls, and the speed dropped by about 20 kt; so, the crew having little experience of icing with thisnew aircraft, it was thought prudent to lose height over Spokane and call up for clearance on track at a new height.The ice had mostly gone when the new clearance came through as we circled the area of the city at about 11,000ft. While iced-up we noted a loud, continuous hooting noiseabove the cockpit, and came to the conclusion it was caused by ice forming on the short radio-aerial masts. It may bedesirable to keep these coated with some sort of anti-icing preparation, for the noise was irritating and distracting. It was a great privilege to have been given the freedomof the ship for the long flight home, and one which enabled me to study the conditions of flying from both crew andpassenger viewpoints. For the next few hours I settled back and enjoyed being a passenger. Aperitifs and a mealwere served, and later a party of passengers took an early- morning nightcap in the bar. Afterwards I turned in andslept well except for an interruption when part of the heat- ing system stopped working on my side of the cabin. Thiswas nothing very serious, but it is to be hoped that the Stratocruiser is not going to be still another airliner inwhich an apparently good air-conditioning system proves temperamental. Incidentally, now that these aircraft havestarted their first operational winter, the heating for the pilots may need further study. The huge expanse of glassmakes the nose portion very cold at 25,000ft, and on one occasion I personally found my legs and feet becominguncomfortably cool after sitting in the first officer's pew for about half an hour, with the autopilot in control. Thecaptain agreed. On the transcontinental trip (the route of which wasincluded in the map accompanying last week's instalment of this article) we got our first glimpse of scenery betweenChicago and Toledo. Before this, only pin-points or patterns of lights during the night and cloud at dawn hadbeen visible below. Captain Andrew made a long, shallow descent towards Captain Alan Andrew is greeted on arrival at London byCaptain A. S. Wilcockson, who was Captain of the first Caledonia, a Short C-class flying boat.
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