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Aviation History
1950
1950 - 0134.PDF
88 FLIGHT, ig January 1950 CORRESPONDENCE The Editor of "Flight" does not hold himself responsible Jor the views expressed by correspondents in these columns,addresses of the writers, not necessarily for publication, must in all cases accompany letters. Ths names and Flying with Disabilities IN your recent article "Torch in the Sky" (December 1st),S/L. "Cyclops"' Brown is mentioned as having to fight a battle of "right against might" to prevent the authorities transferring him from active flying to the Secretarial Branch. I am in a similar position in Holland, where our medical authorities take decisions which, in my opinion, only a qualified flying instructor should and can take. The R.A.F. gave me an A2B medical category (selected aircraft after practical flying tests) early in 1946. In Holland we need another war to make people accept proven theories and practical experience. For instance, we have not yet got a separate Air Force. I would be very grateful for information from any reader about cases of "disabled" persons who have flying licences and who are or were professional pilots whilst '' disabled (amputations, contact lenses, etc.). In my own case my lower left leg is missing and I have done 300 hours' flying with (or, rather, without) it, my total time being about 1,400 hours.. In England I have had all possible assistance from the president of No. 1 Central Medical Board, G/C. B. W. Cross, to whom I owe a lot. As a matter of fact, H.R.H. Prince Bernhaid is on my side, but "medical types" are very hard to convince. Wassenaar. ." . H. J. VAN OVERVEST, Holland. %••• ')•".>. .:'"••""•' , Flying Instructor. incentives ^ • — I WAS most interested in "Azimuth's" letter in your issueof January 12th, and at the risk of straying from aviation matters on to political ground I would venture to suggest that one reason for the '' slackness'' of which your corre- spondent complains is the lack of '' incentive goods '' available to workers. In this connection, the comments of a British electrical- industry research team which recently visited the United States are not without interest. According to the Daily Telegraph, the team made these comparisons about the amount of work an '' average workman '' has to do to buy various consumer goods:— Twenty cigarettes: 15 minutes in U.S.; 90 minutes in Britain. Nylons: One hour in U.S.; six hours in Britain. A gallon of petrol: 15 minutes in U.S.; one hour in Britain. A suit: Three days in U.S.; three weeks in Britain. The moral is too obvious to need any stressing. I do think, however, in fairness to British aircraft-industry employees, it should be remarked that, quite often, the sur- roundings in which they work are far inferior to those of their American counterparts. I am not thinking of machinery, but rather of the "psychological" effect of modern, clean, brightly painted shops, good canteen facilities, etc. My own contacts with some sections of the industry have taken me into works reminiscent of '' Black Country'' factories of fifty years ago. Even where some measure of cleaning-up could be done quite easily and cheaply, employers seem to make no effort. This, to my mind, is the sort of slackness that breeds slackness. : _• ., -•';.• MERIDIAN. London, W.i. • .'-.; ^ . 4 Synthetic Trainers T HAVE read the notes on "B.O.A.C.'s Synthetic Trainer" -*- under "Civil Aviation News" in Flight of October 27th with considerable interest, also F. W. Barling's letter in your issue of November 17th. As a co-inventor of some ten such trainers (incidentally the same as those Mr. Barling mentions), I feel that I can write with some authority and knowledge of the matter. I endorse his point that this "new " American trainer is no new invention, even to noises, feel and snags. Fuel-consump- tion units were also fitted which emptied '' tanks" at a rate varying with boost and r.p.m. settings, automatically cutting "engines" when empty, unless tank controls were changed over. The trainers that were built during the 1942-45 period had control units electronically and electro-mechanically operated, and were fitted into actual cabins, therefore giving pupils a greater sense of reality and familiarity with the positions of every instrument and control. The "characteristics" settings of the units were carried out in close co-operation with theaircraft manufacturers, and also by data acquired from actual flying test flights.Mr. Barling is a little conservative in his fuel-saving figures, as the actual amount saved whilst-training over 20,000 aircrewpersonnel was 750,000 gallons, whilst the saving of lubricating oil was 3,000 gallons. Considering that the estimated cost of these wartime trainerswas in the region of about £5,000 each, it would appear that the £100,000 trainer of B.O.A.C. is somewhat expensive, not-withstanding the dollar expenditure for licence rights, etc., which must be considerable, especially during these days ofdollar-saving. The fact remains that in this country we still have the know-ledge and ability to design and build this useful kind of syn- thetic type-trainer more economically and perhaps with anexport market to earn dollars for ourselves. Amongst the flying staffs of most civil aviation companiesin this country to-day there doubtless are many who have had personal experience of these 1942-45 synthetic trainers. Hemel Hempstead, Herts. R. A. M. THOMPSON. Head-wind Posers ": ,: " ; ~ ^ THE posers set by your correspondent Mr. W. E. Thompsonin Flight of January 12th are academically interesting. He wants to know (a) exactly what happens in the hypothetical circumstance of an aircraft flying in still air at 200 kt and instantaneously encountering a sudden head-wind of 100 kt; and (b) whether the occupants would feel themselves jerked forward in their seats. It seems to me that if the impossible conditions of an aircraft meeting an instantaneous head-wind are postulated then, equally, one may disregard the fact that the aircraft has inertia. Imagining that the transition between stationary air and a head-wind of 100 kt has no dimension parallel to the line of flight, the effect on the aircraft would be nil, but the effect on the ground speed would be an instantaneous reduction by 100 kt. If, however, the aircraft is allowed to have inertia, the result of the transition would be an immediate but momentary increase in lift which, perhaps, would be compen- sated in part by an immediate but momentary coarsening of airscrew pitch in an effort to compensate the load relief on the blades; if, on the other hand, a jet aircraft were involved, a momentarily instantaneous increase in ram effect might be expected. Further, the instantaneous increase of air speed—and if we allow that the aircraft represents an inert mass, such a change in air speed would be encountered—must of necessity bring with it an instantaneous increase in drag, the result of which would be to produce a complementary acceleration on every- thing embodied in the aircraft. The passengers would, there- fore, be jerked forward in their seats. London, S.W.5. .. C. H. FITZHARCOURT. Safety Fuel ^DEFERRING to Mr. N.* H. Mapperley's suggesfion. in tie -£»• January 5th issue of Flight, that some inert substance should be mixed with aircraft fuels for rendering them non- infiammab-le in tanks, there is an account of some-work which has been done on this problem in the Report of the Fire Re- search Board for the Year 1948, which was published in the autumn of 1949 by H.M. Stationery Office. Experiments were carried out on aviation spirit and aviation kerosene with various volatile inhibitors added, with the idea that it might be possible to add an inhibitor in such a proportion that the vapour above the liquid would be rendered non-inflammable by a momentary source of ignition, while at the same time, when the fuel-plus-inhibitor was completely vaporized, com- bustion would still be possible. Unfortunately, the Report states, the concentrations of inhibitof required to produce an inert vapour were quite impracticable with aviation spirit, and of doubtful practicability with aviation kerosene. London, N.6. M. NEAL. In Brief Following the publication of a London reader's request for support in forming an aviation correspondence club and/or discussion group, G. W. Edwards (217, Highfields Street, Coalville, Leicester) would like to see something similar started in the Midlands. ,-'"-.
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