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Aviation History
1950
1950 - 0401.PDF
FLIGHT, 23 February 1950 269 CORRESPONDENCE The Editor of " Flight " does not hold himself responsible for ike views expressed by correspondents in these columns. The names and addresses of the writers, not necessarily for publication, must in all cases accompany letters. Yesterday's Giants I HAVE read with interest and agree with Mr. GeoffreyDonnan's article, "Size is Relative," in your issue ot February gth. I so well remember the old 14-passenger 75-ft span 880 h.p. Handley Page W.ios of Imperial Airways being called "Giant airliners." For the sake of history I should like to take up Mr. Dorman's point that the first world war prevented further development df the Russian Ilia Mouromelz type aircraft. In fact, 73 of these aircraft were built during the period 1914-17. They all had the designation IM, followed by a number. Of the total, 72 of these. IM aircraft had four motors and most carried a crew of 5 and were armed with 5 machine guns. One IM dropped a T,OOO-11> bomb, some had 600-lb of armour and the I9i6"type had tail gun-positions. Between February, 1915, and October, 1917, sixteen of these aircraft made 422 raids, dropped over 2,000 bombs, took 7,000 photographs and destroyed nearly 40 enemy aircraft. During three years of flying only two aircraft, the IM 1A and the IM 14, were lost by accidents. JOHN STROUD. London. W.14. Th^ Tarrant Tabor triplane of 1919, subject ot the letter below. IN the article "Size is Relative," in the February 9th issueof Flight, there is a mis-statement relative to the Tarrant triplane. The pilot was Capt. Dunn—not Sgt. Pit. Dunn; and the aircraft did not catch lire after the crash. 1 myself was on board as engineer. ^ T F. N. EDNEY. Farnborough, Hants. Thunderstorm-flying i I SHARE every flying-boat pilot's regard for Charles Gardiner,who chose to become one of us during the war, but I believe his solution to the problem of thunderstorms in the tropics at night (page 203, Flight. February 9th) is one peculiar to boat pilots. We had an instinctive tendency to "tuck m under" any dirty weather, because our early operations against submarines depended upon visual spotting, before the advent of A.S.V., and we abandoned our operations when it was impossible to fit in between the cloud and the sea. A thousand hours of this sort of thing gets into a man's soul ; he becomes a two- dimensional flier, using only surface winds which could l>e "read" direct from the sea, and assuming R.A.S. to be T.A.S. Working mostly from sea bases obviated any tire- some altimeter corrections for return, and one had only to reset the instrument occasionally from an estimated height above the sea In such circumstances a fatal approach to instrument flying evolved. Under thunderstorms by day one still felt- moderately happy, in spite of the heavy precipitation, because on« could still retain sight of the sea. It was either beaten comfortingly flat, 01 else one could anticipate from its appearance any major change of motion, neither sensation being so unpleasant as flying blind and waiting to hit the " chimney " of the cloud. 1 think it is dangerous to try to apply this method at night, quite apart from the risk of waterspouts and the fact that it is an unsuitable height for airliners, anyway One is forced tu watch the altimeter and to chase it, the worst possible things when running into low pressure; and surely it is also doubtful whether an altimeter can read true to its own datum in such circumstances? I am speaking of the squadrons mentioned by Mr. Gardiner, because I returned to one of these, in com-mand, after a Beaufighter tour in Burma, and on the'nightly service from Ceylon to Singapore this was the current practiceof pilots. A.S.V. was then helping us to avoid the heaviest areas of precipitation. Flying under the cloud by day with a sea horizon is flying"attitude. ' The same technique should be adopted by night on the gyro horizon, only one should start further from thesea to allow for the lag in corrections. As downdraughts cannot enter the sea there should be no fear of immersion if the atti-tude is preserved. Incidentally, it seems as though the water- spout hazard can appear anywhere in a violent storm. Onthe afternoon before Mr. Gardiner's letter appeared, I was ordered to descend to V.F.R. in a homeward-bound Vikingover the Channel. I encountered a violent thunderstorm and hail, and when attempting to get underneath at 800ft saw-two rotating patterns of spindrift about half a mile apart and each about fifty yards in diameter. My seafaring experiencetold me these were embryo spouts, but I had never personally heard of any in the Channel before. Thougi nothing learnt from the sea is wasted (meteoro-logically speaking), I believe the landplane people have taught us more since the war; they are not psychologically locked ina rigid inability to rise above 1,000ft. My own mind is open. Fleet. Hants". R. C. O. LOVELOCK. Noise and the Public I WRITE in support of Mr. A. Jackson's comment (Corre-spondence, Flight, February gth) on the reported remarks of Councillor F. Clapham of Wolverhampton, who cites the flying training in the vicinity of that city as an " ever-present danger and an intolerable nuisance." In particular, I thoroughly en- dorse the remarks with which your correspondent concludes his letter. 1 recall that in 1947 a petition was hawked round Denham village, Bucks, for signatures, to protest against the noise caused by light aircraft carrying out ab initio training in the local circuit. In this case the efforts of the petitioner were mispent and entirely misguided, for the real source of discom- fort to the villagers lay in the fact that they were situated directly beneath the final approach of the Northolt QDM. 1 should have thought that the racket of a Skymaster "on finals" would have practically immunized anyone against the modest note of a Tiger Moth at circuit height. Is there, how- ever, in the light of past experience, any case for those who biatently expose their antagonism to the light aircraft move- ment engaged in preparing a reserve of Service and civil pilots? ' St. Agnes, Cornwall R. H. H. SLADE. Feb. Feb. March March March March March March March March March March March March March March March March March March 23. 27. 4. 7. 8. 9. 10. 13. 14. 14. 15. 16. 17. 21. 22. 23. 23. 24. 25. 27. FORTHCOMING EVENTS R.Ae.S. (Isle of Wight) : " Propeller Turbines for Airliners," by E. J. Richards, M.A., B.Sc, A.F.R.Ae.S. R.Ae.S. (Bristol): "Aircraft in Future Warfare," by Air Marshal Sir Robert Saundby, K.B.E.. C.B., M.C.. D.F.C., A.F.C. British Interplanetary Society : *'Testing of Rocket Motors," by Dipl. Ing. H. F. Zumpe. R.Ae.S. Graduates "Gas-turbine Installation," by J. C. Wallin, B.Sc., A.F.R.Ae.S. R.Ae.C. : Ball, Londonderry House. R.Ae.S. (Isle of Wight): "High-scesd Research," by J. D. Derry. R.Ae.S. (Portsmouth): "Design Problems of Large Flying Boats." by H. Knowler, F.R.Ae.S.. A.M.I.C.E. R.Ae.C.: Film Show, Londonderry Honse. Aero Golfing Society: Match v. R.A.F.G.S., followed by Hifht Dinner. R.Ae.S. (Belfast) : " Problems of High-speed Flight," by H. Davies, M.Sc. F.R.Ae.S. R.Ae.S. (Coventry): "Flying Boats," by H. Knowler, F.R.Ae.S., A.M.I.CE. R.Ae.S. : "Air Survey," by Prot. C A. Hart, M.Sc.(Eng.) Ph.D., M.lnst.C.E., F.R.I.C.S. Institute of Transport : Annual Dinner. R Ae.S. Section Lecture : " Boundary Layer at High Speeds," by A. D. Young, M.A.. F.R.Ae.S. R.Ae.S. (Manchester): " Accident Investigation," by A. Cdre. Vernon Brown, C.B., O.B.E., M.A., F.R.Ae.S. R.Ae.S. (Glasgow): "Fuel Consumption," by J. Leggatt. R.Ae.S. (Isle of Wight): "Gliding," by P. A. Wills, C.B.E. College of Aeronautics Senior Common Room Society : Annual Dinner. Helicopter Association : " Performance Testing of Heli- copters," by F. O'Hara, M.A. R.Ae.S. (Bristol). " Gliding " by A. H. Yates, B.Sc., A.F.R.Ae.S.
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