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Aviation History
1950
1950 - 0427.PDF
FLIGHT, 2 March 1950 285 k HERTVV In—tne /vir ' Flight " photograph.A Impressions of Some Hours Spent at the Controls ; B.O.A.C. Interior LayoL No. 35 OF THE SERIES By THE EDITOR CREW-TRAINING on the Handley Page Hermes IVsis about to begin at B.O.A.C.'s base at Hum, andthe first examples of these four-engined aircraft are now being checked out rapidly from the makers' airfield at Radlett in readiness for delivery. Twenty-three of the order for twenty-five for the Corporation have left the Cricklewood works and have reached the final assembly stage at Radlett. Delays in completion and consequent late delivery of these aircraft have, it is understood, been caused chiefly by the late arrival of several items of bought- out equipment without which the Hermes could not be put into airline service. Humidifying equipment for the cabins is still awaited. A Hermes IV, in the hands of S/L. Hazel- den, H.P. chief test pilot, recently flew to Khartoum for tests in connection with a tropical endorsement for the C. of A. Nearly eighteen months ago, in the issue date September 30th, 1948, FHght described and illustrated the Hermes IV in detail, and this mark of the aircraft remains the same in all essentials to-day. Similar in many ways but embody- ing improvement to the structure, the later Mark V, of which two are ordered, is especially distinguished by having four Bristol Theseus turboprops each giving about 400 h.p. more than the Hercules 763s in the Mark IVs. Hermes IVs will probably be the last aircraft to be delivered to a Corporation via the Ministry of Supply, who placed the order, and direct negotiation will be the practice in future. As soon as the three parties concerned have signed the documents (and this may by now have been done), de- liveries can begin. B.O.A.C. are anxious to receive the machines, and Handley Page to deliver them. At least six have been tested and inspected by the Corporation's repre- sentatives, and these can be flown to Hum as soon as the word is given. Others will follow at the rate of one per week. Guaranteed performance figures have been comfort- ably exceeded by those machines which have undergone acceptance tests. The first example will be delivered by the makers and they will check out one B.O.A.C. crew. The training programme can then start in earnest. Ground- crew training is already well advanced. Data for the Hermes will be found on page 289, but it may be mentioned here that the all-up weight is 82,000 lb aJid the span 113ft. A crew of five and two or more stewards are provided for, and 40 passengers can be accom- modated. Recently I was able to take part in an acceptance testm ght of some three hours' duration, and for about half of this period I was permitted to do the flying. Subsequently I made another flight from Radlett in order to try out some circuits and bumps. Apart from the experience of flying the aircraft myself, the first flight provided an ideal oppor- tunity for seeing a Hermes IV put through its paces. Pre- viously, more than three years ago, I had made a brief flight in the Hermes/Hastings tail-down prototype. Quite obviously, the comfort of the B.O.A.C. captain and crew has received a lot of consideration. Take, for ex- ample, the pilots' seats. They are large and well uphol- stered, but particularly noteworthy are the adjustments. The whole chair moves up and down or fore and aft; the back can be upright or sloping; the head-rest is adjustable for height and position fore and aft; the arm-rests fold. Finally, rudder-control reach is adjusted with the aid of a small kick-out lever mounted on each pedal. The pilots' instruments are limited to essentials—the blind-flying instruments, duplicated, directly in front of each seat, and engine dials located centrally between them (four r.p.m. indicators and four boost gauges). In addi- tion, below these are the clock, air temperature gauge and the two brake air-pressure dials for the two separate cir- cuits, and, below again, cabin height and pressure indicators. On the central pedestal, and clearly visible in our photo- graph, are engine, airscrew and autopilot controls, flaps and undercarriage selectors, and trimmers. At the side are the lever-friction controls, main control locking lever and parking brake. Ahead of the pedestal, on a small exten- sion panel, are the emergency flap and undercarriage con- trols and the airscrew reverse-pitch warning lights. Roof panels situated immediately aft of the P. 12 mag- H.P. Hermes IV e.g. boundary diagram The eg, aft limit is 50in aft of manu- facturers' datum, at all weights. The e.g. forward limit is 29in aft of A.O.M.D. at weights less than 67,000 Ib, and moves lineally with weight increase to 3S.5in aft of the datum at 82,000 Ib with the undercarriage down. 85.000 5s «o 4j OSTANCE AFT OF MRS* 0>TUH(W M J4-5 IS JS-5 DISTANCE AFT OF HOSE DATUM (ft) -—.-— AERODYIIAHK HEAN CHORD (par c«g_
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