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Aviation History
1950
1950 - 0498.PDF
330 FLIGHT, 9 March iy50 CORRESPONDENCE The Editor of " Flight" does not hold himself responsible /or the views expressed by correspondents in these columns. addresses of the writers, not necessarily for publication, must in all cases accompany letters. The names and Power PodsI WAS surprised to note that your contributor Stanley H. Evans, in his "match" with Mr. Wellwood Beall con- cerning the pros and cons of power pods (" American Note- book," Flight, February 23rd), failed to raise what appears to be one of the most important issues. May I ask what are the asymmetric power qualities of such a design? To fulfil the arguments quoted by Mr. BeaJl the criterion would seem to be to have the units slung on stalks from the extremities of the wings. Surely such an arrange- ment would be fatal should any type of power failure—not necessarily an engine blow-up—occur during take-off. Since the interval between becoming airborne and attaining the critical speed is possibly one of the most dangerous, I should have thought it would have been most carefully studied. It would be interesting to know the estimated critical speed of the projected civil B-47 design. The apparent omission of the Jato unite is another step in the wrong direction. Thank goodness the designer of the Comet has taken advantage of the gas turbine's flexibility of installation, thereby showing some regard for real as opposed to erroneous safety measures. ...J, „ .... A. A. JARVIS. Surbiton, 5urrey. . : "' :;, • • '•:.:•' * ••". -.~? - •-.:;;•„."•. .- Giants of the Past WITH regard to Mr. Edney's letter (February 23rd) on thesubject of the Tarrant triplane, there is one historical point which is worth noting. The accident in which this machine was mvolved**was sub-sequently used in legal argument to decide when an aircraft is deemed to fly. If memory serves me correctly the Tarrantnosed right over when the top engines were opened up and it was subsequently suggested that, as the aircraft had not leftthe ground, it was not in flight. After much kgal argument and, I believe, the assistance of a technical surveyor, it waseventually held that when an aircraft was in position to take off and throttles were opened with the intention of taking off,it was from that moment legally "in flight" regardless of whether it had left the ground or not. London, W.i. A. G. LAMPLUGH. MR. GEOFFREY DORMAN'S interesting article, "Size isRelative" (Flight, February 9th), recalls a little-known and relatively sizeable aircraft of 1915 vintage. I refer to theCurtiss twin Canada, which was probably the first "foreign" aircraft to have been fitted with the new-fangled "Rafwires."These were fitted during the winter of 1915 by the R.F.C. Pine- hurst riggers in the Farnborough balloon shed. The aircraftcrashed farther down the Plain one Saturday morning in (if my memory is correct) January, 1916. There was also a big Sikorsky erected at Norti;olt about thistime. The model was a flop. The remains of this giant were at Northolt up to 1922. EDWARD HOCTOR. Dublin, Eire. _ ^ Thunderstorm-flying ; - A LTHOUGH your correspondents, Charles Gardner and •£TL R. C. O. Lovelock, speak from war-time experience and refer chiefly to flying boats and operational aircraft, I suppose they, like a lot of other people, are really wondering about one aircraft only for the time being, namely, the Comet. There is not much doubt that they are right in saying that the Comet, and in fact all passenger-carrying airliners, must avoid cu-nim in the tropics. Nearer home, and particularly over France (which country, at certain times of the year, can offer some of the worst thunderstorms to be found in our part of the world) it is probably not so much the risk of structural failure or loss of control that must be worried about as the degree of discomfort which passengers would be willing to stand. To revert for a moment to war-time experience again, quite a number of Bomber Command pilots would be prepared to tell some good tales of the discomfort that can be caused by trying to fly under thunderstorms in France, particularly ii one were to mention the name Givors. The interest in this particular operational attack by Lanc'asters, made on a summer night in 1944, 's that although some of the crews were very inexperienced and the intensity and duration (at least four hours) of the continuous line of thunderstorms was quite unexpected, only one of nearly two hundred aircraft was, so far as I remember, a probable storm casualty. In other words, there was bags of discomfort, ice and static, but not very much real danger. Admittedly the Lanes were sneaking along at only i85kt and between 1,500 and 3,500ft, but it was so rough that most people found that " George " couldn't cope. I don't altogether agree with Charles Gardner when he savs that in daytime cu-nims can be seen and avoided, but at night without radar one could be in them with any warning at all. The Comet is not expected to climb or descend vertically, and although it may operate well above weather for most of a journey, it will also have on occasions to fly through cloud for many minutes on the way up and on the way down. As cu-nims are not always conveniently isolated from other cloud, there is a risk by day or night of flying into cu-nim mixed up with other stuff. Another point on which I'd take him up is that if one is above all normal layer cloud at, say, 25,000ft it is almost as easy to see tops, cu-nim or any other sort, by night as by day—probably just as easy if there is a moon. If we accept that the Comet and other such aircraft can operate for most of the time above weather, we can say that virtually all the danger from cu-nim is in the area of the take-off and landing airports. Therefore, would it not be better to concentrate on reliable local met. gen and one bigger and better cu-nim warning radar, on the ground at each airport to supply all aircraft with the necessary information for safe approach or departure in duff weather? There are already too many " miniaturized " bits and bobs to go wrong in an airliner. " D. DAVIES Cardiff. " .' '....,. • R.A.F. Flying Training • .; WE feel that an editorial in the February 23rd issue ofFlight, under the heading "The "R.A.F.'s New Trainer," gives an erroneous impression (particularly to over-seas students of Air Force training) of the syllabus of training provided by Training Command of the Royal Air Force. All pupil pilots in the Royal Air Force receive their initialor basic training on the Percival Prentice, long since the standard basic trainer of the R.A.F. and other Air Forcesoverseas. With the introduction of the advanced trainer, the Balliol,the planned sequence of pilot training will be implemented in aircraft employing the side-by-side seating arrangement, whichis considered by the Air Ministry as sounder and more economical in training the modern Service pilot than thetandem seating arrangement previously employed. Luton, Beds. D. M. BAY, Percival Aircraft, Ltd.[Our remarks were primarily concerned with new trainers, and we assumed that it is by now widely known that thePrentice is, as our correspondent points out, the standard basic trainer of the R.A.F. and of other Air Forces abroad. —ED.] Wanted—a Sailplane AS secretary of the Kangaroo Gliding and Soaring Club Ihave been requested to write to you in hope that you might, through your columns, be able to help us. From the name youwill have realized that we are a club situated in that part of the world known as Australia. Living in rather a large placewithout very many people, we have found that gliding is perhaps not as highly organized as we imagine it to be in England. Wehave been unsuccessful in our attempts to obtain a primary, intermediate or sailplane. As there is apparently none available, we intend to build one,but Tack plans for construction. This is where we thought per- haps you might help. We want to build a two-seater sailplane,and would like to obtain as many plans of various types as pos- sible, so that our field of choice will be wide. Perhaps there are gliders for sale in England either new or.second-hand. Any aid your readers might give will be sincerely appreciated. The address of the Kangaroo Gliding and SoaringClub is c/o Navigation Section, Qantas Empire Airwavs, Ltd., Kingsford Smith Aerodrome, Sydney. K. T>. SMITH. Sydney, Australia.
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