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Aviation History
1950
1950 - 0772.PDF
FLIGHT, ao A pril 1950 BERCER BX-100 A Swiss Smalt Turbojet for Light Aircraft DEVELOPED by a Swiss engineer, Hans Berger, of Gstaad,this jet unit has a number of unusual constructional features. A centrifugal compressor rotor and a centripetalturbine rotor are mounted closely adjacent on a common shaft and overhung from bearings arranged on the intake side of thecompressor casing. The bearing housing, located in the incoming air stream, incorporates the simple bath and oilreservoir which constitutes the lubrication system. Neither oil pump nor cooler is fitted. Axial thrusts of compressor andturbine rotors are substantially balanced. Three combustion chambers of helical configuration arearranged around 'the periphery of the rotor casing. Fuel is delivered to the spfayers at a pressure of about 1,000 lb/sq inby a duplex pump mounted below the bearing housing and actuated by low-lift eccentric cams on the rotor shaft. Onepump unit is adequate to maintain operation and each is fur- nished with a pressure gauge to indicate its functioning. Asingle-lever control unit on the pump regulates the amount of fuel delivered to the chambers from zero to maximum. The electric starter motor is flange-mounted to the front of This Berger turbojet, developing 370 Ib thrust, was first ex- hibited at the Geneva Automobile Show in March. Bergei%4pe inventor, gives scale to the unit. Weighing Wft" I9in diameter and 3l£in long overall. the bearing housing and drives directly on to the end of the main rotor shaft through an overrunning coupling. Actuation of the starter switch also supplies current to the igniter plugs and regulates the fuel delivery. Initially a start is made on benzine, but after running at idling speed for about one minute to attain operating temperature the supply is changed over to petrol or diesel oil. Acceleration from idling to maximum speed of rotation takes from 4 to 5 seconds. It will have been noted that no toothed gears are used in this construction. Even the revolution counter is an electrical device actuated by a cam on the rotor shaft and an interrupter in order to eliminate the usual gear drive and flexible shaft. As regards performance, the unit is claimed to produce a thrust of 37©lb at a rotational speed of 30,000 r.p.m. with a specific fuel consumption of 1.38 lb/lb/hr. Overall dimensions are T9in diameter and 3i.5in long, and weight is 971b. TWO RECENT BOOKS "J Flew with the Birds," by Harald Penrose. Country Life, "Ltd.. Southampton Street, London, W.C.2. Price 18s. WHETHER you know Harald Penrose best as a test pilot,an ornithologist, or as a lover of English country life, you will not be disappointed in this book. It contains some- thing of each, transformed into a magnificent book of the air by the skill of Penrose the author. / Flew with the Birds is a book about England in the rich tradition of Rupert Brooke, full of "her sights and sounds, dreams happy as her day . . . and gentleness." Brooke's " English heaven " is portrayed not as a mere sea of vaporous emptiness, but as a world peopled with "carefree creatures, living intensely for the moment, applying an intelligence as discriminating as ours to factors affecting their lives, possess- ing a freedom which knows no barriers but the wearying of their wings." Typical of Penrose's vivid, fascinating style is this story of a flight by Rapide in early March : — "As the sea vanished beneath the wings and fell astern, the turbulent little hills of South Dorset appeared, their cataclysmic creation disguised by a coat of quiet turf. Placid farms nestled between folds of smooth downland, little hamlets in tranquil valleys, and on the hill-tops were the faint pit-circles of anciently dead men. I turned from the shadowed indentations of the downs, scanning ten miles of countryside with no more than a casual glance, and saw a score of other intimate features that delineate the Dorset picture: the bright water of lost rivulets, glittering ice, the purple sheen of tree-tops new with bud, ragged little fields, wandering lanes—and yet all these were subservient to the high-ridged downland spanning far across the country like the frosted russet-brown back of a vast monster. And everywhere glimpses of birds flying: gulls making a passage, rooks soaring high above the windward side of elms, grey pigeons clouding above copses, and a few groups of speeding starlings." We can join the author as he frolics with gulls as spritely as his Seafire, and while he flies an Autogiro in leisurely company with the lapwings. With him we can study the aerodynamics of a gull's wheeling flight, learn how nature evolved slots and air brakes long before man conquered the air. The more we ready the more obvious it becomes how much we still have to learn. This is not just a book for the bird lever or the aviation enthusiast; it is a book for everyone who can find adventure or freedom in flight, and for anyone who can enjoy good prose. The greatest compliment that can be paid to the illustrations by Charles Brown, John Barlee, John Yoxal! of Flight and others is that they fully maintain the high standard of Penrose's text. " The World's Airways and How They Work." Odhams Press, Ltd., Long Acre, London, W.C.i. Price 8s 6d (standard edition) and gs 6d (de 'luxe edition). IT is easy to be critical of a work of this nature, whoseeditors have tried to pack a vast amount of information on a complex and technical subject into a single book intended for the average layman. In this case, however, the result is not only successful but quite attractive. The reason is obvious when one reads through the list of notable contributors on the contents page. Inevitably, some of the information is, or will soon be, out of date. Indeed, one wishes that this were not so in the case of the fine series of photographs illustrating B.O.A.C.'s Solent flying-boat service to South Africa. But, on the whole, The World's Airways is a good introduction to the subject for the general public, who have to pay for most of the expensive equipment described and illustrated in its 320 pages.
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