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Aviation History
1950
1950 - 1037.PDF
FLIGHT, i June 1950 economy of maintenance. Any increased efficiency would also result in increased capacity, and reduction in the requirement for outside contractors, with a consequent reduction in costs. At Cranfield recently, no less a person than Mr. S. Scott- Hall said that there was a lack of highly trained engineers in this country and there was too much tendency for engineers to shun administration. It is to be hoped that this does not apply to civil operators, for there is likely to be greater loss of both money and efficiency if maintenance and over- haul administration is not in the hands of fully qualified engineers experienced in the work which they administer. Statistics and wall-charts look well, but they do little to organize practical engineering activities; this needs men who know the job. However theoretically efficient a main- tenance and repair system may be, it is practically useless unless it is thoroughly planned along practical and practicable lines; and such an organization can be evolved only by those who are fully conversant (by experi- ence as well as by qualification) with the operation of main- tenance and repair in practice. If the administration of the system is not efficient, it is saddled at the outset with an overhead charge for promoting its own inefficiency. Finally, when cost figures are quoted, it would be as well to know if maintenance and overhaul costs include techni- cal administration costs, or whether these are included under general administration costs. In some cases it may well be that technical administration costs are out of all proportion to the costs of the services they purport to administer. It would not be the first time—or, probably, the last—that the cost of running the office was entirely disproportionate to the cost of running the workshop, and it might follow that economy in maintenance and overhaul could best be inaugurated by first cutting the office costs. AMERICAN APPENDAGES Bf EACH aircraft in this up-to-date trio of American militarytypes exhibits "extras," fitted to airframe or power unit to improve utilization or performance. The Northrop F-89 Scorpion two-seat all-weather fighter (left)—an American counterpart to the Avro Canada CF-100—now has afterburners to increase take-off and climb capabilities, as indicated by the "swollen " tail-pipes of its two Allison J-35 turbojets. In the two bulbous containers attached beneath its fuselage, theConvair B-36 bomber (right) can transport a total of four 3,500 h.p. Pratt and Whitney Wasp Majors, six of which, inpusher installations, power the B-36. Above it is seen a Republic F-84 Thunderjet with two underwing drop-tanks of230 (U.S.) gallons capacity, in addition to the two 230-gallon tip-tanks; combat range is quoted as 1,000 miles. Specialized Fire-Fighting ""THOUGH similar in appearance to a number of Pyrene fire J- tenders delivered during the past year to airfields in many different parts of the world—an example was illustrated on p. 211 of Flight for February 16th—the latest production of this firm (the Pyrene Co., Ltd., 9, Grosvenor Gardens, London, S.W.i) embodies several important improvements. This powerful, self-contained appliance is capable of delivering 3,500 gall of foam and 2,400 cu ft of CO2 gas in about ij minutes, and, it is claimed, can be brought into action within nine seconds after arrival at the scene of the fire. It is built on a Thornycroft Nubian chassis, which has ample ground clearance and four-wheel drive to ensure speedy transit over rough or soft ground. There are tanks for 500 gall of wa"ter and 60 gall of foam compound; the latter is sufficient for a further 800 gall of water, thus increasing the total foam output to 9,100 gall if an auxiliary water tender is provided. The foam is produced by two Pyrene mechanical foam generators, each of which delivers 1,250 gall of foam per minute. These generators are built into the front wings of the vehicle and are permanently connected to the pump which supplies the water from the tank. This pump is capable of delivering 380 gall/min of water at a pressure of 150 Ib/sq in, and is driven by a power take-off from the chassis engine. Each generator is connected to an 80ft length of 4m canvas hose fitted with a foarri nozzle. The hoses and nozzles are housed in specially designed, quick-opening* boxes located each side of the bonnet. CO2 is discharged from six 50-lb cylinders, coupled to two hose reels each carrying 100ft of high-pressure hose terminating in a gas-distributing horn fitted with a local shut-off cock. Other recent Pyrene. developments include the design and production of a photo-electric smoke-detector for installation in baggage compartments and other parts of aircraft not constantly under observation by the crew. It can be used to initiate automatic extinguisher equipment.
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