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Aviation History
1950
1950 - 1151.PDF
FLIGHT, 15 June 1950 725 SERVICE AVIATION END OF THE LINE : An Avro York (four Rolls-Royce Merlins) stands easy at Bassingbourn before its next run down to 1 ,e pore. Yorks continue to give exemplary service in Transport Command squadrons. They are reliable, lifted by crews. Airmen's Pay and Promotion QPEAKING at R.A.F. Station, Oak-•»3 ington, on June 6th, Mr. Arthur Henderson, Secretary of State for Air,intimated that better pay and improved opportunities for promotion of airmenare being planned by the Air Ministry's Trades Structure Committee. Mr. Hen-derson said that he hoped to be able to make an announcement about thescheme before the middle of July. He stated that there would be two laddersof advancement, one for '' disciplin- arians and leaders of men," the other for"good technicians." Thus, a double opportunity would be afforded for pro-motion. A new grade of "master tech- nician " would be created. Extensions lor U.S.A.F. TpNGINEERS of the United States AirJ-* Force will begin work during the next few weeks on the extension of threeR.A.F. airfields for the use of U.S.A.F. bombers. The airfields are Fairford,Gloucestershire, and Upper Heyford and Brize Norton, Oxfordshire. Thebases at Marham and Sculthorpe, Nor- folk, and Lakenheath, Suffolk, are to behanded back to the R.A.F. for the use of our own B-29 squadrons. R.A.F. Appointment THE Air Ministry announces the ap-pointment of A.V-M. George Hol- royd Mills, C.B., D.F.C., as head of theUnited Kingdom Military Delegation to the Western Union Military Staff Com-mittee, with effect from August 8th, in succession to A.V-M. Edmund CuthbertHudleston, C.B., C.B.E., who has been appointed Air Officer Commanding, No.1 Group, Bomber Command, from the same date. Display Item NO. 615 (County of Surrey) Squadron,R.Aux.A.F., has been selected tolead the formation fly-past in the R.A.F. Display at Farnborough on July 7th and8th. S/L. Peter Devitt, who will lead the squadron, has already made a numberof flights over the course to be followed, in order to get the timing accurate. Royal Air Force and Naval Aviation News and Announcements Joint Services Mission AIR COMMODORE F. R. D. SWAIN,C.B.E., A.F.C., has joined the British Joint Services Mission, Wash-ington, as Senior Air Staff Officer, Air Force Staff, in succession to Air Commo-dore H. E. Nowell, C.B., O.B.E. Until recently Air Commodore Swaincommanded No. 28 Group, Technical Training Command, an appointment hetook up in February, 1949, on his return from the Middle East, where he was AirOfficer in Charge of Administration, first at Air H.Q., East Mediterranean, fromJanuary, 1946, and afterwards at H.Q. No. 205 Group, from the end of thatyear. During the war he held appoint- ments in Bomber Command as SeniorAir Staff Officer of No. 6 Group; station commander at R.A.F. Station, Bottes-ford; commanding officer of No. 19 Operational Training Unit; Senior Ad-ministrative Officer, No. 8 Group; and finally as commander of a bomber base. In 1936, while attached to the experi-mental section of the Royal Aircraft Establishment, Farnborough, Air Com-modore Swain (then a squadron leader) set up an international altitude recordby flying at a height of 49,944 feet. Thunderstorm Flying WHERE possible, flight throughthunderstorms is in future to be part of the training of all R.A.F. pilots.Research by the U.S.A.F. and R.A.F. is showing that, if correct techniques areused, flight through thunderstorms is not hazardous. Although the presence ofheavy turbulence, snow and lightning can prove alarming to uninitiated pilots,and hail can cause damage, there is no reason (says the Air Ministry) why mili-tary aircraft should not fly through thunderstorms if by not doing so theywould prejudice their mission* The American technique, developed during a scientific project* involving1,363 traverses through the most active thunderstorms that could be located byradar during two years of investigation, has been confirmed and officially en-dorsed by the R.A.F. Various pilots of the R.A.E., Farnborough, the EmpireFlying School, the All-Weather Training Flight at Singapore, and some of theoperational Commands have now col- lected considerable experience of flightthrough thunderstorms in many different parts of the world. Generally speaking,the most severe turbulence occurs in a thunderstorm between about 10,000 and20,000ft and aircraft flying below or above these heights, says the Air Minis-try, are not likely to encounter gusts which would impose dangerous struc-tural strains provided the appropriate speed has been maintained. As athunderstorm is chiefly composed of rising and descending air currents, themain technique of flight in these con- ditions is to ignore changes in heightwhich may be caused by the vertical air- streams although maintaining a constantlevel flight attitude. From an analysis of accidents pre-viously attributed to the violence of turbulence inside thunderstorms, it isnow realized that many so-called thunderstorm accidents must have beencaused by structural failure which has followed an excessive loading beingplaced upon an aircraft when recover- ing from a stall which has itself resultedfrom flying in the storm at too low an air speed. Taking into account thevelocity of the gusts registered in thunderstorms, together with strengthfactors of the different aircraft in use - in the R.A.F., " best*turbulent speeds"have now been calculated by aero- dynamicists for pilots to maintain whenflying through cumulo-nimbus. These give the aircraft the greatest possiblesafety margin from the point at which a stall would occur, and so from thestage where the risk is greatest of struc- tural overloading of the airframe. Thesespeeds are generally higher than those previously considered suitable; in somecases they are in excess of the normal cruising speeds. * See " FligJU," January 12th and 26th, 1950.
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