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Aviation History
1950
1950 - 1236.PDF
FLIGHT, 6 July 1950 HERE and THERE Vampires for 614 Squadron '"THE next squadron of the R.Aux.A.F. -*• to receive Vampires in place of its Spitfires will be No. 614 (County of Glamorgan), based at Llandow. As a preliminary step, two Meteor 7s are being delivered to the Squadron for jet conver- sion and instrument training. No HurryT HE Hawker P.1081 jet fighter, which was demonstrated at Antwerp- Deurne on June 25th, returned the fol- lowing day to London Airport from Melsbroek, Brussels, in a take-off-to- touch-down time of 25 minutes. Al- though the pilot, Trevor Wade, made no attempt to set up a record, the point- to-point time (21-22 min) represents an average speed of some 600 m.p.h. Air Horse Inquest Y7ERDICTS of death by misadventure V were recorded at the inquest, on June 29th, at Eastleigh, on S/L. H. A. Marsh, S/L. F. J. Cable, and Mr. W. J. Unsworth, who were killed when the first prototype Cierva Air Horse crashed on June 13th. It was stated that the crash now appeared to have been caused by fatigue fracture of the '' carrier driving link to the front rotor." Journey's EndO N Wednesday of last week Capt. A. Bradshaw completed the last leg of his flight, in a Percival Proctor, from England to New Zealand by flying 1,400 miles across the South Tasman Sea from Hobart to Invercargill. In view of the danger of the journey he had been for- bidden by the New Zealand Government to take his wife and child. Opinions may vary as to the prudence of making such flights, but Capt. Bradshaw is to be con- gratulated on his courage and per- severance. The crossing certainly demon- strates his confidence in the Proctor and its single D.H. Gipsy Queen engine. Attacker and Valetta Return AFTER flying 6,000 miles on theirNear- and Middle-East demonstra- tion tour, the Vickers Valetta and Vickers-Supermarine Attacker returned to Chilbolton, the starting-point, on June 23rd. Serviceability of both the trans- port and jet fighter proved excellent. There were no untoward incidents, and the aircraft were successfully demon- strated in French North Africa, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Greece and Italy. Mr. J. K. Quill was in overall charge of the tour; W/C. A. D. McN. Boyd flew the Valetta, and Lt.-Cdr "Mike" Lithgow was the Attacker pilot. Shell Aviation Services gave assistance all along the route ILLUSTRIOUS OCCASION : The West'and Wyvern T.F.2 Naval strike-fighter recently completed its initial deck-landing trials on H.M.S. Illustrious. With its 3,650-h.p. Arm- strong Siddeley Python turboprop cut back to idling r.p.m., the Wyvern is shown about to engage the arrester wires for the first time. Note the Youngman type flaps. R.C.A.F. Fighters for Britain TpARLY in 1951, it is announced, the •£-' Royal Canadian Air Force will begin to send fighter squadrons to Britain for training. Each formation will remain here for several months. Loopy A MR. CARL CRAWFORD, of Okla-homa, recently executed 1,874 loop5 in succession, flying a Piper Super Cub. He took off, with 48 gallons of fuel, at 6.42 a.m. and had completed the per- formance by 11.30 the same morning. The previous record, it is reported, was 1,633 loops. Jetliner's Visit Postponed THE AVTO Canada Jetliner will notarrive in England in time for the S.B.A.C. show at Farnborough in Sep- tember, as originally planned. The air- craft's European demonstration tour has also been postponed. This news was given last week by Sir Roy Dobson, president of A. V. Roe Canada, Ltd. Sir Roy said: " If we brought the air- craft to Europe in September-October, it would delay airline service trials by three or four months, and such interest has been shown in North America that we feel it wise to get on with the busi- ness and let showmanship come later." New Record Rules TMPORTANT changes in F.A.I, regu- -*- lations governing the world's air- speed record, effective from July rst, are announced by the Royal Aero Club. Speed-record contenders will be able to fly at any height (instead of below 500 metres, as formerly), and they will have to make two timed runs over a 15-25 km course (four runs over a three-km course were previously required). In addition, aircraft may now be launched from other machines if necessary. . The present speed record, held by a North American Sabre, is 670.981 m.p.h. Such research aircraft as the Bell X-i and Douglas Skyrocket should now be able to beat the record, under the new conditions, by a fairly large margin. The F.A.I, has also introduced a new record category, for rates of climb to five heights up to 15,000 metres. The experi- mental Avon-powered Meteor—to name one British aircraft—might well captureall five records. Curtiss Rocket Progress T TNLIKE most American jet fighters, U the Republic XF-91 interceptor em- ploys, instead of afterburning, tail- mounted rockets for brief periods of in- creased thrust on take-off or the climb. Flight tests of the XF-91 have so far been made without the rocket motors, two of which are to be mounted above the tail- pipe and two below. The propeller divi- sion of the Curtiss-Wright Corporation will, however, shortly deliver the four units, each of which will produce 4,000-lb thrust. Curtiss-Wright are also producing the rocket installation for the Bell X-2 super- sonic research aircraft, an advanced development of the successful X-i. The new research aircraft is to have two rocket motors, one of which will give 10,000-lb thrust and the other 5,000-lb. NEWS IN BRIEF MR. R. DIXON SPEAS has beenappointed United States represen- tative of A. V. Roe, Canada, Ltd. His headquarters will be at La Guardia Field, New York. * • • Overload flight tests were recently made by the U.S.A.F. with a Boeing C-97A Stratofreighter and a Boeing B-50. The C-97 A took off at a weight of 174,5001b, 26,5001b above its normal all- up-weight ; the B-50, which has a maxi- mum a.u.w. of 164,0001b, was flown at 173,0001b. • • • The Republic Aviation Corporation points out that 1,000 miles is the com- bat radius of its F-84E Thunderjet (when fitted with four external fuel tanks), rather than the range, as implied in our issue of June 1st. The actual range is about 2,500 miles. • # * The F.A.I, announces homologation of four new records, three of them British. The performances confirmed are the D.H. Comet's flights between London and Cairo (425 m.p.h., out; 386 m.p.h., return) ; J. Cooksey's 511 m.p.h., 1,000-km closed-circuit in a Meteor 8; and Mrs. A. Branger's climb to 24,000ft in a Piper Cub.
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