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Aviation History
1950
1950 - 1873.PDF
396 K . FLIGHT, 12 October 1950 MEWS OF THE WEEK America Buys The Sapphire. Best news of the week is that a licence to build the Armstrong Siddeley Sapphire turbojet and Python and Double Mamba turboprops has been acquired by the Wright Aeronautical Corporation, the engine subsidiary of the great American Curtiss-Wright organization. Under a long-term contract agreed in principle by Mr. H. T. Chapman, managing director of Armstrong Siddeley, and Mr. Roy Hurley, president of Curtiss~Wright, a complete exchange of research and technical infor- mation will also be made.. Sir Frank Spriggs, K-BoEo, managing director of the Hawker Siddeley Group, states, "We are hopeful that for the air forces of Britain, America and Western Union the agreement will speed up production and development, eliminate certain undesirable duplication and result in more and better aircraft engines being available to keep peace in the world." American engineers are expected at Coventry very soon. B.E.A*s Dart-Dakotas Two DC-3s fitted with Rolls-Royce Dart 503 turboprops (each of 1,200 hop.) are to go into service with B.E»A. early in the new year. They will be used as freighters and will fly on British internal routeso The experiment is designed to give the Corporation operating experience with the Dart power unit, which is, of course, the power plant for the Viscounts which are to be introduced in 1952. By using DC-3s for cargo-carrying as well as for test flying, the cost of obtaining necessary experience in techniques, such as holding procedures and timing, and the cost of engine maintenance will be considerably reduced., The Viscount has now been re-introduced on the London => Paris schedules and to date has achieved over 750 hours flyingo Tanker Training Under the training programme of tanker squadrons of the U.S.A.F. Strategic Air Command each new crew first receives basic instruction on the equipment used. Most B-29 tankers employ the British hose- and-reel refuelling equipment, although Boeing-equipped flying-boom tankers are now in service. Next, formation flying and "cross-overs11 are intensively practised before the second phase of training, which includes the first actual hook-up and a short fuel transfer. This is repeated in the third stage, plus a full-load transfer of fuel from the tanker to a B-50. The programme culminates with a maximum- distance mission and a full-load transfer. Each crew must make one hook-up per month and the fourth phase is repeated at least every three months. Television From The Air Following some weeks of research, the BoBoC. made history on Sunday, Oct. 1st, by producing the first clear television pictures from an aircraft in flight — a Bristol Freighter with special equipment, including a complete Marconi transmitter working on a very short wavelength. The first test transmission, on Septo 30th, was marred by bad weather. Vision transmissions from the Freighter were picked up by a relay station at Highgate and passed on to the transmitter at Alexandra Palacej the sound signals were picked up separately by a receiver at Bloomsbury and wired to Alexandra Palace. The Sunday programme opened with air-to-ground pictures of London, televised from 1,250ft. There followed several air-to-air views of civil and military aircraft. After a Hermes 5> Viscount and Ambassador came representative R.A.F. trainers — a Chipmunk, Prentice, Balliol, Meteor 7> Wellington and Mosquito. Led by S/Lo Don Kingaby, D.S.O., D.F.M., Vampires of No. 72 Squadron con- cluded the airborne display with a mock attack on the TV Freighter. All the R.A.F. machines operated from North Weald under arrangements made by Air Ministry, Flying Training Command and Noo 11 Group,
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