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Aviation History
1950
1950 - 1982.PDF
FLIGHT, 23 November 1950 457 (Above) A. Cdre. McKee, the Commandant of the College, greets one of the captains, S/L. McKeand, on his return from Alaska. (Above, right) Touching down at Manby : Lincoln RF362, the first aircraft to return. (Right) This Hastings flew 26,000 miles on its visit to Australia and New Zealand. just after take-off but S/L. McKeand rigged up a makeshiftpitot tube which projected from the fuselage to give readings correct to within five knots for the whole trip, with the aidof occasional manual de-icing. This Lincoln left the College on October 19th for a tour—of American bases in the Arctic Circle—which probably discovered more techniques of topical interest than did any of the other flights. The crew visitedfighter, bomber, rescue and weather-reconnaissance stations operating regularly under sub-zero conditions and were as onein their admiration for the drive and boldness with which the Americans are tackling the many problems involved. Two ofthe navigators and the captain flew over or near the geographical Pole in RB-29 reconnaissance aircraft of a weather squadronbased at Elmendorf Anchorage. The unit concerned sends a met. flight to the Pole everyother day, flying for 18 hours at 18,000ft, and has logged nearly 400 sorties of this type without losing an aircraft. On alternatedays, similar flights are made along the Aleutian chain of islands. The navigators were, of course, particularly interested inthe grid system of navigation and the sun-compass recently adopted to overcome the former impossibility of position-fixingduring the long twilight period. This instrument polarizes the light of the sun below the horizon and focuses it into a peak,accurate within a degree, from which position may be calculated and the gyro monitored accordingly. Cold-weather Clothing Tested Like the crews of the Lincolns which visited Canada, the Alaskan team wore cold-weather survival clothing developed by the R.A.F. Institute of Aviation Medicine at Farnborough. Practical tests gave encouraging results—suggestions brought back were for minor modifications only—and in some ways our Arctic clothing proved more effective than that of the U.S.A.F. The fourth "flock" (College designation for the nights) to return was Lincoln RF405, which landed at 2 p.m. on Friday afternoon. It was captained by W/C. D. C. McKinley, D.F.C., A.F.C., and left Manby on October 20th, replacing the former Armament-School Lincoln Thar II, whose departure the pre- vious day was held up by unserviceability. W/C. McKinley's team visited all the major experimental stations of the U.S.A.F. and U.S.N., including Platuxent, Wright Patterson, Edwards (at Muroc Dry Lake) and Eglin. Of these centres, Muroc had the greatest practical appeal, for almost-daily supersonic flight is but one of the advanced testing activities centred on its seven-mile natural runways. Other interesting sights were found at Eglin, the Air Proving Ground, including a giant hangar (capable of holding six Brabazon-size B-36 bombers) in which are produced any con- ditions of temperature and humidity. The team's experiences were not entirely static and the U.S.A.F. enabled some of its members to fly a B-45 jet bomber, two jet fighters (F-80 and F-86) and the new North American T-48 trainer. The elongated silver nose of Aries III, which landed at Manby at 1405hr on Friday, held a tank for extra fuel to assist this modified Lincoln on its 28-day, 25,000-mile flight round the world. (The Aries held 4,600 gallons; the other Lincolns carried wing and bomb-bay tanks of over 4,000 gallons' total capacity.) Aries set off for Khartoum on October 20th and arrived 14J hours later to break the previous non-stop record for this journey (17hr) set up by a Commando of the Egyptian Air Force. The aircraft's second hop carried it to Mauritius, whence it set off for the first west-east crossing of the Indian Ocean, using pressure-pattern navigation for the 3,200-mile journey to Perth. Shortly after take-off the artificial horizon failed, but Sgt. Rowden, the instrument repairer, installed another in the startling time of li minutes. Having reached Western Australia in less than three days' elapsed time, with two very brief pauses separating the three long stages, the crew of Aries appreciated the less strenuous 11-day tour of R.A.A.F. stations (plus a meeting with the M.C.C. cricket team) which followed. Keeping to schedule, they flew to San Francisco via Nandi (Fiji) and Honolulu, and thence back to Britain by way of Bermuda. Aries was cap- tained by S/L. J. C. T. Downey, D.F.C., and its crew included Lt. Cdr. D. B. Law, who led a Naval aerobatic tour of the United States two years ago, and Lt. Col. Knobloch, U.S.A.F. Hastings TG617, which landed half an hour after the globe- girdling Lincoln, had actually made the longest flight (about 26,000 miles) of the six. S/L. Smith, a Canadian, captained the aircraft (which carried a total of 18 aircrew and ground- crew) and G/C. C. G. Lott, C.B.E., D.S.O., D.F.C., was the team-leader. The Hastings set off fot Darwin on October 18th, arriving five days later via Malta, Habbaniya, Mauripur, Negombo and Changi (Singapore). The aircraft behaved per- fectly : " There were no snags and we kept right to schedule," said S/L. Smith. It travelled 5,000 miles over Australia and New Zealand before returning to Britain by the same route on November 10th, and- the major Australasian Service stations were visited. Mutual problems—both technical and adminis- trative—were found and discussed with the two relatively small but " keen and up-to-date" forces; it might be safe to say that hosts and visitors benefited alike from this pleasant and successful mission.
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