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Aviation History
1951
1951 - 0013.PDF
FLIGHT, 4 January 1951 FROM ALL QUARTERS ADDER-POWERED RACER "PRIMARILY intended for the 1953 England-New Zealand-t Race, and conforming to the F.A.I. Light Aircraft 5th Cate- gory (weight 3,000-4,500 kg), the Coppelia racing aircraft, illus-trated here in its preliminary form, has been designed by a Londoner, Mr. George Korab, B.Sc, A.F.R.Ae.S. Originally,the installation of two Turbomeca Pimene turbojets was fore- seen, but their combined static thrust of 440 lb proved inade-quate, and redesign was undertaken round a single Armstrong Siddeley Adder (1,100 lb static thrust). Pilot and navigator are seated in tandem, and provision ismade for two JATO units under the jet-pipe at the rear of the metal-constructed fuselage. Fuel tanks occupy all the centre The unusually slender lines of the Coppelia project are apparent in this general- arrangement drawing. portion of the fuselage and project into the wing, which is ofmixed construction. Span and length are, respectively, 32ft 9in and 44ft 4in, anda maximum sea-level speed of 406 m.p.h. is estimated. The range should be 2,900 miles and the take-off distance to 50ft,with full load and without JATO, 1,550. yd, FOR BRIGHTER AIRCRAFT TO the Jenolite range of A.R.B.-approved preparations (whichinclude R.R.N.l rust remover and A.K.S. aluminium keying solution) has now been added a new aluminium- and magnesium-alloy degreaser and cleaner, to be known as Jenolite A.C. Stated to be incapable of attacking the metal itself, howeverhighly it may be polished, the new cleaner is supplied in powder form and is used in water in the proportion of 1 lb/gallon. Itcan be applied cold by brushing, or parts can be immersed in a bath warmed to a temperature of up to 50 deg C; The solutionis claimed to have high wetting characteristics and to be- non- caustic and non-injurious to rubber. The makers, Jenolite, Ltd., have headquarters at 43, PiazzaChambers, Covent Garden, London, W.C.2; samples of the new preparation may be obtained on application to their branch at5, New Bridge Street, London, E.C.4. STRATOJET FLUTTER TESTS THE Boeing Stratojet medium bomber is believed to be subjectto greater skin-stress than is any other aircraft of its size; it is very important, therefore, that vibration and flutter be keptto a minimum. With this end in view, the makers conducted a number of wind-tunnel tests with a specially constructedmodel. The tests were unusual in that the model actually "' flew,"supported by the tunnel's airstream and a wire tether to prevent it from being blown down the throat. Outwardly, "the test-piecewas identical with the actual Stratojet; the scale was 0.075—a twelfth. Other scales, with one exception, were all different. The weightscale was 0.075 cubed, or 0.000421875; at 13,000ft this was equal to a weight scale of 0.0006117—or about one two-thousandth :;fthe Stratojet's real weight. The stiffness scale was a little more than one millionth of that of the full-sized aircraft The vibra-tion-frequency scale, however, was of a comparatively large order—2.33—which meant that if something on the modelvibrated ten times a second, the same part on the actual Stratojet would vibrate at 23.3 times a second. The speed scale was setat 0.1745, equivalent to 515 m.p.h. in a 90 m.p.h. wind-tunnel airstream. The instrumentation of the flutter model, and high- speed cameras to record its behaviour, completed the equipmentrequired for the tests. A 29-core electric cable led to the model from the wind-tunnelroof; ^he cable was so arranged that'it could easily rise or fall with the test-piece. The conductors were connected to motorswhich operated control surfaces; accelerometers which recorded, the frequency and amplitude of vibrations; and strain gaugeswhich instantly detected the mechanical stresses at suitable points on the model "NO HIGHWAY" FILMED ^THROUGHOUT the aviation world, the reading of Nevil-*- Shute's No Highway became a "must" very soon after the book appeared: such was (and is) the Value placed upon afirst-class story produced by a man who knows his subject That it would make a fine film undoubtedly occurred tohundreds of readers of the book; and now a film has, in fact, been made. Marlene Dietrich, James Stewart, Glynis Johnsand Jack Hawkins star in this Twentieth Century-Fox produc- tion, which was made at Denham, and a good deal of whichwas shot actually within the security-sacrosanct precincts of the R.A.E. Inevitably, perhaps, the script departs from the book,^but to what extent one will be unable to judge until the picture is shown. Whilst the film was being made we were able to visit thestudios to see how things were progressing, and we also visited Blackbushe one freezing night when the specially built aircraftwas crashed Perhaps we are too pernickety, too hag-ridden by the demandsof accuracy, to shrug off various technical absurdities which seemed to be finding their way into the film. We must agreethat the proportion of the cinemagoers who will see No Highway and who will be aware of the aeronautical ineptitudes is likelyto be small; but we cannot reconcile this argument as justifying them. To some extent, one can sympathize with the film-makersconcerned, for they had above all to ensure that the aircraft portrayed should not be identifiable with any existing type.They have certainly succeeded, for they have designed a proto- type which, although the majority of filmgoers may accept it inblissful ignorance, will not, we think, fail to elicit themost ribald reactions from those of us who are concerned with aircraft asthey are in practice. One of the most surprising aspects of the situation is that technical advice was given to the studio from Art director C. P. Norman chats with the technical editor of "Flight " —who looks unconvinced—on the set at Denham duhng the filming of " No Highway." what we should have thought a reliable source. However, the giving of advice does not necessarily imply that that advice will be taken. Despite these gloomy comments, we would enjoin everyone who can to see this film. The cast is good—although this is, perhaps, a little more than can be said for the casting—and the direction (by Henry Koster) is likely to be more than competent. In saying this, our judgment is based on having seen some of his previous films and also or. seeing Mr. Koster at work during our recent visits. "" C. B B-W.
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