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Aviation History
1951
1951 - 0795.PDF
496 FLIGHT, 27 April 1951 NEW POWER PLANTS Napier Nomad and Bristol Olympus Announced: Skeeter Helicopter for the Navy "DRIEF reference to five new power units is now author- ized; they are made by Napier, Bristol and de Havilland. Though specific information is withheld, it can be said that the Napier—designated Nomad NNm. 3—is a "composite" engine. This is defined by the British Standards Institution as "a combination of two engines of basically different design, such as a piston-turbine engine combina- tion." It may reasonably be supposed that an exceptionally low fuel consumption will be achieved, rendering the Nomad especially suitable for such aircraft as long-range maritime reconnaissance-bombers and flying-boats. In the civil field the new engine might set a new economic standard. The two Bristol units bear the designations BOl.i and BOl.i-2.They are turbojets, and it may safely be presumed that the Olympus is the "large turbojet, with an extremely low fuelconsumption, destined to have an important place in civil and military aviation" mentioned in the Bristol company's annualreport published last June. Aviation Week has reported that the Olympus was the subject of the licensing agreement concludedlate last year between the Bristol and Curtiss-Wright concerns, and describes it as "a new high-powered turbojet which features twin axial-flow compressors." A unit of the type described would, of course, be eminently suitable for long-range bombers and transport aircraft. The de Havilland Ghost DGt.4 and DGt.5 are developments of the turbojet now in large-scale production for the Venom fighter, Comet transport and other aircraft. There is no doubt that static thrusts well in excess of the 5,000 lb announced for current models of the Ghost are attainable, even without recourse to afterburning or water-methanol injection. Simultaneously with announcement of the new power plants,comes news of a general-reconnaissance version of the Cierva W.14 Skeeter helicopter for the Royal Navy. Either the de HavillandGipsy Major 8 or Cirrus Bombardier engine can be fitted, but Saunders-Roe, Ltd., who, as announced in Flight of February 1st,have taken over development of current types of Cierva helicop- ters, state that only the Bombardier version will be activelydeveloped. ; A small helicopter such as the Skeeter would have obvious applications, not only as a light reconnaissance machine, but as an observation platform for torpedo trials and for radar calibration. For training helicopter pilots the Skeeter has unique claims to consideration. CRANFIELD CELEBRATION AS we reported last week, the Senior Common Room Society£\ of the College of Aeronautics entertained a large gather- J- J^ ing of distinguished guests at their third annual dinner atCranfield on April 13th. As was to be expected in such company, the standard of the speeches was particularly high; Sir HenryTizard proposed the toast of "the College", and observed that it seemed to be a hospitable as well as an opulent establishment inthat, as far as he could see, each member of the staff seemed to have five or six guests. Looking around, he could see a gang of oldfriends, and he thought that "gang" was probably the right word —anyway, they mostly looked highly prosperous. Sir Henry thought it was an odd thing for him to propose thistoast, because he was one of the few people who had opposed the formation of the College. Whilst Mim'ster of Aircraft Production,Sir Stafford Cripps had agreed to the establishment of the College but when he became Chancellor of the Exchequer he might,thought Sir Henry, have changed his opinion somewhat. So far as Sir Henry could see, the expense of the College was rather lessthan io4, and rather more than io3. This was certainly a large expenditure, but it was worthwhile in the larger view if it turnedout men who went out into the world and became leaders not only in aviation but in industry as a whole. Aviation was, of course, thehighest form of industry a man could engage in and, in saying this, Sir Henry did not exclude medicine. In science, this countryundoubtedly led the world; Sir Henry had no doubt about that at all, but he thought that we fell behind in the application ofscience, and this was one of the really important objects which the College had to fulfil. He cited the electronic field and said thatthere were about 4,000 people in the United Kingdom engaged in electronics, whereas in the United States there were 55,000 to60,000; and when it came to development, it was numbers which counted. Finally, Sir Henry referred to the impending retirement of thePrincipal of the College, Mr. E. F. Relf, and said that science had succeeded in prolonging not only a man's physical age, but hismental age as well, and whilst it would be exaggerating a bit to say that Mr. Relf was young enough to be his (Sir Henry's) son,it did make him (Sir Henry) think a bit about his own retirement. Mr. Relf (who is an accomplished musician) likened his appear-ance at the dinner to the first movement of his swan-song, and then, in reply to Sir Henry's comments about expenditure, saidthat if, in the next five years, the College produced "a couple of Whittles," it would have paid for itself over again. The quickerone could get ideas into use the better. The greatest difficulty the College faced today was building; if more students were to betaken, then more accommodation had to be provided. In this connection, the growth of the College could be likened to a sym-phony, in which the first two movements seemed to have coalesced into allegro vivace. Adagio, Mr. Relf drily commented, was theMinistry of Works. Being the first Principal had been hard work, but it had been a real joy. Sir Edgar Ludlow-Hewitt had writtenin a letter to Mr. Relf that there could be only one "first principle". Mr. Relf did not know that this was necessarily true, but he didknow that his task had been made a great deal easier by his staff, and in closing he wished to extend the very heartiest thanks to allof them. He sat down to roars of enthusiastic applause. The toast of "the Society" was proposed by Major P. L. Teed,who started by giving an extremely amusing dissertation on physicists. Speaking as a physicist of undisclosed specialization,he thought that the Society seemed to be of tender years, but composed of units of varying age combined together by Young'scement (Professor A. D. Young is the chairman of the Society). As was the case witii all conglomerates, however, the shape of allthe components varied. Society and societies were not democratic—they were exclusive;but they were none the worse for that. Democracy had been defined as government of the unfit by the unsuitable. There were,of course, societies and societies, but one which would long endure was the society of friends, and this adequately described the Societywho were their hosts that evening. Professor A. D. Young, responding, said that the dinner hadan aura of tradition for the Society, and for this he expressed thanks on behalf of everybody to the past chairman, Mr. S. V.Colbran. Professor Young then referred to the fact that Professor Duncan had gone to Glasgow University, and stated that, althoughthe College's loss had been his (Professor Young's) gain he was, nevertheless, deeply sorry that Professor Duncan had left.Another member of the staff who had left was Mr. Winkworth, who had gone to the R.A.E.; he had played a vital part in thedevelopment of experimental apparatus at the College. Professor Young then expressed a welcome to the "new boys", ProfessorBaxter, Mr. Palmer and Mr. Trotman. Of Mr. Relf, Professor Young said he had been at the helm of the College since its earliestdays, and had seen it grow to what it was today, an established institution playing a very important part in technical educationin this country. Mr. Relf had endeared himself to every member of the staff, and Professor Young knew he was speaking on behalfof everybody in wishing Mr. Relf a happy retirement. Sir Frederick Handley Page proposed the toast "the Guests",and emphasized how necessary it was that aviation in this country should have such an establishment as the College, which wentdown right to the heart of things. Sir Frederick also told a couple of extremely amusing stories (unfortunately unpublishable here)and then went on to explain that the toast would be responded to by Mr. Lennox-Boyd, the Member of Parliament in whose con-stituency Cranfield came. Mr. Lennox-Boyd was substituting for Mr. W. T. Gill, who was indisposed. Mr. Lennox-Boyd referred back to Major Teed's quotation,saying that he supposed he was one of the unsuitable addressing the unfit and, when the laughter had died down, went on to paytribute to Sir Stafford Cripps, whose Under-Secretary he (Lennox- Boyd) was in the Ministry of Aircraft Production. Sir Staffordhad taken Ministerial responsibility for the foundation of the College, and it was also during his Ministry that the decision hadbeen taken that the R.A.E. should be transferred to Twinwood and that Cranfield should become the home of the College. Inconclusion, he expressed the thanks of all the guests for a happy and memorable evening.
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