FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1951
1951 - 1021.PDF
636 FLIGHT, 1 June 195] FROM ALL QUARTERS Described by the makers as "the aerodynamic test vehicle," this aircraft (referred to below) nevertheless displays all the main features of the new anti-submarine Firefly Mark 7. A representative military load for these new duties is slung beneath the wings. A New Mark of Firefly ALTHOUGH the Fairey 17 has already been selected and •**• ordered to help meet the Navy's anti-submarine requirements it will be many months before these new Double-Mamba-powered three-seaters can be built and go into service. In the meantime, therefore, still another mark of the versatile Fairey Firefly has been produced, and the prototype made its first flight last week. The Mk 7, as this new version is called, is a three-seater. In the accompanying illustration will be noted several features which clearly distinguish it from previous marks. For example, the Rolls-Royce Griffon power plant, with nose radiator, resembles that of the Barracuda 5, while the wings are of the elliptical, full- span, rounded-tip type as fitted to the Firefly 1. The wing radia- tors as found on the Mks 4, 5 and 6 are, of course, absent, and a completely new feature is the blister enclosure over the rear two- seat cockpit. For the time being security prevents the disclosure of perform- ance figures and details of equipment, but an official statement says that the Mk 7 has radio and radar appropriate for the latest anti-submarine detection devices and sonobuoys for tracking a target at sea. No guns are carried. The Mk 7 is, of course, fully equipped for carrier operations by day or night. Dimensions are : wing span, 44ft 6in (13.6m); length, 37ft nin (11.56m); height, tail down, 14ft 4m (4.37m). Lord Pakenham as First Lord FOLLOWING the retirement, on the grounds of ill-health, ofLord Hall from the post of First Lord of the Admiralty, the King has approved the appointment of Lord Pakenham as his successor. Lord Pakenham, who is 45 years of age, is Minister of Civil Aviation, a post which he has held since June, 1948. In his new appointment he will be a Minister of Cabinet rank, but will not actually be a member of the Cabinet. His salary of £5,000 a year will remain unchanged. He has held office in the Govern- ment since 1946, the year in which he was raised to the peer- age. Previous to his M.C.A. appointment he had been Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. The choice of Lord Pakenham as First Lord is an interesting one, and is being generally taken as reflecting the increasing impor- tance of air power in Naval operations. Certainly the Minis- ter must have accumulated a good deal of useful knowledge of air affairs in general during the past three years; his interest, as shown by his frequent attendance at aviation functions, has been consistently apparent. Even the extreme right-wing Press, in commenting on the appointment, has paid tribute to his imagination, initiative and willingness to receive constructive criticism. No successor at the M.C.A. had been named up to the time of our going to press, though the name of Mr. L. J. Callaghan has been the subject of rumours in the columns of the newspapers. Other rumours have hinted at a merger of the M.C.A. with the Air Ministry and Ministry of Transport. Lord Pakenham Death of Lincoln EllsworthW ITH the death of Lincoln Ellsworth—in New York last Saturday, at the age of 71—the world loses another of the pioneers of the "golden age" of air exploration that followed the First World War. His name will always be coupled with that of the great polar explorer Amundsen. In 1925, acting as navigator of a Dornier Wai flying-boat, and accompanied by a similar aircraft navigated by Amundsen, he made the first penetration of the Arctic, by aero- plane; this took him, from Spitsbergen, within 140 miles of the North Pole. Ellsworth's machine was forced down on the sea; and the crew of three transferred to Amundsen's; this in turn was forced to descend, and all six crew-members were eventually rescued, off North Cape, Spitsbergen, by a sailing vessel. In the following year Ellsworth flew with Amundsen, and with Col. Umberto Nobile as pilot, in the 447ft semi-rigid airship Norge. Starting from Spitzbergen, they traversed the North Polar regions, eventually landing at Teller, Alaska, after 71 hours. Nine years later, in 1935, he made a 2,300-mile survey flight across Antarctica in a Northrop Gamma with an Englishman, Herbert Hollick-Kenyon, as pilot. Fuel shortage forced them down, but they reached a supply-dump by sledge, and resigned themselves to a wait for rescue. After 55 days they were located by a Moth of the R.A.A.F., which had been taken into Antarctica by the British-manned research ship Discovery II. Reconnaissance Meteors A FEW more facts concerning the Gloster Meteor F.R.9 fighterreconnaissance and P.R.10 high-altitude photographic recon- naissance aircraft have now been released for publication. The Meteor F.R.9, which carries the standard fighter armament of four 20 mm guns in addition to its photographic equipment, is capable of 585 m.p.h. at sea level. The P.R.10, which has long- span wings, attains a ceiling of 47,000 ft and its rate of climb is in excess of the 7,000 ft/min of the armed versions of the Meteor. On both F.R.9 and P.R.10 the maximum fuel capacity is 795 gallons, and the P.R.10 can cover a distance of 1,380 miles and /"remain in the air for 3J hr. Rolls-Royce Derwent 8 turbojets are standard on both marks. Helicopter Tribute HE late S/L. Alan Marsh (who lojst his life in the Air Horse accident) was chairman of the Helicopter Association, and at recent annual general meeting of that body the present chair- , Mr. N. J. G. Hill, made a noteworthy point in his reference this loss. "All forms of pioneering," he said, "seem to be accompanied by loss of human life, but I question whether any other branch of the industry can point to such a small number of lives lost in the course of development of the product as against the enormous number of lives that have happily been saved. Though I do not for one moment suggest that such skilled and experienced men as Alan Marsh and his crew have any equal, it is most heartening to hear of the wonderful record of mercy flights made by heli- copters in Malaya, Indo-China and Korea, where up to the end of 1950 some 1,200 men had been lifted from the battle areas and taken behind the lines for medical attention." After the chairman's speech—which included a concise review of helicopter progress and achievement in this country during the past year—Messrs. N. E. Rowe and L. S. Wigdortchik gave bnet accounts of their recent tours in the United States, and Mr. Aisti Bristow concluded with stories of his experiences of helicopter operations during the past year in Indo-China and Antarcn to
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
