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Aviation History
1951
1951 - 1189.PDF
74O FLIGHT, 22 June 1951 CARRIER CO-AXIALS . . . and so rotate the blades to the superfine (starting) pitch angle. The present practice with the Double Mamba power instal- lation of the Fairey 17 is to start the front airscrew/engine first and then use the slipstream to windmill the rear airscrew up to starting r.p.m. In conclusion, mention must be made of the automatic- control function which takes place in the event of engine failure. Immediately failure occurs, reverse torque is registered, and this closes a switch which energizes a second solenoid in the control system. Actuation of this solenoid moves a valve to open the c.s.u. pump delivery to the under- side of a small piston unit in the c.s.u., movement of this piston causing the c.s.u. valve assembly to lift and so direct pump delivery to the "coarse-pitch" oil line. When the torque switch closes, current is simultaneously supplied to the feathering pump, the oil delivery from which is passed straight through the c.s.u. (owing to the raised piston valve) to the coarse-pitch line, to move the pitch-change piston rearward until the blades are fully feathered. C. B. B-W. SOME RECENT BOOKS "That Great Hunter," by Daphne She. Peter DavUs Ltd., 99 Great Russell Street, London, W.C.i. Price 9s. 6d.I T is seldom that a first novel justifies review in a technical journal: That Great Hunter, which has been selected as a Daily Graphic "Book Find of the Month," is one of the excep- tions. Its author was resident teacher of the English language at a Polish camp in Buckinghamshire, which helps to explain her choice of a Polish officer as the dominant character in her plot. Her spare-time interest as a W.R. Aux.A.F. member of a Fighter Control Unit explains in part Miss Slee's intimate knowledge of the Royal Air Force, which forms the background to this superbly- drawn character study of life at a wartime Bomber Command station in England. In brief, That Great Htmter tells of the experiences, both gay and grim, of Jan Matyjasik, the Polish commander of a British bomber squadron at an airfield whose occupants have an anti-Pole complex. It contains just the right balance of drama, comedy and technical narrative, spiced with a little romance, to cater for all tastes—and does so without ever getting morbid, outrageous or stodgy. Miss Slee shows an incredible understanding of the psychological effects of wartime bomber operations on the crews who made them, and her characters (unlike those in many novels) are rarely larger than life. "Stalin Means War," by Col. G. A. Tokaev. George Weidenfeld and Nicolson Ltd., 7, Cork Street, London, W.i. Price 12s. 6d.W HETHER or not one approves in general of books written by political refugees, purporting to give a true, unbiased picture of life inside their late homeland, one cannot afford to ignore these memoirs of the late Chief of the Aerodynamics Laboratory of the Moscow Military Air Academy. Col. Tokaev's book does not make pleasant reading. His description of life on the other side of the Iron Curtain is horrifying to anyone who cherishes even the slightest vestige of personal freedom, and his warning that the Politbureau is directing immense efforts towards all-out preparation for World War III, with a 1952 deadline, is most depressing. We are not, however, concerned here with Col. Tokaev's political views or predictions so much as with his description of Russian aeronautical research since the end of the war. The overall impression one gains is that Soviet technicians divide their time between trying to kidnap German scientists and endeavouring to perfect aircraft well beyond the present technical capabilities of themselves, or anyone else. On the other hand, recent Russian achievements in mass-producing the Mig-15 and other jet types would seem to indicate that not all their efforts are so fruitless or uninspired as Tokaev implies. He has much to say about Stalin's personal interest in the Sanger-Bredt project for a giant antipodal rocket-bomber, able to fly from Western Russia to America and back in one hop. The Marshal is supposed to have ordered concentrated develop- ment work on these bombers at the expense of all else, as "their possession would make it easier to talk to the gentleman shop- keeper Harry Truman, and keep him pinned down where we want him." Tokaev also refers to Russian production of the V.i and V.2 in the period before he escaped to the West in 1947. Chief criticism of the book is that he uses far too much ink trying to extol and justify his anti-Stalinist activities inside Russia and his reasons for getting out. "Fifty Years Fly Past," by Geoffrey Dorman. Forbes Robertson Ltd., 17, Fleet Street, London, E.C.4. Illustrated. Price 151.F OLLOWING hard on the heels of his British Test Pilots, Geoffrey Dorman has chosen the first half-century of powered flight as the subject of his second book. Once again there is an introduction by Lord Brabazon, followed this time by an intro- duction to Geoffrey Dorman by Tommy Rose. Fifty Years Fly Past is interesting and full of useful facts, figures and anecdotes. But it is not strictly a history of British aviation so much as a collection of short biographies of some of the organizations, people and companies which have contributed to the overall story. For example, there is a complete 11-page chapter on die de Havilland Enterprise, while other major firms receive little more than a single paragraph in a general chapter entitled "The Rise of the British Aircraft Industry." This makes the whole thing more readable for the layman and young enthusiast, but lessens its value to those who seek a comprehensive, completely reliable reference volume. Despite its deficiencies, this book is a good fifteen shillings' worth, for Mr. Dorman has devoted several of his 43 chapters to subjects that are normally overlooked in a popular work of this type. Examples chosen at random are "The F6d6ration A£ro- nautique Internationale," "The Light Aeroplane Movement," "Women in Aeronautics" and "First Aerobatics and Parachutes," while the very complete lists of results for such events as the Schneider Trophy, Aerial Derby, Gordon Bennett Aviation Cup and King's Cup races, plus the progress of world distance, height and speed records are a further valuable feature of the book. J. W. R. T. AN IMPROVED ACCELEROMETER RECENT research in the Engineering Mechanics Section of theU.S. National Bureau of Standards has resulted in an im- provement of the Ramberg vacuum-tube accelerometer. The new pick-up provides rather more sensitive and reliable acceleration measurements than did the earlier version which, despite slight erratic changes during its operation, had been successfully applied both to field and laboratory acceleration measurements. These accelerometers have been used for measurements on pilot-ejection devices for high-speed aircraft, in landing-impact tests for model aircraft, as well as on aircraft in actual flight. The primary design requirement met by the Ramberg vacuum- tube accelerometer is its provision of an electrical signal of suffi- cient strength to drive directly a high-frequency recording galvano- meter, whilst at the same time having a relatively high natural vibration-frequency. In the original model, erratic changes or "zero shifts" in balance point were sometimes encountered, but it is stated that this difficulty has been eliminated in the new version. The pick-up is a twin-diode vacuum tube consisting of a fixed, indirectly heated cathode, and two plates, one on each side of the cathode. The plates are elastically mounted so that they are deflected if the base of the tube is accelerated in a direction per- pendicular to the plane of the plates. In evaluating the perform- ance characteristics of the accelerometer, it was established that the natural frequencies of the plates of seven individual pick-up units were within one cyc/sec of the average value of 161 cyc/sec. "Zero shift," resulting from excessive accelerations to the pick-up during handling and installation, is prevented by stops which limit the plate excursion and thus prevent overloading. "Zero drift," believed to be due to small frequencies in the cathode electronic emission, has been effec:: /ely reduced by (a) giving the pick-up an ageing treatment, (b) using two "getters" instead of one, and (c) increasing sensitivity by a factor of 25. The largest "zero drift" , over a four-hour test period for the seven tubes was o.o4Og, whilst: the smallest was o.ooog. The maximum g for each tube, i.e., that which caused the plates to contact the stops or the cathode, was found to be between 9.3 and i3-3g. The accelerometer in its present form provides a useful addition to available measuring equipment for accelerations up to about 5g at frequencies up to about 20 cyc/sec. It is, however, intended to develop designs of the accelerometer to cover other ranges and also to develop models having high plate-resistance to give the high- voltage output required for many electronic applications.
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