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Aviation History
1951
1951 - 1329.PDF
48 FLIGHT EVOLUTION of the GUIDED MISSILE... was launched from the vessel in mid-Pacific and reached a height of 106.4 miles. Although a foot shorter than the German A-4 rocket and only about half ijs diameter, the Viking (Fig. 24) has roughly twice the predicted altitude performance with minimum pay- load; carrying 100 lb of equipment, it should climb higher than 200 miles (Table II). TABLE II: VIKING AND A-4 ROCKETS COMPARED (with alternative pay'loads for Viking). Length (in.) Max. diameter, hull (in.) Diameter over fins (in.) Propellent weight (Ib) Sea-level thrust (Ib) Max. thrust duration (sec) Payload (Ib) Gross weight (Ib) Max. velocity (ft/sec) Max. acceleration (g) Altitude, all-burnt (ft) Max. altitude (ft) Viking 543 32 98 7,140 20,000 75 100 9,510 8,200 10.9 189,000 1,255,000 500 9,910 7,260 8.8 172,000 1,006,000 1,000 10,410 6.070 7.3 150,000 733,000 2.000 11,410 4,570 5.6 118,000 446,000 A-4 552 65.3 140 19,613 52,200 67 2.200* 28,380 5,000 6.0 100,000 600,000 • For stability reasons, when the payload is insufficient, added to bring the total weight of the loaded instrument several hundred pounds of this figure. lead counterweights are -compartment to within Its design offers several unique features. Whereas the A-4 rocket obtains its stability by means of four carbon vanes disposed in the exhaust stream, the new rocket employs a direct system of tilting the entire thrust unit—chamber and nozzle. Both systems work in conjunction with pitch and azimuth gyroscopes, but the effect is the same in that the jet is momentarily deflected—and the thrust consequently offset —to oppose any deviation from course. The new technique effects a weight saving (amounting in this case to 275 lb), there is no thrust loss due to vanes, and the possibility of control vane burn-out is eliminated. One small tribute to a British rocket society is that a published design for a sound- ing rocket proposed by the Manchester Astronautical Asso- ciation in 1943 incorporated this very system. The propulsion unit of the Viking is manufactured by Re- action Motors Incorporated, and employs liquid oxygen and alcohol, with a hydrogen peroxide turbo-pump injection system. Any rolling tendency of the rocket is automatically corrected by releasing exhaust from the peroxide pump tur- bine through valves which increase the steam jets on the sides opposing the roll. The Viking is being produced under con- tract for the U.S. Navy by the Glenn L. Martin factory at Middle River, Maryland. Although it seems inevitably the case that a rocket must climb at least 100 miles to merit attention by the popular Press, the most useful research now being conducted is Fig. 24. The U.S. Navy Viking rocket has already reached an altitude of 106.4 wiles and has a potential ceiling of over 200 miles. concerned with consolidating and expanding the findings already obtained at much lower altitudes. Constant probing to increasingly greater altitudes is not the principal aim, and with the advent of less costly vehicles such as the WAC Corporal and the Aerobee, rocket firings are settling down to routine. In a paper presented in March 1950, at a meeting of the American Rocket Society in New York, Dr. J. A. Van Allen emphasized the need for obtaining data from a large number of widely dispersed areas. It is vital, he said, that reliable and inexpensive rockets are developed to enable research groups using different techniques to expand and verify upper atmosphere data collected from sites in other parts of the world. Only then can really accurate knowledge of the ionosphere and the extent and nature of radiation phenomena be obtained. The results of this research are already being absorbed in such diverse fields as meteorology, radio-communication, aeronautics, guided missiles, nuclear physics and astro-physics. AERO-MEDICAL AWARD FOR pioneering work in the psychological testing of flyingtrainees, conducted 25 years ago, Colonel Neely C. Mashburn, post surgeon at Brooks Air Force base, Texas, has been awarded the annual Longacre award by the Aero Medical Association, the international organization of aeromedical scientists. So fundamental was the work of Colonel Mashburn that present- day psychologists still employ his testing device in screening appli- cants for flying training. In applying the Mashburn test (now known as the complex co-ordination test), the candidate sits in a mock-up cockpit and moves a control column and rudder bar to one after another of a series of positions to produce a pre-deter- mined pattern shown by a row of lights on the instrument panel. Success depends on his ability to accomplish all the required positions of the stick and rudder controls in the shortest possible length of time. JET RACING REPLYING to Lt. Col. W. H. Bromley-Davenport in theHouse of Commons, last week, the Under-Secretary for Air said that the height of aircraft during the Cooper Challenge Trophy Races had been 100 to 1,500ft, and "there was no evidence that these limits were exceeded." For ordinary cross-country flights, R.A.F. aircraft were not permitted to fly below 2,000ft except in an emergency. Lt. Col. Bromley-Davenport referred to the death of S/L. Lofts in an eliminating heat for the Cooper Trophy Race, and asked if it would not be advisable in future in such races to have the turning-points out at sea. Mr. Crawley said that the Cooper Trophy Race had been cancelled not only for this year, but for all time, in its present form. At present, he said, the matter of racing with jet aircraft was being reviewed. As already reported, the R.Ae.C. Jubilee Trophy Race, for which jet aircraft are entered, is likely to take place at Farnborough.
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