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Aviation History
1951
1951 - 1820.PDF
FLIGHT, 7 September 1951 337 QUICK FREIGHTER TURN-ROUND A Novel Device Designed in New Zealand WHEN Straits Air Freight Express, Ltd., a New Zealandassociate of Airwork, Ltd., recently began to operate a cargo airlift across the Cook Strait, to link the railway systems of the North and South Islands of New Zealand, one of the biggest problems concerned the need to cut turn-round times to a minimum. The distance between the two terminals—Paraparaumu in the North Island and Woodbourne in the South Island—is only 72 miles, and the company has but two Bristol Freighters. In order to lift more than 14,000 tons deadweight of mixed cargo every year maximum utilization of the two aircraft is necessary, and this means paring down time on the ground at each terminal. The usual method of loading and unloading the Freighters through the wide-opening front doors has been by the use of fork-lift trucks and manual labour, the operations being carried out with the trucks backed up to the nose of the aircraft. Mobile cargo, such as tractors and motor-cars, has been driven up ramps into the Freighters under its own power. Using these methods, it takes S.A.F.E. about 60 minutes to unload a Freighter and re-load it for the return flight. As the block-to-block time for the trip is only 30 minutes, the key to successful operation in this case obviously lies in speeding-up loading and unloading. Engineers of New Zealand Government Railways have now co-operated with the company to produce a mechanical loading platform which, by dispensing with manual handling of the cargo, will cut down the time on the ground from 60 to 10 minutes. How the mobile platforms are used to load the Bristol Freighters The device is believed to be unique, and might well be valuable to others if it proves to be as good as its designers hope. Essentially, the platform consists of two sets of railway lines laid parallel to each other and suitably spaced. Across them are straddled, at right angles, two trolleys, known as "traversers," which run along the rails. Each traverser has room on its flat top for two "cargons," metal containers which, placed end to end would exactly fill the freighter's hold. When the laden aircraft comes in it taxis up to the loading platform and stops, with nose doors open, hard up against an empty traverser, which is then adjusted to bring it exactly level with the floor of the aircraft hold. Two cargons, each filled with freight, are then slid from the machine on to the deck of the traverser, which is wheeled aside for unloading on to a motor-truck. The other traverser, with its full cargons, is wheeled into position in front of the aircraft and the cargons pushed inside. This equipment is expected to be completed and put into service in the near future; the results^will be watched with interest. THE PIASECKI HELICOPTER LECTURE US. Designer on the "Unique" Potentialities of Rotary-wing Transports TWO important events in the fixture-list of the HelicopterAssociation of Great Britain took place last Friday, when,at the Institution of Civil Engineers, Mr. Frank N. Piasecki read his paper. Military Aspects of the Transport Helicopter, and the lecture was followed by the Association's annual dinner at Londonderry House, Park Lane. Mr. Piasecki, at 31 years of age, is chairman of the board of directors of the Piasecki Helicopter Corporation, and the pioneer in the development of tandem-rotor transport-type helicopters in America. He is a graduate of the Guggenheim School of Aero- nautics at New York University, and he has gained experience with several aviation concerns, including the Kellett Autogiro Company. Mr. Piasecki flew the second successful helicopter to become airborne in America, the PV-2; this was in 1943. He was, in fact, the first man to qualify with the C.A.A. as a helicopter pilot before receiving a "fixed-wing" licence. Since then he has done most of the original test flying on helicopters of his own design, and has flown 16 different rotary-wing aircraft at home and abroad. In January this year he received the Lawrence Sperry Award of the Institute of the Aeronautical Sciences for his outstanding contributions to helicopter design and development. After a general introduction to his paper, Mr. Piasecki dealt with applications of the transport helicopter under such headings as construction work; development of new areas; laying of pipe- lines; land, sea and Arctic rescue; medical duties; and salvage. Later, under the headings of defence and attack, he talked of jwti-submarine warfare and mine-sweeping, and assault transport. This led to another section dealing with initial, operating and piaintenance costs. In his conclusions, Mr. Piasecki stated that « was evident that the helicopter had the unique ability to perform certain functions that could not be performed by any other roeans; for example, evacuation from contaminated atomic areas. For such work, the helicopter's value was infinite, and therefore rt would be meaningless to compare the relative cost of such operations with other standard means of transportation even if the helicopter's costs, both initial and operating, were many times Frank N. Piauckl. greater. Yet, in most of these "monopoly" applications, a standard type of transport heli- copter could be used without the requirement for special, single- duty, stand-by equipment which would become an economic bur- den. The helicopter was basic- ally a vehicle, and not a weapon or machine that was specialized functionally in its design. In the main, the helicopter's major value lay in performing routine missions with an increase in efficiency over existing methods, such that the additional cost of operating the helicopter was far outweighed. Sympathetic trials and testing would result in the application of the transport helicopter to many new military tasks of real ad- vantage, said the lecturer. With broader use, many of the unknowns which were now the subject of speculation could be attacked and solved. The cumulative effect of the reductions of time in transport and in transfer of military materiel and personnel in the large-scale operations of our military establishments was beyond the scope of his paper. However, added Mr. Piasecki, the effect of higher transport efficiency on the movement of military materiel and personnel in a perimeter war operation, or in preparation therefor, could substantially reduce the overall size of standing armies and navies. The rapidly increasing load-carrying capacity of the helicopter, its ability to land at almost any spot, its hovering qualities and its reasonably rapid forward speed, gave it a place that fixed-wing aircraft could not fill. It also had the ability to operate under conditions of low visibility at times when fixed-wing aircraft were grounded. The transport helicopter, in fact, was ready for service.
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