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Aviation History
1951
1951 - 1955.PDF
412 FLIGHT FROM ALL QUARTERS Live Testing for Ejector Seats EVER since Mr. P. B. Lucas, M.P., questioned the Minister ofSupply in the House of Commons on the subject of ejector seat efficiency, following on the death of Trevor Wade (who waskilled last April when flying a Hawker P.1081), there has been a good deal of weighing of pros and cons of ejector-seat design.Not only the intrinsic design of types and makes of seat have been studied, but the whole subject of their installation in the aircraft,and of pilot's equipment, ejection drill and so forth, has come under review. Now comes the news of an official decision that, before an ejectorseat will be accepted as an approved item of Service equipment, live testing, as opposed to testing only with a dummy body, willbe carried out—probably by the Royal Aircraft Establishment. This move by the Ministry of Supply is a sound one. No onewill envy the "guinea pigs"; but, if their task results—as it must— in proving the efficiency of seat design, then whatever the personalrisk involved it is worth while, if only on the cold-blooded basis of evaluating risk to one or two lives instead of to scores or evenhundreds. In the Martin-Baker seat, this country unquestionably hasan exceptionally efficient pilot-safety device—if the Russians have a better ejector seat, we do not know of it and, anyway,it is a matter only of academic interest. But brilliant an engineer as James Martin is, even his ingenuity is not capable ofdoing the impossible. What it amounts to in essence is that, if an ejector seat has to perform a given duty, there are certain essentialpre-requisites that, in the present state of knowledge, cannot be met in any other form. Such issues decide, for example, the sizeand weight of seat, and the clearance minima. Some existing types of aircraft are capable of being equippedwith ejector seats, others are not; but this has no bearing on the tenet that every future Service aircraft except, perhaps, primarytrainers, heavy transports and helicopters, should be fitted with such means of escape. This naturally means that the aircraft haveto be designed from the very first for the inclusion of ejector seats: a policy which, if we may make the observation, has long beenoverdue. A Chance to Repay "|~\UR debt is now not only to the Few. As the Royal Air Force ^-' grew larger and larger and the hard years of war unrolled, many thousands of their comrades died so that our Island might live, free and inviolate. By 1945, alas—as our casualty lists told the tale—the Few had become the Many. Had it not been for those young men whose daring and devotion cast a glittering shield between us and our foe, we should none of us be sitting at rest in our homes this Sunday evening, as members of an uncon- quered—and, as we believe, unconquerable—nation. Let us all welcome this chance to pay a small measure of the debt we owe to the paladins of the Royal Air Force"—Mr. Winston Churchill, in his recent broadcast appeal for the R.A.F. Benevolent Fund. TAKEN OVER: Camouflaged, and bearing the insignia of the Royal Ethiopian Air Force, the Fireflies make an impressive line-up at Ringway (see "Ethiopia's First Fighters," opposite). W. F. Shaylor's New Post FROM the de Havilland Enterprise comes news that Mr. VT. FShaylor has been appointed commercial manager of the de Havilland Engine Co., Ltd., as from September 1st, in which post he is responsible to Mr. H. Buckingham, business director. His office is at the Stonegrove factory, Edgware, Middlesex. Until the recent merging of Airspeed, Ltd., with the parent de Haviliand Co., Mr. Shaylor was business manager of Airspeed for 14 years. latterly as a director. Previously he had long experience in aviation, mainly in Canada and Great Britain. He served in the First World War as a fighter pilot and did a great deal of flying. particularly in Canada, before entering upon the executive side of aircraft operation and later of the manufacturing industry. Mr. W. F. Shaylor. Mr. N. Rowbotham. Bristol Engine Chief Steps Down THE directors of the Bristol Aeroplane Co., Ltd., have regret-fully announced that Mr. Norman Rowbotham, C.B.E., Wh.Ex., F.R.Ae.S., M.I.A.E., M.I.P.E., has been obliged, through reasons of health, to relinquish bis appointment as divisional managing director of the company's engine division. He will, however, remain a director. Mr. Rowbotham assumed his present post in 1944. He is also a director of Rotol, Ltd., and a director of the French repair organization, S.E.C.A., in which Bristol hold a number of shares. Born in Manchester in 1892, he served his apprenticeship in the locomotive shops of the Great Central Railway. In 1915, he joined the Aeronautical Inspection Directorate and in 1922 he went to •••, the Gnome et Le Rhdne Company in Paris to supervise the manufacture, under licence, of Bristol Jupiter engines. As more and more countries acquired licences to manufacture the Jupiter— by early 1930 it was in production in 16 overseas countries—he travelled all over the world to ensure that the standard of quality remained uniformly high wherever the engine was produced. Mr. Rowbotham returned to Bristol in 1931 and was then responsible for all engine production at the company's works. During the war, he was in charge of all Bristol engine produc- tion at Patchway, in the Hawthorn and Accrington plants, and in the "shadow" factories. COUNTER THRUST (Continued from page 411) pilots expressed their envy of the higher-powered Norwegian Mk 52s, and the Belgians in turn felt a little aggrieved that they should still be flying Spitfires (though they are soon to receive F-84S). But the spirit of comradeship, tempered with good-humoured rivalry, had to be experienced to be believed. Immediately the allied squadrons arrived, W/C. Johnson told us, their aircraft were refuelled, their pilots were briefed, and they were away on their first strike with no fuss or bother of any kind. The Wing Commander's observations on various aspects of the exercise were specially interesting in view of his Korean experience Never, he said, had he seen such skilful camouflage as Blueland's. He considered the exercise in general to be a highly realistic one, except that much of the flying was at levels where severe light- flak opposition could be expected in war. With his own and Nor- wegian pilots he had operated at night with fair success, which he attributed in some degree to the troops' seemingly incurable habit of "brewing-up" for tea regardless of consequences. Ot this habit Field Marshal Sir William Slim, C.I.G.S., had soue- thing to say at the close of the exercise. Any improvement in that direction alone will make Counter Thrust worth-while. H.F.K.
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