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Aviation History
1951
1951 - 2335.PDF
654 FLIGHT RAFTS AND DINGHIES . . . of water, to be used for immediate needs. Also provided in the kit should be the desalting units for rendering sea-water drinkable; sun stills, chemical stills or heat stills might also be provided, and should be set going as soon as possible. The raft canopy was provided with rainwater catchments which, on the ten-man raft, would provide over a gallon of drinking water per hour in moderate rain. Rations were mainly of psychological effect; men would die from lack of water long before they suffered any undue harm from lack of food. Speaking of rescue gear designed for dropping from search aircraft, the lecturer described the war-time Lindholme apparatus, consisting of a dinghy in a millboard container, and four ration packs; these were attached one to the other and dropped to survivors in the water. The procedure was as follows: First a smoke flare was dropped to ascertain wind-direction, after which a dummy run would be made across wind and downwind of a dinghy in distress, or upwind of personnel floating with lifejackets in the water; then the "bombing run" would be made and the equipment spread out over a line of approximately 500 yards. When the gear reached the water the soluble plug in the operating head of the dinghy container would dissolve, the spring-loaded lever would operate the head, and the dinghy would burst its way out of the container, at the same time throwing out a drogue to prevent drifting. Likewise, drogues prevented the drift of the supply containers. By hauling in their own drogue, survivors in rafts would drift downwind on to the line of the Lindholme gear or, alternatively, if they were floating in lifejackets, the equipment would drift down on to them more rapidly than they themselves would move. R.F.D. had evolved a modified form of this equipment and ia the dinghy container had packed a Universal life-raft; the room saved in the supply containers by the fact that it is no longer necessary to include exposure suits had been utilised to provide more of the vital drinking-water. Discussing future trends, Mr. Hailstone said that the new high-speed aircraft with their thin wing sections and pressurized fuselages were making the stowage of rescue equipment more and more difficult. No designer wished to cut large holes in his aircraft structure to stow safety equipment, so rafts and emergency equipment of less bulk and weight had had to be designed to meet the new requirements of the new military jet aircraft. The lecturer concluded by enumerating some of the methods by which this weight saving was being achieved, and then went on to give the practical demonstrations referred to earlier. BACKGROUND TO THE S.A./4 WHEN the Short S.A./4 bomber (four Avons) wasfirst revealed to the public gaze at Farnborough lastSeptember it caused more controversy than we remembered hearing for a very long time. Opinions on its appearance varied from an approving "grimly functional" to others which we forbear to quote. Most of the speculation centred on the fact that the general configuration followed earlier conventional lines rather than being characteristic of the "jet era," with sweepback, buried engines and so forth. It must be borne in mind that only that week had the aircraft been permitted to creep from under its security curtain (and not to creep very far, even then), so that only the elect few knew very much about its whys and wherefores. Even now, little in the way of concrete facts can be quoted, and we therefore welcome the following background story of the S.A./4's development and raison d'etre, released last week by its makers. It is a matter for some pride (state Short Bros.) that, though there are embodied in the design of this machine several new features of which the company has previously had only limited experience, it has been remarkably free from the troubles that so often beset prototypes. At this juncture it is appropriate that the S.A./4 should be considered in its true relationship to the policy of the Ministry of Supply over the last five or six years. To do this we must examine the situation which existed at the end of the war when pure-jet engines, swept-back wings, the possibilities of high-altitude flight and supersonic speed were comparatively unknown quantities in their eventual bearing on future designs. Firstly, it was the policy of the Air Ministry to call for certain specifications to cover the rapid development in the technical field which was apparent at the cessation of hostilities. As part of this policy Shorts were asked to build an aircraft which, while possessing relatively high performance characteristics as a bomber, would not be unduly unorthodox in its general layout. In point of fact the more advanced design built by Messrs. Vickers-Armstrongs Ltd., has proved successful and this, though highly satisfactory from the point of view that Great Britain should lead the world in development of aeronautics, has clearly reacted a little unfavourably on this company, whose task has been to construct, in the overall bomber programme, the more conventional and less modern design. On the other hand, these facts do not mean that the S.A./4 is obsolescent. Far from this being the case, there has been produced an aircraft capable of carrying the large loads demanded by modern operational require- ments and which, it is confidently expected, will attain the per- formance specified by the Air Staff. The remarkable absence of any major troubles in trials so far is mainly attributable to the great amount of research work carried out during production. In addition, the external finish has benefited greatly from such treatment as our own hot dimpling process, rivet head milling and other innovations initiated by the Development and Research Departments in the last two years, and in the case of the S.A./4 the external finish can be described as second to none. Despite the fact that the power plants themselves are heavier than was estimated in the project stage, this weight increase has, due to the particular design of the aircraft, had far less effect on performance than would normally have been anticipated. The manner of engine mounting, in addition to greatly facilitating maintenance, has resulted in an aircraft that is eminently suitable for the speedy installation of later and more up-to-date power plant versions. The design of the nacelles is also a most important feature, for this type of mounting gives a satisfactory gain in thrust by reason of its unobstructed air intakes, a factor to the influence of which jet engines are particularly sensitive. The S.A./4 has been designed to accommodate the Air Staff bomber requirements in the matter of radar, radio and similar installations and also embodies very advanced ideas in anti-icing present in very few aircraft today. To sum up, Shorts have designed an aircraft capable of being used for extensive research, and the Ministry of Supply now have at their disposal a first-class modern aircraft on which to make new installations and experiments with new weapons and equip- . ment. The continued use of almost obsolete types of aircraft for this extremely important work clearly shows the urgent need for modern research-aircraft available without disturbing production. Even at this early stage the S.A./4 has shown that it is eminently suited to undertake its future duties. Its eventual contribution to the country's continued prestige in the quality and performance of its aircraft, though as yet impossible to gauge, may well prove to be the greatest of all. Furthermore, it has provided its designers with knowledge of immense value for future designs. Of these designs it is not permissible to state anything at this stage beyond the fact that, armed with first-hand data concerning the construction of large, high performance jet-powered aircraft) the design personnel of the company are in a position to step into the very forefront of modern design. . Shorts have designed an aircraft capable of being used for extensive research . . . and for experiments with new weapons and equipment."
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