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Aviation History
1952
1952 - 0480.PDF
ai8 FLIGHT, 22 February 1952 CORRESPONDENCE The Editor of "Flight" does not hold himself responsible for the views expressed by correspondents in these columns; the names and addresses of the writers, not necessarily for publication, must in all cases accompany letters. Production and Manpower THERE is a flaw in the solution to the manpower problem offered by "Pedantica" in his letter published on January 18th. The individuals described in his penultimate paragraph will never be worth £10 per week in an industry dependent, wholly or partially, on the labours of its operatives for survival. Those who instinctively seek their vocation on the "principle of least work" are a source of drag on society and cannot be con sidered for the undoubted honour of taking part in the creation of masterpieces like the Comet and the Canberra. No, sir, this character will solve NO manpower problem. Edinburgh 10. • K. G. MCAINSH. New Forest Airfield AS one who was O.C. (or Instructor) of the R.F.C. station at • Beaulieu, I can confirm that the site of the airfield and of the New Forest Flying School were on the south-east corner of the area. Capt. Lamplugh (Correspondence, January 18th) is correct in his statement that it lay to the south-east and not the north-west of the existing Beaulieu-Lymington Road. Byfleet, Surrey. H. A. WESTENDARP. The 1910 Coanda Turbine M R. BILLING'S letter on the Coanda biplane, published in your issue of January nth, is of interest to me, as in 1944, shortly after the liberation of Paris, I had the pleasure of several hours' conversation with M. Coanda himself, in that city. The discussion primarily concerned the so-called "Coanda Effect," but the biplane was also mentioned and I can definitely confirm that the power unit was of the ducted-fan type, similar in basic principles to the Caproni-Campini aircraft cf the 193c s. I asked M. Coanda if he ever flew in the biplane and to tne best of my recollection his reply was : "Those were the days when one knelt on the ground to see if the wheels left the earth, but I believe I took off for a few feet and then came down hurriedly and broke two teeth." Coventry. J. W. ADDERLEY. C.G.G. Adds Some Postscripts AS I have been dragged by name (Correspondence, February 8th) into the discussion about Capt. Bertram Dickson's crash at Lanark on August 8th, 1910, and as I represented The Aero, of the House of Iliffe, at the time, and was the passenger concerned in what was the first passenger flight and the first crash in Scotland, perhaps I may be allowed to poach on your preserves. Dickson—who was a gunner, and the first British Army officer to take a ticket (No. 71, in France, May 10th, 1910)—brought his Farman biplane to Lanark (see The Aero, August 17th, 1910)— where a "galaxy" of aviation talent was assembled. On the Monday he asked me to go with him for the passenger prize (weight-lifting). Together we weighed 25 stone 4 lb, of which he contributed about ioj. He wanted to carry more than 180 kg, so he told the official weight-adjuster to put on another three stone—in the form of lead strip wrapped round the undercarriage struts. I learned after the meeting that the official had put on 42 kg (or nearly seven stone) of lead, instead of 42 lb (three stone). So the take-off, with some 30 stone of added weight was, as the French »ay, "emotioning." We did get off, and flew gaily out over the Clyde Valley, where we got into a down-draught which—when we turned, dropping steadily, and tried to climb back on to the racecourse acting as the aerodrome—planted us firmly on to the hillside with two wheels and the left skid in a ditch. But we walked home. Dickson, I remember, did not get down from the machine; he merely stood up, as his feet, on the rudder-bar, were also on the ground. I was pleased that the Gnome engine did not hit me in the back. Your correspondents Messrs. Solomon and Kappey (to whom my compliments) will remember that they and others rebuilt the machine and had it flying two days later—how people worked in those days ! The whole story of Bertram Dickson's (ultimately) fatal accident at Milan will be found on p. 293 of The Aero of October 12th, 1910, with a photograph of him. He was such a good chap. On the same page is a curiosity—a photograph of the first, and Capt. Bertram Dickson on his Fiimmbiplam —a "Flight" photo graph taken a ftw weeks before the Lan ark meeting referred to bJow. I think only, aeroplane built in Ireland, with its first passenger, and its builder, a Belfast cycle-dealer by name Harry Ferguson— now a tractor-millionaire who is able to take on the Ford Company in a legal action. The number of pioneers of 40-odd years ago who survive is amazing. .remaps you will also allow me to add postscripts to two other historical references in recent issues of Flight—on the 1929 Piaggio Schneider Cup seaplane (page 129, February 1st) and the Bristol-Burney seaplane (page 181, February 15th). In the very early days, Lt. Guidoni of the Italian Navy (later General in the Italian Air Force, and killed by a badly—some said purposely badly—packed parachute at the gates of what is now Guidonia. the Italian Faraborough) patented the Guidoni palettes, little hydroplanes stuck under cylindrical floats under a Farman Box-kite. The palettes raised the floats off the water and the machine flew, but the palettes set up an awful drag. The thing was flown by Lt. Savoia (no relation to the Savoia aircraft) who was later air attache in Washington and in Paris in Mussolini's time. The idea pleased young Lt. Dennistoun Burney, R.N. (son of Admiral Burney), so he persuaded the Bristol Co. to build him the "water-walking" monoplane you have described. It was sent down to Pembroke Dock, with Harry Busteed (an Australian who came over with Harry Hawker, learned to fly at Sopwith's at Brooklands, later joined the R.N.A.S., and eventually became a group captain, R.A.F., and commanded a balloon-barrage in 1940) in charge, along with Bentley Daere, also R.N. As John Taylor says in his article, it rose all right when towed, but when they tried it with the engine, and Busteed tried to clutch-in the drscrew, it sank before the screw could take charge. The screw thrashed the water, and the whole thing turned over. Harry, who swam like a seal, was up in a moment, but Daere was fished out full of water. (I sat next to him at the 1950 R.A.F. Dinner Club dinner, and heard a lot that I didn't know before.) When he was carried ashore the docksiders thought he was drowned and all stood with their caps off (much to bis joy, at being a saluted corpse) as he was carried to the hospital. The palette monoplane was scrapped, but then came the joke. When Burney was serving in the Navy in 1914-15 he bethought himself of the funny things the palettes used to do, and from them he designed (or invented, if you like) the famous "hydrovanes". [Later known, we believe, as "paravanes"—Ed.] One was towed under water on each side of the bow of a ship. If the ship was about to hit a mine the cable of one or other hydrovane caught the mine-cable and, with some gadget attached, sawed it through and set the mine adrift, so that it could be exploded by gunfire. The hydrovanes in fact saved hundreds of ships and Burney was awarded a colossal sum—£400,000, I think-—and was set up for life. Just for fun he had a lovely car built for himself, with the engine behind the back axle. [More than one was built.—Ed. But, partly with his money, and partly with that of Vickers-Armstrongs, Ltd., he designed and built the world's best airship —the R.ioo, which flew to Canada and back. She was then, after the disaster to the Government-built R.101, condemned by the jealous scientists, taken to pieces in her shed and relied fiat by steam-rollers, for scrap. The actual designer was B. N. Wallis, and the construction was all geodetic, like that of his Wellingtons of a few years later. The engineer in charge was Nevil Shute Norway, later of Airspeed, Ltd., ard most famous as the author of No Highwav. The Royal Aero Club. C. G. GREY.
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