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Aviation History
1952
1952 - 0517.PDF
231 STEPPED-UP COMET: Most noticeable difference in the Series II Comet—of which this is the first photograph—is seen in the size and shape of the intakes for the Avons, while there is also a rearrangement of the tail-pipes, the inboard pair being toed slightly outwards. The temporary colour- scheme includes a white top, with yellow corrosion-resisting undercoat beneath the waistline. The first flight took place on February 16th. expected to be iod per ton-mile (statute) over the whole flight. According to the manufacturers, the Universal Freighter is the only aircraft that can land on a grass field i,oooyd long, load 20 tons of freight, and fly out again. It is hoped that the Mk 2 will fly early in 1953. More Polar Strategy 'T'HE existence of another U.S. air base in the North Polar » regions was revealed last week, when a Senate sub-committee was hearing evidence on airfield-construction costs. Explaining to the committee the high wages paid to the construction workers—£80 a week for labourers and £120 for mechanics—Lt.-Gen. Pick, Chief of Army Engineers, said that to get good men to do the job fantastic wages had to be paid; this was "something new"—nobody had ever done it before. The location of Thule on the Greenland coast. Reports from Washington last week-end—at first of a specula tive nature, but later more positive—named Thule as the place at which the airfield was situated. One report said that 10,000ft runways had already been completed and that "test landings by the largest U.S.A.F. bombers" had already taken place. Thule is an Eskimo settlement far up the west coast of Green land and opposite the extreme north-east of Canada, at latitude 75 deg. N. It is roughly equidistant, on direct air courses of 2,600 to 2,800 miles, from New York, London and Moscow. The Thule coastline is normally approachable by sea in August, when the ice "breaks south." It is comparatively flat and the snowfall is barely 5m annually. The weather can be excessively bad: fog, high winds, summer blizzards and winter temperatures of — 60 deg F (92 deg of frost). The direction of the prevailing winds, however, tends to keep at bay the consistently foul weather of the mighty Greenland Ice Cap, home of the "worst weather in the world." Just how closely, if at all, this revelation ties up with the "float ing airfields" project of which we published the first news last week, and with the journey of the three aircraft of operation "Ski Jump II" to Point Barrow, Alaska, remains to be seen. The Swift Affair, or the Dutch Twins VJ'OST British readers will have noted with concern or mild -L'A delight (according to their temperament and their acquain tance with "security") the recent disclosure in the Daily Express that a description of the Supermarine Swift, with sectional drawings, had appeared in the Swiss journal Interavia. This material is a compilation by 23-year-old twins resident in Haarlem, and makes an interesting comparison with the large Flight copy right drawings of the Supermarine Attacker (May 15th, 1947) and Type 510 (March 2nd, 1950). It would appear, moreover, that the artist/authors—Mijnheeren Das—have paid us the somewhat dubious compliment of redrawing two sketches (of tanks and intake arrangements) appearing in the Attacker article. True, certain information—correct, part correct or wholly inaccurate—has been disclosed which has not hitherto been published in the British Press; but this is just another instance of what British technical journals have long endured. General Electric—de Havilland Agreement A MANUFACTURING agreement of great importance, negotiated between the de Havilland Engine Co., Ltd., and the General Electric Company of America, was announced last week-end. Negotiations between the two companies have been going on for some time past and, with official approval, there is in future to be a full interchange of technical knowledge. Unlike the earlier licensing agreements for a given design or designs of engine, of which there have been many between British and foreign countries, this arrangement provides for interchange of knowledge and experience at all stages, from design, through testing and development, to maintenance and major overhaul. It is understood that for a long time past there has been a friendly relationship between the two companies, and it is most gratifying that this should have culminated in the present agree ment, which is not only of the greatest value to the participants but is to be regarded as another most important international transatlantic link. There follows the official statement agreed by the two companies. Some notes on their individual backgrounds in the aircraft gas-turbine field will appear next week. "The de Havilland Engine Company, Ltd., of England and the General Electric Company of the United States of America, through its overseas affiliates, the International General Electric Company, jointly announce that they have signed an agreement for a full interchange of knowledge and experience, both current and future, in the field of gas turbines for aircraft, with the excep tion of aircraft nuclear propulsion. This agreement will bring together for mutual advantage the wealth of experience which the two companies have accumulated.... "Both companies recognize that no one organization is nowa days able to cover, with the necessary intensity of specialization, every side of the entire development of the new form of power unit for aircraft, and the General Electric and de Havilland con cerns have come to recognize over the post-war period that each has acquired special knowledge which is of great value to the other. Each company expects to benefit substantially from this exchange of knowledge without losing anything in the integrity and inde pendence of its own projects. "The agreement will be implemented by the visits of key technicians across the Atlanctic . . . [it] has been approved by the United States Government and the British Ministry of Supply.'
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