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Aviation History
1952
1952 - 0598.PDF
274 THE INDUSTRY H. M. Hobson Results AT the sixteenth annual general meeting of H, M. Hobson, Ltd., • held recently in London, Mr. S. W. Hughes (chairman) told shareholders that he was happy to report that once again the firm was fully engaged for some time ahead, not only on an expanded programme of its own products but also on the manufacture of similar items for many of the leading aircraft and engine manufac turers. There were many Government contracts, some of con siderable importance. Research, design and development work had continued unabated and it was hoped that some important new projects would bear fruit in future years. Integral, Ltd., the subsidiary company, continued to make good progress and had paid an increased dividend. It, too, would have the benefit of increased factory area in the near future. Profit of the two companies amounted to £156,423 before taxa tion, as compared with £147,376 for the previous year. Normalair Progress RAPID developments in the work of Normalair, Ltd.—par ticularly in the fields of civil and military cabin-pressurizing, and of high-altitude breathing equipment—have necessitated extension of the firm's research and production facilities. A further rearrangement and expansion of the high-altitude research laboratory at the Yeovil works has been completed, the engineering staff at the works has been increased, and an engineer ing section has been established in London. In both cases many additional machine-tools and other production equipment have been installed, and further floor-space is already being prepared. A subsidiary company is being formed in Australia to service Normalair equipment in that area, and servicing arrangements are also being made in Canada, France and elsewhere. The issued capital of the company has recently been increased to £100,000 and the authorized capital to £250,000. It is stated that substantial finance has been made available to the company for development at once upon the scale required. Normalair, Ltd., is a wholly owned subsidiary of Westland Aircraft, Ltd., whose two major shareholders are John Brown and Co., Ltd., and the Associated Electrical Industries, Ltd. New H.D.A. Foundry ON Wednesday, February 27th, the new pressure die-casting foundry at High Duty Alloys, Ltd., Slough, was officially opened. The design-planning of the foundry had been accorded a great deal of careful experiment with the result that the company feel justified in claiming it to be the most up-to-date unit of its kind in the world. With 7,600 sq ft of floor area and a clear 20ft height from floor to roof truss, high-level lighting over the whole area, wide entrance and exit doors, and the carefully-considered siting of plant, the foundry bears little relation to the "glooming caverns" normally associated with the term. The company have so blended old and new plant and machines as to provide a complete production range at the most economic figure. At the same time, the size range of pressure die-castings has been increased with the result that it is now possible to produce castings in weights ranging from 1 oz to 30 lb. Rigid precautions are taken to ensure control of the specification of the alloys used : material reaches the bulk foundry in ingot form after analysis by the laboratory and, after melting, is sub mitted once more to mechanical and analytical tests. It is then carried by overhead cranes to the individual gas-fired furnaces. Part of the new High Duty Alloys foundry referred to above. FLIGHT, 7 March 1952 THREE HEADS bent in earnest conversation at the recent opening— reported in these pages last week—of the new Hellerman Electric premises at Crawley, Sussex. Left to right: Mr. H. R. Whyte, AJA.I.E.E., Hdlermon's works manager; Mr. W. Puckey, Deputy Controller of Supplies (Aircraft Production), M.O.S.; and Mr. W. R. McGaw, Director of Aircraft Production (G), M.oS. Combined Experience F OLLOWING our announcement, last week, of the important new licence agreement between the de Havilland Engine Co., Ltd., and the General Electric Co. of America, a brief historical-background note on the gas-turbine work of each company will be of interest. The General Electric Company's experience with the gas tur bine goes back to September, 1941, when the U.S. Air Force asked them to undertake the re-design, further development and production of a jet engine based upon plans of the Whittle unit. The engine, designated I-A, first ran on March 18th, 1942, after which there were additional models of the "I" series. Early in 1943 two entirely new designs were undertaken : the 11-stage axial-flow J-35 and the centrifugal "straight-through" J-33. Both were rated at approximately 4,000 lb thrust. In March, 1946, work commenced on the J-47, which is cur rently one of the main production engines of the U.S. Air Force and which has a thrust rating in excess of 5,200 lb. The model powering the Boeing B.47 Stratojet bomber is rated in excess of 5,800 lb. The latest engine, the J-73, was announced in June, 1951. Although thrust was not disclosed, the unit is described as far more powerful than the company's present battle-tested jets. The company has disclosed also that it is working on other new engines, including the XJ-53, not further identified. An elec tronically controlled G-E engine equipped with afterburner and designated the J.47-GE-17 powers the F-86D intercepter. General Electric also designed the first American turboprop, the TG-100. The first flight took place in December, 1945, in a Consolidated-Vultee XP-81. In 1950 the company, purchased the patents, name and technical data of the Turbodyne Corporation of Hawthorne, California, and instituted a test programme with Turbodyne engines. The Turbodyne XT-37 is claimed to be the most powerful propeller- type aircraft power plant in the world. The background of the de Havilland Engine Company Ltd. is well known to Flight readers. The company has been actively working on gas turbines since shortly after the Battle of Britain in 1940, and was the first estab lished British engine builder to enter the field of the gas turbine with a power unit intended from the beginning for quantity production. The Goblin was the first aircraft gas turbine to secure official type approval in 1945, and development went ahead so successfully that within four years an overhaul life of 600 hr was officially sanctioned. De Havilland experience was made available to America as early as 1943, when examples of the H.i, prototype of the Goblin, were sent by air freight, and it was this engine which powered the Lockheed XP-80 Shooting Star fighter prototype on its first flights early in 1944. The larger D.H. jet engine, the Ghost (rated at 5,000 lb static thrust), holder of the international height record of 59,446ft, has made possible the realization of a practical transport aircraft with jet propulsion, the de Havilland Comet. The Ghost is required in large numbers for the Venom and for other fighter applica tions, and it was recently decided to set up six entirely separate production organizations for its manufacture in strategically separated parts of Western Europe. The success of the de Havilland centrifugal-compressor engine has not, it is stated, deterred the company from development of further designs, of which no details may as yet be disclosed.
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