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Aviation History
1952
1952 - 1446.PDF
23 (Left) Overhaul and conversion of Lancasters at Dowesview for R.C.A.F. reconnaissance. (Right) Final assembly line of Beavers and L-20As. CANADA'S AIRCRAFT INDUSTRY blocks in the foreground house R.C.A.F. aircraft and the Toronto University supersonic laboratory. The' rest of the war-time factory, a fully equipped production plant, would be available to increase Beaver output or build any modern type, should it be released from its present overhaul com mitments. The potential of Downsview can be assessed from its Mosquito output between September 1942 and August 1945, already quoted. The airfield, originally the property of de Havil- lands, is now held jointly with the Government and it is fully suitable for modern aircraft. At present, the three main runways measure 5,700, 5,000 and 4,000ft, but the north-south one is shortly to be extended to 8,oooft to cater for jet fighters. There is yet one further aspect of the de Havilland scene to mention, and that is the engine plant. This is quite small, having originally been established for the overhaul of Gipsy engines. Its activities and space are now divided between piston-engine and jet overhaul. The facilities are far from being stretched to capacity by the number of Goblin overhauls required by the R.C.A.F.'s Vampires—work which is bound to tail off in the next two or three years as the aircraft go out of service. When this happens there will be a small factory, fully equipped to deal with every form of repair and test, and available for the servicing of gas turbines—a facility that may well be of use to B.C.P.A. and other Comet operators in the Western hemisphere. Finally, there are the personalities at Downsview. Aiding P. C. Garratt are, on the design side of the company, Doug Hunter (chief engineer) and Dick Hiscocks (designer); production man ager is Bill Burlison; sales are in the hands of C. H. Dickens, sales director and Sandy MacDonald, sales manager; R. Bannock is director and operations manager and George Mickleborough is secretary. George Neal and Doug Given are chief test pilot and senior production test-pilot respectively. In concluding this series of articles it may be said that the Canadian Aircraft industry scene, studied in retrospect, presents a healthy picture of a youthful, promising industry. Of the three major companies there is de Havilland, small, virile and self- sufficient; Canadair, reflecting the mass efficiency of the U.S.A.; and Avro, showing all the earmarks of a leader in the gas-turbine field. Behind these first-rank companies are the smaller operators, the accessory makers, aircraft repairers and other specialists. Finally, there is a huge third rank of general industrial and engineering firms that are being roped in to meet the present emergency. That is the picture today; while re-armament is to the fore Canada is determined to play an important part in it, and is daily showing that she can take on larger commitments. Should the need for vast air forces decline, then the industry contracting with in itself should still find a ready market within the Dominion, capable of supporting a reasonably stable industry. The life of the country is expanding, the population is growing to meet the needs of industrial development, and from this will come, auto matically, a domestic-aircraft market that will eventually rival that of the U.S.A. FLYING WEASEL A DESIGN-STUDY of what would appear to be a most useful vehicle has been formulated by Mr. E. W. Bruce Hill, who is a director of Antarctic Aviation (Int.); the preliminary specification has been completed and the company hope to build a prototype in Canada shortly. Designated B.H.I/50, the concept has been born out of logical development of the amphibious tracked vehicle which, known as the Weasel, has accompanied nearly every polar expedition of recent years. The "Flying Weasel" is likewise an amphibious tracked vehicle with the addition of a detachable powered airframe. The tracked hull houses a pilot centrally in the nose and four passengers, three of whom are seated on the starboard side to leave room on the port side for a 25.5 h.p. hull power plant, fuel for which is tanked under the reinforced floor. The tracked under carriage is of very light construction to permit ready acceleration and braking; differential braking is provided for steering, the whole assembly being intended to permit operations from almost any type of surface. With the airframe attached, alighting on the water is not foreseen as a normal operation; if ditching is necessary, the "ground vehicle" is quickly divorceable from the airframe and can be used as a means of escape—in fact, the ground vehicle is to have a range of some 400 miles and should be a useful means of transport on its own. Power for the airframe is provided by two Blackburn Cirrus Bombardier 702s driving large-diameter airscrews geared to run at 1,200 r.p.m.; other calculated data are as follow: Span, 48ft; gross weight, 5,898 lb; payload for maximum range, 918 lb; sea- level cruising speed, 115 m.p.h.; stalling speed, 47 m.p.h.; take-off to 50ft, 298yd; range, 400 miles. The amphibious tracked vehicle alone weighs 2,050 lb tare and can be loaded to 5,050 lb— although it cannot be flown at this weight; track loading is not expected to rise above 1.3 lb/sq in, and a speed of 40 m.p.h. on land or 6.5 kts on water is specified. Antarctic Aviation have offices in Luton, Beds, and Toronto, Canada; to date a mock-up of the project has been completed and is shown in the accompanying photograph. Other activities of the company lie in the field of air charter, particularly for survey This Flying Weasel model shows the tracked undercarriage to advantage; folding wings and a rear loading door are also fitted.
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