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Aviation History
1952
1952 - 2073.PDF
and RCRAFT ENGINEER First Aeronautical Weekly in the World Founded 1909 No. 2271 Vol. LXII. FRIDAY, 1 AUGUST 1952 EDITOR MAURICE A. SMITH, D.F.C. ASSISTANT EDITOR H. F. KING, M.B.E. TECHNICAL EDITOR C. B. BAILEY-WATSON, B.A. ART EDITOR JOHN YOXALL Editorial, Advertising and Publishing Offices: DORSET HOUSE, STAMFORD STREET, LONDON, S.E.1. Telegrams, Flightpres, Sedist, London. Telephone, Waterloo 3333 (60 lines). Branch Offices: COVENTRY 8-10, Corporation Street. Telegrams, Autocar, Coventry. Telephone, Coventry 5210. BIRMINGHAM. 2 King Edward House, New Street. Telegrams, Autopress, Birmingham. Telephone, Midland 7191 (7 lines). MANCHESTER, 3 260, Deansgate. Telegrams, lliffe, Manchester. Telephone, Blackfriars 4412 (3 lines). Deonsgate 3595 (2 lines). GLASGOW, C.2 26b, Renfield Street. Telegrams, lliffe, Glasgow. Telephone, Central 1265 (2 lines). SUBSCRIPTION RATES Home and Overseas: Twelve months £3 3s. Od. U.S.A. and Canada, $10.00 BY AIR: To Canada and U.S.A., six months, $16. IN THIS ISSUE: Selecting a Military Aircraft 114 Talking about Gliding - 120 Vintage Enthusiasm - 123 Preparing the Viscount for Service - - - - 125 Government Collaboration - - - 129 Exhibition Site WE are glad to see that B.E.A. are making a series of test flights into the South Bank Site with their helicopters and especially pleased to learn that noise appears on the list of items to be checked to ascertain the suitability of the site for use as a London rotor station. Regular readers will, no doubt, recall that for many months past we have been campaigning on the helicopter's behalf; in the March 2ist issue, at a time when questions regarding the speeding-up of their development were being asked in the House, we expressed our fear that the helicopter might be allowed to become another of the "too lates and too fews." We have also felt it necessary to say something about noise and helicopters, for not only do they produce a penetrating buzz for most of their time in the air, together with a pulsating note from the exhaust, intensified by rotor-blade echoes, but they usually fly low and "hang about" for a relatively long time over their landing areas. The probability is that these South Bank tests will provide very little information that is not already well known to the Helicopter Unit, but they do represent activity, practice and another step in the education of the public in preparation for helicopter services which it is hoped are not now many years distant. The same can be said of the current virtually non-productive run between London and Birmingham. It does not require flights in and out of the South Bank site to prove that experienced pilots can land a helicopter there, nor need they be made to discover that at the moment it is a rather bad site from the pilot's point of view. To put a single-engined helicopter down in a confined space surrounded by buildings and obstructions must always entail some risk, not so much to life and limb, but to the aircraft itself. As to whether the position of the site near Waterloo Station is convenient for potential passengers, there is again little to learn from making nights in and out. In spite of these remarks, however, we do not doubt the pilots are quite glad to have a go; and, as we have said, anything to add to the Unit's experience against the day when it must expand enormously is to be favoured. In this connection we may add that the Unit's pilots, who are normally kept busy enough, are now also starting to instruct R.A.F. pilots in the art of rotorplane flying. Because helicopters skilfully flown can make vertical descents or climbs to land on or take off from small platforms, it is not to say that a clear approach or climb with forward speed and into wind are not both advantageous and desirable. Should the South Bank site be selected for a rotor station for the services which B.E.A. plan (using twin-engined helicopters) for two to three years from now, then everything would be done to improve it and to make it as safe as possible; the proximity of the river is certainly an important advantage. We understand, incidentally, that W/C. Brie, who is in charge of the Heli copter Unit and who is playing the part of an airborne observer during the series of tests, pointed out the advantages of a landing platform on the river for rotating-wing aircraft even in pre-war days. After his first landing last Monday he remarked, guardedly, that the site had possibilities. A photograph appears on page 135. We may next turn again to the matter of noise, the level of which is to be measured and the irritation it may cause, judged in the House itself and in the County Hall beside the site. Of all the piston-engined aircraft flying today the helicopter is probably the easiest to silence to the point where it would pass unnoticed among the other sounds of a city. If the requirement were there, the designers could do it. By this we mean that the cost and weight, and perhaps drag and power loss—none very large—will not be inflicted upon the helicopter until a customer insists upon silence; we hope B.E.A. will do so. It is most important from the psychological viewpoint that a new form of transport be well received by the public. A good stfencing system incorporated in the initial designs of proposed commercial hehcopters may well result in a much better reception both from the public who might fly in them and those over whom they will fly. It would also help to ensure a quiet cabin for the confirmed passengers—one ingredient of comfort which they have now been educated to expect. c
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