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Aviation History
1953
1953 - 0206.PDF
204 FLIGHT, 13 February 1953 HIGH-SPEED LINK INSTRUMENT flying in jet aircraft is a tricky business, for added to the basic difficulties of the art are the effects of high Mach number, air-brakes, immensely rapid climb, and controlled rates of descent up to io,oooft/min. In particular, altitude can vary alarmingly with very small changes in longitudinal trim, owing to the high speeds involved. The D.4 Link Trainer, manufactured at Aylesbury by Air Trainers, Ltd., and now in large-scale service with the R.A.F., has already gone some way towards meeting modern training requirements, but now comes news that, next month, delivery will begin of a "600-m.p.h. jet version"—the A.T.50. It is claimed that with the aid of this new equipment a jet pilot can be properly trained in instrument flying in about half the time which the process would take in the air, and at considerably reduced cost and risk. Also, training can continue during non-flying weather. The cockpit of the new Link has a clouded Perspex hood, harness is provided for the pilot, and the "feel" of controls at different speeds is ingeniously transmitted to stick and rudder pedals. Flap and air-brake controls are installed which produce typical responses in the flight instruments. Rates of roll and pitch are as high as in the real thing, and even a formidable buffet has been introduced, warning the pilot when he is approaching critical Mach number. A value of 0.76 is normally set for this limiting figure, but it can be increased if desired. Machmeter readings change with altitude as in normal flight. Maximum speeds simulated in the trainer are 520 kt at sea level, and 250 kt indicated at 40,000ft. Service ceiling is 42,000ft, which can be reached in nine minutes at 14,500 r.p.m. During such a The instrument panel of the new trainer is seen to be quite compre hensive. Arrangement is typical of that in a jet fighter, though not a replica of any particular one. climb, A.S.I, readings change from 360 to 182 kt, and Mach num bers from 0.54 to 0.63. Performance is, therefore, seen to be some what similar to that of the Meteor 8, although the A.T.50 is ' 'single-engined.'' Oil pressure and tail-pipe temperature vary realistically with engine speed. Radio equipment is complete, and comprises—as on the D.4—R/T., I.L.S., S.B.A., radio range and radio compass. Winds of up to 90 kt can be applied to the recorder. Constructionally, the new trainer has been designed to differ as little as possible from its predecessor : change-over of production has, therefore, been eased and cost kept to a minimum, especially in comparison with that of proposed electronic trainers. Further more, D.4S can readily be converted, and spare part and mainten ance problems will, it is stated, differ little from those of yesterday. CLASSICS OF REFERENCE "Jane's All the World's Aircraft, 1952-53." Compiled and Edited by Leonard Bridgman. Sampson Low, Marston and Co., Ltd., 25 Gilbert Street, London, W.i. Illustrated. Price £4 4s. "COR 43 years, "Jane's" has been the standard reference book *• of world aviation. It is no mere catalogue of aeroplanes; one could learn from its large shiny pages such things as the altitude of an obscure airport in Turkey, the names and addresses of Russian air journals, equipment of the Guatemalan Air Force, and location of the headquarters of R.A.F. Groups. In many cases, such data has not been readily available else where: so one can only share the regret of the publishers that most of it has had to be left out of the 1952-53 edition. Since Sections A and B, covering Military and Civil Aviation respectively, were introduced into All the World's Aircraft shortly after the 1914-1918 War, aviation has expanded to such a degree that this year the Editor had the clear choice of letting the book grow to impractical size and cost, or reducing the length of Sections A and B. The only other alternative, of cutting the descriptions and illustrations of all the world's aircraft and engines was, of course, unthinkable. So the present decision was inevit able ; and in place of the old Sections A and B, which filled 80 pages last year, the new "Jane's" has three and a half pages of national markings of the air forces of the world, one page of international civil-aircraft markings, three pages on I.C.A.O., I.A.T.A., and the F.A.I., a page of international aviation records and 16 pages of extremely useful data on the world's airlines. The main parts of the 1952-53 volume are as comprehensive, accurate and valuable as ever. Part C, covering "All the World's Aeroplanes," contains 573 illustrations, of which 311 are new, including interesting photographs of a Sabre with Flight Refuel ling probes in the noses of its drop tanks, the XA2J-1 Savage with wings and tail folded and an RF-84F complete with wing fences. Ten additional illustrations of the latest British aircraft shown at Farnborough appear in an addenda. Details of Soviet aircraft are wisely restricted to those types of which details have been reliably confirmed; but nine other types are referred to in note form, including fighters, bombers, two flying-boats and a big single-engined biplane transport, of which a photograph is included. - Part D this year totals 60 pages, of which 26 are devoted to gas turbines and 34 to piston-engines. And there are seven illustra tions of airships in Section E, which contains a photograph of the U.S. Navy's big new Goodyear N-i blimp and first details of a proposed German W.L.I airship. Finally, a feature which should prove popular is inclusion—in both the general aircraft index and the helicopter index—of references to aircraft described in the six preceding editions of "Jane's," many of which are still in service. "Brassey's Annual—the Armed ForcesYear-Book 1952." Edited by Rear-Admiral H. G. Thursfield. William Clowes and Sons, Little New Street, London E.C.4. Illustrated. Price £3 35. IF, like your reviewer, you looked forward each year to publica tion of the old Brassey's Naval Annual with its fascinating side elevations of the world's warships, it is still easy to view its three- year-old successor with rather jaundiced eyes. Who, one wonders, will pay three guineas for a yearbook containing the sort of articles they can read throughout the year in the R.U.S.I. Journal or the Royal Air Force Quarterly ? Only when one takes the trouble to delve more deeply into the new "Brassey's" does its real value become apparent. Through its 430 pages, the serving officer, or ranker, in any of the three Services, can learn something of the work, the problems and the achievements of his colleagues in the other two. More important, he can begin to see how the defence forces of his own country are being shaped to dovetail into a worldwide pattern. The 31 articles in this year's "Brassey's" cover an incredibly wide field, from "The Making of an Officer" to "War by Proxy," "Atomic and Political Warfare," "The Future of the Aircraft Carrier," "The New Home Guard," "The Future Influence of Air Power," and "Foreign Air Forces"—an increasingly valuable chapter in view of the deletion of such information from "Jane's" this year. Most are written by acknowledged experts, and although there are some strange omissions in the chapter on "Aircraft Development," it is useful to be reminded that Blackburn and General Aircraft have been considering a "transformable delta," in which "for take-off and landing part of the leading edge of the delta wing swings out and forward to provide a wing, with conventional aileron, at right angles to the hull," as described and illustrated in an article in Flight of Tuly 27th, 1951.
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