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Aviation History
1953
1953 - 0535.PDF
i May 1953 53i THIS ISSUE OF "FLIGHT" TODAY, May 1st, marks the completion of a year's successful operation of British gas-turbine airliners in scheduled service. As a tribute to the splendid pioneer ing work of the aircraft constructor and airline organiza tion concerned—de Havilland and B.O.A.C.—the major part of this issue of "Flight" is devoted to important articles on the achievements, results and lessons learned. New Night Fighters R ECENTLY announced are the D.H. Venom NF.3 and the Gloster/Armstrong Whitworth Meteor NF.13. Both aircraft are superficially different from earlier marks; the Venom NF.3, for example, will have a frameless canopy, new combat equipment and large dorsal fins. Incitement to Desertion LAST Monday Gen. Mark Clark's headquarters in Tokyo J made an offer of £17,850 cash, plus resettlement in a non- Communist country, to any aircrew deserting from North Korea with a modern Russian-designed fighter. The offer was contained in leaflets and broadcasts in Russian, Chinese and North Korean. Flying the X-3 A DRAMATIC account of "Bill" Bridgeman's first flight in the Douglas X-3 supersonic research aircraft on October 20th last year is given in the current Atlantic edition of Time. A variety of troubles, the precise nature of which is not stated, appear to have occurred on the first flight—including "acting up" on the part of the turbojets. When recalled, Bridgman remarked to Chuck Yeager, who was "flying chase" in an F-86, "This thing doesn't want to stay in the air." He touched down at well over 200 m.p.h. It was Yeager who virtually guided Bridgman in for his landing, for view from the X-3's cockpit is practically nil. "It's a nasty little beast," Bridgman is quoted as remarking, "and the Skyrocket was a queen." Large parts of the X-3's skin—especially those which receive heat from the turbojets as well as from skin friction—are made of titanium. Maj. C. J. Stewart. Mr. F. H. Carey. Dowty Fuel System Appointments TWO appointments to the Board of Dowty Fuel Systems, Ltd., Cheltenham, were announced last week—those of Maj. C. J Stewart, C.B., O.B.E., F.R.Ae.S., M.I.M.E., and Mr. F. H. Carey. Maj. Charles John Stewart was educated at the Royal College of Science. His first appointment was that of Patent Office Examiner, Board of Trade, and in 1913 he became H.M. Inspector of Engineering Education. In the 1914-18 war he served with the Royal Engineers, the R.F.C. and the R.A.F. until 1919, when he became head of Instrument Research, Air Ministry. From 1931 to 1938, Maj. Stewart was Superintendent of the R.A.E., Farnborough. In 1939 he joined the Air Ministry as Director of Civil Research and Production. He was appointed to the Ministry of Aircraft Production in 1940 as Director of Pro duction, and became Deputy Controller of Production in 1942, serving in this capacity until I945> when he entered business as a consulting engineer. For many years he has been a technical adviser on fuel systems to Dowty Equipment Ltd. Mr. Frederick Henry Carey has been connected with the indus try since 1925, when he began his apprenticeship with the Bristol Aeroplane Co. Ltd. On leaving that company in 1933, he was with Armstrong Whitworth, then, from 1935 until 1938, he specialized in the design of hydraulic pumps and controls at the Lockheed Hydraulic Brake Co., Ltd., and Bendix Ltd. In 1938 he joined Parnall Aircraft, Ltd. In 1944 he took up an appointment with the Dowty organization as designer of fuel systems. A HASTINGS THROUGH THE IRON CURTAIN MUCH has appeared in the newspapers about the homecoming of the seven civilian internees from Korea, but so far few details have been learned of the journey of the Transport Com mand Hastings which collected them from Moscow. Now the full story is told, vividly, by an Air Ministry officer. He starts by recalling that when the Hastings, WJ.338, set out from Lyneham shortly before 0600 hr on Monday, April 20th, with destination Moscow, the object of the flight was known only in vague terms. At Moscow the aircraft was to take on as passen gers Capt. Vyvyan Holt, the former British Minister in Seoul, and six others. The state of health of the passengers was not known and as a precaution the Hastings was equipped to take stretcher cases, together with a R.A.F. medical officer and nursing sister. Aboard the aircraft were: Captain, F/L. P. E. Pullan; 2nd pilot, F/L P. I. Badley; navigator, F/L. E. T. Orringe, D.F.C.; signaller, Set T. N. Fulker; flight engineer, Sgt. J. W. Leaning; air quarter master, F/Sgt. R. E. Houston; fitters, F/Sgt. D. L. Bourke, Sgt. R. S. Tooke; medical officer, W/C. E. B. Harvey; nursing sister, Flt/O. T. S. Weir. ,_ .. The flight to Templehof airport in the U.S. sector of Berlin was uneventful. S/L. F. A. Drury, D.F.C., station commander of Gatow, met the aircraft and, some two hours before the departure for Moscow was due, S/L. F. Poulter, A.F.C., from the quadri partite Air Safety Centre, Berlin, arrived at the operations room. With him was a R.A.F. interpreter and two of his Russian col leagues from the Air Safety Centre—a major and a senior lieu tenant of the Russian Air Force—and a Russian navigator and wireless operator, belonging to Aeroflot, the Soviet air-transport organization. The R.A.F. crew had already obtained clearance from the U S.A.F. operations officer and they turned to the anti cipated briefing for the flight itself. The procedure in fact, WELCOME HOME: First British aircraft to visit Moscow for a long time was the Hastings of Transport Command which brought home seven civilians freed from Korean internment. Capt. Vyvyan Holt, formerly British Minister in Seoul, is seen leaving the aircraft at Abingdon Meanwhile, arrangements had been completed in the East for another Hastings to fly home the first 22 wounded ex-p.o.w.s from Iwakum. amounted more to a briefing of the Russians by the R.A.F. crew* who came away with a list of names of towns on the route and the weather forecast for the route—and litde else. The Russians required a fairly limited range of information, all essential to their needs, and the time taken in their "briefing" arose more from translation difficulties than anything else. The R.A.F. use of knots took a great deal of explaining; but after a time, provided the term nautical miles per hour was employed by the interpreter, the Russians had little difficulty in making the necessary slide-rule conversions. The Russians then (Concluded on page 564)
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