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Aviation History
1953
1953 - 0592.PDF
586 FLIGHT CORRESPONDENCE The Editor of "Flight" does not hold himself responsible for the views expressed by correspondents in these columns; the names and addresses of the writers, not necessarily for publication, must in all cases accompany letters. Manchester Memories W HILE offering congratulations on Part i of your history of No, 207 Squadron (April 17th), may I remark what nostalgia was induced by mention of this unit's stirring battles against the aircraft with which it was at one time equipped ? I refer, of course, to the Manchester. Although I was in a com petitive department (No. 83 Squadron at Scampton), I well recall the awe and trepidation with which the aircrew of 5 Group looked upon the Manchester. Your article mentions the exploit of a 207 captain who successfully returned from Berlin on one engine. This feat is legendary in 5 Group and I believe it was followed by a decoration. If so, never was a "gong" more richly deserved. (Incidentally, how did he get to 18,000ft in a Manchester?). My own experience of Manchester single-engined performance commenced when a starboard engine blew-up on local flying. The resulting descent was at a gliding angle approximating to a brick in free flight, and terminated in a ploughed field some where near Nottingham. Other diverting incidents during a hundred hours and ten operations on Manchesters included a complete shearing of all port propeller retaining bolts (fortunately at the end of the run way); a take-off with "2,800 r.p.m. port and 4,000 starboard"; the sudden shedding of a fin and rudder in flight; the mysterious disappearance of all the fabric from the stabilizer after a night cross-country; and the routine, when carrying six 1,000-pounders, to "lob one off" over the Friesians in order to remain above i8,OOoft. Then there was the time a c.s.u. gave up the ghost over Essen. The resulting howl must have terrified the ground defences. It certainly shook us ! Later generations of aircrew, cruising in Lancastrian comfort at 20,000 or so, never knew how interesting life could be, dodging the Happy Valley flak at eight or nine thousand feet and wonder ing what was going to fall off next. And all this took place after the time when, according to your article, the Manchesters had "seemingly decided to behave themselves"! Belfast. J. R. BUSHBY. Frontier Incident THE sight of the late W/C. Pink's poem in Flight (W/C. A. F. Hobbins' letter in your issue dated April ioth)took me back to a morning at Tank, in 1925, when an enterprising erk retrieved a typewritten copy of it from the wing commander's waste-paper basket. With the speed that such a find warranted, it was immediately put into circulation through the squadron's usual underground channels. Its reception was ribald in the extreme, and within a remarkably short space of time the following "comment" was in circulation:— OWingyPink! O Wingy Pink! What awful things your brain does think! This awful slush, these sobs and sighs, Brings tears to the eyes of them what flies! When nauehty words like "hell" and "blazes" Flash before their spellbound gazes, They think how he'll laugh—that local Khan— When he reads Pinky's Piece in Waziristan! Shortly after the conclusion of Pink's War—as that particular Frontier incident came to be known—the wing commander's poem appeared in one of the Indian papers, but I cannot recall ever having seen the above in print. I doubt if I ever shall now. For the accurate record, incidentally, the poem was written in 1925, and not in 1924 as stated. The operations concerned took place in the spring of 1925 and marked the first occasion on which the R.A.F. undertook large-scale operations against the tribesmen, as distinct from co-operating with the Army. Egham, Surrey. F. E. CHASEMORE, (Late No. 5 Squadron). [We take this opportunity of remarking that the signature of the April 10th letter should have read, as above,;"A. F. Hobbins." Our apologies to the officer concerned.—ED.1 Helicopter Models IN your issue of February 6th, you published a photograph of a flying model of a Sikorsky S-55 helicopter driven by torque reaction, accompanied by a note ("Rotary Ingenuity") on this subject. It might interest you that this system was tried out in Israel about half a year earlier on a model of the Sikorsky S-51 heli copter, constructed by Mr. Jacob Lore of Ra'anana, Israel, and powered by a McCoy 29 4.8 c.c. glow-plug miniature engine. The driving system was exactly similar to that on the S-55 shown by you, though the motor was mounted externally, the driving shaft of the rotor, carrying the motor, being adjustable in eleva tion. Autorotation was accomplished by dihedral change of the blades owing to spring action, this changing the pitch to a negative value. The model first flew on July 16th, 1952. Jerusalem, Israel. N. KADMON. New Zealand Crop-dusting I WAS surprised to see no mention of the Royal New Zealand Air Force Bristol Freighters in your article on Crop-dusting, in the April 10th issue. As you are no doubt well aware, two of the several roles for which these aircraft are equipped are those of supply-dropping and crop-dusting, special hatches in the roof being standard equip ment for filhng the three large internal hoppers. Bristol. R. O. LYON. More History for the Record I WAS interested in Mr. Stewart Blundell's letter from Aus tralia, but as he seems uncertain on one or two points here is a comprehensive re-echo: The aircraft was the B.A.T. F.K.28 Crow which was produced in 1920 by British Aerial Transport G.B., Ltd. (to give "B.A.T." in full). The firm was formerly known as Youcques Aviation Co., formed in 1917, and ended on December 31st, 1919. General Aeronautical Contracts, Ltd., took the works over after their own had been destroyed by fire (28.11.20). The F.K.28 was the seventh design produced and appeared in the interval. It was a light, high-wing, single-seat monoplane with a single fin and rudder held on two rectangular-section box booms set fairly close together. A 35/40 h.p. A.B.C. Gnat engine driving a tractor airscrew was mounted, uncowled, on the front of the centre section above which was the fuel tank and magneto. Below, a wicker-bound basket-type bucket seat, with arms, was slung on six rods. The pilot also had protection from a small "streamlined" nacelle. A nose pitot tube was fitted (a feature of the Douglas Skystreak) and some ample wheels which seem to have belonged to another aircraft. As a matter of interest, the designs of Mr. Fred Koolhoven were spread over several firms for which he designed aircraft. F.K.s 1 to 17 were definitely built or held by Sir W. G. Arm strong Whitworth Aircraft, Ltd., of Gosforth-on-Tyne.- F.K.s 18 to 22 are rather a mystery. A print of a photograph of the F.K.28 is enclosed in the hope that someone might know the young man and what registration was carried on the machine. Parkstone, Dorset. JOHN G. GAYLARD. [We also have, awaiting publication, a long letter from Mr. J. M. Bruce on the same subject.—Ed.] The photograph of the B.A.T. F.K.28 Crow referred to by Mr. J. G. Gaylard.
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