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Aviation History
1953
1953 - 1051.PDF
14 August 1953 305 CORRESPONDENCE Jhe S£ i^SLtV0^0!^^ rrpaoibUf°r k' vi™ «*«»«* ^ correspondents in these columns; es ana aaaresses of the writers, not necessarily for publication, must in all cases accompany letters. The S.E.5 [ WAS enormously interested in the article on the S.E.5 in *• Flight of July 17th, and feel I must write to congratulate T M Bruce upon it. J' When I was posted to No. 56 Squadron at London Colnev I had done seven hours' solo and Major Blomfield was furious with the Air Ministry for posting a brand new inexperienced pilot to his crack squadron, full of chaps with lots of experience lie Albert Ball, and specially chosen to fly the new super fighter, the S.E.5 However, after a few days, when the flight commanders were asked to choose the pilots for their flights, Captain Ball said • "I'll have that chap with the Scottish bonnet." This was luckily me because I was wearing my Lovat Scouts bonnet; I had served at Suvla Bay, Gallipoli, with the Lovat Scouts, which regiment my uncle had raised in the Boer War. I was not going to take any chances in flying one of our only twelve S.E.5s as one bad landing and I would have been back on R.E.8s; so the first time I flew one was when the whole squadron flew out to France in formation, and my first landing was in France. I got it down all right and, as mentioned in your article, I did my first patrol with Ball on April 22nd, 1917. A few weeks afterwards, I was with him when he was killed and I then became flight commander of "A" flight. McCudden and Bowman were the other flight commanders. I am amazed at the complete accuracy of the article, and I cannot think how all that information was obtained. I knew nothing about the early marks of S.E.s but I did know a good deal about the S.E.5 and I could not find a single error, except that the S.E.5A never had a service ceiling of 23,000ft. McCudden had special high-compression pistons fitted to his machine and it was this that enabled it to get to about 19,000ft, but I never heard of any S.E. getting higher than that. Also, we had no oxygen and even at 19,000 it was getting pretty tricky. I used to spend a good deal of time at over 18,000ft, and it gave one pretty bad headaches. As stated in the article, when we got to France we spent several weeks practically rebuilding the aircraft, taking off the greenhouse, raising the top Lewis gun to converge on the Vickers at 50 yards range, etc. What seems incredib'e in these days, however, is that all this was left to the different flights. Some put extra wires on the fins, some thought the v/ings were not strong enough and fitted extra drift-wires from the struts back to the engine, etc. The writer of this letter in an S.E.SA. We did not like the long exhaust-pipes so we cut them off near the engine and welded short bits sticking out at an angle. After wards we went back to long pipes, because we thought it might lessen the danger from fire if the tank was hit. I think it says a lot for the machine that in those years 1917 to 1918 such huge progress was being made in design that the aeroplane that was outstanding in the spring of 1917 was still tne most popular with the pilots at the end of the war in 1918. 1 sup pose the Sopwith Snipe had quite a bit better performance, but it did not have much chance to do anything before the war was over. _ ,. Alresford, Hants. GERALD G MAXWELL. [The above are extracts, printed with the writer s permission, from a personal letter ("not with the idea of shooting a line but simply because of my admiration for the aircraft and for the chaps who flew it") addressed to J. M. Bruce.—ED.J Helicopter Rescue r READ with interest on page 134 in Flight of July 31st, your *•_ paragraph of the Culdrose helicopter rescue. As an eye witness of this event, I was able to photograph the rescue. I must disagree with you when you say that the doctor was winched down on to the rock; in actual fact, he leapt to it whilst the pilot held the helicopter some four or five feet off the ground. Approach to the rescue : Mr. Nicholl's snapshot. The same procedure was adopted when the doctor returned into the aircraft; the only winching which took place was the actual rescuing of the patient. This, I might add, was carried out with great skill, a very strong wind off the sea no doubt causing some very nasty air currents round rocks which towered above. London, S.E.7. J. NICHOLLS. Indoor Supersonic Bangs ? T HE sound-barrier is crossed many times these days (Neville Duke told me at Soesterberg that he had done it more than 70 times!) and the famous supersonic bangs have been heard by hundreds of thousands of people. Still, however, these bangs hold a lot of mystery. I should like to know whether it would be possible to create supersonic bangs in a wind tunnel when a supersonic flow is passed over the wing of an aircraft model. If so, would it be dangerous for the wind tunnel? Boskoop, Holland. HUGO HOOFTMAN. New Types and Security I MUST object to the implication carried in the two items on your "Aircraft Intelligence" page, July 24th, that the maga zine Aviation Week violated British security regulations in men tioning the existence of the Hawker Delta project and Short Bros.' forthcoming long-range patrol aircraft. Both these projects have been mentioned on more than one occasion in a British publication well before any acknowledgment appeared in Aviation Week. I personally took the matter up with the relevant security officer before passing any information to New York. So far from "British security officers will be interested to learn . . ." (as you say), the fact of the matter is that the relevant officer was made aware of our intentions beforehand and acknow ledged that such action is inevitable once the cat is out of the bag. I needn't point out that security officers do not confirm the accuracy of such information, only giving permission to mention the subject-mStter concerned. As the only American air correspondent stationed permanently in the U.K., I am most anxious to avoid any misunderstanding on this point. This office has been scrupulously careful to observe the letter of British security regulations in order not to abuse the hospitality of the industry. NAT MCKITTERICK, London, E.C.4. London Correspondent, Aviation Week. IN BRIEF A. Cdre. A. D. Selway, Commandant of the Central Flying School writes to give some additional information on the collec tion of' "Wings of the World" which he presented to the School and which we illustrated last week. The wings were mounted, he says by A. E. Skinner and Co., of Old Bond Street, London; and th°RFC. wings in the top left-hand corner of the photo graph were presented by S/L A. E. L. Skinner, M.C., who wore them in World War I.
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