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Aviation History
1953
1953 - 1335.PDF
AIRCRAFT ENGINEER First Aeronautical Weekly in the World Founded 1909 No. 2333 Vol. LXIV. FRIDAY, 9 OCTOBER 1953 ED/TOR MAURICE A. SMITH, D.F.C. ASSISTANT EDITOR H. F. KING, M.B.E. 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). Deansgate 3S9S (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 : Goodwill on Swept Wings 494 Engines—Are They Necessary? 497 The Well-dressed Airman, 1954 500 Gas-turbine Development 501 Axial-flow Engines - - 502 "With Deafening Clamour . . ." 504 The Industry in Miniature 506 Debut with a Bang - - 507 East Anglian Rotor Spray 508 Salute to Sweden T HE Royal Swedish Air Force is one of the great air forces of the world—great in strength, in its standard of manning and equipment, and in its morale and traditions. Thus, it was fitting that the R.A.F.—"the glorious Royal Air Force," as the Swedish C-in-C. once called it—should provide an escort of four Meteor squadrons for the visiting Saab J.29s, as described on page 494. It would have been more fitting still had the escort been mounted on Hunters or Swifts; but we promise our Swedish friends that when they next come calling on us we shall not ask them to throttle back so that we may keep station. We must not be complacent, however, for we know that the Avon-powered Lansens now being built for the Swedish attack squadrons will be much superior in performance to the J.29s, and just what supersonic surprises will stem from research with the little Draken delta we can only guess. The most pleasing aspect of Sweden's technological advancement is that it should have been achieved with British help. For very many years, indeed, Sweden has been a user of British aircraft and engines. Especially we recall the Harts, Ospreys, Bulldogs and Gladiators of pre-war years, and their Bristol engines; and, since the war, the Vampire and Goblin, and, more recently, the Avon, have played their parts. From the operation (and, in some instances, construction) of these and other types of British aircraft and engines Sweden learned a great deal; and now, in the J.29, she is able to show us a fighter of her own design (though still powered by a British turbojet) having a performance well in excess of any squadron aircraft we ourselves can yet put into the air. Only the Sabre and the Mig-15 are in the same class. Thus, the Swedes are now our rivals as well as our good friends; which is a very satisfactory state of affairs indeed. Soaring Enthusiasm W ITHIN the past year or two there has been more than one allusion—in our own columns and elsewhere—to lack of enthusiasm in the flying clubs. Various reasons have been put forward, with the ever-present "shortage of wherewithal" prominent among them. The gliding clubs, on the other hand, are in a happier position. If they have not increased very much in number, their membership nevertheless grows steadily. The 26 clubs affiliated to the British Gliding Association have some 2,000 flying members (actually 1,951 at the beginning of this year, the last census available); in 1946-1947 the corresponding figure was just over 1,000. Like everything else, gliding is a more expensive hobby than it was before the war, but it remains a good deal cheaper than power flying—and this is especially true of the new member's instructional period. Most of the leading clubs now offer summer- holiday courses, which have served in some degree to ease the strain on their tuition facilities at week-ends. That a vacation of this kind can be both an educational and entertaining experience—either for a power pilot or for the man who has never previously flown any kind of aircraft—is demonstrated by an article on pages 497-499. It has sometimes been argued that to learn to fly a glider is not necessarily a satisfactory introduction to power-piloting. For this impression there is some founda tion, chiefly on the score that the two types of aircraft display a marked difference in control response, as the author of our article—graduating, as it were, in the opposite direction—realized. The difference, too, is of a kind that in theory could get an incautious pilot into trouble, though in practice it is unlikely that even a very raw novice in power flying could forget that he was no longer in control of an engineless aircraft; reactions are not so automatic as all that. But aside from such considerations, gliding can and does give the beginner a "feeling for the air." It also offers him outdoor exercise and a means of coming to terms with some of the most interesting manifestations of meteorology. In this it is comparable with small-boat sailing, a sport with which it has pronounced affinities. Both pastimes forgive minor mistakes, if not all major ones; both offer good fellowship; and neither places an impossible strain on the pocket.
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