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Aviation History
1953
1953 - 1375.PDF
FLIGHT, 16 October 1953 TURNTABLE LANDING SAFETY AND MOORING NET AREA. 20 ft DIAM -24 ft - 18 (t CD FUNNELS I8ft FIXED SECTION SLIDING SECTION Dimensions of the turntable flight deck fitted over the stern of a whale- factory ship. Wind-breaks were found unnecessary. severity. In the first stages of ice formation on the blades there was no appreciable change in power settings or vibration, but if the icing became serious a marked drop in rotor revolutions was apparent, accompanied by some increase in stick vibration. During some hovering tests ice was allowed to build up on the blades until flying became impossible, and immediately prior to landing in this state the vibration became "severe to violent" throughout the whole machine. The tail rotor, however, remained mysteriously immune from ice accretion. Application of de-icing compound to the rotor blades was found to be extremely difficult and not satisfactory. It was thought that some means of preventing large-scale accretion was essential to helicopters employed in such weather conditions. In conclusion, Mr. Bristow outlined future possibilities for the extended use of helicopters in the whaling industry. A large machine carrying a harpoon gun and inflation equipment could take over entirely the catching vessels' duties. He thought that in an expedition more than half the catcher vessels could be replaced by six or eight large helicopters operating from the factory ship, with only a few tow-boats to bring the whales back to the factory ship for processing. This would reduce the cost of the expedition and cheapen oil production. HELICOPTERS AFLOAT 360. An expedition consisted of a factory ship with 12 to 14 attendant "catcher" craft. Of this catcher fleet perhaps three or four were used throughout the season as tow-boats and/or for long-range reconnaissance. The catchers, having hunted and killed a whale, inflated it with compressed air and marked it with the company's flag. The tow-boats steamed all over the hunting area collecting the flagged whales and towing them back to the factory ship for processing. Most modern catchers were equipped with comprehensive radio aids and were manned by a crew of 18 to 20 men. Command of a whaling expedition was usually vested in the master or manager of the factory ship, who decided where the fleet should hunt for whales and also controlled its tactical dis position. It was common practice for catchers to hunt in an arc four points on either side of the general direction of movement of the factory ship at a distance of 50 to 120 nautical miles ahead. The sea between the nearest catcher and the factory ship had, then, to be considered as a thoroughly searched area and the helicopter patrol had to extend at least 50 nautical miles beyond the furthermost catcher to derive the greatest benefit from aerial reconnaissance. This requirement dictated that an endurance of at least nine hours was necessary and that, ideally, more than one helicopter should accompany each expedition. The uses for helicopters in Antarctic whaling could be sum marized as follows: (1) Search for whales; (2) direction of catchers on to targets; (3) search for flagged whales; (4) ice reconnaissance; (5) transfer of sick or injured men from the catchers to the factory ship for treatment. The lecturer thought that in the future, when larger helicopters were available, they would be also able to take over some of the catchers' duties in actually doing the killing, inflating and flagging from the air. The use of fixed-wing aircraft on expeditions prior to 1950 had not met with any marked success, due mainly to the bad weather conditions prevailing. A further drawback was that the fixed-wing floatplanes could not operate when the factory ship was engaged with a catcher or supply ship alongside, or when there was pack-ice in the vicinity. With the helicopter flying from a turntable on the factory ship's deck this objection did not apply. Deck hand ling of the machine had not presented many difficulties, except that care had to be taken to land squarely back on the turntable to avoid the risk of puncturing one of the "doughnut"-type pontoons fitted. Windscreens had been fined on deck but they were never used, although high relative winds were experienced. The maximum recorded wind speed was 52 kt. The helicopter could carry out reconnaissance duties in the whale search much more efficiently than could the catcher vessel. During the previous season, 1,334 whales had been sighted from one S.51 helicopter in 185 flying hours. A future reconnaissance helicopter with a safe endurance of nine hours, flying at 300 to 500 ft, could cover a sea area of 13,500 square miles in the course of one flight, whereas the catcher vessel, with a visibility of 1\ miles from the crow's nest would take 20 hours to cover only 4,500 square miles. The use of helicopters for spotting also improved considerably the proportion of whale killings to sightings. The lecturer then digressed to give some of his experiences of ice accretion on the rotor blades. Icing conditions had been encountered on several occasions and with varying degrees of A small flight-deck—usable only in fair weather—fitted to one of the "catcher" vessels which operate from the whale-factory ship. THE DISCUSSION W/C. BRIE (the chairman) wondered whether a wheeled undercarriage was necessary for shipborne use. He referred to a system of anchorage used experimentally on the M.V. Dagestan during the war but never fully developed, and also mentioned the first shipborne Autogiro land ings, by Lt. Pride on the U.S. Carrier Langley in 1931 and by himself on the Italian cruiser Fiume in 1935. MR. J. S. SHAPIRO (consultant) thought that the naval pilots had done a good job with equipment which was only just adequate. He would The helicopter pilot's view of the factory ship, with a catch of whales alongside awaiting processing. When the whales are killed, compressed air is injected to keep them afloat.
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