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Aviation History
1953
1953 - 1565.PDF
4 December 1953 719 Mr. Arthur C. Clarke, B.Sc, F.R.Ae.S., chairman of the British Interplanetary Society, who will take as his subject The Exploration of Space. The lecture will be given in the anatomy theatre of University College, Gower Street, London, W.l. Odier meetings during the season—to all of which non-members are invited—will include lectures on The Future of Secondary Radar and Radar in Meteorology. The president of the Radar Association is A.V-M. D. C. T. Bennett, C.B., C.B.E., D.S.O., M.C., F.RAe.S., F.R.Met.S., and the chairman is Mr. Raymond Caws. The secretary is Mr. Charles W. Knight, from whom (at the Association's head quarters, 83 Portland Place, London, W.l) details of membership can be obtained. Air Transport, and How to Sell It A FORECAST of airliner performance at the centenary of *^ powered flight—in A.D. 2003—was given by Mr. Peter Masefield in a talk at a London luncheon last week. He predicted that passengers would drink nothing of supersonic speeds—perhaps of over 2,000 m.p.h.; Glasgow in 40 minutes, New York in two hours, Australia in ten hours—these would be commonplace times. Having made this startling assertion, Mr. Masefield brought it into perspective by reminding his audience that the speed of the Viscount today was that of the world's record only 25 years ago. B.E.A.'s chief executive was speaking at one of the periodic luncheons organized by Efficiency Magazine, Ltd., at which leaders in various spheres of industry are invited to speak on their particular business problems. He was introduced by Col. R. A. F. Smith, managing director of the Holland-America Line, with a neat allusion to the medieval custom of "shaking hands with one's executioner and bidding him do his duty." Designed for a largely non-aeronautical audience, Mr. Masefield's address was a masterly 20-minute summary of the vast field covered by his title—Getting the Most out of Air Transport. After an opening in characteristic vein ("you don't have to be crazy to get into air transport, but it helps"), he went on to oudine the main objectives of an operator: Marketing the best product to meet the public demand; selling it at a profit; producing it economically; and maintaining happy working con ditions—a sense of effectiveness—widiin his organization. The product sold was the airline seat—"a highly perishable commodity." It had to be quiet, comfortable, safe and offered at the right time; it had to show advantages over other forms of transport. Selling it at a price which the public could afford entailed a realistic rates policy, careful analysis, sound equipment and good forward planning—the operator must try to determine what would be flying ten years from now. Discussing the "essential tools"—the aircraft—Mr. Masefield went on to examine some basic operational considerations of the kind with which most Flight readers are familiar. Of turbine transports he said that Britain had a five-year lead over America —"but we must work hard to keep it." On the subject of helicopters he was cautious. The type would fill the airline gap for journeys of from 50 to 200 miles, but he thought it was still ten years off for serious commercial operation. There were problems of noise, vibration and metal-fatigue still to be overcome. But die advantages would be unquestionable: on the London-Paris route, for example, it would need a 4,600 m.p.h. fixed-wing aircraft flying from airport to airport to rival the helicopter's time between the two city centres. FAMILY LIKENESS: Similarly-scaled models of the Valiant 8. J and the Type 1,000 prototype. The big-fuselage family of transports will enjoy extreme flexibility of operation, conferred by such features as unusually economical engines (to be Rolls-Royce Conways in production machines) and an unobstructed cargo-floor area of some thousand square feet. A plan-view comparison appears on page 729. ALL FOUR BARRELS FIRED 65,000 FT ALL BUI L327Nf MACH ONE HOUR SLUNC UNDEI? B-Z9 MOTHER SHIP TIME - MINUTES SKYR0CKETRY: American high-speed research is well covered in this issue; this "Flight" sketch shows the main features of a recent flight by Scott Crossfield with a Douglas Skyrocket, in the course of which he became the first man to travel at twice sonic speed. The fight added only 12 minutes to his log-book, but it consumed three tons of rocket fuel. Vickers 1000 and the Valiant AN impression has got around that the Vickers 1000 and its civil counterpart, the VC-7, are to have main components in com mon with the Valiant bomber; that these machines will, in fact, be transport derivatives of die Valiant. As may be judged from the accompanying photograph of models of the two transports, to the same scale, this cannot be true, although equally it is apparent that the V-1000 owes something to the Valiant B Mk 1. The makers' original statement, which has perhaps been taken to mean more than was intended, was simply that die wing pattern of die V-1000 is somewhat similar to diat of die Valiant. Comparative plan-form illustrations of the "1000" and die Valiant appear on page 729 of this issue. Instructions were received in January last to proceed with the construction of a Vickers 1000 prototype for the R.A.F. It may be recalled that the span was stated to be about 140ft, the length 146ft and the height 38ft 6in. The four turbojets specified are to be Rolls-Royce Conways, although it seems possible that the prototype will make its first flights on Avon power. "High sub sonic speeds over long ranges" is the only official mention of per formance so far. It is understood diat large, recognizable components are now to be seen in the Vickers factories as witness of hard work since construction began early in the year. The civil VC-7 is designed for a seating layout for 100-150 passengers, and by virtue of its by-pass turbojets it is expected to be more flexible in operation than earlier pure-jet machines. Bodi B.O.A.C. and B.E.A. are interested. No announcement has been made regarding a production order for die Vickers 1000, but there is no doubt that the military authorities are now well aware of the need for global mobility and that the best and most economical way of achieving it is by air transport.
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