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Aviation History
1953
1953 - 1693.PDF
FLIGHT, 25 December 1953 847 UNIFORMITY . . . and the polish-saving plastic ones. Even the albatross (that is the correct name, isn't it?) comes from the Balloon Corps. For one achievement, however, the R.A.F. can take full credit: the ceremonial helmet. A truly R.A.F. product this, inspired by the furry-eared flying helmet worn by pilots of the First World War. Here, the Albatross-eyed reader conveniently reappears with this question: "You said something about 'the usual chan nels' and '99 per cent correct.' What about the other one per cent?" Well, we left that odd hundredth for outside designers. Remember the newspaper stories about the then-new W.R.A.F. hats? What happened was that various outside designers were invited to submit designs: Hartnell's design got the commission, and a very nice hat it is. But this sort of thing doesn't happen very often. Although the one per cent isn't important quanti tatively, it is qualitatively. To a woman, clothes are a vitally important part of life. A new hat may start a surge of enlist ments: the end of the prohibition of silk or nylon stockings might be considered as important in the history of the Service as the end of prohibition in the history of America. And if the male reader is smiling superciliously at the frailty of woman, let him cast his mind back to World War II and the fashions—masculine fashions—then prevalent. For instance, battledress was "fashionable"; "best blue" wasn't—except, per haps, with the fighter types, who liked to leave the top button undone and, in general, to affect "a sweet disorder in the dress." Then there was the cap: le dernier cri, you will recall, was to remove the stiffener to achieve the desired squashy effect. And so on and so on. Exactly how, why and when this sort of thing starts is not known; or, rather, it is easy to discern reasons why, but not how and when. It's as unreasonable as Oxford bags, or the zoot suit; as the New Look or the Bikini. At any rate, the prominence given these sartorial freaks shows how important clothes are. As the correspondence columns of newspapers and magazines indicate, Service uniform, as well as civil dress, is very much in the public mind. Sometimes one wonders whether it is as much in the mind of the Serviceman. It should be: an officer in a scruffy uniform—well, never mind. We're not paid to moralize. Put it the other way round: a well-cut uniform is a compliment both to the wearer and his Service—a good thing all round; and a perfecdy simple thing to come by for the man or woman, Service or civilian, who goes to the right tailor. G.M. CORRESPONDENCE The Editor of "Flight" does not hold himself responsible for the views expressed bv correspondents in these columns; the names and addresses of the writers, not necessarily for publication, must in all cases accompany letters. History Repeating Itself? I NOTE with interest the remark, in Harry Harper's article "Wilbur Wright as I Remember Him" (Flight, December 11th) that the Wright brothers coupled their wing-warping system to the rudder control, then, later, discarded this linkage as unsatisfactory. The coupled system was (as stated in your article "The Wright Flyer," in the same issue) used on the 1903 biplane; it was some time after this that they discarded the method. In Fred C. Kelly's excellent biography, The Wright Brothers (Harrap, London, 1944), it is stated that in all the flights made in 1905 me rudder and wing-warp were independent; then it is added that, several years later, the Wrights once more returned to the system, though with "an arrangement for modifying the relationship [of the two controls] when making turns." It is fascinating to speculate what lay behind this indecision on such a fundamental matter. From a study of early volumes of Flight, 1909-13, it appears that many constructors of early aircraft were similarly unable to decide on the best method. One wonders whether it was the acquisition of aerobatic skill that eventually led to complete independence being adopted—yet today there are signs of (at any rate a partial) return to coupled rudder and aileron control. It would be interesting to have the opinions—though not too technically, I hope—of aerodynamicists on this curious repetition of history. London, W.l. R. P. Emblem TT was gratifying to read, in your issue of December 4th, that * an American company has had the courage to incorporate, in the Fairchild M-186, such features as buried engines and a crescent-shaped wing. I sincerely hope, however, that this will not cause any trouble if it comes to the notice of the Committee for Un-American Activities. Enfield, Middlesex. D. J. SPARROW. Farmania (CONGRATULATIONS on your "Fifty Years of Powered ^-' Flight" issue, but regrets that you could not manage to illustrate either the Farman Longhorn or Shorthorn, upon which types so many of our great ones were schooled. London, W.l. FARMANIAC. [The reason was, of course, one of space, for we had illustrated an earlier Farman type of 1910. But here, in all its strutted glory, is the Longhorn.—ED.] Delayed Drops T HAVE only lately had an opportunity of reading Flight of *- August 14th, 1953, in which Maj. T. W. Willans wrote a most interesting article, "This Way Out." Is it not possible to delay, limit, or even prevent, the type of spin experienced by some delayed-drop parachutists by adop tion of some forms of "wings" and perhaps also a "tail" ? Some thing of this kind formed the equipment of "birdmen," among whom, if memory serves from pre-war days, was Clem Sohn. Such surfaces are provided by Nature in the so-called flying squirrel, which in fact is a gliding squirrel, fast and very stable. The answer to height estimation would appear to be a form of proximity-fuse, which, as fitted in shells and bombs, should be small enough for the parachutist to wear, and more accurate than any other method; a visual indication, rather than a detonator to blow open the canopy, is envisaged. Cambridge. PEDANTICA. Autumnal Echoes I" DON'T know if any research has ever been made into air *- turbulence caused by jet engines over distances, but the follow ing experience may be of interest to your readers. I live approximately three miles away, as the crow (jet?) flies, from the Handley Page airfield near Radlett. A week or two ago the Handley Page Victor was on the ground and the engines were being run on and off at intervals of a few minutes. I noticed that on every occasion dead leaves from a chestnut tree fluttered to the ground. Was this caused by disturbance of the air or by vibration of the ground? The air was foggy and quite still. St. Albans, Herts. T. WOODWARD. Turbojet Claims FROM your engrossing account of the Pratt and Whitney J57 two-spool turbojet (Flight November 27th) one can safely conclude that this engine is an excellent achievement. But I am wondering whether some of the claims that I have seen put for- ward"Tor this engine in the American Press are strictly accurate. One U.S. journal quotes Pratt and Whitney's general manager as saying that the J 57 pioneered the split-compressor technique, which "was later used in England by Bristol." Another fre quently reported statement, attributed to the same company, is that the J57 is "the most powerful aircraft power plant in the world, at least in the non-communist world." Can Flight comment upon these claims? Liverpool. D. SMITH. [We believe that, when the appropriate figures can be pub lished, it will be seen that the Rolls-Royce Avon, Armstrong Siddeley Sapphire and Bristol Olympus have already been type- tested at thrusts equal to, or greater than, any yet announced for the J57. Bristols began calculations for the engine now known as the Olympus as long ago as the summer of 1946 (it was a two-spool unit from the start). Initial proposals to the M.o.S. followed in February 1947, by which time actual design was well in hand. Pratt and Whitney, on the other hand, did not begin work on their engine until a year later, in 1948.—Ed.]
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