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Aviation History
1954
1954 - 0090.PDF
"Flight" photographs Newly arrived from Malta, troops are seen disembarking from a Viking of Hunting-Clan at Bovingdon. On the right are Capt. R. W. L Mulliner: the company's chief pilot, and Mr. David /nee, base manager. The new title Hunting-Clan has not yet been painted on all the company's aircraft. HUNTING-CLAN . . . flying (about 3,000 hr) by Hunting-Clan aircraft in 1952. Between August 1951 and October 1953, when the Air Minis try contract was renewed for two years, Vikings of HA.T. made 1,016 flights between Bovingdon and Malta and 232 on the Bovingdon-Gibraltar route, carrying a total of 75,333 Service personnel and members of their families. The contract calls for a minimum movement of 30,000 passengers annually on these two routes, which is equal to about 30 per cent of the total num ber of trooping-contract passengers now carried each year by the British independent operators. Hunting-Clan now hold Government approval to operate scheduled services on 11 routes. In each case the approval extends until 1960, thus providing—as intended under the Government policy initiated last year—a reasonably secure basis for forward planning. These routes form two networks: the Colonial Coach services from London to Nairobi and to Salis bury; and the Northern network centred on Newcastle. Colonial Coach services were jointly inaugurated by Airwork and Hunting in June 1952 on the "Safari" route to Nairobi via Malta, Wadi Haifa, Khartoum, Juba and Entebbe. Not only did this service prove remarkably successful from the commercial viewpoint (after nine months it was announced that an average load-factor of no less than 93 per cent had been maintained), but it succeeded without diverting traffic from the more expensive first- and tourist-class services of B.O.A.C. There are now two services weekly on this route, operated alternatively by Hunting- Clan and by Airwork. The second Colonial Coach service, inaugurated last June, consists of fortnightly flights (one round trip monthly by each company) between London and Salisbury. The Northern network, operated with Dakotas, was to have come into full operation in 1953 but I.A.T.A. objections to the proposed fares for the Scandinavian routes held up their inauguration. Hunting later became the first British independent to join I.A.T.A. and at the Honolulu traffic conference a resolution was passed permitting fares 10 per cent below tourist level on the Newcastle-Oslo-Stockholm and Newcasde- Hamburg-Copenhagen routes. These services will start in the spring on a twice-weekly frequency, and at the same time the Bovingdon-Newcastle daily service will return to a twice-daily frequency. Twice-weekly services will also be flown between Newcastle and Paris; the Newcastle-Amsterdam service, also twice-weekly, is already in operation. In addition, there will be feeder services from Glasgow and Manchester to Newcastle. Provisional traffic figures for the year which has just ended show that the company's 12 aircraft flew some 2,908,000 miles and carried over 72,000 passengers—increases of, respectively, 10 per cent and 22 per cent on the previous year's totals. The introduction of fresh services in 1954 should quicken this rate of growth; there is unlikely to be any difficulty in finding employ ment for Hunting-Clan's Viscounts when they are added to the fleet next year. R.B. DISCUSSING PRODUCTION The Remaining Papers from the Southampton Conference Summarized LAST week we published abbreviated versions of two of the papers which were read before the Conference of the Institution of Production Engineers held in South ampton last month. On these two pages are similar accounts of the remaining three papers, together with notes on the discussions which they provoked. THE TREND OF DESIGN By D. Keith-Lucas, B.A., M.LMech.E., F.R.Ae.S., chief designer, Short Brothers and Harland, Ltd. THE key to this paper was provided by the lecturer's imprinted preface that there was nothing quite so secret as the trend of design; he therefore proposed to confine himself to a discussion of what was "going to happen during the last five years." He showed photographs supporting his contention that, while aircraft built to a common low-speed specification were usually almost identical, those conforming to high-speed specifications frequently appeared quite different, showing that, in the latter sphere, the designer was breaking new ground and feeling his way. Further complicating factors facing the designer of transonic aircraft were the necessity for preserving a smooth exterior finish and the considerable increase in complexity and density of the internal equipment. Two hypothetical aircraft (which the lecturer then illustrated —see opposite page) were possible alternatives for a Mach number of the order of two. In both cases, said Mr. Keith-Lucas, the thickness/chord ratio was very low, and, of the two, he confessed to "a certain partiality" for the delta, mainly on the ground that its wing could be used to stow fuel or equipment. The delta's principal drawback was its high angle of attack and consequent high induced drag. With many modern aircraft the interior was already over flowing and such items as power plants and fuel tanks were often mounted externally. Tomorrow, said the lecturer, "we can no longer be content with slinging these outside; we will have to sling them out. I would like to start with the undercarriage ..." The major part of the paper was concerned with a review of modern developments in structures, in the course of which Mr. Keith-Lucas discussed metal bonding and sandwich construction —"my guess is that we will see it used extensively in the future and not only for secondary structures, nor only on light aircraft"; integral machining (one of his company's essays in this field was described in our issue of December 18th); and new metals, including 130-ton steels, titanium and plastics. The Discussion.—PROFESSOR E. J. RICHARDS (University of Southampton), after welcoming the delegates to the University, went on to express approval of integral construction. He felt that increasing mechanical complexity was more of a nuisance than were complex structures; he wondered whether, now that something was known of the subject, more manual controls could not be provided in supersonic designs. He also discussed printed circuitry, the fact that it was better to mount engines, rather than fuel tanks, externally, and the possibility of replacing the cockpit canopy by a periscope. Replying, the lecturer said that powered controls were essential, but the amount of power was up to the designer. If an engine could be got into the wing, that was probably the best place. And in addition to the elimination of the canopy, the pilot himself ("an infernal nuisance") should be eliminated, once a machine capable of thinking had been developed. MR. P. V. BROWN (M.o.S.) suggested that, as integral structures were best applied to larger aircraft, guided-weapon development might render them unnecessary. He mentioned magnesium- zirconium alloys, with which skin thicknesses could be doubled. He asked whether the elimination of joints might not make a structure too rigid and prone to fatigue. The lecturer replied
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