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Aviation History
1954
1954 - 0092.PDF
48 FLIGHT, 8 January 1954 DISCUSSING PRODUCTION grounded through the lack of a spare costing only £5 or £10. It sometimes happened that an aircraft became seriously damaged—by a belly landing, for example—long after normal production had ceased. The lecturer spoke highly of an Ameri can company which maintained what they called the "short-order shop" in which was carried out unforecastable production arising after normal production had ceased. This firm had made a special study of the disposal and storage of the tools from the old production line with a view to the most efficient and speedy production of a few-off when the demand arose. The final sub-headings of this paper were: interchangeability, accessibility, new fabrication techniques, stress concentration, inspection and production. Throughout, it was apparent that modern production techniques were likely to prove something of a problem, both from the point of view of inspection and repair. The Discussion.—W/C. L. P. GIBSON (R.A.F.) raised a number of points, including the difficulty of providing sufficient tankage for all types of military aircraft, the severe airfield requirements of machines with high tyre-pressures, and the fact that an eye had to be kept on crew-survival problems. PROFESSOR J. V. CONNOLLY (College of Aeronautics) said that the present period of some seven years which elapsed between design and production was not much greater than obtained before the war; he suggested that notable exceptions to this rule were the Mosquito and Meteor, and pointed out that the com pulsory modifications on the former aircraft had been no more numerous than usual. The lecturer replied that the fact that the Mosquito had a wooden structure might have a bearing on its quick entry to service. Replying to MR. R. E. MILLS (Bristols) Sir R. Owen Jones went on to stress the need, in combat aircraft, for ruggedness rather than fine engineering, particularly in such items as landing gear and door mechanisms. PROFESSOR E. J. RICHARDS (University of Southampton) suggested that America might be able to develop aircraft quickly owing to the fact that they could afford a bigger wastage-rate. He went on to suggest the production of "unlikely" spares while the aircraft was in production, instead of waiting until they were needed. The lecturer agreed that the American tendency was to attack on a bold front, while Great Britain was forced to think Air Marshal Sir R. Owen Jones drew a diagram to illustrate the choice available between variety of spares and the number of spares available of each type. POSSIBLE ALTERNATIVES. NUMBER OF SPARES hard for perhaps a year and then attack with all her re sources along a particular line of development. Regarding spares, he said that various schemes had been tried, such as the ordering of ten complete air craft as spares. Turning to the blackboard, he produced a sketch [see above] and com mented that it was very difficult to decide in advance what the insurance rate was going to be. The dotted lines in his diagram showed possible spares pro vision rates for all the com ponents of the aircraft, those components occurring at the top of the vertical ordinate being of a type for which little or no spares provision was expected. MR. F. R. ELLIOTT (Armstrong-Whitworth) suggested that the aircraft should be designed as an empty shell and test-flown in this form to prove the aerodynamics while the equipment was being developed. MR. A. E. WOODWARD-NUTT (M.O.S.) "profoundly disagreed" with this contention, saying that the aircraft and its equipment must be integrated as one. A particular problem for his depart ment was "when should the order be placed?"—since the air craft might be on the drawing-board for up to five years. He felt that the best solution was to order a design and a working mock-up of many types to a given specification, after which two types would be selected and 20 to 30 development aircraft pro duced on production jigs at a slow rate, so that the final one was a full production machine. The conference closed with an address—in general but characteristically witty terms—by Sir Frederick Handley Page, at a session during which Mr. W. C. Puckey (now Sir Charles Puckey), president of the Institution, took the chair. BEAVERS SOUTH SOME 32 D.H.C. Beavers have now been delivered to South America from Canada. A recent delivery flight of three to Colombia has been described by Mr. Jack H. Ford, president of Fleetway, Inc., whose pilots carried out the operation. The three aircraft left Malton, Ontario, where they cleared Customs, only 25 minutes after taking off from D.H.C.'s Downs- view airfield. They crossed the lake to Buffalo where the crews cleared U.S. Customs and dined. The next leg took them by night along the air routes via Lumberton, N.C. (where they refuelled), Savannah and Melbourne, Florida to Miami, where they arrived at 0600, an hour after sunrise. The pilots reported that they found the Beavers stable and pleasant to handle on instruments at night. During the morning they took off for Kingston, hoping to fly on to Bogota that day, but they were held up at Kingston for the night. Next day took them to Barranquilla for refuelling and final Customs clearance, and they then set off on the last leg to Bogota; this was flown between 9,500ft and 11,500ft I.F.R. "on top." The Beavers were controlled by Bogota radio and Techo approach, the let-down being made straight in from the Ger- manorlano Los Andes control point. The Beavers landed at Bogota at 1600 hr on the third day and were demonstrated and finally handed over at the Madrid Air Force Base the following day. Eager Beavers: Fleetway pilots Al Wells, Jack Ford and Ray Hecox, all ex-U.S. Marine pilots, man their aircraft at the start of their delivery flight (see above) from D. H. Canada's Downsview airfield to Bogota, Colombia. : ^wmm
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