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Aviation History
1954
1954 - 0401.PDF
12 February 1954 191 CORRESPONDENCE The Editor of "Flight" does not hold himself responsible for the views expressed by correspondents in these columns; the names and addresses of the writers, not necessarily for publication must in all cases accompany letters. Airmail Stamps I SHOULD like to congratulate Flight upon the very interesting and well illustrated feature in the January 29th issue— Stamps Old and New, on page 131. From time to time one notices that there is quite considerable interest taken in the well-produced stamps showing aircraft and reproduced in your pages; but this is, to my knowledge, the finest effort yet. I am a collector of air stamps of a particular type—only those which bear the image of an authentic aircraft; the scope is thus rather narrow, and is, of course, dependent upon issues by coun tries outside the British Isles. This is a point of much regret when one considers, for instance, what a thing of beauty a special large-format "Farnborough" issue could be! However, stamps are intended for a certain use; and who are we to challenge our own G.P.O.? Hitchin, Herts. E. B. WILLIAMS. Hon. Gen. Sec, North Hens Stamp Club. Ejector Seats T HE news (reported in "Aircraft Intelligence," page 67, Flight, January 15th, 1954) that the Venom NF.3 and Sea Venom F(AW)20 will not be fitted with ejector seats is profoundly dis turbing. No complementary announcement is made of any alterna tive, and equally efficient, means of emergency escape. Climbing from any aircraft flying faster than about 300 m.p.h. is very difficult; inverting, opening cockpit, releasing straps and dropping out is the best method; but, with a crippled and/or blazing aircraft, often impossible. The tiny Saab Draken has an ejector seat for which Follands hold the licence, and North American spent a year developing one to fit the F-86 Sabre; if de Havilland cannot design an airframe to take existing seats, smaller types should be produced. In World War I pilots had no parachutes. Today this device is a very great safety factor, yet of little value if bale-out is possible only in favourable conditions; aircrew accept risks, even in peace time, but this situation could, if war came, bring serious losses. Cambridge. PEDANTICA [The Venom FB.l single-seater has an ejector seat.—Ed.] Museum of Models I HAVE read with interest the articles and correspondence which have appeared in recent issues of Flight concerning the pre servation of historic aircraft and the establishment of a national museum of aircraft. The ideas put forward by your several correspondents seem to range between the preservation of a comparatively small number of historic aircraft which are still in existence to the formation of a much larger collection of representative types to illustrate the progress of British design and construction from the earliest days up to the present time. Whilst the former seems to be a reason ably practical proposition, especially since the recent action of the Royal Aeronautical Society ensuring the retention in this country of a number of aircraft which could form the nucleus of such a group, the latter idea appears to be hedged about with numerous difficulties, not the least of which is the problem of housing and presentation, and the all-important factor of cost. To my mind, the value of any such collection of aircraft would lie in its completeness; and, because of this, the preservation of a mere handful of historic types, whilst undoubtedly being of ex treme value, does not seem to go nearly far enough to satisfy the concept of a national museum. This leads one to examine the more ambitious scheme which has been put forward, that of en larging the collection to include representative examples of British aircraft produced "through the ages." But here we come face to face with a number of difficulties. Firstly, the problem of housing the exhibits. As has already been pointed out by your correspondents, suitable accommoda tion for anything resembling a complete representative collection would require an enormous amount of space and such accommo dation would, of necessity, have to be under cover. Secondly, there is the problem of the availability of types of aircraft which should find a place in the collection. A number of aircraft of the First World War are still in existence, as are a number which became famous in the recent war; but where should we find a Vimy, an 0/400, a Gamecock, a Bulldog, a Virginia or a Heyford, to name only a few which should qualify for inclusion? And on the civil side we should be hard put to unearth an example of a W.8, a Hercules or an H.P.42, for these more pacific types should find a place no less than their militant contemporaries. Mention has been made of using reconstructions of types not otherwise obtainable, but I feel that even if such wholesale reconstruction were possible from a financial point of view, the lack of authen ticity would detract to a great extent from the value of the exhibits. Above all, there is the bugbear of finance, and here it seems that the cost of such a collection, including housing, maintenance and the production of reconstructed types would be so great that it could not possibly be met by either private or official bodies. Must we, men, give up the idea of a national museum alto gether? I think not. It seems that a practical solution lies in the suggestion put forward in your leading article in the issue of January 22, that models should be brought into use. This idea has much to commend it and it interests me particularly in that it follows closely the very modest efforts which I have been making as a hobby over the past 20 years or so to build up a collection of models of representative types illustrating the progress of British aircraft work from the beginning of aircraft construction in this country up to the present day. (You may remember publishing a photograph of part of my collection in your issue of October 10th, 1952.) If a national museum were formed around a collection of models it would be important that the scale should be such that really detailed examples could be built; and it would be equally im portant, as your editorial points out, that all the models should be made to the same scale. The models in the Science Museum and elsewhere, excellent though they are as individual pieces of workmanship, do lose much of their interest as a collection by reason of the many different scales employed. With a combination of the few actual aircraft already available and a series of detailed scale models of other important types the problem of housing the exhibits and their presentation would be a comparatively minor one. Very little maintenance would be needed and, above all, the cost of the project would come well within the bounds of possibility. It may be, too, that the various aircraft manufacturers, the Society of British Aircraft Con structors, Government and other bodies, might be much more willing to come forward with assistance in one way or another. Weymouth, Dorset. W. O. DOYLEND. Ludicrous Theory FOR the completion of the ridicule attaching to the statement (quoted in Flight of January 29th, p. 136) made by an Ameri can "aviation correspondent" relative to the Comet's exceeding its critical Mach number, may I point out that on the day of the mishap the wind was in fact westerly, and would therefore have been a head-wind to that particular aircraft? Maidstone, Kent. J. B. PLUNKETT, Air Charter, Ltd. FORTHCOMING EVENTS Feb. 12. A.T.A. Association: Annual reunion dinner. Feb. 13. British Interplanetary Society (Midlands Branch): "Astro- nautical Physics," by N. H. Langton, Ph.D. Feb. 13. British Interplanetary Society (Provisional Yorkshire Branch): "Some Experimental Work on Rockets,," by D. N. Hunter. Feb. 15. Photo?rammetric Society : "New Plotting Machine for Air Photographs." by J. E. Odle. Feb. 18. R.Ae.S. Section Lecture: "Helicopter Research," by F. J. O'Hara, A.R.Ae.S. (jsintly with the Helicopter Association). Feb. 20. British Interplanetary Society (North-west Branch): "Build ing the Lunar Base," by R. A. Smith. Feb. 23. R.Ae.C: Film Show. Feb. 24. R.Ae.C.: Dinner to speed and height record holders. Feb. 24. R.Ae.S. Graduates' and Students' Section: "Aircraft Plastics," by Lome Welch. Feb. 25. Aerodrome Owners' Association: Annual general meeting and dinner. Feb. 26. Institute of Transport: Annual dinner. Feb. 26. Northern Heights Model Flying Club: Annual dinner and dance. Feb. 27. British Interplanetary Society (Provisional Western Branch): "Provisioning of Interplanetary Vehicles," by G. L. Garth- waite. R.Ae.S. Branch Fixtures (to Feb. 24).—Feb. 15, Ha/ton, junior mem bers' night. Feb. 16. Belfast. "Short Analogue Computor," by E. Lloyd- Thomas. Feb. 17, Coventry, "Development of Bristol Proteus Engine," by Dr. S. G. Hooker; Manchester, "Rocket Power Plant," by S. Allen. Feb. 18, Leicester, "Present Trends in Aircraft Materials and Construc tion," by W. A. Baker. Feb. 23, Belfast, "Engineering Aspects of the Flutter Problem," by N. P. Shevloff. Feb. 24, Weybridge, "Shape of Wings to Come," by D. Keith- Lucas. Feb. 25, I.O.W., "Accident Investigation," by A. Cdre. Sir Vernon Brown. Feb. 26, Birmingham, "Development of the Vickers Viscount," by A. Greenwood.
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