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Aviation History
1954
1954 - 0516.PDF
236 FLIGHT, 26 February 1954 "AVAILABLE JONES" . . . In addition to C-97s, Boeing have built 56 civil Stratocruisers, which are in service with Pan American World Airways, North west Airlines, United Airlines and B.O.A.C. These, since 1949, have flown over 123,700,000 aircraft miles and carried more than 2,294,000 passengers. Principal operators of the C-97 are U.S.A.F. Military Air Transport Service and Strategic Air Command. M.A.T.S. C-97s are mostly of the earlier trooper/freighter/air evacuation type and are used principally in the Pacific area. The tanker versions are employed by S.A.C. for refuelling B-47s, F-84s and reconnaissance aircraft during frequent long-range flights. The C-97s have earned a reputation for adaptability. They were principally responsible for the transport of casualties and returning P.O.W.s from Korea to the United States, and the tankers are now flight-refuelling at the rate of one operation every 15 minutes throughout the 24 hours of each day. General Curtis Le May, Commanding General of S.A.C., is reported to have a C-97 which he himself flies to wherever his presence is required. The Boeing flying-boom system of flight refuelling at present standard on KC-97s imposes considerable physical and mental strain on the pilot of the receiving jet aircraft. Whether this be a B-47, or F-84 or B-45, it must descend to medium altitude and "formate" close in the C-97's slipstream in a sustained shallow dive. The tanker's boom operator controls the opera tion and both pilots have to adjust trim as the load is transferred and centres of gravity change. A B-47 has, however, been experimentally modified as a tanker with the British probe and drogue equipment in its bomb bay. Refuelling can thus be carried out at operating height and speed with the operation almost completely under the control of the receiving aircraft. This system is likely to come into use in the U.S.A.F.; the U.S. Navy has, of course, already standardized it. Modifications to existing KC-97s would, if undertaken, consist almost solely of replacing the existing flying boom pack with the probe and drogue hose reel unit. Whatever the developments in refluelling methods, the C-97 will continue to serve the U.S.A.F. for some years to come; present demand for it is shown by the fact that KC-97Gs are coming off the lines at the rate of one every working day. The S.A.C. Wings, for which this latest model is built, rely for their effectiveness on complete mobility. The arm which supports the punch of the B-47s and F-84s is adjusted for length and strength by "Available Jones," the KC-97 support transport tanker. HIGH-ALTITUDE RESEARCH: A B.I.S. LECTURE IN a recent lecture to the British Interplanetary Society, entitled Progress Towards Astronautics, Mr. Kenneth W. Gatland reviewed the developments in rocket propulsion and allied topics during the last five years. One field in which great advances had been made was that of high-speed aerodynamics. Five years ago there was a large gap in our knowledge of conditions in the transonic region and our knowledge of supersonic aerodynamics was also meagre. Much of this information had now been obtained by both piloted and pilotless vehicles as well as the more conventional wind-tunnel methods. One of the earlier free-flight techniques was to drop specially instrumented bodies (with no means of propulsion) from great heights, but this had long been superseded by the ground- launched rocket-propelled vehicle. At the N.A.C.A. research station at Wallops Island, for example, a great number of launchings had been made during the past few years. In some instances the models themselves contained a solid-propellant charge and were launched by means of a booster. In this way speeds of up to 1,600 m.p.h. and altitudes up to 100,000ft had been achieved. In other instances a small model was mounted on a balance attached to the main vehicle, thus allowing normal wind tunnel type measurements of lift, drag, etc. to be made. The information was telemetered to a ground station and so successful was this research method that only rarely had an experiment to be repeated. The piloted supersonic research aircraft had also come to the fore during the past few years and rockets had so far been used almost exclusively as the main high-speed power plant. The Douglas Skyrocket was one of the best-known of these, said the lecturer, who then gave a brief description of this aircraft, its suc cessor the X-3, and the Bell X-l and X-1A. A good deal about these types has already been published in Flight, but we give here Mr. Gatland's principal points. The Skyrocket, he said, had originally been fitted with a Westinghouse J34 turbojet and a Reaction Motors four-chamber rocket motor. In its initial flights in early 1948, it had taken off under both turbojet and rocket power, climbed with turbojet only and, on reaching operational altitude, had made its high speed runs with the rocket motor only. Later versions (a total of three had been built) had a rocket motor only thus allowing far more rocket propellant to be carried. The aircraft was carried up to about 35,000ft underneath a B-29 and released; it then climbed to an altitude of about 70,000ft on one or two chambers, nosed over and made its experimental run in a shallow dive with all four chambers operating. The highest speed so far announced was 1,327 m.p.h. and the greatest altitude 83,235ft; the high speed part of the flight was usually maintained for 5 to 10 sec. This aircraft was to be superseded by the Douglas X-3, which was designed for Mach 3 using turbojets only; this had not yet flown at supersonic speeds. The first rocket research aircraft, the Bell X-l, was already a museum-piece, and its successor, the X-1A, held an unofficial world speed record of 1,653 m.p.h. (M=2.5). A further aircraft in this series, the X-2, was due and it was expected that this air craft would start to encounter one of the major problems that would be encountered by a vehicle returning from space— aerodynamic heating. Although uncomfortable cabin temperatures had been reached in some of the high-speed runs with these research aircraft they had not been high enough to be dangerous. In the X-2 cabin refrigeration would be essential and methods of wing cooling would be investigated. These would probably include the injec tion of liquid helium into the boundary layer at the leading edge and the refrigeration of the leading edge. Its construction would use stainless steel and nickel alloys to a large extent and it would be quite similar to the type of vehicle that would be needed for return to Earth from a satellite orbit. In parallel with this work the development of pressure suits had continued and the period had seen the first real "space- suits." These were intended for complete protection of pilots exposed to the atmosphere at altitudes greater than 50,000ft and were fitted with integral oxygen equipment. Investigation of the effects of g had also continued and the existence of a huge human centrifuge in the United States had been made known. This could achieve an effective 7g in less than 7 sec and the gon dola housing the test "specimens" could be evacuated to simulate up to 60,000ft altitude; its temperature could also be controlled within wide limits. Perhaps the closest approach to space vehicles so far were the various American high-altitude sounding rockets. These were intended for the investigation of the characteristics of the atmos phere such as pressure, density, and temperature at extreme altitudes and also extra-terrestrial phenomena such as cosmic and solar radiation. Earlier work had been carried out using ex-German V2s and the American-designed W.A.C. Corporal which could reach a maximum altitude of only 45 miles. The last five years had seen the emergence of the Aerobee as the "work-horse" of the upper-air rocket research programme; it was first fired in 1948, and was capable of reaching 70-90 miles' altitude. More recently a larger vehicle known as the Viking had been used. This was ultimately intended to reach 200 miles, but it had not yet done so. Eight of the original ten had now been fired and one other had torn away from its mounting during a static test. The Viking took off under its own power, unlike the W.A.C. Corporal and Aerobee, which used boosters, and obtained its control by tilting its 20,000 lb thrust motor which was mounted on gimbals. The structural efficiency was the best yet achieved by any rocket and was obtained by the extensive use of light alloys and integral propellant tanks. Viking 9—the last to be fired—carried a 750 lb payload comprising a spectrograph and photon counters for sunlight analysis and six cameras for deter mining the rocket's orientation throughout its flight. Of great interest were the flights of monkeys and mice in Aerobee rockets; these had shown that mammals could readily accommodate themselves to zero-g conditions provided that they had some thing to hold on to. In the guided missile field a number of new weapons had been released including the Nike, a solid-propellant anti-aircraft weapon which was to be installed as an operational weapon around some of the major American cities early this year and the Redstone Arsenal long-range ground-to-ground missile. Other countries were also active; France had announced the Matra M04 anti-aircraft weapon and the Swiss firm of Oerlikon had exhibited a guided anti-aircraft rocket. Mr. Gatland concluded that noteworthy advances had been made in these fields during the past five years, some of them of direct importance to the future of space-flight. He felt, however, that the factor of reliability was still missing to a large extent and that it would pay to consolidate our knowledge and not to start on any space-flight venture prematurely. He felt that within five or ten years we should have all the experience necessary to design and build an instrument-carrying artificial satellite.
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