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Aviation History
1954
1954 - 0863.PDF
and 2RAFT ENGINEER First Aeronautical Weekly in the World Founded 1909 No. 2358 Vol.65. FRIDAY, 2 APRIL 1954 EDITOR MAURICE A. SMITH, D.F.C. ASSISTANT EDITOR H. F. KING, M.B.E. ART EDITOR JOHN YOXALL Editorial, Advertising and Publishing Offices: DORSET HOUSE, STAMFORD STREET, LONDON, S.E.1. Telegrams, T-lightpres, Sedist, London. Telephone, Waterloo 3333 (60 lines). Branch Offices: COVENTRY 8-10, Corporation Street. Telegrams, Autocar, Coventry. Telephone, Coventry 5210, BIRMINGHAM, 2 King Edward House, New Street. Telegrams, Autopress, Birmingham. Telephone, Midland 7191 (7 lines). MANCHESTER, 3 260, Deansgate. Telegrams, lliffe, Manchester. Telephone, Blackfriars 4412 (3 lines). Deansgate 3595 (2 lines). GLASGOW, C.2. 26b Renfield Street. Telegrams, lliffe, Glasgow. • Telephone, Central 1265 (2 lines). SUBSCRIPTION RATES Home and Overseas: Twelve months C4 10s. U.S.A. and Canada, $14.00. IN THIS ISSUE : I.F.R. Without Tears - 389 The B.E.2 Series - - - 393 Wave Flying—the Hard Way 398 Fouga CM. 170 in the Air 401 The Helicopter Comes to Stay 407 Low-level Booming - - 408 Comet Production at Chester 413 Imperially to India - - 417 Fair Stands the Wind for France THE latest evidence that France's aircraft industry is waking-up its ideas (and— perhaps more important—also pulling up its socks) is the "In the Air" appraisal on pp. 401-406 of this issue. From its aggressive nose to its saucy butterfly tail the little twin-jet Fouga trainer there dissected is thoroughly and absolutely French. It combines the appeal of Simone Simon with the challenge of Sartre; and it is one of many designs which are indicative of France's very real technical progress. A second—even bolder in concept—is the courageous, and demonstrably efficient, Hurel-Dubois, intended as a Dakota replacement and likewise featured on a succeeding page. No longer is France's aeronautical scene a morass of nascent and decaying prototypes. Brisk production of practical aircraft is geared to vigorous technical development, and the results command attention and acknowledgment. It is only a few days since we in Britain learned, with some discomposure, that a French fighter had gone supersonic in level flight—a feat never yet accomplished by any of our own designs; and the fact that the machine concerned, a Marcel Dassault Mystere IVB, was powered with a Rolls- Royce Avon was not wholly consoling. The Mystere IVB, we may note, is one of a family of Dassault fighters which are winning good opinions among all who fly them, and which may even be mentioned in the same breath as our own Hunter and Swift; and although it was a British Avon which first propelled the Mystere supersonically on the level, it was a French liquid rocket motor which had earlier enabled the ageing, and once-derided, S.O. Espadon to achieve a similar distinction. Vitality Another fast French machine meriting comment is the twin-jet S.O.4050 Vautour, adopted in several versions by the French Air Force. In this uncommonly adaptable vehicle France's Air Minister, M. Louis Christiaens, experienced the franchissement du mur du son at the age of 63. Then there are the S.O.9000 Trident, a straight-wing, turbojet-cMtti-rocket research aircraft designed for very high Mach numbers in level flight; the SFECMAS Gerfaut delta-wing intercepter—first of a number of new and unorthodox fighters; and the trolley-launched S.E.5000 Baroudeur fighter /bomber, designed for small-field operation and soon to be matched for NATO orders against an Avro delta and the Folland Gnat. In the light-jet-trainer class the Fouga is not alone. Having an equal appeal in many respects (and side-by-side seats into the bargain) is that well-favoured scion of a long and illustrious line, the Morane Fleuret. In a modest way Sipa are pressing ahead with the Minijet, which, though it would hardly look out of place on a watch-chain, appears to have possibilities, if not as a trainer, then as a fast communication machine. As the "com." aircraft de luxe (Proctor-equipped R.A.F. units please note!) Morane are building a new four-seater, using Fleuret main components. It would be invidious to exclude, even from this brief appraisal, the Noratlas—a serviceable, Packet-style, twin-boom transport with licence-built Bristol Hercules engines, and—now firmly established in commercial service—Breguet's double-deck Provence, which gave a good account of itself when it came to England last year. Nor must we overlook a pair of significant helicopters—the S.O. Farfadet "gyrodyne," with a nose- mounted turboprop and a jet-driven rotor, and the tiny two-seater S.O. Djinn, the rotor of which is compressed-air driven. As for new techniques, we need only cite the SNECMA system of thrust reversal, demonstrated to excellent effect at Le Bourget last year, and the sandwich construction of Sud-Ouest, extensively used in the Vautour. To France's credit, too, may be set down some notable metallurgical advances, including the extrusion of stainless steel; and as for light aircraft, she can show a profusion, ranging from indifferent to first-rate. It will be our pleasant duty from time to time to report first-hand the further progress of a nation which has contributed such a wealth of ideas and achievements to the science of flight and which Sir Philip Sidney felicitously dubbed "that sweet enemy France."
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