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Aviation History
1954
1954 - 1693.PDF
748 FLIGHT FROM ALL QUARTERS Royal Heron A GOOD many people in the know have, by agree-•**• ment, been awaiting an official announcement before discussing the special de Havilland Heron which is nearing completion for H.R.H. the Duke of Edin burgh. No such announcement has as yet been made, but in view of a premature disclosure we now give some brief details. The Heron will be of Series 2 type with retractable undercarriage, and it will have several important modifications to suit the Duke's requirements. The performance is likely to be much improved, partly by reason of the fitting of fully-feathering airscrews. The machine is expected to be delivered to, and main tained by, personnel of the Queen's Flight. XFY-1 Airborne AS reported previously in Flight, America has a very **• large-scale research programme for convertiplanes and other fixed-wing designs capable of vertical take off. The two best-known of the latter are the Lockheed XFV-1 and the Convair XFY-1, both of which were illustrated in our issue of March 26th. They are under develop ment for the United States Navy. The Lockheed has already carried out a fair amount of test flying from a normal horizontal take-off, using a special trolley. The Convair is so designed (with a large ventral fin) that trolley take-offs are impracticable; consequently, it had not flown until this month, when genuine "pogo" take-offs were demonstrated inside an airship hangar at Moffet Field, California. The XFY-1 was flown by Mr. J. F. "Skeets" Coleman, and it was stabilized—almost certainly to comply with regulations and not essential from the aerodynamic aspect—by cables attached to the tips of the fins and delta wing. No details have been given of the rig used, but it seems likely that the cables were unwound from drums placed on the hangar floor, with a fixed tension applied to prevent jerks. The aircraft has an Allison double turboprop, driving two three-bladed counter-rotating airscrews. On opening up the engines, Coleman lifted the aircraft clear of the ground, and proceeded to climb steadily to about 60ft, the airscrews creating what was described as "a small cyclone." He then eased the XFY-1 back until its tail made contact with the ground, main taining a vertical attitude throughout. The next test will be out of doors, and it should not be long before the aircraft is achieving horizontal flight. Sabena Dakota Attacked THE radio operator was killed and the captain and flight engineer seriously wounded in an attack by an "unidentified jet fighter" on a Dakota which, belonging to the Belgian Sabena company, was flying over the Austrian-Jugoslav border on June 3rd. The transport aircraft was on one of the "pig-lift" flights now being carried out from Blackbushe to Belgrade. After the attack, Capt. Douglas Wilson, the English co-pilot, took over the controls and made an emergency landing at Graz Airfield, in the British zone of Austria. S/L NEVILLE DUKE receives a replica of the Segrave Trophy—of which he now becomes holder—from Lord De L'lsle and Dudley, V.C., Secretary of State for Air. As we recorded last week, the Hawker chief test pilot received the award in recognition of his recent world air-speed record achievements in the Hunter. The captain of the Dakota said that the attacking aircraft was a Mig-15 with Soviet markings, and that it most probably came from Hungarian territory. Capt. Wilson stated that he did not know the nationality of the fighter, but that it opened fire with cannon after circling the Dakota twice. Following the landing at Graz, a Jugoslav aircraft arrived there to complete delivery of the pedigree pigs to Belgrade. This is the second incident of this kind. On December 31st last, it may be recalled, a Dakota of Eagle Aviation, returning from a "pig-lift" flight to Belgrade, was fired on by an "unidenti fied aircraft," but avoided damage by utilizing cloud cover. Blowing the Gaff THE May issue of Aviation Age, an American monthly journal, contains a number of detail drawings of the Curtiss Wright J65 turbojet—which is, of course, virtually identical with our own Armstrong Siddeley Sapphire. In Great Britain, the Sapphire can be placed on public view provided that no details AUNT SALLY II: Mark 2 Jindivik target aircraft are in production at the Government Aircraft Factory at Fisher man's Bend. The plan form is as for the Mk 1 but the wings and tail surfaces are thinner and production is made easier by the reduction in double curvatures. A more powerful Armstrong Siddeley Viper is also fitted. AVALON ASSEMBLY: The Australian Government Factory is mainly con cerned with the production of Canberras, several examples of which are here seen being assembled after being transported in sections by road to the new £3 million airfield at Avalon, 34 miles from the factory in Melbourne.
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