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Aviation History
1954
1954 - 1851.PDF
820 FLIGHT, 25 June 1954 •"THE cardinal fighter requirements of speed, climb, * manoeuvrability and firepower remain; yet these pages will show that the aircraft themselves are getting smaller—and larger; lighter—and heavier; less conventional—and more orthodox; more complex—and simpler. And though the fighter is still the chosen instrument for destroying the enemy's potential in the air, the huge increments in the bomber's speed and over-target height have multiplied the problems of interception to a perplex ing degree. As ever, the single-seater preponderates in the fighter squad rons, in the experimental shops and on the drawing-boards; and its usefulness having been proved in darkness and foul weather, it bids fair to consolidate, and even to improve, its present status. But where long endurance is mandatory, a second crewman will still find employment. Gloster Meteor F.8 (two Rolls-Royce Derwent 8). While in one direction single-seaters arc becoming larger and heavier (because of the radar and extra fuel for all-weather inter ception, and armament to improve the chances of a kill), a pre cisely opposite departure has lately been initiated by a British company, and is being followed to some extent abroad. The "light fighter," to which this tendency is directed, is by no means a novel concept (as witness the He 162 Volksjager of 1945), and its limitations are self-evident; but its proponents are neither so fanatical nor so gullible as to believe that the tiny machines they envisage could wholly, or largely, supplant the more elaborate designs—even could they be employed in the numbers made possible by their relatively low cost. Though early projects, in this country at least, have received little or no official support, the knowledge that development is going forward as a private ven ture is welcome reassurance in these times of uncertainty and disappointment. Another departure is the V.T.O. (vertical take-off) fighter, the first of which was the rocket-propelled Bachem Natter of the late war. The operational advantages promised by this sort of fighter are of undeniable significance—not for shipboard service alone, and not necessarily with airscrew propulsion. One other launching device meriting comment is the jettison- able rocket-propelled trolley as used with the S.E. Baroudeur; but that aircraft being primarily intended for ground attack, its appurtenances are dealt with under the appropriate heading. The Baroudeur lands on a skid undercarriage and thus follows the principles initiated in the Me 163. One general observation on current fighter design is called for: that wing loadings have risen so high, and powers of manoeuvre are so restricted in consequence, that many new fighters may often fail to bring armament to bear on contemporary bombers. The reluctance of British designers to join in the general unleashing of fighter loadings in pursuit of sheer speed is thus to be applauded, though the fear remains that vast technical effort may often be nullified by blindness to an elementary precept—that a fighter must be able to outmanoeuvre its quarry. Such primitive expedients as the Sabre's 6-3 leading edge (added to the wing at a time of near-crisis to improve manoeuvrability at height) may not always be feasible. There is some possibility that the next class of fighter to make its entry into an already seething arena might be of the "flying fortress," or multiplace de combat type, dragged once more from limbo as was the light fighter. Such machines might bear some resemblance to jet bombers. They would have long endurance, might carry their own long-range radar, and having by this means picked up the approaching enemy some hundreds of miles from the threatened target, would launch their missiles in a running fight, as destroyers might harry capital ships.
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