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Aviation History
1954
1954 - 3232.PDF
3 December 1954 821 decided to fit Frigate Bird with JATO rockets, and here is his description of the trial before setting off from .Grafton on March 14th, 1951: — "With a somewhat sickly effort at humour I smiled"across the cockpit and said, 'This is it, Harry [co-pilot Capt. H. PpWs]. Pour on the coal.' "He handled the power as I took the Cat in my hands, worked her into the take-off, and snicked up the, Joat-retracting signal for the engineer. As she reached full take-c^power I pressed the first rocket button. "The effect was phenomena^ "From the familiar steadily'rising acceleration of the flying boat, she suddenly became a fightg*rpulled us into the backs of our seats, and really went for the a*E Lightly laden, she needed only one set of rockets. She was airborne in a few seconds. I could hardly believe it, but the water had*ff>ne. She was away. I laid her into a steady, climb ing turn and wsfooked back, down to the drifting cloud of rocket smoke. This was thaSBnswer to Easter Island, if there was an answer." The ejrc 13-day flight to Valparaiso is vividly re-created in Prigat&Bird, which succeeds as well as any printed words could in takin/the reader up alongside the Catalina's five-man crew during thettlong hours between lonely ocean and remote stars. It is a £6ok certain in its appeal to anyone living in the world of the airman, and this is not the limit of its appeal. "Aircraft Today," edited by John W. R. Taylor. laa^Allan, Ltd., Craven House, Hampton Court, Surrey. IllustrgHtZPrice 9s 6d. F OR quantity and quality this book is re^l^Iue at less than half a guinea. Mr. Taylor is to be congrawflated not only in securing contributions from—among otheo»^Sir Frederick Handley Page, "Mike" Lithgow, Air MarsharTJir Robert Saundby, and Rear- Admiral H. E. Horan, but in collecting together eighteen rare photographs of exotic prototypes. These include the Siebel Si 201 (never before illustrated), the submariBe*f>orne Arado Ar 231, a twin-finned Prentice with Schneider Katz undercarriage, a Culverin-engined Fairey JJJFTthe Hafner P-7 Rotachute, the M.L. 10/42 Flying Jeep* and the final version of the Fairey Primer, with revised rear fuselage and rear-view hood. OTHER BOOKS RECEIVED The Moon Puzzle, by N. O. Bergquist. Sidgwicfc and Jackson, Ltd., 1, Tavistock Chambers, Bloomsbury Way»-*London, W.C.I. Price 16s. Descent Into Danger, by Scotty Younaf"'Allan Wingate (Pub lishers), Ltd., 12 Beauchamp Place, Lqadon, S.W.3. Price lis 6d. Mass-balancing of Aircraft ConwrfSurfaces, by H. Templeton. Chapman and Hall, 37 Essex Su^et, London, W.C.2. Price 35s. All About Aircraft, by D^Jvf. Desoutter. (A 400-page "com pendium of sound aeronautical information"; illustrated reviews of current aircraft an<l-*hgines are included in this informative volume.) Faber andfTaber, Ltd., 24 Russell Square, London, W.C.1. Price 25y*' Space, Gravjjty and the Flying Saucer, by L. G. Cramp. (A theory on the motive-power of flying saucers, illustrated with photographs and the author's drawings.) T. Werner Laurie, Ltd., 1 Doughty Street, London, W.C.1. Price 10s 6d. Swo0ping Vengeance, by Geoffrey Dorman. (An adventure story for boys, with a preponderantly aviation flavour.) Hutchin son and Co., Stratford Place, London, W.l. Price 4s 6d. THE INDUSTRY TheR.D.F. Co.jU/Urfre in production again- after -fftfe* disastrous tire which occurred at their Godalming factory last August. Here is seen the new balloon-shop, with girl operatives finishing the rigging of a 45,000 cu ft, six-man paratroop training balloon. In the foreground, fabric workers are completing an envelope. Alvis Progress TN his address to shareholders, issued in advance of the annual 1 general meeting of Alvis, Ltd., which takes place in Coventry on December 14th, Mr. J. J. Parkes (chairman) says that produc tion of the Leonides engine reached its planned level towards the end (July 31st) of the year under review^sesulting in an increase of 60 per cent over the total output fra-<ne previous year. Exist- " g contracts would maintain deliyenes on this scale into 1956. ,lne Leonides was now in use jp^ome 15 countries and, installed m the Provost, was helping JfcfA.F. basic training units to achieve new records. Development of Uj*^l4-cylinder Leonides Major had already *en justified by^PfTo.S. contracts for a substantial quantity to P°wer the twip«gngined helicopters designed by the Bristol Aero- P'ane Comp«fiy for important roles in the Royal Navy and Royal ™r ForpeT The decision to lay down a private venture batch ot . Pre-production engines in addition to those covered by the original M.o.S. contract had made it possible to offer early delivery "engines for two additional aircraft types—the Westland Whirlwind helicopter and the Handley Page Herald. Welding 0.004 Stainless-steel Sheet pROM the General Electric Co., Ltd., come descriptive notes on a new seam-welding machine of their design and manufacture, |"e'y astalled at the Armstrong Siddeley works and now in use ™ thf joining of stainless-steel outer layers of jet-pipe insulation wankers on Sapphire engine*-"" . W tne usual type of outer layer used in blanketing, the material » only 0.004in thicVand is therefore handled rather as though w«e paper or fabric. At the Armstrong Siddeley works, after preliminary tack-welding, the sheets to be seamed are placed on a large work-table built round the welder head. The top electrode —a chrome-copper disc—and the upper of two pairs of guide rollers are then lowered on to the work. The operator brings the machine into action and the seam is made a^a speed of 2 ft/min. The welder can be spaced 2, 3 or 4 cycles apart'to give 42, 31 or 25 welds to the inch. A feature of the machine is dptise of a continuous wire electrode wound across reels. It is ordinary soft copper wire of 18 s.w.g. and it is passed continuarfsly along a groove on the periphery of the bottom electrodeXfisc, thus forming a new electrode surface for every weld and' avoiding the necessity for constant redressing. The wire take-up reel, the bottom electrode disc and the lower of each of the two pairs of guide rollers are power driven by a fractional-h.p. motor. Control-cable Tension Regulators OPERATION of control cables is susceptible to a number of influences, among which may be mentioned temperature lag in relation to a rapidly changing airframe; temperature; heating by cabin-heating or other ducts; flexing of aircraft structure in relation to cable runs which do not coincide with neutral axes; wear in pulleys and cables; and permanent deflection in parts of the control system caused by "wear or excessive stress. Such influences can^jbe" encountered by employment of an automatic cable-tensyxf regulator. A well-known American device of this type is the*8turgess regulator, made by the Pacific Scientific Co of GlenrfSte, California, the British and Commonwealth licensees jdrwhom are Teleflex Products, Ltd., High Road, Chadweil Heath, Essex. . .. ., In principle, these devices are designed for interconnection
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