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Aviation History
1955
1955 - 0070.PDF
STEAM SUPPLY FROM BOILER i 70 FLIGHT Diagrammatic repre- sentation of a typical layout of the steam catapult. Note how the power cylinders are housed beneath the deck, and the location of the steam receivers in which steam from the boilers is stored. THE NAVY'S STEAM CATAPULT ALTHOUGH the British-invented, American-adopted steamaircraft-catapult is already being applied to eight carriers of^ the U.S. Navy, Britain's first operational installation will be in H.M.S. Ark Royal, the fleet carrier expected to be completed byCammell Laird and Co., Ltd., of Birkenhead, early this year. Catapults of this type are being built and developed for theAdmiralty by Brown Brothers and Co., Ltd., of Edinburgh. They will be fitted in H.M.S. Hermes and H.M.A.S. Majestic, both ofwhich are being built by Vickers-Armstrongs, Ltd., of Barrow; in H.M.C.S. Bonaventure, under construction by Harland andWolff, Ltd.; and in H.M.S. Victorious, now undergoing extensive modernization at H.M. Dockyard, Portsmouth. It is the inten-tion to replace with steam catapults the existing hydro-pneumatic catapults in all other operational carriers of the Royal Navy asproduction and Service commitments permit. The steam catapult works on a principle quite different fromthat of the hydro-pneumatic types at present employed. The shuttle, or trolley, to which the aircraft is connected by its towing FRANCE DESCRIBES THE ORPHEUSI T is by no means unusual nowadays to find preliminary descrip-tions of new British engines being published in foreign journals. The French paper Aviation Magazine, for example, has recentlypublished the photograph reprinted here, which apparently shows a mock-up of the Bristol Orpheus turbojet, although we are natur-ally unable to confirm or deny its accuracy. The French journal has also given a number of details of the engine, including thefollowing: diameter, 32in; length, 97in; dry weight, 850 lb; seven- stage compressor (pressure ratio 5:1), indicating that the engineis not a two-spooler; eight combustion cans in an annular space, and a single-stage turbine, the whole rotating assembly beingsupported by only two bearings, one at either end. The prototype Orpheus, which first ran on December 17th last,is reported to have delivered 3,900 lb thrust at 10,500 r.p.m. with a specific of 1.1 lb/hr/lb; later on, over 4,400 lb is to be reached.Thrust-weight ratio and dirust/frontal area are given as 0.22 and 0.296 (achieved) and 0.193 and 0.205 (theoretical targets),respectively. Presumably showing a mock-up of the Bristol Orpheus turbojet, this photograph was recently published in France. A note on this remarkably light and compact single-spool engine appears above. bridle, is propelled along a track in the deck by two pistons whichare directly connected to it, and which slide in two cylinders placed side by side under the deck and extend the whole lengthof the track. An ingenious flexible-steel sealing strip, opened by the shuttle driving key and closed by a "sealing block" immediatelybehind it, prevents loss of pressure in the cylinder,. The com- paratively light pistons and the shuttle assembly are the onlymoving parts. The cylinder and piston assembly, and certain other features, are the subject of patents. Illustrated on this page is a typical layout, showing the powercylinders housed under the deck and the steam receivers in which steam from the boilers is stored ready for the launch. Alsoshown is an aircraft secured by its towing bridle to the shuttle and restrained by a "hold-back" which is hooked in a suitablefitting on the deck. ' When the accelerating force is applied to the shuttle this, added to that of the turbojet, causes a calibratedbreaking link in the holdback to break, leaving the aircraft free to move forward under the accelerating pull. PRODUCTION CONFERENCE "TNTEGRAL construction contrasted with traditional methods"-*- was the theme of the third annual conference on aircraft production organized by die Institution of Production Engineers(Southern Section). The conference was held at the University of Southampton onJanuary 14th and 15th, and papers were presented by Mr. A. E. Woodward-Nutt (M.o.S.), Mr. G. W. Richards (High DutyAlloys), E. D. Keen and A. Menzies (Armstrong Whitworth), S. Radcliffe (Wadkin) and W. E. W. Petter (Folland). Speakersat the conference luncheon were Alderman R. E. Edmunds, Mayor of Southampton, and Sir Edward Boyle, Parliamentary Secretary,M.o.S. Full reports of the papers, speeches and discussion will be given in an early issue. - I : CANBERRA INQUEST AT an inquest at Hertford last week on two R.A.F. officers who**• were killed in an accident to a Canberra on December 20th, verdicts of accidental death were recorded. The aircraft wasstated in evidence to have got out of control and to have crashed on the lawn in front of a children's home at St. Margarets, nearWare, Hertfordshire. The officers who lost their lives were P/O. Raymond H. Sholl and F/O. Hubert E. Thorne. The diird occupant, F/O. C. B. Crombie, said that the accidentoccurred half an hour after the take-off from Bassingbourn. The aircraft had reached a height of 32,000ft and encountered "tre-mendous turbulence." It went out of control, performed "various manoeuvres," and in the end went into a dive, turning left, fromwhich F/O. Crombie was unable to recover. The aircraft had been difficult to control, he said, because of the bad weather, andat one stage the navigators had asked what had gone wrong. At more than one stage they had "got on their backs." He orderedthe two navigators to abandon the aircraft. As for his own escape, F/O. Crombie said that he was unableto release the control column "owing to the tremendous g-forcc." To release the column it was necessary to move his hand down-wardd to the releasing mechanism. "In the end," he said, "I knew I couldn't get my hand down, but I lifted my hand upand it was knocked back against the handle which operates the ejecting mechanism. I just ejected through the canopy."
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