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Aviation History
1955
1955 - 0147.PDF
>aier capacity than the cabin of an hown here is the proposed method of abin walls; the net shrouds afford ough landing or ditching. light of the first production Beverley Beverley has no vices and according by one pilot and an engineer. FLIGHT, 4 February 1955 147 doth (of which over 1,000 yd goes into each Beverley) is saturated in resin, mouldedinto the required shape and baked for up to 40 minutes. Some components require several thicknesses of cloth and the baking is repeated after the application of eachnew layer. On average, the Fibreglass items incorporated in the Beverley are probably 40 per cent lighter than comparable items in 20-22 s.w.g. aluminium,and they are turned out in shorter time by less skilled labour. Blackburn's Dumbarton factory builds clamshell doors, engine nacelles and under-carriage bogies for the Beverley. All other airframe structures are produced in the main works at Brough.For production the airframe is broken down into six major sections: the cargo compartment, cockpit, nose, rear fuselage, inner wings and outer wings. Stage onein the assembly process is the mating of inner wings and cargo compartment; next comes the attachment of the nose, followed by the cockpit and flight deck, by whichtime the hull has reached the end of the assembly line. At this stage the engines, rear fuselage and outer wings are added; meanwhile the tail unit has been built upas a complete H-form, though the rudders and fins are temporarily removed for assembly. Completed Beverley airframes are towed to the flight shed, where bogiesare attached and the fuel system is completed and tested. From a production viewpoint the great size of the Beverley confers certain advan-tages. The amount of working space inside the hull—and even in the wings—permits simultaneous, unrestricted work on both the airframe and its systems by a surprisinglylarge number of tradesmen. Though several hundred people are employed in the assembly hall at Brough, this is not apparent until the sounding of a "break" signal,when workers tumble from a seemingly unoccupied Beverley like rabbits out of a warren.In charge of Beverley development flying at Brough is "Tim" Wood, assisted by test pilots "Sailor" Parker and Dick Chandler. A fourth pilot will probably join thisteam later in the year, since the tempo of their work is expected to accelerate rapidly during the next few months.Insteau of being delivered immediately to Service trials units, the first two pro- duction Beverleys will remain at Brough for a period of concentrated tests. Thesewill include handling checks at different loadings and e.g. positions, take-off trials with the rocket installation illustrated on these pages, and heavy dropping trials.Also on the programme are performance-measurement flights under tropical con- ditions and winterization trials in Canada.Universal and Beverley flying hours at the time of writing total just over 634 hr 5 min, of which "No. 1" has logged just over 400 hr. This prototype is nowbeing used primarily for heavy dropping trials with loads which are progressively An impressive study of the Beverley prototype. On production aircraft, the test boom has given place to an observer's window.
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