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Aviation History
1955
1955 - 0202.PDF
202 FLIGHT, 18 February 1955 AIRCRAFT INTELLIGENCE Great Britain ^ r Olympus-Ashton. Illustrated on this pageis the first six-jet aircraft flown in this country: WB493, the fourth Avro Ashton,now being used by the Bristol Aeroplane Company's Engine Division as a test bedfor their Olympus turbojet. The very efficient Olympus, which the companybelieve to be the most powerful type- tested engine in the world (at 11,000 lbrating), has already completed over 700 flight hours in one Canberra and oneVulcan. It is understood that the Ashton may be used to develop afterburning andcarry out other trials for which the Can- berra is unsuitable; the podded installationpermits completely unrestricted engine performance and the size of the Ashtonallows a very great range of test equipment to be carried. Meanwhile, the Canberra isfully engaged upon testing at extreme altitudes. U.S.A. Allison Test-beds. At present three Con-vair transports are flying with Allison turboprop engines, not counting the R3YTradewind flying boat (which is in produc- tion). The original Turboliner was a CV-240 airframe re-engined with T38engines of 2,750 h.p. each; this machine has now flown approximately 500 hoursand has given rides to over 3,700 passen- gers. The two YC-131Cs of the U.S.A.F.are basically similar to the T-29 crew- trainer and C-131 Samaritan casualty-evacuation transport, but are powered by a pair of T56 turboprops developing no lessthan 3,750 h.p. each. With both YC-131Cs over 300 hours of engine flight-time havebeen logged on YT56 engines and both machines are now in the hands of the1,700th Test Squadron recently established at Kelly A.F.B. This unit will also testother turboprop aircraft including the Boeing YC-97J and Lockheed YC-121F,two of each of which are being built with four Pratt and Whitney T34s. Bell VTOL. In last week's issue wedescribed the vertical-jet Bell experimental prototype, and commented that it appearedto have been built from parts of other air- craft. It is now known that it embodies thefuselage of a glider (possibly a Schweizer), the wing of a standard light aircraft (per-haps a Cessna), the landing gear of a Bell helicopter and the throttle controls from amotor-boat. Although it seats only four persons, the Bell XV-3 convert/plane prototype is quite a large aircraft. Powered by a single Pratt and Whit- ney engine driving the tiltable rotors-cum-air- screws through gearboxes and shafting, it is described elsewhere in this issue. Cessna T-37A. Already in production forthe U.S.A.F. as a standard twin-jet basic trainer (two 920 lb thrust ContinentalJ69-T-9), this neat side-by-side aircraft has now also been bought by the U.S. Army.An initial order has been placed for ten machines, for use as observation aircraft"in adjusting surface-to-surface missile fire." North American FJ-4 Fury. Although ithas not yet replaced the FJ-3 on the pro- duction lines at Columbus, Ohio, the FJ-4is doing very well in its prototype trials. This machine is a Sapphire-poweredcarrier-based fighter developed from the earlier Fury/Sabre family, but incorporat-ing much information gained during development of the F-100. Two proto-types are now flying; both have the re- quired long nose boom, and one is nowfitted with wing fences and a revised wing profile. Contrary to reports elsewhere, thetailplane does not have dihedral, but is a level, single-piece slab. The rudder is asmall surface similar to that of the F-100, Projects exist for all-weather developmentsof the FJ-4, which, if carried to completion, may obviate the need for a carrier-basedversion of the F-100. No F-100 has yet been completed by the Columbus division,but various Super Sabre versions are to be built there. Australia Fawcett 120. Hailed as Australia's answerto the problem of replacing the Tiger Moth, the Fawcett 120 is a braced high-wingcabin monoplane with a fixed tricycle undercarriage. Designed by the well-known Italian Luigi Pellerini, it seats four and is powered by a Gipsy Major. Theprototype should have flown about one dozen hours by the date of publication ofthis paragraph. G.W. Research. Aerodynamic researchestablishments working on guided missile development in the dominion are to becombined to form the Weapons Research Establishment. Subject of an item on this page, the Olympus-Ashton is here shown climbing out of Filton in the hands of W/C. W. F. Gibb, D.S.O., D.F.C., one of the Bristol test pilots. He it was who took the Olympus-Canberra to 63,668ft two years ago to establish the present world altitude record.
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