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Aviation History
1955
1955 - 0250.PDF
250 FLIGHT, 25 February 1955 THE INDUSTRY Maj. Atkinson. Major F. C. AtkinsonW E regret to learn, from Vickers-Armstrongs, Ltd., of thesudden death of Major F. C. Atkinson, O.B.E., at the age of 68. Felton Ciayson Atkinson was, for 30 years, chief inspectorat the company's aircraft division at Weybridge, a post from whichhe retired only two years ago. Throughout the great aeronauti-cal progress of the 1920s and 1930s, Maj. Atkinson, in hisposition of chief inspector, kept abreast of the new techniques,and saw the wood and fabric biplanes replaced by metal con-struction and by the monoplane. During World War II, whenWeybridge and many other centres were producing Welling-tons, Maj. Atkinson had to organize and control a much-expanded inspectorate, and (his colleagues recall) he was everconscious of the responsibility he and his staff bore to thebomber crews of the R.A.F. After the war, more famous pro- totypes passed through his hands. When he retired, on March 31st,1953, after a few months short of 30 years of service at Weybridge, both the Valiant and the Viscount had been granted super-priority.Born at Ashford in Kent, he served through the first World War with the Armoured Car Division of the R.N.A.S. and laterwith the R.A.F. Just after the end of the war he was appointed to the staff of the new R.A.F. College at Cranwell, but, in theearly 1920s he went to Japan as a member of the Master of Sempill's mission to advise the Japanese Government on aviationmatters. It was on his return that he joined Vickers as chief inspector. Maj. Atkinson leaves a widow, a son and a daughter. Power Points TN connection with the establishment of the Javelin production•*• line at the main works of the Gloster Aircraft Co., Ltd., a comprehensive system has been adopted for bringing compressedair and electrical power to portable tools used at each jig or assembly position. It was desired to avoid the use of overheadlines and, of course, any cables trailing along the floors; further- more, the area in which the works is situated is rather damp, sospecial care had to be taken in protection against moisture. For these reasons an under-floor conduit system was adopted,incorporating some hundreds of plug-in boxes designed and manu- factured by the General Electric Co., Ltd, Of heavy-gauge mildsteel, hot-spelter-galvanized and with interiors coated with Cork- tex paint (a compound used by the Admiralty as an anti-conden-sation finish) the boxes have cast aluminium alloy lids stated to be capable of sustaining a weight of 30 tons. When the cables and/orair-lines have been plugged in, the lid is closed, the lines then passing through a small recess. Keeping it Clean NOW being used to an increasing extent by aircraft operatorsand the industry is the range of industrial vacuum cleaners made by New Welbeck, Ltd., 120 New Bedford Road, Luton, Beds Users in the industry, it is stated, include English Electric, Fairey, de Havilland, Rolls-Royce and Folland; and these cleaners are also being used in the servicing of R.A.F. aircraft of the Queen's Flight, and in the U.S.A.F. A characteristic of the equipment is portability, each machinebeing light and compact enough to be taken to any pan of the work area, where it is used with a short length of hose. Thedust-bag commonly used in domestic machines is dispensed with, die dirt going straight into the metal container and the air exhaust-ing through a self-cleaning filter. The New Welbeck range consists of three models, the Simplex,Duplex and Triplex, with one, two and three driving motors respectively; there is also a lightweight machine, the "Bak-Vak";designed to be carried on the operator's back, it weighs 16£ lb complete. For all models there is a wide range of nozzles, brushes,etc., for use in various situations. Awards to Folland Apprentices THE company's first Spitfire Mitchell Scholarship winner wasamong the eleven apprentices who received awards when Folland Aircraft, Ltd., held their annual prize-giving at the RoyalPier, Southampton, on February 11th. The presentations were made by Mr. D. G. James, M.A., Vice-Chancellor of the Univer-sity of Southampton. Introducing Mr. James, and die company's new educationofficer, Mr. J. Keiser, Mr. W. E. W. Petter (managing director and chief engineer) said that the company now had so many appren-tices that in some of the shops they were almost an inconvenience —"but," he hastened to explain, "we are in a state of expansionand soon we are going to need the services of all these boys." Follands prospects, he added, were such that the standard of skillreached by the apprentices would be of even greater concern to the company than in the past. To improve existing facilities, atraining workshop was to be set up, in which boys would be taught the use of hand tools and certain machine tools before theyentered the shops. In his report on the work of the apprentices during the year,Mr. Keiser said that the company had more than 250 apprentices under training, more than half of whom were trade apprentices.In future, the annual intake would be between 40 and 50, roughly the number of applications he received each month. Under an exchange scheme, said Mr. Keiser, two Follandapprentices had spent three month last year with a Hamburg firm of tool-makers, two of whose apprentices had spent three monthswith Follands at Hamble. Prire-winners were T. W. Brown, G. Chisman, J. D. Davis,D. Gibson, L. Hunt, B. Knight, P. Lutman, N. S. A. Murphy, S. D. A. Redman., A. F. P. Trist and J. R. Young. J. D. Davis(the Mitchell Scholarship winner) was declared the outstanding apprentice of the year and received both the H. P. Folland Cupand a brief-case presented by Mr. W. E. W. Petter. IN BRIEF Consolidated profits of H. M. Hobson, Ltd., recendy announced for the year ended September 30th, 1954, were £454,865 (pre- vious year, £423,060). Deduction for depreciation and taxation left a net profit of £169,040 (£129,854). * * * All the Viscounts for Trans-Canada Air Lines are being fitted with Venner emergency lighting units. This type of fitting, which is A.R.B. approved, lights automatically at a deceleration of 1.25 g, and is easily released for use as a hand torch. * * * Fine machine engraving has now been added to the servicesoffered by Braithwaite, Court and Co., Ltd., technical illustrators, of 23 Commercial Road, Woking, Surrey. Mr. A. Evans, formerlyof Winston Electronics, Ltd., has joined them as sales director. * * * The instrument-testing and associated equipment produced byRollason Aerocessories, Ltd., Croydon Airport, is the subject of a new loose-leaf catalogue. Special emphasis is placed on the rangeof R.A. sensitive control valves, for which final patent approval has recently been granted and which are already being widely usedin the aircraft industry, principally for flow control in instrument testing, though other potential applications cover a much widerfield. Apart from sensitive control of gases or liquids, charac- teristics of diese valves include positive sealing, freedom fromleaks, positive stops at extreme travel, and adaptable mountings. * * * Western Manufacturing (Reading), Ltd., report a net profitof £172,413 for the year ended October 31st, 1954. * * * Appointed to the board of Power Jets (Research and Develop-ment), Ltd., are Capt. (E) E. A. G. Whittle, R.N., and Mr. J. H. Pitchford, M,A., M.I.Mech.E., managing director of Ricardo andCo., Engineers (1927), Ltd. Capt. (E) E. J. H. Kirby, D.S.C., R.N., has resigned from the Board on change of Admiralty dutiesand Rear-Admiral W. G. Cowland, C.B., has resigned owing to pressure of other work. * * * Aldiough formed comparatively recently—in 1951—the firm ofAppleby and Ireland, Ltd., Kempshott, Basingstoke, Hants, has already become widely known in the aircraft and other industriesfor the production of precision instruments, mainly for research purposes. Instruments illustrated and described in a loose-leafcatalogue recently issued include absolute pressure gauges, sensi- tive and differential pressure gauges, vacuum and pressure/vacuum gauges, aneroid barometers and barographs Special attention is drawn to the company's ability to design and manu-facture instruments to customers' special requirements
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