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Aviation History
1955
1955 - 0294.PDF
294 FLIGHT, 11 March 1955 AND NOW—WHITE BOTTOMS: This impressive photograph of U.S.A.F. machine 52-8710, the first B-52A actually to be delivered, shows for the first time the reflecting finish applied to the underside to reduce the effect on the interior of heat from nuclear explosions. On this occassion, Clayton Scott (senior production test pilot) and H. S. McMurray took the B-52 to the new Boeing flight test centre at Larson A.F.B. Thames Helicopter Stops? IN consultation with the Port of LondonAuthority, the M.T.C.A. is considering— among a number of alternative proposals—a suggestion that pontoons should be used for a helicopter landing-site on theThames. This news, announced last week- end, must have brought a wry smile to theface of W/C. Reggie Brie, i/c. B.E.A.'s helicopter unit, for he has been advocatingexactly that method since his Autogiro days over 20 years ago. B-66 Setback ACCORDING to a U.S.AJ7. spokesmanin Washington, production of the Douglas B-66 twin-jet tactical bomber, U.S.A.F.counterpart of the A3D Skywarrior, des- cribed in some detail in Flight of February18th, has been temporarily delayed "to correct aerodynamic difficulties." Death of a Pioneer M. SANCHEZ-BESA, a Chilean-bompioneer pilot who learned to fly in the early Bleriot era, died in a Paris hospitallast week at the age of 75. He was also a designer and constructor, and duringWorld War I had three aircraft factories operating in France—at Sevres, Billancourtand Cognac. At the 1921 Paris Aero Show he exhibited a "multiplane" with 21 lath-like lifting surfaces arranged one above the other, venetian-blind fashion; it waspowered with a British 40 h.p. A.B.C. engine. Hope for the Flying-boat THE only factor likely to bring about alarge-scale flying-boat revival, said Mr. D. Keith-Lucas in a lecture last week, wasnuclear power. It was thought that aircraft propelled by atomic energy were likely tobe very large and to have a landing weight that remained equal to the take-off weight;a flying-boat was therefore the right answer. Mr. Keith-Lucas, who is a director andchief designer of Short Bros, and Harland, Ltd., and a world authority on flying-boats,was addressing the Belfast Association of Engineers. The Higher the Fewer A HILLER helicopter recently landed on—and took off from—a point on the Jungfraujoch 3,457m (11,343ft) above sealevel, thus beating the 2,470m (8,100ft) established by another Swiss-operated HERE AND THERE Hiller which had landed near the St. Ber-nard Hospice. But the new "record" was short-lived, for next day an S.N.C.A.S.O.Djinn landed on the 4,105m (13,490ft) summit of the Monch. The Djinn hasrotor blades driven by compressed air from a Turbomeca Palouste. Last year, aBristol Sycamore making operational trials in Kenya took off from 8,430ft. Britannia's Tropical Trials DEPARTURE of the first productionBristol Britannia for tropical trials in Africa and Egypt, scheduled for last Mon-day, was postponed until later this week after a final routine check by the pilot,W/C. Walter Gibb. British Aircraft Data THE world's civil transport aircraft arereviewed in this issue (pages 321-331). Readers wishing to refer to detailed dataon, and illustrations of, British and Com- monwealth aircraft—both military andcivil—are reminded that a recent Flight publication, British and CommonwealthAircraft, is still available. A 44-page re- print of reviews in two special issues at thetime of the Farnborough Show, it is obtainable at 2s 3d (postage included) fromIliffe and Sons, Ltd., Dorset House, Stam- ford Street, London, S.E.I. House Full A LECTURE and film show given lastweek in a local hall by Gloster Aircraft chief photographer Russell Adams attractedsuch a large number of the air-minded citizens of Gloucester that dozens had tobe turned away. In addition to the wdl- known film of the C.F.S. aerobatic team inaction Mr. Adams showed another of Sea Hawks landing on and taking off fromH.M.S. Eagle, some new shots of the Javelin and an interesting security-clearedresearch film showing the jettisoning of a Meteor 8 canopy with a begoggled andshivering S/L. Waterton in the cockpit. Nuclear-power Hint T" "RESEARCH into fundamental problemswhich govern the application of nuclear power to the propulsion of aircraft is be-ing undertaken by the Atomic Energy Commission," according to a statementmade by the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Supply in a written answerlast Monday. Spanish Rally Postponed THE international air rally and Tour ofSpain, for which preliminary plans had been announced by the joint organizers(the Spanish Royal Aero Club and the HUSA group of hotels), has been post-poned until next year. Television Post PRODUCER of the B.B.C. television filmserial War in the Air, Mr. John Elliot has been aooointed television liaison officer tothe United Nations film division in New York. Hitting the Thousand— DURING the past week, two of the mostimportant American turbojets have reached the figure 1,000 in different ways. An out-standing engine is the Pratt and Whitney J57, split-compressor unit of 10,000/15,000Ib thrust; the Pratt and Whitney company announced on Tuesday that they hadshipped the thousandth J57 since produc- tion started in February of 1953. Fordhave also built several hundred J57s at the factory at East Wacker Drive, Chicago. —And another THE most widely used engine in the worldat the moment is the General Electric J47 turbojet, of 5,800/7,200 lb thrust (or 8,800with afterburner). Some 12,000 J47s are used on Boeing B-47 Stratojets (to namebut one J47-powered aircraft), and one such engine—installed in a B-47 stationedat McConnell A.F.B., Wichita, Kansas- has flown 1,000 hours without major over-haul. At present 600 hours is the estab- lished overhaul life in Strategic Air Com-mand service, but it is expected that the four-figure life will be the standardschedule from now on, owing to the excel- lent 600-hr condition.
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