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Aviation History
1955
1955 - 0496.PDF
496 FLIGHT, 15 April 1955 A technical discussion of Lysander features in the 1930s: (I. to r.) 1. Johnson, W. Widgery, A. Dayenport and J. Wingfield Digby. RECOLLECTIONS OF MACHINES AND MEN. . . in a series of fantastic phugoid oscillations, which every movementof the wing-tip controls seemed to make worse. Only on the next flight did one discover the right solution was to pull back thestick and wait in hope. Similarly, with the last Pterodactyl, which although amazinglysuccessful in many ways, was nevertheless dogged with mis- fortune. Its wing structure somewhat disconcertingly collapsedon the initial taxying trials, owing to an insignificant error in appreciating the eccentric loading of a secondary strut; and a yearlater its engine seized a few feet above Yeoyil through a coolant failure just after taking off for the delivery flight to Farnborough.As the Air Ministry decided not to replace its experimental engine it faded from its page of history, unflown by anyone but me. However, though engines stop, controls fail or structures break,one expects such things; and as long as none is too catastrophic the R.A.F. testing- establishment is eventually handed an aero-plane which is reasonably docile and shows little trace of the vicissitudes of its development. At long intervals things may goa little too far during the makers' tests—such as the occasion of a wing failure on the P.7 torpedo monoplane I was diving, whenonly after landing by parachute did we receive at Martlesham an official telegram telling us not to dive as it seemed possible thatthe airworthiness requirements did not meet the case of the par- ticular load carried. Most test pilots inadvertently become check-stressers for the stress office. At times it can be a little exasperating. Our shaft-drivenfighter was one of those self-landing aeroplanes which are such a delight to fly, and gave a superlative view. Looking astern tosee that all the aeroplane was there after its first slow roll I found the fuselage enveloped in flames, and landed with all thefabric burned away. The D.O. put it right. I did another roll. There were the twenty-foot flames again, and the fuselage andpart of the tail was once more soon without fabric. On the retirement of Mr. Bruce in 1935 his assistant TeddyPetter, B.A., son of the chairman of the company, was appointed technical director. Captain Acland, of yickers fame, becamemanaging director. Geoffrey Hill had by this time accepted a pro- fessorship at London University, and although the Pterodactyltype was dropped (the significance of the swept wing not having been appreciated) Petter displayed further ingenuity in breakingfrom conventional practice in the various designs forthwith initiated, of which the army co-operation Lysander, based onDavenport's high-wing series, was the first. The general success of the machine, with its spectacular landing and take-off run,and the novel use of extrusions in its structure, revealed the inherent promise of Petter's talent. The Lysander had the usual course of development. Thosewho flew production machines will understand what it was like to fly with a fixed tailplane and an elevator which originally gaveinstability in dives. There was even an occasion when the slats and leading edge alone were proved capable of sustaining theaircraft, for when the less extensively tested second prototype was dived at Martlesham it lost all its wing fabric, yet was safelylanded by F/L. Collins of the A. & A.E.E. I also remember seeking to prove to Mr. M. B. Morgan—now Deputy Director(A) of the R.A.E.—that its landing run was even shorter than had been officially measured, and gave it, with the aid of somebadly set slats, the heaviest landing of any aeroplane I have ever flown. However, it well demonstrated the strength of thestructure, which, although considerably strained, held together sufficiently for the machine to be taxied with dignity to itshangar. Perhaps the full-span slats required a rather marginal technique for really effective use of this ubiquitous machineand thus at times secured the denigration of pilots unused to it; but when, with Britain beleaguered, the original function of armyco-operation work became impossible, these sturdy aeroplanes under the command of A. Cdre. Sir Edward Fielden gave yeoman service on espionage work, landing and picking up passengersat night far into enemy-occupied territory. The war eventually saw Westland fully engaged with theproduction and repair of Spitfires and Seafires. In the early stages we were still building Lysanders and the Whirlwind twin-engined fighter. The latter—locally known as "Crikey," from the Shell advertisement of that time—was faster at low altitudesthan any contemporary fighter. Though I gather from a well- known pilot's book that he did the critical tests on this machine,my log records the initial flight of each prototype and many hundred other flights, including the first spins, first climbs toceiling, all dives to maximum speed, as well as the first single- engine forced landing, and even the burning through of rearspan and aileron control. I have particular cause to be grateful for the Whirlwind'saggressive appearance, for, bursting through overcast in the early days of the war, I found myself heading straight for a machinewith black crosses. Both of us, evidently mutually impressed, half rolled smartly into the cloud in opposite directions. Asomewhat similar incident occurred towards the end of the war, when, flying a captured Messerschmitt with no radio, I suddenlyfelt my hair prickling and glanced round to find a Spitfire flying with a lethal look just behind my tail. In those days scores of stratospheric flights made with thebig single-seater Welkin, usually in clear weather because of recognition and radio difficulties, revealed tremendous viewsacross war-time England, and on one occasion across the Channel to the as yet uninvaded beaches of the Cherbourg Peninsula.One remembers also a series of experimental climbs carrying a large tank from which liquid oxygen was injected into the enginesto enhance performance at height. Nevertheless, such flying was insignificant compared with war-time production testing,when, under the managing directorship of doughty John Fearn, M.I.Mech.E., a great job was done by E. C. Wheeldon, M.I.P.E.(now managing director) and his works staff and men in keeping the pilots well supplied with over 2,000 Spitfire variants, as wellas the production of Barracudas and Westland machines. Various pilots under "Hoggy" Hill helped out the flying, but JamesRamsden of the unforgettable laugh must be mentioned, for he assisted with experimental work as well. Towards the end of the war we all became interested in heli-copters as the logical outcome of the Autogiros built by Westland in the pre-Munich era. It must have been in 1944 that ArthurDavenport and I flew with "Socks" Hosegood in a Sikorsky R.4 at Beaulieu, and there met O. E. Fitzwilliams, B.A., who joinedthe company as helicopter engineer when Westland acquired the licence to build the S-51. Though my experience with heli-copters has been far less than with aeroplanes, my interest ranges back to the earliest Cierva Autogiro, and ten years later, in1934, I added the C.30 to my licence as a preliminary to flying the Westland-built rotorplanes. The helicopter technique ismuch the same, and once it is familiar less judgment is required for landing and take-off than with fixed-wing machines, for itis inherently far safer. However, the maestros of the art are master-pilots, and among the earliest of these one must acknow-ledge Alan Bristow and the late Pete Garner, who quickly made their mark with the Westland S-51s in public demonstration. The Wyvern, whose design had been initiated by TeddyPetter, was concurrently flying. Arthur Davenport had been appointed technical director, with John Digby, M.A., as chiefdesigner, but the Wyvern proved to be the first of the more complex modern fighters to reveal how much time was requiredto secure proper development aerodynamically and mechani- cally. Unexpected problems arose with the turbine propellercombination, and the projected method of starting failed to materialize, while items such as reversing airscrews werescrapped as too great a problem, in favour of air brakes which had to be designed into the finished machine. It all took a longtime to work out, and I undoubtedly had more forced landings with this machine than with any other type in the entire exist-ence of the company; nor were we free from tragedy, for both an R.A.F. test pilot and two of my colleagues lost their lives inWyverns, thus ending a sequence of 20 years' freedom from fatality. Nevertheless, the type basically was always pleasantto fly, and immediately proved popular when ultimately it was released to squadrons. So one looks back through the vista of 30 of the 40 yearssince Westland was founded, and finds much the same scene, but with many changing characters. Throughout it has beena long sequence of endeavour to devise new and better means of making the most efficient possible aircraft in the light of thelatest knowledge and deduction. The steps from those first exciting canvas-covered wooden structures through variousforms of biplanes and monoplanes to the present masterpieces of aeronautical engineering can be seen as logical evolution in theindustry as a whole. More has been attained than many dreamed. And soit steadily goes on. There are new conceptions, a newgeneration in the shops, a different staff, other designers and pilots—but the significant endeavour remains unchanged.
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