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Aviation History
1955
1955 - 0519.PDF
519FLIGHT, 22 April1955 The S.O. 1221-001 Djinn returns from a jaunt round Villacoublay. The pilot is Jean Da bos (in woollen cap), with the author as passenger. ACTUALITES FRANCAISES Part I: Djinn; S.N.C.A.S.E.; Fouga Magister; French Air Force Reserves THE French nation as a whole is not very air-mindedin its policies and opinions, but those Frenchmen whodo use or build aircraft make up for their relatively small numbers by an enthusiasm, a skill and an inventive genius which the industries of few nations have been able to match. The attitude of the government to aircraft construction, par- ticularly in regard to financial aid, is such that almost any good project can reach the prototype stage, and for the size of its industry France can surely boast a great number and a wider variety of basically new designs since the war than any other country. In the public eye these prototypes attract far more attention than the real work of production and operation that is going on, so to speak, in their shadow, and about which one hears much less. I recently visited many of the companies in the French aircraftindustry and in the space of a few days managed to see and hear a great deal of what was going forward. I saw prototypes andproduction aircraft, both in numbers, and the men responsible for them; and it does seem that now an ever-increasing amount ofreal production is in hand. Perhaps most impressive in terms of numbers are the Mystere lines, which are turning out theseswept-wing fighters at a high rate from at least four factories. In addition there are the Noratlas (orders for which are likely to beincreased for the third time), the Magisters, now getting well into their stride, the Vautours and the Djinns; and once again the Nor-alphas and Norecrins are to be produced, with 100 Morane 760 Paris to follow as replacements. Among the Djinns: My tour began on a Wednesday, a fewweeks ago, and my first port of call was the S.N.C.A.S.O. hangar at Villacoublay main airfield where M. Bolo, head of the salesdepartment, let me loose among the eight 1221 Djinns which have so far been built. These machines are part of a pre-series of tenwhich by the end of the year will be delivered to the French Army to fulfil the first part of an order for liaison and artillerypurposes. In addition, tucked away at the back, there were the Djinn's predecessors the Ariel II and Ariel III, both dismantled.The Farfadet was also there, less its Artouste turboprop; work on the Ariels has now stopped, but the Farfadet has only temporarilybeen put aside while the Djinns are being finalized. I was told of a larger, four-seat version of the Djinn, now on the boards. Also in the hangar was the small Deauville two-seat, all metal,low-wing monoplane with tailwheel undercarriage, which was a little something designed by way of relaxation some years ago.Next to it stood the diminutive first prototype 1220-01 Djinn—a single-seater. Few of the eight 1221 Djinns are the same in all respects, somehaving intake silencers and others jet-pipes of cylindrical form with flow-straighteners to improve the directional control. One,particularly, was fitted for hand starting, the intention being that the pilot should be able to start the engine by himself and be inde-pendent of batteries when working away from his base. By pulling a small lever fuel pressure can be raised in a cylinder, and thenthe engine is hand cranked (by a direct drive on the accessory A rotor-head view of the Djinn. The hand starting shaft can just be seen behind the Palouste's air bleed pipe.
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