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Aviation History
1955
1955 - 0522.PDF
522 FLIGHT The mighty S.E.2010 Armagnac, its 14.7ft airscrews dwarfed by its vast fuselage, is towed from the hangar at Toulouse-Blagnac. The single hangar door, counter- balanced, and raised by a 6 h.p. motor, was until recently the largest in Europe. ACTUALITES FRANCAISES . . . quick look into the new Hurel-Dubois hangar, now completed,where I saw the H.D.31, the Praga-engined H.D.10 and two H.D.32s. The H.D.32-01 now has two small extra fins on thetailplane and a small ventral mwextension, and the air brakes have been perforated. The H.D.32-02 is not so fitted. This latter,incidentally, is the aircraft of which we published a detailed cut- away drawing last year (Flight of June 18th, 1954). The H.D.32-01originally appeared with the twin-fin tail and has since been modi- fied to its present configuration. In another section of the factoryI saw the mock-up of the fuselage, forward of the wing, of a photo- survey version of the H.D.32. The nose is completely redesignedwith the two pilots' seats raised on platforms, one on each side of a central trough giving access to the transparent extreme nosesection. Here there is one fixed seat for die camera operator with, in addition, a jump seat on the left-hand side. Two large cameraports have been cut in the floor of the forward part of the main cabin and an overhead gantry runs from these aft to a floor rackholding a number of large film magazines. A further gantry can be swung outboard from the forward loading door so that thesemagazines can be hoisted in and out of the aircraft. There are, altogether, five crew-stations, including two pilots. Next morning I went with Jacques Noetinger to the new FrenchAir Force base at Creil, north-east of Paris, where he and about 45 other pilots of the French Air Force Fighter Reserve (in whichhe is a captain) fly S.E.-built Vampire 5s. There are two squadrons, Nos. 1/17 and 2/17, and about 25 aircraft, not including someS.N.C.A.N. Martinet (originally Siebel Si204) instrument trainers. These squadrons—and another, with about 20 pilots, in NorthAfrica—are the only French reserve units comparable with our own R.Aux.A.F. Their training is organized in almost exactly the same way as that of their English equivalent, and in an emergencythe unit at Creil would form part of the fighter defence of the Paris area. The squadrons are commanded by Capt. Blanc, aRegular officer, and about 30 Regular pilots fly the Vampires when the Reserve pilots are away. I was also shown there an AirTrainers' AT.50 jet Link trainer. The Reserve pilots achieve an average of between 50 and 80 flying hours a year. The station commander at Creil is Col. De Fouquiere, who willvery shortly have under his command one of the first Mystere II squadrons.There is another type of French Reserve—organized on a regional basis in such towns as Paris, Lyon, Bordeaux, Aix-en-Provence, Nancy and Lille—in which pilots who already have their wings fly the French equivalent of the Harvard, die MoraneSaulnier 475. On the way out to Creil very early in the morning, JacquesNoetinger told me about the Postale de Nuit, the night mail ser- vice which is being run, using mainly Dakotas with Air Francecrews, as a joint venture by Air France and the Government. Mail flights are made every night between Paris and the majorcities of France, so that a letter can be posted in the evening in Paris, for example, with the certainty of its being delivered nextmorning. The object is to maintain 100 per cent regularity and punctuality, completely regardless of weather conditions, and sofar regularity has in fact been better dian 99.9 per cent. There is something reminiscent of the early (but much less well-equipped)night air-mail services which were run in the 1920s both in France and America, and though the present regularity must owe much tocomprehensive radio navigation equipment and landing aids, the human factor can be no less important now than it was then, andthe crews have a high reputation. C.M.L. (To be continued) J57 FOR SMITHSONIANT HE original Pratt and Whitney J57 axial-flow turbojet isbeing presented to die Smithsonian Institution in Washington for permanent display. Designated X-176, it was released forexperimental testing during June 1949. Of "barrel" shape, it was superseded by the present "wasp-waisted" configurationduring August 1950, after it had run for 143 hours. Already in the Smithsonian are die original nine-cylinder radial Wasp (1925)and one of the Wasp Majors which powered die B-50 Lucky Lady II on the first non-stop flight round the world inFebruary 1949. ALUMINIUM CENTENARY AIRCRAFT components will be prominent among the exhibits• at the "Aluminium 1955 Exhibition" to be held at the Royal Festival Hall, London, from June 1st to 11th. The theme of dieexhibition is the use of aluminium in many industrial fields and the progress made since the metal first came to diis country justa hundred years ago. There will be five main sections, dealing respectively with the historical aspect, production, research, appli-cations and die future. The "applications" exhibits will be divided into twelve sub-sections, covering die following fields: aircraft,marine, consumer goods, electrical engineering, road transport, railways, structural engineering, general engineering, packaging, chemical engineering, building, agriculture and food processing.The aircraft exhibits are likely to include typical forgings and castings, up to large spar-boom size; illustrations of such moderntechniques as honeycomb structures; and an early light-alloy air- screw contrasted with its modern counterpart. The exhibition is being organized by the Aluminium Develop-ment Association on behalf of the aluminium industry, and the general design is by Mr. Ronald Dickens, M.B.E., F.S.I.A. AUSTRALIA'S NEW ATOMIC RANGE THE Ministry of Supply stated recently that agreement in* principle had been reached between die Australian and United Kingdom Governments on the establishment of a proving groundfor atomic weapons widiin a proclaimed prohibited area in the Soudi Australian desert. Construction work on die site, which isknown as Maralinga, will begin shortly. The site previously used for atomic tests—situated within dieWoomera Range and known as Emu Field—has been found unsuitable for further tests, owing mainly to shortage of waterand the fact that supplies have to be flown in. Much of the Emu Field equipment, however, will be used at Maralinga. The Ministry states that no hydrogen weapon tests, or trials ofa comparable nature, will take place in Australia. The nature of tests at the new site will be die subject of prior agreement betweenthe two Governments.
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