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Aviation History
1955
1955 - 0569.PDF
29 April 1955 569 CORRESPONDENCE The Editor of "Flight" does not hold himself responsible for the views expressed by correspondents in these columns;the names and addresses of the writers, not necessarily for publication, must in all cases accompany letters. Wapitis and Whirlwinds T WAS very interested in your article in Flight dated April 15th,-*• 1955, on the history of the Westland company, particularly with regard to data concerning the Wapiti series of aircraft. Your coverage of this particular type seems excellent but Ishould like to have seen some reference to its wartime duties as a target-towing aircraft—a task it still seemed to be performing inlate 1942. The last Wapiti I can recall seeing was over Exeter on October7th, 1942 (a target-towing variant, as mentioned above), and I should be interested to know if anyone noted this type flying afterthat date. In addition, I believe it is not generally known that some of theearly Whirlwinds in operational service had strut-braced tail- planes instead of the more familiar "acorn," and also seemed tohave .303 Browning armament. As far as I can remember a flight of these machines was operating from Exeter Airport inlate 1940. Perhaps other readers can add more to the topic of these unusual variants of Whirlwind. Westbury-on-Trym, Bristol. P. H. DOBBS. The Benefits of Security ? THREQUENTLY and unfavourably commented upon is theA secrecy employed in official matters. It is, therefore, fitting to relate a perfectly true and verifiable story which goes to prove that,just by the strictest application of security measures, immense benefit can be derived for aeronautical progress. Our story concerns one of those documents of collected officialaeronautical wisdom—in this case the German equivalent, 1914-18, of A.P.970—in which Authority laid down the technicalrequirements for the design and the construction of military air- craft. The said German document, styled "BLV," was, of course,"top secret" and firms were compelled to take the strictest pre- cautions to make sure that no unauthorized person ever gainedaccess to it. Thus, each time the administrative manager of a certain well-known German aircraft firm was supplied with acopy of the latest edition of the "BLV," together with exhortations to keep it a military secret and with advice as to the penalties in-volved by disclosing it carelessly, he felt that his patriotic duty demanded that he should shut this dreadfully dangerous docu-ment away in the firm's safe. Consequently, neither the designer of the firm nor the eminent engineering pilot who headed thefirm (and who was, please note, of non-German nationality) had any inkling of the existence of the said Design Requirements forMilitary Aircraft—at any rate, not until the firm's safe was emptied after the war was over. The designer, in the meantime, produced a number of fighteraeroplane types which, though grossly contravening basic technical requirements of the "BLV," were not only adoptedfor operation but formed, indeed, the best fighter types employed during World War I. Particularly notable were among them theFokker triplane, the Fokker "Flying Razor" parasol and the Fokker D.VII (used till 1930 for meteorological reporting). The basic requirement which the designer, Reinhold Platz(responsible for all Fokker designs till 1931), innocendy and ignorantly violated with persistence was the strict prohibition ofwelding in any vital part of the aircraft structure (valid, too, in this country till about 1931). Had Herr Platz known of the "BLV" and complied with itsprovisions (which, no doubt, he would have done), welding would have little or no standing here or abroad, and welded steel-tube fuselages would have remained practically unknown. It pays to observe security, you see!Dunstable, Beds. A. R. WEYL. YC-133 Forecasts MAY I cheerfully challenge the letterpress accompanying thepicture of the forthcoming Douglas YC-133 military cargo- personnel transport on p. 439 of your April 8th issue? You statethat this is "the first picture to be published in this country of the YC-133," but if you will refer to a contemporary dated May 7th,1954, you will see a somewhat similar reproduction of an artist's impression from the Los Angeles Times. I imagine that bothpictures had their origin in a disclosure made at a Douglas stock- holders' meeting early last year, at which time, I believe, a pre-liminary design model was exhibited. And, quite obviously, the technical data cited from yourJapanese source is slanted towards the hyperbolic, for I do not think that even Douglas designers have so polished up their aero-dynamics as to contemplate flying a 396,000-lb giant on four P. and W. T-34 5,700 e.s.h.p. turboprops, i.e., with a take-offpower loading of 17.4 lb/h.p. In this under-powered condition it would almost certainly run out of runway—or else require theinstallation of an expensive battery of JATO bottles. It is perfectly true that the T-34 was officially listed as thepowerplant of the YC-133, but judging from the big size of the engine nacelles in your Japanese print, I suspect that somethingmuch bigger than the T-34 is in the prop-wash, possibly dual- coupled T-34s or Curtiss-Wright 10,000 e.s.h.p. T-47s now undertest in a Boeing B-47 airframe. On the basis of an optimistic seven-year development period for a turboprop in the U.S.A.,the YC-133 seems unlikely to achieve the production line until after 1962. Before that time, one can expect the ducted turbo-fanor by-pass turbine to offer cargo transport designers a much better chance of exploiting higher lift/drag airframes, for with afully submerged powerplant there is no aerodynamic reason whatever why the parasitic box-car cargo hold should not beblended into the wing. Santa Monica, U.S.A. STANLEY H. EVANS. [The artist's impression from the Los Angeles Times, to whichour correspondent refers, crudely depicted a four engined, high- wing transport which might be held remotely to resemble theYC-133's outline today. The picture in our issue of April 8th was, we still believe, the first published in this country whichillustrates at all faithfully the features of the big new Douglas transport.—Ed.] RECENT APPOINTMENTS IN THE INDUSTRY AN unusually large number of appointments, promotions and1 retirements in the aircraft and allied industries are having effect at the present time. Several recent announcements arebriefly summarized below; further details of some of these appointments will appear in a forthcoming issue. * * * The Board of Dowty Nucleonics, Ltd.—the new title of the firm of Davis, Wynn and Andrews, recently acquired by the Dowty Group—is to consist of Messrs. G. H. Dowty (chairman), E. J. Nicholl, L. T. P. Banbury and T. D. H. Andrews (technical). * * * Mr. Timothy Ellis has been appointed an assistant secretaryto the General Electric Co., Ltd. * * * Mr. J. W. Moore, technical manager of Silentbloc, Ltd., Crawley, Sussex, has been appointed general manager of the company. * * * After the British Industries Fair (May 2nd-13th)—now a com-mercial enterprise—Mr. Kenneth Home will become full-time managing director of British Industries Fair, Ltd. He gives uphis post as sales director of Triplex Safety Glass Co., Ltd., after 27 years with that company. Maj. H. Hemming, A.F.C., F.R.Ae.S., has been appointed chiefliaison officer to Burnley Aircraft Products, Ltd. * * * . •-"•' Mr. H. J. Armstrong, manager of the B.T-H. Coventry Works,has retired, and Mr. E. G. Crossling (assistant manager) succeeds him. "•-•• * * *.•""... • ' . ".• . Mr. Leslie T. P. Banbury has been made a director of DowtyEquipment, Ltd., and his former post as secretary has been filled by Mr. Kenneth A. N. Mills. He remains secretary of theparent company, Dowty Group, Ltd. * * * Mr. Frank Banfield, general manager of the Expanded MetalCo., Ltd., becomes managing director in succession to Lt-Cdr. G. C. Hans Hamilton, who remains chairman.* * * Mr. A. H. Manser, A.F.R.Ae.S., M.I.P.E., M.P.O.A., has beenappointed chief buyer of the Bristol Aeroplane Company's engine division, in succession to the late Mr. David Crombie.* * * Mr. D. J. Saunders, B.Sc. A.F.R.Ae.S., formerly engagedon rocket development with the M.o.S., has joined the Compoflex Co., Ltd., as chief development engineer (hydraulics).
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