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Aviation History
1955
1955 - 0598.PDF
598 "HOT" PARTS BY THE HUNDRED Briggs-built jet-pipes for British fighters being made ready for dispatch. That nearest the camera is encased in its insulating blanket. IT may not be generally known that Briggs Motor Bodies, Ltd.,are one of the largest suppliers of "canware" and similarprecision components for high-temperature applications in gas turbines. The company entered the aircraft industry in 1939with the mass-production of exhaust manifolds and various air- frame components. Their gas-turbine work, however, dates fromlate 1950, when they were approached by Rolls-Royce with a view to their manufacture of the nozzle-box panel for the first pro-duction series of Avon. This unit, which required a 900-ton press for its manufacture, went into production at the company'smain factory at Dagenham. By the middle of 1951, preliminary planning was under way atDagenham for mass-production of gas turbine components at the former Cunliffe-Owen factory at Eastleigh, Southampton. Briggstook over the Eastleigh plant in that year, and well over 300,000 sq ft of this modern factory have since been devoted to gas-turbine work for the aircraft industry. The factory was empty when Briggs took it over and equipmentfor die new work had to be installed from scratch. Jigs, press tools and the like were originally made at Dagenham, but thiswork was subsequently shared out to a large number of sub-con- tractors. The company have installed over 500 specialist machinetools and automatic welders. At the same time, a large labour force had to be raised—a particularly difficult task owing to thefact that the type of work was completely new to the district. The work involves all forms of close-tolerance machining,grinding, and sheet metal work in the most "difficult" types of heat-resistant steels, stainless and Immaculate steels and theNimonic alloys. The major part of the company's output (in this sphere) consists of parts for the Rolls-Royce and ArmstrongSiddeley companies, and tooling is such that a very high potential rate of output exists. A new development is the installation of a pre-production set-up, so that complete sets of prototype parts can be made by hand. Briggs are at present hand-making initial sets of gas turbinecomponents for several other companies, including Blackburn- Turbomeca and Napier. Production of components for engines of British design iscarried out entirely under the aegis of the parent British engine company who, in many cases, re-route the components to over- Widely differing gas-turbine components in current production: turbine oil tanks (left) and stacked turbojet nozzle-box panels (above). Such products, seemingly simple, demand numerous manufacturing operations to close tolerances. seas factories which are licensed to produce the British engine.Repair work and the manufacture of spares also represents an important part of the company's output. Spare combustionchambers and jet-pipes are being made for at least one British turbojet, and repairs are already proceeding on components for theAvro Orenda for die Canadair Sabre 5 and 6 used by the R.C.A.F. in Europe. Another important item will be the production ofspares for the Wright J65 Sapphire, for the U.S.A.F. and also for the various NATO air forces which are to operate theRepublic Thunderstreak and Thunderflash. Briggs supply all major items, such as reheat jet-pipes, readyfor installation in an airframe. Temperature-insulating blankets, such as Alfol and Refrasil, are purchased already made up intounits tailored to fit the component concerned. Shipments of complete assemblies are made in special crates, either to anEnglish gas-turbine factory, or direct to a Service unit. A.I.D. OLD-TIMER RETIRES J> ETIRING today, May 6th, is one who has had 40 years'•**• experience of aircraft inspection; he is Mr. W. Gwynne, Inspector-in-Charge at the Coventry District Office of the A.I.D.He first joined the A.I.D. on being invalided out of the Navy in 1916, and during the remainder of World War I was engagedon inspection work in connection with many of the famous, military aircraft of that era. After the war he was at the Bristol Aeroplane Company, hisstay there being interrupted by a period at an R.A.F. mainten- ance unit and another at Boulton Paul, Norwich, where he wasprincipally engaged on the inspection of the framework of the airship R.101. Thereafter he was at the Fairey works, sub-sequently moving, in 1938, to Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft, where he remained until 1947. Here he was engaged mainly onbomber inspection (Whitley, Lancaster, Lincoln), and ultimately on the Apollo airliner. His next posting was to Hawkers at Kingston, and after thathe was made Senior Inspection Officer (Aircraft) for the Midland Area; his final appointment—that at Coventry—followed.
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