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Aviation History
1955
1955 - 0893.PDF
1 July 1955 3 FILL 'ER UP: Three sequences in the turn-round of a Hunter FA of 2nd T.A.F. at Jever airfield, where the first squadrons are now converting. Reading down: topping up with oxygen and air; the gun pack being winched back; German-built pressure-refueller getting in position. of 507 m.p.h. was maintained, the flight time being 6 hr 20 min—25 minutes quicker than schedule. The flight was made at 50,000ft. A Hastings from the College flew out from the Alaskacoast to give advanced landing-weather forecasts. This east-west trans-Polar flight by Aries IV is a further stepin the series of flights conducted by the Royal Air Force Flying College to prove the techniques for operating piston and jet air-craft in Arctic latitudes, and to give the staff and students of the College and the Specialist Navigation Course conducted at Manby,experience in navigating these latitudes. Flights were made during 1954 by Hastings and Canberra aircraft from Bodo and Bardufoss,in northern Norway, to the geographic North Pole. It was during this series, in October 1954, that the first flight by a British jetaircraft to 90 deg N was accomplished. A proving flight by Aries to the area of the magnetic North Pole at 75 deg N was carriedout from northern Canada in February 1954. Last month a series of navigational training flights was undertaken by Hastings aircraftof the Flying College from Resolute Bay, a base in the Canadian Arctic Islands, to the geographic North Pole. As a result of theexperiences gained on all these flights it was deemed possible to attempt this first jet trans-Polar flight. On the return flight to Britain Aries set up a new Ottawa-London record. It covered the 3,330.4 statute miles in 6 hr 42 min 12 sec, at an average speed of 496.8 m.p.h. There was atail wind of 15 to 20 knots; a G.C.A. landing was made at West Mailing. The same navigators were carried but the pilot for thisrecord flight was S/L. I. G. Brown. Supercirculation on Supermarine 525 CUCKING and blowing over flaps is a well-known method of^ increasing the lift of a wing at low speeds. Illustrated on the next page, however, is the first application of blowing to a Britishmilitary aircraft. Termed "supercirculation" by Vickers-Arm- strongs Supermarine, it has been applied to the Type 525, on whichcompressor-bled air is blown over the upper surface of the flaps when these are extended. This prevents the break-away of theairflow which normally occurs over the flaps during the approach, causing loss of lift. The extra lift gained by supercirculation notonly reduces the landing speed, but also offers other advantages. It provides an improved approach attitude and, as a result, betterview for the pilot. In addition, it allows him to vary the total lift of the wing by adjustment of the engine power setting. Mr. J. S. Attinello of the U.S. Navy Bureau of Aeronautics, inconjunction with the Grumman company, first applied supercircu- lation to a Grumman Panther and further applications can beexpected to have far-reaching effects on both naval and commercial aircraft. A summary of Dr. Lachmann's R.Ae.S. lecture last yearon the subject of boundary-layer control by sucking and blowing appeared in Flight on November 12th, 1954. Chance Vought Reversionr " will be judged from a picture on page 2 that the ChanceVought XF8U-1 supersonic fighter for the U.S. Navy, powered with a Pratt and Whitney J57-P-4 turbojet with afterburner, is avastly different aeroplane from its predecessor, the tailless F7U-1 Cutlass, being of more conventional, though by no means ortho-dox, design. The airframe is said to be of light and of simple con- struction, and the very thin wing appears to be of fairly generousarea, suggesting a requirement for good altitude-handling capabi- lity. The leading edge has a dog-tooth projection, but charac-teristics of leading-edge flaps and/or ailerons are indeterminate. Available photographs give no true indication of the width of thefuselage, but it is certain that the wheels retract into the body and not into the wing. Fuel tanks are in the fuselage, forward •of the turbojet, and provision appears to be made for four guns, probably of 20 mm calibre. The ejection seat is a lightweightmodel, made by Chance Vought after original Douglas designs. The XF8U-1 is said to have achieved supersonic speed on its firstflight, made at the Flight Test Centre at Edwards Air Force Base by Vought test pilot John Konrad. Electronics by Hunting TTHE recent development by P.S.C. Applied Research, Ltd.,x Toronto, of the R-Theta Computor, invented by W/C. J. G. Wright, D.F.C., R.C.A.F., marks the entry of the Hunting groupof companies into the field of electronics. It may be recalled that W/C. Wright recently received the 1954 McKee Trans-CanadaTrophy (for the greatest contribution to the advancement of Canadian aviation) for his work on this instrument. The function of the new equipment is to compute the combinedeffect of aircraft heading and airspeed, and wind, and to express the resultant as a distance and bearing. The pilot is thus shown the aircraft's direction and distance from his base, target, or anyairfield within range. Calculations are performed by the instru- ment automatically (independently of radio transmissions), andthe presentation panel incorporates a single-arrow pointer indi- cating track, and a double-arrow pointer the direction of the desireddestination. Advantages claimed by the Hunting group for the new instru-ment are that the steady courses required by conventional D.R. navigation are no longer required to be flown; and the pilot doesnot need to rely on conventional ground-transmitted radio aids which, although reliable, are expensive and could be jammed orused by an enemy. The First Flying Bomb AT the Imperial War Museum, Lambeth Road, London, lastL Wednesday, Lord Brabazon was to hand over some historical components of the first flying bomb on behalf of the inventor Pro-fessor A. M. Low. Included were the actual controls of the flying bomb, invented during the early part of the 1914/18 war andflown in 1917, and a guided missile invented in 1918. In addition there were two models of the two completed weapons which werethe world's first examples of the radio- or gyro-guided flying bomb and radio-controlled rocket. On the occasion of the ceremony Professor A. M. Low gave apersonal account of his work in connection with these weapons. He said that for many years guided missiles had been claimed byevery country under the sun, especially Russia, Italy and America.
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