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Aviation History
1955
1955 - 0926.PDF
36 FLIGHT R.A.E. GOLDEN JUBILEE Technical Exhibits and Flying Demonstrations THREE Open Days—July 7th, 8th and 9th—have beenplanned to mark the Golden Jubilee of the Royal Air-craft Establishment, Farnborough. Admission is by invitation; and yesterday, when the Establishment was host to some five or six thousand people, H.R.H. Princess Margaret was due to arrive by helicopter. Today double the number of visitors is expected (mostly from the aircraft industry); but the third day is to have a more domestic atmosphere. An ambitious programme had been arranged. The flying dis-play was initiated by a mass start and take-off of Hunters, followed by Hunter aerobatics and a high-speed fly-past. Then a BristolFighter and Sopwith Pup were to engage in a dog-fight, while below them the Bleriot and Blackburn monoplanes were to showtheir paces. Fighting and training aircraft of the late 1930s were being shown in a formation, and there were to be aerobatics bya Han, Gladiator and Swordfish. A Percival Gull would represent contemporary civil aircraft. After a Hurricane v. Spitfire dog-fight, a Lancaster, Beaufighter, Mosquito and Wellington were to fly past, to be followed by a mass start, take-off, fly-past andstream landing by Bomber Command Canberras. The Royal Navy was being represented by a formation of helicopters anda squadron of Fairey Gannets, and a Shackleton and Sunderland were scheduled for Coastal Command. There was to be a simu-lated rescue by helicopter, and demonstrations by a Valiant, Javelin, Comet 3, Vulcan, Victor, Britannia, Jet Provost, Super-marine 525, Fairey delta, Avro 707, Boulton Paul P.lllA and— at high and low speed—the English Electric P.I. Meteors of theCentral Flying School were to perform aerobatics. On the ground the Cody aeroplane of 1912, a B.E.2C and anS.E.5A are being shown full-scale, and there are models of the F.E.2D, S.E.5A, B.E.2C, R.E.8, B.E.12, F.E.8, Cody Kite andNulli Secundus airship. Engines include a 50 h.p. Antoinette, 100 h.p. Green, 90 h.p. RAF., 60 h.p. Green and 80 h.p. E.N.V.,with, nearby, wooden and metal propellers used by Cody. Out- side the exhibition hangar was to be a detachment of RoyalEngineers in period uniform (1905), a balloon, full-scale Cody Kites and a limber complete with winch. The historic aircraftpark gives space for the Blackburn monoplane, Sopwith Pup, Bristol Fighter, Bleriot monoplane, S.E.5A and Avro 504K. The various departments of R.A.E. are being represented byexhibits as follows: Aerodynamics Department: The development of instrumentation for aerodynamic flight tests; Hunter aircraft,showing modern flight-test instrumentation; free-flight models for supersonic flight research; exhibition of flight test informa-tion telemetered from aircraft in flight; models of 8ft and 3ft wind runnels and of the Aero Dept. site at Bedford; research aircraft tobe shown on tarmac (S.B.5, 707B, Vampire 343, R.R. Bedstead, Jet-deflection Meteor and Boulton Paul P.lllA); caravan take-offand landing camera; Javelin spinning model suspended from kite balloon. Armament Department: Display of fuses; aircraft machine guns and cannon; rocket projectiles; pyrotechnics; bomb release units; small bombs; model of bombing range; Aden gun installation; exhibit showing gyro gun-sight, correction for deflection, etc.; Aden-gun Hunter on tarmac; Sperrin bombing-up. Blind Landing Experimental Unit: Model of airfield, showingapproach lighting, ILS, PAR and FIDO installations; Ambassa- dor flight simulator. Chemistry Department: Plastic delta wing; progress in high- rate batteries; fire-detection exhibit; exhibit showing protection against rain erosion; chemical cleaner for sparking plugs; glass fibre drawing machine. Electrical Engineering: Exhibit showing effects of high altitudeon commutator brushwear; commutator profile measuring machine; moving-magnet instrument v. conventional; airfieldlighting system, exhibited on B.L.E.U. model airfield. Guided Weapons: Display of test vehicle recovery equipment;assembly line for guided weapons test vehicle; sectioned test vehicle; three test vehicles mounted at an angle; model of missiletest range. Instrumentation: Timing equipment for future attempt on theworld air-speed record, to be made at high altitude. Instrument and Photographic: Type B autopilot; air photo- graphy exhibit including cameras and examples of day and night photography; Type 6 processing vehicle outside "A" Shed. Mathematical Services: Continuous trace plotter with electric typewriter; isograph—electronic equipment for solution of equations. Mechanical Engineering: Fire bomb—research into the effectsof altitude on aircraft fires; pressure suits; ejector seats; hydraulic power services; 7/12,000 lb parachutable platform, loaded withstores, to be supported on air bags on tarmac. Metallurgy: Exhibit showing cases of fatigue failure in aircraftmaterials, titanium alloys and their use in aircraft; use of radio- active materials in metallurgical research. Naval Air: Model of H.M.S. Triumph, showing angle deck andmirror-landing sight; working-model catapult and deck, demon- strating arresting of aircraft and the operation of crash barriers;model of H.M.S. Ark Royal; model of steam catapult; arrester hook installation demonstrating effect of hook damper. Radio: Exhibit to demonstrate aerial radiation pattern from anaircraft; radio-controlled target aircraft; sonobuoy demonstra- tion; ARI 18032 HF set; radio altimeter. Rocket Propulsion: RTV.l; RTV.2; pump display stand; con-tinuously burning oxygen/hydrocarbon diffusion flame; demon- stration of the properties of fuels and oxidants; Beta 1 motor;Beta 2 motor; Ladybird motor; Scarab motor; high-speed mechanical torque motor; torsion flowmeter; high-pressurediaphragm pump; Terylene protective clothing; equipment for the measurement of heat transfer; temperature resistant ceramics;erosion rig; development of silver catalysts for hydrogen peroxide decomposers. Structures: Examples of aircraft structure; models of testframes; display of strain-gauge techniques; counting accelero- meter and V-G recorders. THE A.R.B. YEAR THE 18th Annual Report of the Air Registration Board—pre-sented by the Chairman, Lord Brabazon, in advance of the annual luncheon, held last Tuesday—opened with a tribute to SirMaurice Denny, the Board's first chairman, whose death occurred on February 2nd this year. Reference was made to SirMaurice Denny's remarkable foresight and to his striving for tech- nical independence for the Board. Under the heading of Technical Problems, Lord Brabazonstated that the Board had passed through the most difficult year in its history due to the nature and extent of the technical prob-lems which had confronted it. Work in connection with the accident to Comet aircraft had dwarfed all other activities in theintensity of effort it had required from the Council's executive and technical staff. A great burden had rested on the Chief Executiveand Chief Technical Officer for many months. Fortunately it was within their capacity to shoulder it. Lord Brabazon here paid apersonal tribute to Mr. Tye. In his report of 1952/53 Lord Brabazon wrote: "The outstand-ing problem continues to be the fatigue of structures which the Board is studying intensively." That statement, he said, was nevermore true than it was today. An immense amount of work had been done and much knowledge had been gained but there wasno short cut and no easy answer. Testing on a very large scale was being undertaken. Experience during the past year hadshown that the testing of representative sections of structures was no longer sufficient and full-scale testing of wings and pressurizedcabins was now required. The tank test developed by the R.A.E. for local investigation was a powerful tool for testing whetherthere were seriously weak points in cabins. The Board was very conscious of the heavy expense of such tests and the technicaldifficulties associated with the interpretation of results. At present there was no alternative for certain new prototypes than that theresults of earlier tests should be confirmed in this way. The Board believe that the only real long-term solution was to designstructures so that any fatigue failure would be well beyond the operational life of the aircraft and in which if cracks did occur thefailure would be non-catastrophic. The chairman was glad to be able to record the acceptance by-the U.S.A. of the British C. of A. for the Viscount. This marked the first American validation of a certificate for a turbine-enginedaircraft. Under the heading "International Civil Aviation Organization"
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