FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1955
1955 - 0963.PDF
On the extreme left is the line-up of the old timers, with the Bleriot in the foreground. Above is the English Electric P.I (two Armstrong Siddeley Sapphires) on one of its fast runs, and on the right the Hunter aerobatic team of No. 43 Squadron, led by the Squadron CO., S/L. R. E. Lelong, D.F.C., tracing the path of a loop in tip-trails. Friday and Saturday of last week. Very few people appreciatethe scale and scope of work which is carried out there, since the Establishment's activities are seldom publicized; but for theJubilee celebrations almost the whole of the Establishment was laid out like a great technical fair.Outside "A" Shed was a wide variety of aircraft, including the Boulton Paul P.I 11 A, the Short S.B.5, Rolls-Royce Bedstead,the jet-deflection and prone-position Meteors, Vampire with wing-flow balance, the Avro 707B, and a number of the oldestveterans (with some of the not-so-old, including the Kay gyro- plane of 1934). The deltas and the S.B.5 were loaded with canisters, probes,tufts, smoke generators and cameras for various stability, aero- dynamic and manoeuvre trials. The glossy finish of the "YellowPeril" was almost lost beneath a pelt of black wool tufts. The jet-lift Meteor, incidentally, is a complex hybrid. It isbased on the original Meteor 3 airframe used as Beryl test-bed, for which purpose the wing centre-section had been modifiedand strengthened. The tail is that of a Mk 8 with extra fin area to balance the increased size of the nacelles. The outer wingpanels are those of a P.R.10, giving more aileron control, and the nosewheel is a strengthened N.F.I 1 unit. The engines, ofcourse, are Nenes. Further evidence of the aerodynamics department's investiga-tions was provided by a fully instrumented Hunter with a long nose boom and two other booms projecting from the tailplaneleading edges. The wing-tips were tufted, and a photographed instrument panel was installed in the gun pack to record controlpositions and forces. This was to assess the effectiveness of the tailplane/elevatorcombination at various flight speeds, and the strains which various control positions imposed on tail and wings.Apart from full-scale test aircraft, Farnborough naturally possesses a full range of wind tunnels and these were open toinspection, the 11.5ft tunnel particularly, with a Venom wing having boundary-layer blowing over the flaps.Yet while the wind tunnel, despite some limitations, has always been one of the major tools of aerodynamic research,the perfection of rocket propulsion and telemetering equipment has allowed free-flying models to become a major method ofaerodynamic research. Such factors as longitudinal, lateral, and directional stability, resistance to roll and other aspects of per-formance in supersonic flight can now be investigated by con- structing a small model of a few feet wing span with controlsurfaces and a load of sensing and telemetering equipment. This is then launched, either with its own rocket motor or on theend of a large booster which breaks away in flight. While kine-theodolites record its flight on film the telemetering equip-ment sends back to the ground station its own series of readings. A number of these models (with and without boosters) wereshown, together with telemetry equipment for them, and films of complete launching sequences were shown. Behind "A" Shed was shown the model rig with which theJavelin spin-recovery technique was developed at Cardington recently. A six-foot, radio-controlled, free-falling model of theJavelin was suspended on a rotating mount under the car of a parachutist-training balloon. The model, already rotating,was dropped from 3,500ft and recovered from the spin under radio control in just over 2 sec. First opposite rudder wasapplied, followed by pro-spin aileron and forward elevator. This produced a normal spiral dive from which the model waszoomed and the recovery parachute streamed in an almost vertical climb. A film in Shed "A" showed the full sequence ofa model spin-recovery. Naturally one of die most interesting fields of R.A.E. work,and one which has hitherto been most closely cloaked in secrecy, A well-contrived and highly entertaining show by the Royal Navy: the formations of Fairey Gannets and assorted helicopters. is that concerned with guided missiles. A considerable numberof laboratories and workshops are involved in this work since it embraces aerodynamics, propulsion, guidance, fusing, tele-metry, radar and many other factors. Though no actual military weapons were shown as such, an almost complete series of testvehicles ranging from the small Component Test Vehicle 1 to the 30ft-long Rocket Test Vehicle 2 were on view. One of thetwo R.T.V.2s shown in "A" shed had actually been fired on the Aberporth range on June 7th and recovered from the sea complete.The spherical flotation bag and triple G.Q. drag chutes were de- ployed; and a complete set of photographs showing drag and re-covery parachute development, filmed in flight from inside the missile itself, was laid out nearby. This particular R.T.V.2 carrieda gyro-stabilized radar search aerial behind a sharply pointed plastic nose cone. Several of these gyro-controlled aerials were tobe seen in various parts of the Establishment, one of them locked by a pencil-beam of light on to a photo-electric cell. R.T.V.l,made by Marston Excelsior and Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft, Ltd., had a rocket motor using lox and water/alcohol giving 1,0751b thrust for 21 sec, with a consumption of 6.2 lb/sec. The vehicle weighed 260 lb all-up and the tanks were pressurized by a solidcharge. Elliott Brothers and the R.A.E. were together responsible for the radar homing head of a General Purpose Vehicle made byShort Brothers and Harland. Missile flight is controlled by cruciform fin systems rotatedeither together as elevators and rudders or, differentially, as ailerons. Here either hydraulic or pneumatic power is used. Abrief review of just a few of the items on show in the many laboratories dealing with guided weapons serves to give an ideaof the wideness of the field and of the work being done. Included were Command Link Guidance systems for a C.T.V.l, quartzcrystal stabilized centimetric oscillator, curved followers, a spec- tral density analyzer, optical demonstration and beam riding,conical scan and static split aerial systems, and an apparatus enabling a pilot to fly accurately within a radar beam. Micro-waveresearch was demonstrated by radio-Doppler effect exhibits, measurement of di-electric properties, micro-wave aerials andfriction-controlled gyroscopes. Many of these devices and systems are tested by a variety of simulators. It is noteworthy, however,that none of the vehicles or equipment exhibited referred to any- thing more than beam-riding and semi-active (homing on radarreflections) interception techniques. The Armament department was strongly represented, and itsexhibits, together with those of other departments, will be described next week.
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
