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Aviation History
1955
1955 - 1089.PDF
FLIGHT, 5 August 1955 201 THE INDUSTRY Steel-ring Production CJTEEL rings for the ball bearing and aircraft industries are *-* being produced at the rate of sixty an hour in a new ring- rolling plant at the works of Steel, Peech and Tozer, Rotherham Formerly, these rings were made by ring-hammer forging, a slow method of production. In the new plant, blanks cut from round bar are pierced on a 400-ton press and rolled to the required dimensions on a special mill in about 60 sec each. The complete installation, which in- cludes a rotary hearth reheating furnace in which the blanks are brought to the required temperature before processing, is con- trolled by only five operators. The plant, which is the only one of its kind in the country, can produce rings weighing up to 2\ cwt., with an outside diameter of up to 50 in. Successful Plastics Exhibition "iflSITORS to the British Plastics Exhibition held at Olympia ~ from June 1st to 11th totalled 35,150, including 1,781 visitors from 74 countries overseas. These figures compare very favour- ably with those of the previous exhibition in 1953, which attracted 27,850. The convention which ran concurrently with the exhibition was also well attended, and more than 600 visited the sessions dealing with glass-reinforced plastics. For the next exhibition, in 1957, which is expected to be inter- national, the organizers—British Plastics—have booked the whole of the Grand Hall, gallery and annexe at Olympia—a total floor space of 196,000 sq ft. This will provide almost twice the stand area previously used. Viscount Air-conditioning AS described in our issue of July 15th last, the air con- ** ditioning and pressurization of the Viscount built for ser- vice in North America is the joint responsibility of Sir George Godfrey and Partners, Ltd., and the American AiResearch Com- pany. We quoted the director of engineering of Trans-Canada Air Lines as saying ".. . we use Godfrey cabin superchargers from England [but] we use AiResearch pressurization controls from the United States. We think this combination is unbeatable at the present time." The key to our large cut-away drawing listed AiResearch as the manufacturer of the cold-air turbine unit; this unit is, of course, the well-known Godfrey-type CA-7. Of low build, to enable it to pass un ; •;.•• •<- . ^ i.•:; <•:••;•_ tms new Esso servicing vehicle carries 200 gal of lubricating oil and 100 gal of water/methanol. Designed for one-man operation, such units are in use at London Airport, Prestwick and Shannon. The makers are the Steel Barrel Co., Ltd., Uxbridge. Magnetic Pick-up THE range of magnetic sweeps manufactured for service onairports and roads by the Witton-Kramer Electric Tool and Hoist Works of the General Electric Co., Ltd., has recently been extended by the introduction of a new trailer-mounted equipment incorporating its own engine-driven generator for supplying power to the magnets, which have an effective width of 72in. The normal magnet-to-ground operating gap, when the trailer is being towed at 5 m.p.h., is 3in, this value being correspondingly decreased for speeds up to 10 m.p.h. Multi-purpose Tankers TWO new Shell-Mex and B.P. tankers will shortly go intooperation at London Airport. Each carries a total load of 825 gal. Two compartments hold, respectively, 400 and 200 gal of lubricating oil; another three tanks are fitted for carrying, respectively, 75 gallons each of de-icing fluid, hydraulic fluid and water/methanol. The vehicle, based on the Dennis Pax chassis, and with tanks and auxiliary equipment by Thompson Bros. (Bilston), Ltd., is powered by an 86 b.h.p. Dennis four- cylinder petrol engine. NEW U.S. LIGHT-AIRCRAFT RADIO yt NEW model of the Narco Simplexer V.H.F. transmitter/ **• receiver for light aircraft has been announced by the National Aeronautical Corporation of Ambler, Pennsylvania. With 27 channels it can provide all the 25 crystals commonly used for airport and in- flight communica- tions in the U.S.A. All these lie between 118.1 Mc/s and 122.8 Mc/s except the in- flight channel, ^•HTl^HU. The Simplexer equip- ment, with Omni- plexer mounted above. which is 126.7 Mc/s; and the special small crys- tals fit into the same space as pre- viously occupied by the 12 crystals of the earlier 12- TteSuKSTof unusually.high power and a special aural tuning signal allows manual tuning cf the receiver without look- ing at the dials. Total weight of the equipment, with power supply, is 10.3 lb; price, with 25 crystals, is $480 (about £172). An omni-navigation attachment, called a Narco Omniplexer, and weighing only 2.2 lb, can be mounted directly on top of the standard Simplexer to provide a simplified form of V.O.R. recep- tion. Radial determination is by coarse adjustment of a dial and fine adjustment of a vernier tuner in conjunction with a "left- right" needle. "To-from" sensing is by observation of the blue- yellow movement as on a standard I.L.S. met^r. The Omni- plexer costs $195 (about £68) in the United States. CROP SPRAYING IN SPAIN TWO companies in Spain are engaged in fairly extensive cropand forest spraying. Operations began last year after the government had awarded contracts to two firms, Servicios Agricolas Aereas, S.A., and Aerotecnica, S.A., in 1952. Main targets were pests in oak, pine, olive and cotton, and crops infested by locusts. Altogether 55,000 hectares were treated, most of them government property. This year, however, the results have become known to many large land-owners, and already some 82,000 hectares have been sprayed; it is esti- mated that 25,000 hectares of cotton will be included later this year. (One hectare is 2.47 acres.) Spain, with its large fields, poor roads and considerable distances between towns, is considered ideal territory for crop- spraying. The average height of terrain is 3,000ft. The two companies employ mostly African pilots and Servicios Agricolas operates ten Wasp-Junior-engined Stearmans carrying 1,650 1b, while Aerotecnica has sixteen 135 h.p. and 150 h.p. Piper Cubs, carrying 660 lb each. These spraying operations are said to be on a larger scale than anywhere else in Western Europe.
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