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Aviation History
1955
1955 - 1228.PDF
342 FLIGHT, 2 September 1955 SIXTY-DEGREE SWEEP on the leading edge of the delta wing of the Fairey F.D.2, combined with an extremely thin wing-section and the power of a reheat Rolls-Hoyce Avon, renders this machine highly super- sonic. Other features can be studied in this—one of the first flying pictures—in conjunction with another appearing on page 338. FROM ALL QUARTERS ... Lecture Season Opens TT is the custom of the Helicopter Association to hold a lecture•*• meeting immediately preceding its annual dinner, and this year's speaker is to be Mr. R. Allen Price, of the Parsons Corporation,Traverse City, Michigan, who is to address the Association on The Design, Development, Production and Servicing of HelicopterRotor Blades. The paper will be presented in the Ballroom Lounge of the Dorchester Hotel, Park Lane, London, at 5.30 p.m. nextThursday, September 8th. Another lecture being given during Farnborough week—andactually at Farnborough, in the main assembly hall of the R.A.E. —is on Monday, September 5th. Members of the Society ofLicensed Aircraft Engineers will be hearing a joint paper on The Engineering Aspects of Test Flying, by Mr. C. F. Bethwaite,B.Sc, and W/C. P. Brown, O.B.E., A.R.Ae.S. Mr. Bethwaite is superintendent of the flight test department of A. V. Roe andCo., Ltd., and W/C. Brown manager of the experimental depart- ment. The lecture will be at 7 p.m. The first of a series of memorial lectures commemorating thename of the late Dr. Albert Plesman of K.L.M., sponsored by the International Air Transport Association and the TechnologicalUniversity of Delft, has now been announced to take place on September 12th. It will be given at Delft by Mr. J. D. Pearson,managing director of the Rolls-Royce aero engine division, and his subject will be The Development and Future of the TurbineEngine for Civil Aircraft. Inquiries regarding these lectures should be addressed to Dr.Plesman Memorial Lecture Committee, 10 Kanaalstraat, Delft. New Comet Data INTERNAL features of the Series 4 Comet are revealed for thefirst time in the manufacturer's cutaway drawing reproduced below. Simultaneously, the de Havilland Aircraft Co. havepublished new, improved performance data based on the latest figures for the Rolls-Royce Avon R.A.29 engine and on the resultsof flying trials with the Comet 3 prototype. The Comet 4, or New Comet, is now credited with a stage-length of 2,945 statutemiles when carrying its normal capacity payload of 16,400 lb (58-seat version; capacity payload of the 76-seat tourist version is19,300 lb). Design of the Comet 4 is stated to have been crystallized, andplanning of its production is complete. The first production line is now moving, and deliveries will begin "in the latter part of1958." Of structural development, the makers say that "many hundreds of tests on components large and small will culminatein a full-scale test of a Cornet 2 fuselage in the water-tank at Hatfield." This test, to begin this year, will be followed in 1956by a Comet 4 water-tank test, for which, it is stated, sections of the fuselage are now under construction. Delivery of modifiedComet 2s to Transport Command should begin in the first half of 1956. Use of the Comet 3 prototype, say de Havillands, should enable80 per cent of the Comet 4 C. of A. trials to have been completed when the first Series 4 flies in 1957—by which time productionwill be well advanced. The Comet 3 will be fitted with R.A.29 Avons during 1956, and it is also intended to use Comet 2 air-frames as test-beds for the new Rolls-Royce engines. By the time the Series 4 enters service Avon-powered Comets are expected tohave completed some 4,000 hr of development flying. This figure is, of course, supplementary to the 30,000 hr of airline flyingaccumulated up to the time of the Comet l's grounding in 1954. COMET 4 structural details are revealed tor the first time in this official cutaway drawing. Integral wing tanks, bag-type centre-section cells and external "pinion" tanks provide a total fuel capacity of 8,760 Imp. gal. Both in external form and in layout of systems, the new Comet closely resembles the Series 3 prototype; "hidden" refinements, however, are numerous, and include re-design of the cabin structure, which is stressed for a differential pressure of 8^/4 Ib/sq in.
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