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Aviation History
1955
1955 - 1363.PDF
THE WEEK AT FARNBOROUGH -in the Air and on the Ground THE honour of leading the first "circus," and thus of open-ing the 1955 S.B.A.C. flying display, fell to the NewElizabethan, the Eland-powered Ambassador prototype. This is a significant aeroplane, because it spearheads Napier's determined drive to enter a market at present dominated by other British engine companies. Its demonstration illustrated the im- proved performance conferred by the 3,000 e.h.p. Eland turbo- props (the aircraft is estimated to carry 1,100 lb more payload 75 m.p.h. faster than B.E.A.'s Centaurus Elizabethans) and the marked reduction in external noise level. After a steep climb- away the New Elizabethan began its fly-past with one airscrew windmilling; overhead, Randrup re-started the inoperative Eland and showed the 3-sec acceleration from idling to full power. Reverse pitch was effectively used at touch-down. The new Elizabethan should complete its trials in May 1956, when it is due to be handed over to B.E.A. for scheduled freight services. The Gannet was represented in the flying display by a silver T.I trainer of the type which first flew 13 months ago and is now in regular service with the Fleet Air Arm. Its swerving fly-past, with weapons-bay agape, was followed by a climbing roll and a single-Mamba approach and landing. Interesting contrasts in test-bed demonstrations were offered by the Gyron-Sperrin and Conway-Ashton. With three Avons idling, the Sperrin sailed by comfortably on the power of a single D.H. Gyron, carried asymmetrically in its bulging port nacelle. Thrust-line equilibrium, incidentally, will be restored later this year by the installation of a second Gyron in the lower starboard nacelle. The Ashton kept all its taps on and zoomed skyward on the strength of 33,000 lb of Rolls-Royce thrust—13,000 lb of this total being concentrated in the underslung Conway, the nrst by-pass turbojet to be type-tested and publicly demonstrated. Piston engines powered the second circus—a miscellany of hye lighter types, led by the Armed Provost. Wearing Iraqi Air Force markings, the Provost showed with a text-book roll that two 0.303in guns and eight 25 lb bombs have little effect on its renowned crispness of control. Though the Auster A.O.P.9 was not designed for aerobatics, the merciless reversals of aileron applied by Ranald Porteous showed that it lacks neither liveli- ness nor strength of construction. Two noteworthy points of the demonstration, performed with full military equipment, were a 100 yd take-off and short landing preceded by a steep, siae- me Frestwicfc' Pioneer, Capt. Roy Smith up, executed its customary bird-like departure and, after a quick circuit, com- pleted its landing run almost in "nought feet. A simulated balked landing and overshoot with one Leonides inoperative and "everything down" was the highlight of the Pem- broke's fly-past. The version flown was a standard CMk 1 in R.A.F. colours. Operation of the newly developed D.H. feather- ing airscrews for the Heron was shown by a metallic-green Series 2, which flew past with both port airscrews stopped. Evolved primarily to meet U.S. requirements, the "feathering" Heron has a higher a.u.w. (13,150 lb, compared with 13,000 lb) than the normal Heron 2, and its climb performance with one engine inoperative is better by some 40ft/min. Next, a noisier circus, led by the Canberra B.8 "night inter- dictor"—a dashing performer in the true Canberra tradition. In his demonstration of the Olympus-Canberra, G. Auty used every ounce of the thrust increase which, during the previous week, had enabled colleague Walter Gibb to add 2,208ft to the altitude record. The climb-away was perhaps steeper and faster than ever before, and the near-vertical, wheels-down overshoot gave new meaning to the phrase "going round again". The Hunter 4's excellent performance, terminated by a sequence of three rolls, was the more remarkable for the collection of appendages slung asymmetrically beneath its shapely wings: two Bristol "super- sonic" plastic drop-tanks (port outer and starboard inner), one 1,000 lb bomb (port inner) and 12 rockets (starboard outer). According to reports, it has been supersonic with all these stores. Bristol's handsome, glittering helicopters—171 and 173—per- formed in parallel. Impressive features of the larger, twin-rotor machine's repertoire were its steeply inclined turns and a pro- tracted tail-first passage along the length of the enclosure. For a helicopter which first flew as recently as August 14th and which is, moreover, of novel design, the Fairey Ultra Light was in remarkably fine fettle. Confidently handled by S/L. Gellatly, it showed a fair turn of speed and manoeuvrability. In flight, the Blackburn Palouste emitted a kettle-like hiss, to which was added the cricket-like chirp of the little tipjets. More formidable sounds came from the Ultra Light's stablemate, the Jet Gyrodyne, when, at a height of about 1,000ft, F/L. Dennis cut-in the tipjets to translate from autorotative to true helicopter flight; the aural effect was not unlike that produced by a distant, heavily loaded goods train. With the rotor-jets silent once more, the Gyrodyne descended steeply and rapidly for a precisely checked autorotative landing on the runway, whereupon it taxied conventionally, and relatively quietly, back to its dispersal. Two of the most recent products in the display, the Westland Whirlwind 5 and Widgeon, gave a well-synchronized perform- (continued on p. 481, after three pages of Show pictures)
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