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Aviation History
1955
1955 - 1464.PDF
574-5 FLIGHT, 7 October 1955 FROM ALL QUARTERS . . . a Westland Dragonfly with other members of the expedition.The party showed particular interest in what they saw in the Normalair factory, as all the oxygen breathing equipment forthe Expedition had been supplied by the company; and Mr. A. W. Bridge, manager of Normalair's industrial safety andmedical division, was loaned by the company to the Royal Geographical Society to act as organizing secretary to theexpedition. The Midge Accident AT the inquest, at Andover on September 28th, on Maj. Mathez,** who lost his life in an accident to the Folland Midge, a detailed account of the circumstances was given by S/L. E. A.Tennant, the makers' chief test pilot. He said he was at Chilbolton Airfield to give all the help hecould to a Swiss Delegation who had come to inspect and fly the Midge. He flew the aircraft twice during the morning, andascertained that it was completely serviceable. He then gave instructions to Mathez. "When I briefed him I explained to him everything I couldthink of and went as far as setting the elevator trimmer, to the take-off position for him. He was an experienced pilot and hegave me to understand what I was telling him." Mathez's take-off appeared quite normal for the first two-thirdsof its length. "I then became alarmed when the aircraft did not leave the ground at a point one normally associates withtake-off," said S/L. Tennant. "The nosewheel had actually risen but I could not see if the mainwheels were off the ground or not.At the end of the runway there was a puff of dust or smoke, which indicated he may have gone on to the grass overshoot.Almost immediately the Midge disappeared from my sight in a dip. It re-appeared shortly afterwards, climbing vertically withits nose up. The engine appeared normal throughout, and only stopped when it disappeared from my sight a second time." Returning a verdict of death by misadventure, the Coroner said the aircraft was apparently in excellent order. "This," headded, "leads one to the conclusion that the crash did not take place because of any defect in the machine but possibly owing*to the human factor." Short Bros. Weapons Appointment THE appointment is announced of Mr. J. Dent. B.Sc,A.M.I.Mech.E., as assistant chief engineer, guided weapons, at Short Brothers and Harland, Ltd.For the past 11 years Mr. Dent has been principal scientific officer at the Admiralty Gunnery Establishment, Portland, wherehe worked on servo-mechanisms with the guided-weapons group. In 1950 he attended the first guided-weapon trials at Woomera,Australia. Mr. Dent was educated at King's College, London, served his apprenticeship with Rolls-Royce (Derby), and tookhis degree at London University. ., „ . ... Agricultural Aviation Show 'THE world's first "agricultural aviation" display is being planned-•• to coincide with the Seventh International Grasslands Con- gress, meeting in Palmerston North, New Zealand, in Novemberof next year. It is reported that great interest is already being taken in the project, far beyond the confines of New Zealand.There are to be "live" exhibitions of aerial top-dressing, fence- and supply-dropping (in which practices New Zealand has so faroutdistanced other countries) and of seeding, crop-dusting and spraying—in which other countries are, generally speaking, moreadvanced. The Grasslands Conference will be held at Massey Agricul-tural College and the air show at Milsom aerodrome. The general plans have been agreed upon by interested organizations, andheavier aircraft than are at present operating as top-dressers and helicopters are likely to be demonstrated. The show may there-fore widen out to an exhibition of much more than merely local interest and importance, in that overseas grassland authorities,concerned with increasing world food production, will evaluate the success of the specialized use of aircraft in New Zealand farming. S.G.T.T. TEST HOUSE DURING the past eleven years, the School of Gas TurbineTechnology has provided instruction—for Service per-sonnel and for students from all branches of industry and seats of learning—on the design, construction and operationof all forms of gas turbine. As students from all over the world will know, the School has previously been handicapped, in that,in order to provide actual engine trials on the syllabus, running time has had to be rented from one of the engine companies ofthe British industry—actually D. Napier and Son, Ltd. Last week the School was able to announce the opening of its own test house. The new building is situated a mile or so from the School, closeto the National Gas Turbine Establishment at Pyestock, Hants. At present, it houses two engines which could hardly be moredifferent; a Rolls-Royce Derwent turbojet and a Rover 1S.60 industrial shaft-drive engine. The former is approximately a dozen years old and has beenused by the School for a considerable time. Nevertheless, it appears to run excellently and is employed on all courses exceptthat dealing specifically with industrial engines. Illustrated here, the Rover installation is particularly note-worthy in that the shaft power is employed to drive a simple centrifugal pump in a closed circuit with a 500-gal water tank.At a rough guess, the entire hydraulic installation can have cost no more than a quarter of the price of a comprehensive dynamo-meter brake, although readings of torque cannot be obtained directly but must be determined from water pressures throughVenturis. Accuracy is, however, excellent. The installation is fully instrumented for measuring the pres-sure and temperature at the various essential points, and demon- stration runs can be used either to estimate the part-load per-formance of industrial engines or to establish the characteristics of turboprops for aircraft use. An unusual feature is the methodof mounting the engine; it is supported entirely by the attach- ment face leading to the centrifugal pump, the loads then beingtaken out through the heavy water pipe. Hand-starting is pro- vided, through which Flight's representative expended a con-siderable amount of energy. Both engines are housed in the same cell, which occupiesroughly three-quarters of the building. The remainder is equipped as an observation room which is capacious and excellently sound-proofed. Instrumentation, comprising water and mercury mano- meters and a variety of dial gauges, are dispersed around threeof the walls to facilitate the accommodation of large groups of students. Altogether the new installation seems to representexcellent value for money, and will undoubtedly greatly ease the problems attendant upon practical engine running for all futurecourses. The 60 h.p. Rover engine drives a centrifugal pump in a closed hydraulic circuit, this arrangement being both flexible and providing for accurate power measurement.
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