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Aviation History
1955
1955 - 1734.PDF
A PROTOTYPE TYNE is seen during hangar testing, at Derby, suspended from a wing and driving an airscrew. (Right) Another view, showing the iet-pipe and the drum-like unit for cooling the engine/airscrew de-icer elements. (News item in these pages; another picture, p. 860.) exceptional operating economy; but it can also be inferred fromthe manufacturer's guarded statements that air-cooled blading is fitted in at least some of the stages of the Tyne turbine, and theincrease in maximum turbine entry temperature, which this would permit, would greatly increase the power and further improve thespecific fuel consumption. Prototypes of the Tyne have been running at the Rolls-Royceresearch and development establishment at Derby since the spring of this year. The initial design power is 4,020 s.h.p., correspond-ing to a total equivalent shaft h.p. of 4,470. Later it is expected that this will rise in stages up to, and possibly beyond, 5,000 e.h.p.In cruising flight at 425 m.p.h. at 25,000ft, the Tyne will initially deliver an output of 2,470 e.s.h.p. with a specific fuel consump-tion of 0.414 lb/hr/e.s.h.p.—a figure better than that of the majority of piston engines. The dry weight of the Tyne is nomore than 1,880 lb. Two photographs on this page show one of the prototypes onhangar test, slung from a simulated wing structure and driving a large four-blade airscrew (both de Havilland and Rotol airscrewsare being employed). In front of the spinner can be seen a large drum-like assembly supported by a triangular array of struts andties. This device contains a fan which can play cold air over the Tyne while the electro-thermal de-icing elements of the cowlingleading-edge and airscrew spinner and blades are being operated. The flow of cold air prevents the elements from overheating. Atthe downstream end of this assembly can be seen rows of con- centric rings; these are actually formed by a spirally wound sensingelement which records the mean temperature of the air (ambient and "cooled") passing through the engine. Thus the perform-ance can be reduced to standard conditions. The engine itself is, of course, extremely fully instrumented. Development running on the test-bed takes place without anairscrew and with the engine coupled to an eddy-current dynamo- meter for recording the shaft power developed. Intake air isadmitted to the building through a filter room in an upper-storey wing from which filter elements clean the air with the minimumpressure drop. The air is then taken into the test cell through a large duct ahead of the engine, and is admitted directly tothe intake. This intake air can, if necessary, be heated on excep- tionally cold days in order to keep the power as close as possibleto that developed under standard conditions. Next year these engines of the future will be flying, first in aLincoln test-bed and later in an Ambassador which B.E.A. intend to operate to scheduled services as a freighter. The first announcedapplication of the Tyne is the propulsion of the Vickers- Armstrongs Vanguard, a lengthy article on which begins on page861 of this issue. Salvage Simplified v X; f\F the batch of Hunting Percival Provosts which have been*-* sold to the Royal Iraqi Air Force, two which suffered damage during their delivery flight have recently been involved in a some-what unusual charter and salvage operation. Five of the Provosts (writes a correspondent) were being flownout to Iraq as a group. As the formation was landing at Dijon two came into contact with each other and damage was sustainedto wings, canopies and tailplanes. Insurance coverage for the flight had been taken out in Iraq, with re-insurance placed on theLondon market. On receiving news of the accident the London underwriters contacted the air safety and salvage department of the British Aviation Insurance Co., Ltd., with instructions to seeif salvage was possible. In the meantime Hunting Percival staff had gone to Dijon, and were able to report back that thoughthe Provosts could be repaired it seemed unlikely that the job could be done on the spot in France. The insurance company's salvage department suggested to theunderwriters that it might be possible to fit the two Provosts into a Bristol Freighter and they were given the O.K. totry. Discussions and experiments followed at Luton between representatives of Hunting Percival, Silver City Airways andBritish Aviation Insurance, and it was decided that it could just be done. A number of factors had influenced the salvage depart-ment personnel in choosing this method of recovery. The only other possible way of bringing the two aircraft back to this coun-try was on "Queen Mary" trailers. To have used them—and two would have been necessary—would have meant a round trip foreach trailer and its crew of something over 800 miles; the return journey held out prospects of a trip on French roads with snowand ice a strong possibility; then, on arrival at the French port, and again on this side of the Channel, the aircraft would probablyhave had to be handled by dockers who are not used to dealing with such specialized cargo, with the chance of possible furtherdamage. And last, but by no means least, came the question of finance. The cost of chartering the Freighter was certainly nomore—and was probably less—than that of sending the two "Queen Marys" and their crews to Dijon.While the discussions were going on in this country the work of dismantling the damaged aircraft was proceeding. The main-planes, airscrews and empennages were removed but the fuselage remained intact. When this work had been completed Englandwas cabled and the Freighter was on its way. As can be imagined, there was little room to spare and the loading was atricky operation. Nonetheless, it was completed in 36 hours. Owing to the strike of French airfield controllers it was necessaryto fly V.F.R., which meant that take-off had to be postponed several hours; but within 48 hours of leaving England the "two-in-one" Freighter was back in this country. At the time of writing, the Provosts are being repaired at Luton. France's Airport Strike THE strike of French air traffic control staffs was well into itsfourth week at the time of going to press and prospects of an early settlement remained uncertain. The collapse of the FaureGovernment on November 29th left the strikers with the alterna- tive of returning to work (having, in theory, no employers to strikeagainst) or of waiting to resume negotiations with the next Government. Apparently they chose the second course.The volume of traffic between London and Paris was near- normal, however, higher load-factors compensating for reducedfrequencies. B.E.A. were operating four passenger and one freight service daily between London and Creil, near Paris, havingsuspended two London-Paris flights and the Manchester-Birming- ham-Paris service; many Midlands passengers, however, travelledvia London. Air France were operating four or five London-Paris services daily, with Orly and Bretigny serving as Paris terminals. The Skyways coach-air service, which suffered a few days' inter-ruption when the strike began, was running to schedule. To meet Christmas travel demands, Skyways are quadrupling thefrequency of their service for the period frorn December 22nq to January 4th inclusive.
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