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Aviation History
1956
1956 - 0035.PDF
13 January 1956 35 The landing strip has a gradient of 1 in 30. To allow the Pioneersto make an unrestricted landing approach, 200ft trees have been felled from the top of a nearby hill, and a corridor hasbeen cut through the trees into the valley. The Pioneers approach from a height of 2,400ft, fly over the shorn hilltop then alongthe corridor through the trees before touching down. The first Pioneer landing at Fort Chabai was made by S/L.M. L. Hamilton, D.F.C., one of the No. 267 Squadron flight commanders, after reconnoitring the landing strip in a Whirlwindhelicopter of No. 155 Squadron. A. Cdre. Silvester WE record with regret the death of A. Cdre. James Silvester,C.B.E., who commanded R.A.F. Stradishall during the late war. Born in 1898, he served in the Army before transferringto the R.F.C. In the early 1920s he served in Iraq and was later appointed a C.F.S. instructor; in the 1930s he commandedsquadrons on the North West Frontier and subsequently com- manded the R.A.F. School of Photography. He was at BomberCommand during the early war years. Weapons Post for Jimmy Orrell THE increasing emphasis on the armaments side of HawkerSiddeley activities is reflected in the appointment of Mr. J. H. Orrell, chief test pilot of A. V. Roe and Co., Ltd., as superintendent(flight) of the company's weapons research division.The announcement from A. V. Roe says that Mr.Orrell's activities "will em- brace the co-ordination ofthe work of the division in- sofar as it concerns mannedaircraft." "Jimmy" Orrell, who is 52 years of age, takesup his new post after 30 years of active flying, 14 ofwhich have been with Avro. Prototypes he has flown inhis career include the Lan- castrian, Tudor 8, AthenaMks. 1 and 2, Ashton, the Avro Canada Jetliner, andShackleton Mks. 1 and 2. He has also, of course, beenconcerned with the flight testing of the Vulcan. Bornin Liverpool, Jimmy Orrell took a flying course and served with No. 25 (Fighter) Squadronas a flying instructor until 1931. He was then employed in charter flying from that time until 1933, when he started airline and airambulance services to the Western Isles. He became a test pilot with Avro in 1942. Mr. Knowler Leaves Saunders-Roe AFTER 33 years—nearly 30 as chief designer and three as** technical director—Mr. Henry Knowler, A.M.I.C.E., F.R.Ae.S., is leaving Saunders-Roe, Ltd. Born in 1891, hejoined Vickers aviation depart- ment in 1914 and, as assistant tothe late Rex Pierson, shared in the design of a number offamous 1914-18 aircraft, includ- ing the Vimy. In 1921 hejoined W. O. Manning at Eng- lish Electric, at a period whenthat company was interested in flying-boats. Two years laterhe went as chief designer to S. E. Saunders, whose firm atCowes was subsequently to be- come Saunders-Roe, Ltd. From that time onward, hewas responsible for the design of a variety of aircraft, many ofthem flying-boats. The mach- ines included the Valkyrie andA.7, three-engined boats built in the late 1920s; the CuttySark, Windhover and Cloud family of amphibians in the early 1930s; later, the SaroLondon; then the Lerwick; and (in 1944) the Shetland, design and construction of which were shared with Short Brothers. Hewas also responsible for the SR/A.l fighter—the world's first jet-propelled flying-boat—and he was chief designer at thetune when the Princess flying-boats, the largest flying-boats ever built in Great Britain, were constructed. Jimmy Orrell. Mr. Knowler. NEW YEAR PARTY—at Simla—as described in an item on the opposite page. Centre of the celebrations was a Scottish Aviation Prestwick Pioneer. In the foreground are Col. Sunderam, Western Command; the Lt. Governor of Himachal Pradesh, Mr. Bajrang Bahadur Singh (keen pilot and president of Indian flying clubs); and Lt. Gen. Kalwant Singh, G.O.C-in-C. Western Command. Mr. Knowler was made a director of Saunders-Roe in 1942and in 1952 became technical director, in which capacity he was responsible for forward thinking on future developments; in thisconnection he has made a special study of nuclear-power projects. Mr. Knowler will not be severing his connection with theaircraft industry, for he is to undertake independent consultative work from his home address at "Windward," Fishbourne, Isleof Wight. Hawker Siddeley Nucleonics T ATE last November it was revealed that the Hawker Siddeley*-' Group intended to enter "the general field of the applica- tion of nuclear power to aircraft" and that they had expressedan interest in acquiring 70 acres of ground near Gerrards Cross, Bucks, in order to establish a research station for the purpose.Last week-end further information became available, when the formation was announced of the Hawker Siddeley NuclearPower Company, with Sir Roy Dobson, who is a director of the Hawker Siddeley Group, as chairman. Other members of the Board were also named. They are SirArnold Hall, who recently retired from his post as director of the Royal Aircraft Establishment in order to become technicaldirector of the Hawker Siddeley Group; Sir William Farren, technical director of A. V. Roe; Mr. H. T. Chapman, managingdirector of Armstrong Siddeley; Mr. H. G. Herrington, managing director, High Duty Alloys; and Mr. E. P. Hawthorne.Mr. Hawthorne, who is 36 years of age, has been appointed chief executive of the new company. He was at the Royal Air-craft Establishment during the war, working on engine develop- ment, and from 1947-54 was with C. H. Parsons and Co., Ltd.,the Newcastle-on-Tyne steam turbine manufacturers, where he was in charge of a gas turbine project. Shortly after joiningA. V. Roe in April 1954, he was attached to the Atomic Energy Establishment at Harwell in order to investigate various aspectsof nuclear power utilization on behalf of the Hawker Siddeley Group. In a statement on the new project, Sir Frank Spriggs, HawkerSiddeley managing director, said: "Obviously an organization such as ours is deeply interested in the vast possibilities ofnuclear power—not only for war but for peace. Indeed, the peace-time uses of the atom are very exciting ... as for whatthe new company will be doing, at the moment all we can say is 'research and development'." Titanium Blade Advance AN important new process for the forging of gas-turbine bladesin titanium has also been announced by Hawker Siddeley, though no details are revealed. The subsidiary concerned isCanadian Steel Improvement, Ltd.—one of the Canadian Avro companies—which expects to complete a $3Jm expansion pro-gramme next month. Announcing the new process, Sir Roy Dobson, A. V. Roe man-aging director, says that it is one "which eliminates much of the difficulty in forging titanium, resulting in a substantial reduction
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