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Aviation History
1956
1956 - 0105.PDF
27 January 1956 105 Prof. Heinkel, now 67, was elk shooting in Sweden at the timeof my visit. He has two sons in the firm, and the designing team includes several men like Karl Schwarzler, technical director andchief designer, who have been with the firm since its foundation in 1922. Dr. Triickenbrodt is in charge of aerodynamics, andHeinkel aho has the services of a top-notch airframe designer. Present head office of Messerschmitt A.G. is at Tozerstrasse 40,Munich, in die premises of the Aeso Screw Factory, a dependent company. Since 1926 the main works have been at Augsburg,where the firm took over the former Bayerische Flugzeugwerke (the first Mel09s were called BflO9s). These works were 60 percent destroyed by bombing, and the surviving workshops are at present devoted to the production of sewing machines and Vespascooters, under licence from Italy. There are, however, some only partly damaged workshops, at present empty, which forma reserve for aircraft production. In expectation of future aviation contracts a new site, under the name of Messerschmitt RheinlandG.m.b.H., was recently purchased in Essen, though I understand this will have to be built up from scratch. The other works atRegensburg is likely to continue producing the Messerschmitt 175 cabin scooter, a number of which have already been sold in thiscountry. The firm also owns a subsidiary company which makes furniture and radio amplifiers. The present employment roll of 1,800 (formerly 20,000) includesa nucleus of former aviation technicians; and, as at Heinkel, several men of the designing team, like Wolfgang Degel and HansHornung, are foundation members. Prof. Thalau, known for his book on aircraft statics, has recently been recruited as technicaldirector. Prof. Willi Messerschmitt was said to be very active (he foundedthe firm at the age of 25, and is now only 57), often keeping his designers working till late in the evening and concerning himselfpersonally with details of construction. At the time of my visit he was in Spain, with which country his association is long-stand-ing, a licence to build the MelO9 having been obtained by the Hispano-Aviacion company before the war (the firm is still makingthem, though now with Rolls-Royce Merlin engines!). In 1952 he took a group of designers, headed by Hornung, to Madrid.There, in association with the Spanish firm, the MelOO and 200 (in Spain known as the HalOO and 200) have since been developedfor the Spanish air force. The aircraft are basically similar in design, though the first is a single-engined primary trainer, thesecond (which first flew last August) a jet trainer powered by two Turbomeca Marbore 2 engines. Reports that Messerschmitt is planning a delta-wing jet fighterfor the same market were denied by two of his designers. It may be noted that the chief designer of the Mel63 delta-wing rocketfighter, Dr. Lippisch, is working in America, though test pilot Heini Dittmar—who was the first to reach 1,000 km/hr in thismachine—is now in Germany and responsible for one of several prototypes of light aircraft that have recently flown. [His ultra-light Motor-Move was described in Flight for November 11th, 1955.] The remaining "group" consists solely of the Dornier WerkeG.m.b.H., though in theory work could be farmed out to other members of the Aero Union, of which Prof. Dornier is presidentand his director, Hans Fieser, manager. The main Dornier works at Friedrichshafen on Lake Constance—the former Zeppelin works where Prof. Dornier first became employed in 1910]—were badly damaged during the war; and,though they remain the headquarters and research centre of the Another German prototype built in Spain is the Dornier Do27, at present powered with a 270 h.p. Lycoming The German Defence Ministry has shown interest in it as a communications and observation aircraft for the Services. firm, nothing is at present being produced there. Main activity isat the Munich-Neuaubing works, where 150 men are engaged in the production of a variety of light metal products, under thetechnical direction of Claudius Dornier junior and Fieser. The firm is, of course, famous, apart from its bombers, for flying-boats,and research in this field and in helicopters (they seem very popular in German planning) is believed to have been going onfor the last five years. Herr Fieser told me helicopters could probably be assembled and flight-tested at the Neuaubing factory,but for the assembly and tests of conventional aircraft it was planned to use the Dornier works at Oberpfaffenhofen. Theseare at present idle, but have a runway (the prototype of the Do27 was based there when it was recently brought over from Spain).A fourth works at Lindau, under the management of the Pro- fessor's second son, is expected to continue making textilemachinery for the present. A number of the firm's former de- signers and technicians are said recently to have returned. Prof. Dornier's association with Spain, dating back 25 years,led him in 1950 to found there the firm of Oficinas Technicas Dornier, which (in 1954 and 1955 respectively) produced withSpanish aid the all-metal Do25 and its successor the Do27—in the design of which the Professor himself is said to have taken theleading part. The latter, a five-seater general-purpose aeroplane of conventional high-wing design, has been compared to the oldFieseler Storch in flying qualities. With its present Lycoming 270 h.p. engine it has a minimum speed of 36 m.p.h., a cruisingspeed of 145, and a maximum of 160. It can land from 50ft in 100 yd, and from the ground can rise to the same height in 170 yd. The prototype of the Do27 was flown in Germany last Octoberbefore representatives of the German Defence Ministry, as a result of which it was provisionally chosen as a communicationsand observation aircraft for the Services—the first post-war Ger- man aircraft to have this distinction. When I saw him, Herr Fieserexpected serial production to begin early this year. (To be continued) THE AIR AND THE LAW pOR many years Shawcross and Beaumont has been the*• standard British text-book on aviation law, and has been produced as an authoritative reference in proceedings varyingfrom the Comet Inquiry to a case of alleged low flying of an Auster causing a horse to throw its ridei. The second edition,published in 1950, has certainly proved to be the single-volume "text-book and compendious tome of reference" which the authorsaimed to produce at that time. The main text of this edition consists of twelve sections, thefirst giving a brief historical summary and the remainder dealing in turn with the nature, sources and scope of international airlaw; of English air law; administration of English law relating to aviation and air transport services; laws restricting and regulat-ing the right to fly; laws governing the establishment and opera- tion of air transport services; carriage by air; surface damage,collisions and other incidents of liability from the operation of aircraft; ownership, possession, hire, manufacture and other com-mercial dealings in aircraft; law of master and servant in connec- tion with the use and operation of aircraft; airports, aerodromesand air navigation facilities; and aircraft and aviation insurance. *"Shawcross and Beaumont on Air Law. Second Cumulative Supple-ment to Second Edition," by C. N. Shawcross and K. M. Beaumont, assisted by R. S. Kinsey and D. Knight. Butterworth and Co. (Pub-lishers), Ltd. Price (supplement alone), £2 2s; combined price, £7 Is. It is supported by appendices in which are set out verbatim allrelevant statutes, treaties, orders and regulations; and by tables of statutes, of cases, and of statutory rules, orders and instruments.Text and appendices take up 1,238 pages, the index alone account- ing for a further 139.The law stated in the second edition was that in force at July 31st, 1950, and the intention of the second cumulativesupplement* is to bring the book up-to-date to October 31st. 1955. A full list of notations to text and appendices is given, togetherwith tables of statutes, cases (mainly American and Canadian) and statutory rules, orders and instruments. Among the main international developments referred to are the1955 protocol to the Warsaw convention; the final act of the Hague conference on private air law; the Rome convention of1952 (the only new convention concluded) and the two 1954 protocols to die Chicago convention. British domestic legislationincludes the Carriage by Air (Non-international Carriage) (United Kingdom) Order of 1952, die Air Navigation Order, 1954, dieAir Navigation (General) Regulations, 1954, and the Air Naviga- tion (Radio) Regulations, 1954; die Air Corporations Act, 1953,and die Civil Aviation (Investigation of Accidents) Regulations, 1951, made under Section 10 of the Civil Aviation Act, 1949.British colonial legislation during die period 1950 to 1955 is also described.
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