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Aviation History
1956
1956 - 0118.PDF
118 FLIGHT, 27 January 1956 BOEING 707 REVELATIONS ... Powerplant.—Some of the important factors leading to selection of the pod installation were: — (a) Aerodynamic design freedom not compromised by engine instal- lation requirements. (b) Efficient wing structure free of cutout areas. (c) Ability to install readily a new production-model or prototype engine for testing. (d) Safety in the event of powerplant fire. (e) Freedom to locate the engines to minimize flutter problems. (0 Ease of maintenance. Systems.—The major change from conventional practice in theModel 707 was the introduction of the 400-cycle, 115-volt alter- nating-current system for electrical power. Many years ago, on theB-47, engine-driven alternators had been installed to supplement the basic direct current generators. The next step, on the B-52,had been to eliminate the D.C. generators and all electrical power was derived from a system of A.C. alternators. These furnishedthe "muscle" to drive fuel pumps, stand-by hydraulic pumps and similar heavy loads, while a lightly loaded D.C. system suppliedcontrol power to valves, relays and similar functions. The D.C. system power was derived from simple transformer-rectifier unitsto supply the conventional 28-volt D.C. system. The Model 707 series would employ four 30 kVA alternators, each driven froman engine by a Sundstrand constant-speed drive unit. The system could operate paralleled, for load sharing, or as four individualalternators, each supplying specific loads in the event of a mal- function, at little loss in efficiency. The hydraulic and air-con-ditioning systems were completely conventional. One of the major virtues, accessibility, is vividly illustrated by this view of an uncowled J57 on the Boeing 707 prototype. TWO RECENT BOOKS "Studies for Student Pilots" by Michael Royce. Sir IsaacPitman and Sons, Parker Street, Kingsway, London, W.C.2. Illustrated. Price 25s. 'THIS concise collection of hard facts, figures and brief explana-*• tions is designed to ease the passage of a student pilot through the difficulties of examinations for the Private Pilot's Licence and(to a certain extent) the Commercial Pilot's Licence. One's first impression is of the scope—so extremely wide, it seems, for sosmall a book. "Meteorology is the science of the weather" begins part 1, page 1. Rapidly one is whisked through chapters on met.(but how did those photographs of the Cirrus Minor and Cheetah engines fit in?), theory of flight and airframes, navigation, instru-ments, piston-type aero engines; appendices on the tephigram, flight weather, power and performance, application of radio D/F.loop bearings, supercharging, and miscellaneous items. "A.36 (d) (viii) Enter the residual deviations on a compass card and alsoin the aircraft logbook," the text proper ends, 272 pages later. By all means—but we certainly need a rest before turning to "furtherreading" on the opposite page. Unlike vodka, this book should be sipped slowly. It is anexceptional feat of condensation, with an impressively high ratio of facts to pages. Many pilots will be glad of this aid to referenceand revision, while beginners will ask fewer silly questions of their instructors with this book in their map-pocket. The son ofbook, in fact, that will need to take a lot of page-thumbing, will save a lot of effort and prevent many mistakes, and should havebeen published much sooner. "Song of the Sky," by Guy Murchie. Martin Seeker and War- burg, Ltd., 7 John Street, London, W.C.I. Illustrated, price 21s. A SIGNIFICANT addition to aviation literature has beenmade with the recent publication of Song of the Sky, by Guy Murchie, an American writer and navigator. His ambitiousobject was to give (in effect) a complete, accurate yet exciting "travel-talk" of the air ocean that is the sky, and of all that movestherein. To say simply that he has succeeded with a degree of poetry is an understatement. It is difficult to think of any section of the reading public whowould not find in this book a source of interest, information, wonder or inspiration. It gives the general reader a wide insightinto the airman's world; it gives the aeronautical specialist an account of how man and his machines enter and pass through thebasic, timeless ocean of the sky. For pilots, already-wide horizons are widened still further, and a feeling for the air is made richer;while for much-travelled passengers who find an airline journey merely boring, the book can guarantee to take their eyes fromThe Times on their lap to the wonders outside the cabin window. From the navigator's seat of a transatlantic Skymaster, theauthor looks on these wonders, describes them, and moves far in space and time to relate individual aspects to the whole picture.The art of navigation from the earliest days . . . the structure of the atmosphere, the many moods of weather . . . man's exploration of the sky . . . bird flight . . . supersonicsThe facts of history and experience, told with imagination, are punctuated with real-life anecdotes, flying stories which ram homethe vagaries of the sky, the unexpected influences on man's flying machines—stories to which every pilot can add his own. At a brief glance Song of the Sky might appear to be only animaginatively written popular text-book on navigation and meteorology. It is, as we have tried to indicate, much morethan this. It is illustrated throughout by the author's pleasant and stimulating sketches, and concludes with a chapter on whatmight be called a philosophy of the air age. Many pilots and flying men, notoriously reticent in expressing their beliefs in print,will perhaps tend to recoil from references to ultimate truth; the paradox of reality; time, the accelerator; and the increasinglyimaginable perspectives of infinity. Certainly many will suspect or disagree with some aspects of this philosophy. Nevertheless,they will find in this chapter, we suspect, sudden shafts of com- mon experience and thought—and, indeed, a great deal to thinkabout in general. OPERATION DEEP FREEZE (Continued from page 114) landed in the Southern Cross when he made the famous firstTasman Sea crossing in September 1928. When the second stage of "Operation Deep Freeze" is launched,the smaller aircraft will make the biggest polar air-drop in history. They will set down about 500 tons of prefabricated huts andcamp buildings and stores at the Pole. The aircraft will also help with aerial mapping, magnetic detection and the supervisionof a 500-mile-long route along which crawler units will haul about 600 tons of gear across crevasses and mountain territoryto establish another scientists' camp in Marie Byrd Land. The expedition's air strength has already been depleted by theloss of an Otter during a recent crash on the ice, in which three men were injured. A helicopter was also lost when it crashedand sank in Lyttelton Harbour on December 14th. In the meantime, the staging through New Zealand airports ofthe U.S. aircraft on their way to Antarctica during the next year or two will provide the biggest fillip yet to Dominion aviation.The 18 aircraft already engaged comprise the following types: — Two Lockheed Neptunes equipped with wheel-and-ski landinggear, two Douglas DC-4 Skymasters, two Grumman Albatross Triphibians (equipped for sea, snow or normal ground landings),two Douglas DC-3 Dakotas, four ski-equipped D.H. Canada Otters and six Sikorsky helicopters.
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