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Aviation History
1956
1956 - 0128.PDF
128 FLIGHT FROM ALL QUARTERS New Export Record -T HE total figures for British aviation exports during 1955,recently made available, show that the record figure of £66,189,978 was reached, an increase of £10,080,104 over theprevious year's figure and £48,439 more than the record total of 1953. The December figure, at £6,281,456, was £1,526,686 more thanfor December 1954. It is a good augury for 1956, observes the S.B.A.C., that the monthly average for the last six months of 1955was almost £800,000 more than during the first six months of the year. Transport Command Britannias IT is officially announced by Bristol Aircraft, Ltd., that a contractfor six Britannia military transport aircraft, to be operated by R.A.F. Transport Command, has been placed by the Ministry ofSupply. The decision to order these machines was first notified by tLe Ministry on November 11th last year, and they are to bedelivered during 1958. They are additional to three others of the same type previously ordered by the Government for troopoperations. The Transport Command Britannias, to be designatedBritannia 253, are to be built at the Belfast works of Short Brothers and Harland, Ltd., where a second Britannia line has been estab-lished. Mean cruising speed will be over 400 m.p.h. Performance and carrying capacity are, in fact, of such an order that eachmachine could transfer over a hundred troops from Britain to Singapore in less than 24 hr. American Jets for Canada IN a statement last month to the Royal Commission on Canada'sEconomic Prospects, Mr. G. R. McGregor, president of T.C.A., disclosed that the airline proposes to buy four jet transports fromthe United States, representing a total investment of $35m (12.5). The amount mentioned suggests that, despite reports that T.C.A.favour the Boeing 707, the airline may intend to buy the more expensive Douglas DC-8. T.C.A. are believed to be consideringdie use of Rolls-Royce Conway by-pass turbojets in preference to the P. and W. J75.The announcement of the pending purchase was made following the submission of an estimate that T.C.A.'s gross transportationrevenues, assuming no change in the airline's monopoly position, would reach $110m (£32m) in 1960 and $250m (£90m) by 1980.Mr. McGregor said he did not think a competitor for T.C.A. would be practical for another 30 years and then only after tenyears' notice, to permit T.C.A. to modify their equipment orders. He doubted whether atomic-powered aircraft would be in servicewithin the next 15 years. Advocates of atomic-powered aircraft, he said, "may have overlooked the possible effect of their completedestruction, on the ground or in the air. The consequent release of radioactivity would not differ substantially from that whichwould follow the detonation of a small atomic bomb and would probably make the surrounding area untenable for years." Common Problems ADDRESSING members of the French Chamber of Commerce• in Great Britain at a luncheon in London on January 25 th, the Minister of Supply, Mr. Maudling, said that when it came to theproduction of an established type of aircraft the record of the British aircraft industry was "commendable," and the flow ofestablished types to the R.A.F. was well maintained. The most difficult period was that of development. Mr. Maudling wenton: — "The American aircraft industry is by far the largest in the free world.The British industry is its most serious competitor and you, in turn, are our most serious competitors in Europe. But our two Europeanindustries have resources at their disposal very much less than have the Americans. Whether you look at the test facilities available—wind "FLIGHT" Owing to the dispute in the Printing Trade this issue has had to be reduced in size and copies may be late in reaching readers. To~all who are inconvenienced in any way we offer our sincere regrets in circum- stances beyond our control. ROYAL ROUTE: The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh left London Airport last Friday by B.O.A.C. Argonaut for their three-week tour of Nigeria, where they are using the Queen's Flight Vikings and Heron. Members of the Royal Household are flying in a Bristol Type 170 of West African Airways Corporation, who have presented to the Queen this leather-bound volume of maps showing the routes due to be flown by the royal aircraft in the course of the tour. tunnels and so forth—or the number of trained engineers, or to the sizeof military and civil orders that can be placed, the American competitive advantage is great indeed. I am not for one moment saying that thisadvantage cannot be overcome. What I am saying is that we ignore it at our peril. What we must do, and what I think you in France havebeen doing with great success, is to concentrate the more limited resources at our disposal over a relatively narrow front.. .. "I have often seen suggestions that there are too many individualfirms in the British industry. There-may be something in this. Further concentration of firms might well be an advantage, though I think itwould be a bold man who claimed to be able to decide for himself the right number of firms or to declare that Government assistance orcontracts should be given only to a small and select band. The real truth is, of course, that the danger is not at the present moment toomany firms, but too many projects. ... I think your experience in France is particularly interesting in this connection. You have producedsome excellent light military aircraft because you have concentrated on these types." "In fact, the development time of military aircraft differs very littlebetween the United States and the United Kingdom. Experience seems to show that for heavy bombers, in particular, the American develop-ment period is just as long as our own. But they, and we, both realize that in the face of what the Russians appear to be doing in militaryaviation, we must strive to do even better. ..." Canberra Navigators' Ejection TO improve the emergency escape facilities of the English Elec-•*• trie Canberra B.2, a frangible Fibreglass hatch to replace the metal unit now fitted over the navigator's compartment has beendesigned by the Martin-Baker Aircraft Co., Ltd. At the same time the company has developed from the existing Canberra seatsa new fully-automatic ejection seat fitted with a duplex drogue, an 83ft/sec telescopic ejection-gun, arm-rests, and a secondaryfiring handle on the front of the seat pan. Thus equipped, the navigator should be able to fire himself through the frangiblehatch and descend safely from almost any altitude. Canberras at present have the Mk 1 non-automatic seat, and parachutes carrybarometric rip-cord release devices. It has been found by experience that, without the explosivehood-jettisoning gear linked to the seat-ejection mechanism, it is preferable to eject through a canopy rather than to jettison itfirst. The crew member is thus protected from air blast while he is reaching for the firing handle, and a number of pre-ejection actions,with their associated delays, are eliminated. When g forces are operating on the aircraft, as may well be the case in an emergency,,any pre-ejection action may become excessively difficult andv precious time be lost. It is not, in any case, necessary for a goodejection that the canopy should come away cleanly. Following a series of successful test ejections, on static rigs andin the air, a demonstration in the presence of Service repre- sentatives was given at Chalgrove airfield on January 19th. A"standard dummy man," using the fully-automatic seat described above, was ejected through the new frangible hatch from a ServiceCanberra flying at about 300 kt at 400ft. The aircraft was piloted by Capt. J. E. D. Scott, the company's chief test pilot. The test isstated to have been successful in showing the practicability of ejection through the new Fibreglass navigator's hatch, and alsoin demonstrating the advantages of the procedure. Both the Fibre- glass hatch and the new ejection seat have been designed to beeasily and economically fitted as a retrospective modification.
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