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Aviation History
1956
1956 - 0517.PDF
FIRST AERONAUTICAL WEEKLY IN THE WORLD FOUNDED 1909 ~ and AIRCRAFT ENGINEER No 2467 Vol 69 FRIDAY 4 MAY 1956 Editor MAURICE A. SMITH D.F.C. and BAR Associate Editor H. F. KING M.B.E. Technical Editor W. T. GUNSTON Production Editor ROY CASEY Iliffe and Sons Ltd Dorset House Stamford Street London, S.E.I Telephone • Waterloo 3333 (60 lines) BRANCH OFFICES Coventry 8-10 Corporation Street Telephone • Coventry 5210 Birmingham 2 King Edward House, New Street Telephone • Midland 7191 (7 lines) Manchester 3 260 Deansgate Telephone • Blackfriars 4412 (3 lines)Deansgate 3595 (2 lines) Glasgow C.2 26B Renfield Street Telephone • Central 1265 (2 lines) Toronto 2, Ontario 74 College Street Telephone • Walnut 4-5631 New York 6, N.Y. Ill Broadway Telephone • Digby 9-1197 SUBSCRIPTION RATES Home and Overseas • Twelve Months, £4 10s. USA, and Canada, $14.00 in this issue 520 Caviare Special 523 Aerodynamic Aspects of Heli- copter Design 524 Impact of the Heavy Jets 530 Super Commando 531 Power Supplies in Earth Satel- lites 532 Gaggle of Grummans 534 The A.R.A. Tunnel 540 Long-Range Navaids—Part 2 544 SHAPE Flying Club Concrete ProposalsW ERE a shipping company to ask for the Suez Canal to be widened and deepened, it would doubtless be told to go to the Cape of Good Hope— or buy smaller ships. No doubt maritime commerce would benefit immensely were the Suez Canal given Cunarder dimensions; but we leave that question to be debated by the seafarers. The motion before the airfarers is: should airports be made to fit airliners, or vice versa? During its short history aviation has repeatedly met problems which threatened its progress—and which would have actually impeded it had the "man-with-a- red-flag" mentality prevailed. Invariably in the end the tune that is played is the one called by the operator. There will always be people who, when a new note is struck, put their fingers in their ears and groan; the designers should, they protest, build aircraft which "fall in with the existing pattern" (or some such phrase). Their cries can be heard at the moment, even above the mighty percussion of the DC-8 and Boeing 707 symphonies now being conducted on the west coast of the United States of America. On pages 524 to 528 of this issue an analysis of the way in which the world's runways measure up to the DC-8 and the Boeing 707 is not a subscription to the views of the Doubting Thomases; rather is it an attempt to show what the world has to do before it will be ready for these aircraft. There are other problems, not discussed in the article, which also have to be met squarely and immediately. What airports, it has been asked, have the facilities to process 140 passengers at a time? Or the hydrant fuel installations to replenish 18,000-gallon tanks for a quick turn- round? Or the radar to relieve choked airspace? As a postscript, it may be added that our quest for data on the world's runways took us to the Aeronautical Information Service of the Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation: our demands brought efficient and courteous service. These people do a first-rate job for British aviation, and we would like to think that every penny of the income tax we pay goes to departments as capable as this. Research at the Co-op SOME sections of the British aircraft industry are by now becoming a littletired of being incessantly exhorted to pool their resources. More than inmost countries we are "a nation of shopkeepers," and it is not in the nature of things that a number of shops should join forces owing to their incapacity to satisfy the customer individually. But, unfortunately, the R.A.F., the Royal Navy and the British airline Corpora- tions are by no means normal customers; their proper equipment is a matter which affects our safety on the one hand and our prosperity on the other. It has been increasingly clear in recent years that a number of individual "shops" will have to suffer a certain amount of amalgamation if the complex products demanded by these customers are to be delivered on time and in working order. For this reason we cannot conceal our satisfaction that His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh was today due to open a wind tunnel in Bedford; not an earth-shaking event perhaps, but one which is brought more clearly into perspec- tive by the fact that fourteen of our biggest aircraft companies clubbed together to find almost £li million to pay for the tunnel and thus to enjoy something which they would not otherwise have been able to afford. The installation is fully described on pages 534-539. Let us not, however, blow our trumpet too loudly. Last week there came from America an account of the opening ceremony of a new 40,000 h.p. addition to the Southern California Co-operative Wind Tunnel (owned jointly by Douglas, Convair, Lockheed and North American). This tunnel was originally dedicated and placed in operation in May, 1945; if only the A.R.A. tunnel had been also . . .
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