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Aviation History
1956
1956 - 0598.PDF
598 FLIGHT CORRESPONDENCE The Editor of "Flight" does not hold himself responsible for the views expressed by correspondents in these columns; the names and addresses of the writers, not necessarily for publication, must in all cases accompany letters. Sabre Meets Tu-104 ON April 20th I took off on a high-altitude mission in a F-86K.When I broke through the overcast, I saw a rather big aircraft vapour-trailing overhead. At first I thought it was a Comet, but when I came near I saw at once it was the Tu-104 on the way to Moscow. It flew at about 34,000ft, at Mach 0.74. Supposed to fly in the airway from Amsterdam to the south- east, it was, I think, quite a bit off course; after I left it I saw it turning to the left for about 30 degrees. Oosterbeek, Holland. H. BRUNT. Consol Counts I AM pleased to see that Flight has been giving some space to"Long-range Navaids." I would, however, like to point out that if navigators took their Consol counts as described on page 496(April 27th) the degree of inaccuracy would be greater than that suggested by Mr. Grover. A number of dots and dashes are lost in the equi-signal of thetransmission from the Consol beacon. The number of dots and dashes transmitted should total 60. The correct procedure, asused by navigators of the Royal Air Force, is to count the number of, say, dots after the call-sign. Then follows the equi-signal,which indicates the time of the position-line. The number of dashes which follow the equi-signal is then noted. The navigatormust then add the number of dots transmitted, subtract the total from 60, divide the result by 2, and add the answer to the numberof dots which were transmitted between the call-sign and equi- signal. This will give the correct position-line to be plotted. Of course, if I am wrong, this will explain why my captain sooften said to me, "Your navigation is —• well up the pole!" Newcastle-upon-Tyne. D. N. DAVISON. The First Aileron . " - PLEASE forgive the repetition. Ailerons were invented byM. P. W. Boulton in 1868, and were first used by Santos- Dumont in 1906. The facts are simply as follows: —The Boulton patent (No. 392 of 1868) was lost to view until the aileron was in general use. The fact that the Wrights' wing-warping patent was held later to cover ailerons does not alter the fact of a prior but lost invention. If the Boulton patent hadbeen known in 1903 to 1906 it is doubtful whether die actions fought by the Wrights would have succeeded.Santos-Dumont gained the Archdeacon Cup on October 23rd, 1906, for the first publicly recorded powered flight in Europe,the distance being registered as 25 metres: he did not use ailerons on this flight. On November 12th of the same year, 1906, hewon the French Aero Club's prize for flying 220 metres, and used the two ailerons for this second record flight: "Enfin, pourvu dedeux ailerons hexagonaux, le celebre aeroplane triomphait le 12 novembre en gagnant le prix de VAero-Club de France par unparcours de 220 metres." The ailerons are plainly in view in the lower photograph on page 183 of Dollfus' Histoire de I'Aero-nautique, and in other contemporary photographs. I regret that I confused these two record flights in that year,but the essential point stands—that the first use of ailerons was by Santos in 1906. Bleriot almost certainly got the idea from Santos,as he had been following aviation very closely since 1905. Reference books of the time are often dangerous sources ofhistory, as the editors sometimes lacked accurate information about what went on even in their own day, let alone earlier, oftenowing to unverified personal claims. London, W.I. C. H. GIBBS-SMITH. Pioneers at BrooklandsI N a notice (issue of March 23rd) anent the retirement of Mr.C. W. Johns from the post of chief inspector of Vickers- Armstrongs, Ltd., it was stated that "As a youth, Mr. Johns workedwith Howard Saunders at Brooklands in 1909." The writer was the sole experimenter at Brooklands in thespring; summer and autumn of 1909, and there was certainly no Howard Saunders on the place. Presumably Howard Flandersis the name intended. Incidentally, in the early summer of that year (1909) the writer was one among the first dozen Britishersever to get off the ground in any type of British-made flying apparatus, of any type whatsoever. When first at Brooklands, early in 1910, Flanders (an auto-mobile engineer) worked for one J. V. Neal, who was one of the earliest shed-holders there. Unable to make a "do" of aviation,Neal put his shutters up and left Brooklands in the late summer of that year. It was after this that Flanders took a shed there himself and started on the construction of the Flanders mono- plane. He was still at Brooklands in 1913, but was subsequently chief draughtsman for Vickers Aviation in the early years of the 1914-18 war. The writer saw him at a dinner given to the British pioneers of aviation in the early 1920s by Benn Brothers , (who at that time were the proprietors of Aeronautics) but has neither seen or heard of him since. Of the light-hearted crowd of young fellows (mechanics, etc., around the sheds) who were at Brooklands during the years 1910-13, not many survive today. The highest percentage met their deaths in flying accidents. Others were killed in the suc- cessive wars, whilst only a minority died from natural causes. London, S.W.17. E. V. HAMMOND. "Constant-speed" Recollections ""PHE remarks of Mr. A. G. Watts (Flight, April 6th) about the•*• R.A.F. fitters carrying out the constant-speed modification to Spitfires are quite correct. As one of the de Havilland engineerswho was engaged on this project, I was the first engineer to modify a Spitfire at Hatfield. Also, with one de Havilland assistant, Icompleted the first Spitfire conversion at Hornchurch (65 Sqn.) in June 1940 by working through the night for 36 hours non-stop;of course, we had R.A.F. assistance. Nobody has ever said de Havilland's engineers did the job allon their own. They simply directed, helping where they could, and advising the quickest methods. When they had satisfied them-selves that the R.A.F. fitters could carry on, they moved on to the next R.A.F. station. Modifying 21 aircraft in 23 days is no record. At R.A.F.Lyneham, F/L. Maynard, who was Engineer Officer of the M.U., gave me so much assistance that we modified three aircraft perday on three sites, making a total of nine aircraft delivered to the squadron each day. Even this record was beaten by R.A.F.Shawbury, who were modifying Hurricanes; they set out to beat Lyneham's record and produced four aircraft per day fromeach site. The R.A.F. boys did a magnificent job both on the groundand in the air—nobody denies them that. Only one man, in my estimation, did not get all the praise hedeserved: this was Eric Lane Burslem, the de Havilland test pilot who flight-tested the first aircraft modified on each station. Byhis enthusiasm, drive and hard work, he encouraged everybody, de Havilland engineers and R.A.F. alike. We modified Spitfires,Hurricanes, Defiants and some Blenheims. The first Blenheim was for F/L. John Cunningham (now chief test pilot of deHavillands), then just making a name for himself as a night-fighter pilot at R.A.F. Middle Wallop. Coventry. ARTHUR W. F. METZ. Noteworthy DC-3s "pOLLOWING the interesting article on die veteran DC-3s in^Flight of March 23rd, I am prompted to forward a photo- graph I took at Sharjah in the Persian Gulf on April 2nd, 1949,while I was doing my National Service in the R.A.F. It is AP-ADJ of Pak-Air, which I believe was originally withdie Orient Airways. Realizing that it was no ordinary Dakota, as the passenger doorway was on the starboard side, I took thephotograph. I also recollect the battery of landing fights in the nose; and those in the leading edge of the wing were fitted withanti-dazzle shields for the benefit of the pilot. Am I correct in supposing that many DC-3s were convertedwith standard Dakota spares? Stoke-on-Trent, Staffs. PETER R. BANKS. The Dakota referred to above by Mr. P. R. Banks.
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