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Aviation History
1956
1956 - 0984.PDF
130 FLIGHT, 20 July 1956 CORRESPONDENCE The Editor of "Flight" is not necessarily in agreement with the viewsexpressed by correspondents in these columns; the names and addresses of writers, not for publication in detail, must in all cases accompany letters. assistance of a tractor, and the pilot who took him (despite thenormal feminine gender for all ships, "George" must surely be masculine) told me that if he could have wheedled 50 gallons ofjuice out of the "old man" he would have done a couple of circuits "just for the hell of it!"Sutton Coldfield, Warwicks. H. N. WALKER. Nonagenarian "G for George" at Canberra in 1954. (See Mr. Walker's letter below.) Air Traffic Control '"THE recent Grand Canyon accident clearly indicates a bad•*• situation in air traffic control. In areas with dense traffic, especially, control is far from sufficient. This disaster was oneof those which perhaps was bound to occur, and one can say it is a miracle that it didn't occur earlier when one remembers thatin the United States there are on the average four "near misses" each day. The situation will become even worse with the intro-duction of jet transports, with their higher speeds. Air traffic control—and this is true not only for the States butfor Europe as well, where some narrow escapes have occurred during recent months—must be made very much more efficient,perhaps by extensive use of radar. Extreme care should be given to let-down areas. When the jet transports come on the scenethere should be much thought about height separation, especially when two planes fly close together. But it must also be made possible for the pilot to detectapproaching aeroplanes. The cockpit windows of most transports today are so small that one almost cannot see an approaching air-craft. The weather radar which at last is beginning to be installed into commercial aircraft in some numbers should give the pilotthe chance of detecting all aircraft dangerously near him, but I understand that not all versions of weather radar permit thesighting of such small objects as aircraft appear. I hope this form of radar will soon be superseded by more suitable sets. May this deplorable accident prove an incentive for newdevelopments in air traffic control. They have been overdue for some time. Schondorf/Ammersee, Germany. HANS H. SCHICHT. Boeing Sweepback , - r: I WONDER how many readers noticed an interesting opticalillusion in the photograph of the Boeing 707 on page 11 of Flight for July 6? This photo, taken from underneath and some way ahead of theaircraft, shows it coming in to land with "everything down." What is interesting is that the tailplane appears to have no sweep-back at all, either on the leading or the trailing edge, whereas, as is well known, the tailplane has a considerable angle of sweep-back on both leading and trailing edges. The explanation for this apparent lack of sweepback is presum-ably that the variable-incidence tailplane is right down, i.e. at its most negative angle of attack. Even so, the almost total lack ofsweepback visible is rather extraordinary, Rustington, Sussex. M. J. HARDY (Associate Editor, The Airport Visitor.) [The apparent lack of sweepback is caused, not by the angle of incidence, but by the considerable dihedral of this surface.—Ed.] Australia's Historic Lancaster T AM sorry that my reference to "G for George" (in Flight for-•- February 3) underestimated the number of missions flown by the old veteran. However, having been corrected twice by corres-pondents who themselves appear to be in some doubt as to the number of missions the aircraft actually did fly, I have stirredmyself sufficiently to delve into my colour slides and produce one taken on Air Force Day 1954 at Fairburn Aerodrome (R.A.A.F.Station, Canberra) which shows George's nose and chest; said chest proudly wearing 90 bombs, the 1939/45, Germany and, Ithink, Air Crew Star Ribbons. The 90 bombs are the obvious indication of 90 missions. You will also note that George appears to be in excellent"nick"—so good, in fact, that the old ship was taxied into posi- tion in the display hangar on its own engines, disdaining the The Size of an AirlineI WONDER whether Sir George Pirie's argument (.Flight,July 13, page 102) that there is a relationship between an air- line's route-mileage and its efficiency is soundly based? "Studiesof a large number of airlines," he says, suggest that the optimum route-mileage for the best efficiency is not more than 25,000route-miles. By this measure all the world's big carriers must be hopelessly inefficient, and all the small ones too. The bestmeasure of airline efficiency—i.e., what sort of "input" to set against what sort of "output"—has always been a tricky topic;perhaps the best measure is capacity ton-miles produced com- pared with load ton-miles achieved—but whatever it is, I don'tthink many would agree that it depends on the extent of operations. London, S.W.5. J. P. M. BLACK. Small Autopilot IN your June 22 issue you referred, on page 820, to a new smallautopilot developed by the Federal Telephone and Radio Company of New Jersey, U.S.A. Naturally we were veryinterested to read your short reference, and have a number of comments to make. We are prompted to comment more especiallybecause of current advertising in the American aeronautical press by the Federal Company, in particular in Aviation Age for May,1956, page 25. The advertisement claims a very great deal more than has been reproduced in your factual write-up. We have since 1948 been producing a small lightweight auto-matic pilot for private and feeder-line aircraft, namely, the Sperry ALIA and AL3 Gyropilots. This was an all-British development,the price considerably less than the Federal price, and the weight about the same. The Sperry Gyropilots employ well proven gyroreferences, and with the exception of the radio coupler facility will carry out all the functions which are claimed for the FTRType F200, i.e. the two-axis unit. The new Sperry AL30 Gyro- pilot such as we are installing in the Handley Page Herald is adevelopment from the ALIA and AL3, and will considerably extend the range of aircraft into which this type of automaticpilot can be installed. We are slightly amused by claims in the FTR advertisementthat it is the "only tubeless" automatic pilot at the "lowest price," and that it is "the first in the field." All these feaures we can,I believe, justifiably claim for the Sperry Gyropilots, if we wished to. I would add that there is nothing in your write-up to whichwe can take exception, for it is entirely a factual report; but we felt that some comment from the British angle would be apposite. THE SPERRY GYROSCOPE CO., LTD.Brentford, Middx. K. I. T. Richardson, Superintendent, Publicity Services. July July July July July JulyJuly July July July July Aug. Aug. Aug. Aug. Aug. Aug. Sept. 14-25. 18-22. 21: 21. 21. 22.22. 28. 28. 28. 28-30. 1-12 4. 5-6 11. 17-19 25-26. 3-9 FORTHCOMING EVENTS International Gliding Competition, for the Coupe Jacques Coeur, Bourges. Venice Aero Club: International Aeronautical Exhibition. R.Ae.C: National Air Races, Third Round (including King's Cup race and Lockheed Aerobatic Trophy, Baginton, Coventry. R.N.A.S. Lossiemouth: At Home. R.N.A.S. Ant horn: At Home. Northamptonshire Aero Club: At Home. Yorkshire Aeroplane Club: At Home. R.N.A.S. Yeovilton: At Home. R.N.A.S. Culdrose: At Home. Helicopter Association: Rally and Garden Party, Ripley. Livorno Aero Club: Air Rally. Central Aero Club of U.S.S.R.: World Parachuting Cham- pionships, Moscow. R.N. Air Station, Brawdy: At Home. World Power Model Championships, Cranfield. R.N. Air Station Lee-on-Solent: At Home. Sportsflyveklubben: International Rally, Denmark. Midland Aero Club: Air Rally, Elmdon, Birmingham. S.B.A.C. Display, Farnborough ("Public" days, 7th, 8th, 9th).
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