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Aviation History
1956
1956 - 0998.PDF
144 FLIGHT, 27 July 1956 VISCOUNT TO VNUKOVO . . . Moscow. It is interesting to note that there is a marked lane onall the city streets which must be kept clear for State vehicles—a custom which is rigidly observed. In the hotel we met two Russian interpreters who were alsoaeronautical engineers, and after a pleasant lunch walked from the hotel into Red Square, dominated on one side by the high redwalls of the Kremlin and the imposing red granite of Lenin's tomb, and on the other by a huge department store. The rate ofexchange (at 11 roubles to the pound sterling) gave no indication "Jock" Bryce (left) and Dave Glaser, snapped by George Edwards, smile cheer- fully in the Moscow sunshine after flying VP-YND to Vnukovo. of the cost of living. By that standarda pair of shoes cost £60 and a quite ordinary dress £90. (Bryce comments:Have words with the commercial man- ager before our next visit to Moscow.)On the way back to the airport, which we were due to leave at 18.00 hr localtime, one of the interpreters, an aero- dynamicist, took our party on a tourof the city pointing out the museums, the Bolshoi Theatre, the monuments toPushkin and Gorki, the railway termini, power stations and the immense univer-sity building. At the airport we found a large bodyof Russian aircraft industry officials in- specting the Viscount meticulously, acompliment which we returned by visit- ing the Tu-104 at the chief projectengineer's invitation. (The strawberries and champagne given us as we enteredthe 104 set the standard for the rest of the aircraft.) The flight deck wasroomy, comfortable (and efficient) and reminded us of the B-29, whilst thepassenger cabin was sumptuously fur- nished and, in fact, had been used that afternoon for a farewellparty to the British delegation. Shortly after 1800 hr, again in company with the inseparableValentin and Serge, we took off on the return flight to Berlin, where we landed at 2000 hr. We shook hands with our Russianescorts and exchanged gifts with them. Our report must finish by thanking the Russian crew memberswho made the trip from Berlin to Moscow and back possible. Not only were they cheerful chaps but their work was of the highestefficiency. All members of the crew regretted that both of them could not be entertained in one of the local hostelries aroundWisley. CANADIAN FIGHTER STRENGTH INCREASE AN increase in the R.C.A.F. CF-100 squadrons will bring the• number on active duty with the regular force to 24, it was announced recently in Ottawa by Mr. Ralph Campney, CanadianMinister of Defence. The 12 other intercepter squadrons make up No. 1 Air Division in Europe with NATO. These use Sabres,but by the end of this year one Sabre squadron will be replaced with CF-lOOs and three more during 1957. NEW LIGHTWEIGHT A.D.F. THE new Type 21 A.D.F. equipment produced by Aircraft RadioCorporation of Boonton, New Jersey, is now going into pro- duction after a year of extensive flight testing and proving underthe American MIL-E-5400 and C.A.A. type specifications. The A.R.C- Type 21 is a three-band superheterodyne receiver com-plete with power unit, receiver, control unit, indicator, loop, loop housing and all connectors. Weighing only 19.1 lb installed, theType 21 is intended for use in all types of aircraft, but should be particularly handy for light aircraft. The frequency ranges are 190-400 Kc/s, 400-840 Kc/s and840-1, 750 Kc/s. The input power is 2.8 amps at 27.5 volts D.C. or 5.6 amps at 13.7 volts D.C.; all H.T. and A.C. is generated bythe dynamotor, whose power requirements are included in these figures. The intermediate frequency is 142.5 Kc/s. The loopused with the Type 21 equipment is hermetically sealed and con- nectors are of the glass/metal seal type. In the mechanical designit has been presumed that the loop will not be shock-proofed, that it will be subject to maximum temperature change and that thecut-out in the airframe skin should be as small as possible. In fact, this measures no more than 6 ^in x 3+in. The streamlined loophousing, weighing | lb, projects only 2in beyond the aircraft skin and contains an anti-precipitation-static material. To compensatefor distortion of the magnetic field arising from its location on the airframe, the loop has a total of 14 error-correcting screws allowingcorrections of up to 25 deg. The new A.D.F. equipment uses 14 sub-miniature vacuumtubes with a conservative dissipation rating, so that sensitivity and selectivity are comparable to those of equipment used inlarger civil and military aircraft. Particular emphasis has been placed on reliability, serviceability, low power consumption, andstability under adverse environmental and power-supply condi- tions. The Type 21 can be used as primary navigation equipmentin light aircraft or it can be combined with V.O.R. and a light- weight V.H.F. communications radio to provide combined L.F.and V.H.F. navigation and communication service. It can, of course, also be used as a supplementary system in large aircraftwhere severe weight limitations apply. -. : SELF-CORRECTING AUTO-NAVIGATOR TTNDER the above designation, conveniently abbreviated to*-^ S.C.A.N., Lear, Inc., of Santa Monica, California, have developed aircraft navigation equipment based upon a com-puting system which is the subject of patents applications. The method is one of discriminating automatically between data fromany two information sources by continuous electronic applica- tion of the laws of probability and error distribution. Fromthe two sets of data, each having known chances of error, it deduces intelligence more accurate than either source couldprovide. With S.C.A.N. equipment it is claimed that an aircraft willbe able to fly straight to its target over enemy territory despite any attempt at electronic jamming and without disclosing itspresence by emitting any radiation. The computor will make use of V.H.F. signals received from far beyond line-of-sight distancesand will be able to discern inaccuracies caused by distance. A S.C.A.N. installation might use the aircraft's heading andairspeed indications coupled with continuous directional recep- tion from two V.H.F. stations. During the early part of aflight, errors inherent in the instruments would accumulate in the form of an erroneous position indication and S.C.A.N. wouldcorrect these data to conform with the radio information. Later during the flight, radio disturbances would affect the accuracyof the radio information; S.C.A.N. would screen this information, accepting only those signals which conformed to a reasonableestimate of the flight's progress. S.C.A.N. establishes auto- matically the circle of position uncertainty which would normallyapply after a given airborne time and accept position-indication signals only insofar as they were plausible. A doubtful signalwould have to be repeated several times before the computor would accept it, while those nearer a predicted position wouldbe accepted more quickly. After an interruption of signals S.C.A.N. will plot the new position according to the most plausible and persistent signals.
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