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Aviation History
1956
1956 - 1139.PDF
FLIGHT, 24 August 1956 Recent N.A.E. projects include investigation of area-rule version of Canadair Sabre. Above, the Flight Research Section hangar at Uplands dynamics laboratory, where the work on gas turbines covers thefields of combustion, aerodynamics and thermodynamics of com- pressors and turbines, heat transfer and measurements and instru-mentation; and an engine laboratory with five large test-cells (in one of which re-heat development work was being carried out onan Orenda turbojet); and a low-temperature laboratory possessing two icing tunnels and three cold chambers for the investigation ofthe problems of low-temperature operation of aircraft, engines and equipment. The refrigeration plant of the low-temperaturesection is at present being adapted to refrigerate one of the engine test cells used for icing tests on turbojets, in order to obtain airtemperatures below the winter ambient. The structures laboratory of the mechanics department handlesstatic and dynamic investigations into aircraft structures, aero- elastic studies of swept wings, and work on aircraft hydraulicsystems, and employs an electronic analogue computor in some phases of the theoretical and analytical work. Other units of thisdepartment are the aircraft instrument laboratory (with full environmental test facilities) and the engineering section, whosework has included the design of wind tunnels and the development of a variable-area nozzle for turbojets. Among the other facilities of the division of mechanical engineer-ing are well-equipped workshops, and an aeronautical library stated to comprise the largest collection of aeronautical researchinformation in Canada. At Uplands Airport the main facility of the National Aeronauti-cal Establishment at present is the flight research section. In the well-designed hangar at the time of our visit was a varied selectionof current Canadian aircraft types, the more interesting being the area-ruled version of the Canadair Sabre and a CF-100 fitted withvortex generators. All flight operations are carried out by an R.C.A.F. group, and are dovetailed into a programme whichincludes work for various departments of the N.R.C., for other government departments and for the aircraft companies.To plan and interpret the flight investigations, there are four technical groups of engineers and scientists at N.A.E., concernedrespectively with aerodynamics, instrumentation, mechanical design and special projects. Their laboratories and offices formpart of the hangar. One of the recent "special" projects related to a repeating parachute, which was devised to increase the heightand accuracy of supply drops from aircraft. The facilities of the N.R.C. and N.A.E., illustrated on thesepages, are not the only ones available to Canada's aviation industry and air Services. They are effectively backed up by others suchas the Institute of Aerophysics at Toronto University and the Gas Dynamics Laboratory at McGill; the Canadian ArmamentResearch and Development Establishment at Valcartier (which handled the Velvet Glove missile project); and—to an increasingextent—the facilities of individual firms in the industry. There are test ranges also. At the range operated by CARDE at Picton,Ontario, dynamic models of the CF-105 have been tested in rocket- boosted free flight; and the guided weapons test range which wasestablished at the Air Armament Testing Centre, Cold Lake, Northern Alberta, by the Defence Research Board is now beingoperated by the R.C.A.F. The eventual pattern of research facilities which emerges will,it is intended, provide a sound base for fundamental research and also one which will meet the needs of an aircraft industry whichhas grown and stabilized to an amazing degree over the past ten years. In general, research facilities have not in the past keptpace—which is why Canada has had to go to the U.S.A. for wind-tunnel time in connection with the development of theCF-105. The forthcoming Mach 4.5 tunnel at Uplands, and the building-up of other facilities there, is an indication of the pro-gress being made towards a self-sufficient aeronautical research organization in Canada. Helicopter rotor icing, as provided at N.A.E., Uplands. This striking picture shows a Bell 47 immersed in the cloud from the 143. steam- atomized-water nozzles of theEstablishment's spray rig.
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