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Aviation History
1956
1956 - 1286.PDF
434 FLIGHT THE SEVENTEENTH S.B.A.C. DISPLAY , , . which is seen at Famborough this year, now incorporateshydraulic cyclic-pitch controls. This modification, together with a redesigned, flexibly mounted rotor pylon, has made the Ultra-Light an exceptionally sweet helicopter to fly, as was well demon- strated by S/L. Gellatly. After rising vertically—from a lorry—to l,OOOft at an extremely high rate, the machine gave an agile display before dropping into a fast descent which was caught,with a gasp from the crowd, within feet of the ground. One vertical fin and a horizontal tailplane are fitted to G-AOUK;a development project in hand at present is directed towards a two-position variable-incidence tailplane. The commercial ver-sion of this helicopter now being offered to operators has a cruis- ing speed of 85 m.p.h. and a vertical rate of climb of l,300ft/minat a gross weight of 1,900 1b (I.S.A. + 15 deg C). Folland Gnat (XK 724). The first M.o.S. Gnat, camouflaged,carrying two Aden guns and powered by an Orpheus giving greater thrust than that installed in a Gnat last year, is beingflown by Teddy Tennant and Dick Whittington. Observation of a turn-round by the Folland ground crew shows that every-thing is done without trestles or ladders. All fuelling is through nozzles exposed by the removal of sections of the dorsal spine.Each tank has a long dipstick for visual assessment of contents. Noticeable in this aircraft is the fact that the only apparent aerialis inside the plastic tip of the fin. A hefty lug under each wing is ready to take a pylon. The dorsal spine terminates aft of therudder in a drag-chute housing. On the Folland stand in the exhibition marquee is a full-scalemock-up of the new two-seat Gnat Trainer. Each pilot has the benefit of a full-size blind-flying instrument panel in place of theshallow horizontally disposed "scatter" in Gnat XK 724. The nose has been somewhat lengthened to accommodate two pilotsin tandem (each with a Folland-Saab lightweight, automatic ejector seat) under a one-piece frameless canopy. Prominent inthe front cockpit is an I.L.S. meter. No guns are fitted. A small model carries two 60-gal underwing tanks, six 3in air-to-groundrockets in two tiers of three on one side and a streamlined bomb on the other side. A picture depicts the Naval Gnat, with a hook extended wellaft under the tail. Also exhibited is a cross-section of a six-per- cent-thick wing for a Gnat development. It has a torsion box oftwo built-up sheet spars joined by a thick skin supported by three One of the revela- tions at Farnborough is the Napier-rocket- boosted Skeeter, the peroxide tank of which is pictured on the left. Below, the third Scottish Avia- tion Twin Pioneer. Described in the text below is the Gloster Javelin T.3 dual-control trainer. It first flew on August 20. intermediate formed sheet spars interspersed between four ex-truded U-section stringers spaced vertically by plain bars. Lead- ing- and trailing-edges are built up around this torsion box. Gloster Javelin FAW.4 (XA 764). Exhibited only in the staticpark, this will shortly be the predominant type of Javelin in service. In common with all versions subsequent to the Mk 1, it has theall-flying horizontal tail, pen-nib fairing above the jet nozzles, and Sapphires of 8,000 to 8,500 lb thrust. Inner wing sweep angleat quarter chord is 39.5 deg and outer panel sweep 33.8 deg. Features seen for the first time are aileron trailing-edges abouttwo inches thick which give greater control surface effectiveness. Four Aden guns are mounted in the wings and there are attach-ments for two pylons under each wing. The ventral tanks can be defuelled in situ. Gloster Javelin FAW.7 (XA 778). To supplement and suc-ceed the FAW.4, the higher-powered FAW.7 is now in production. In all major details it is identical with the Mk. 4, but both intakesand effluxes arc noticeably larger. The aircraft shown has a metal nose cone of standard Javelin contour which is probably a tem-porary fitting. That it is to be primarily a missile carrier is indicated by the fact that the gun ports are covered, though notdeleted, and the two standard attachments under the wings are surrounded by a line of open rivet holes indicating the fairlygenerous proportions of streamlined pylons. The inner pylon is mounted between the two gun stations close to the leading edge.New fittings seen on all the Javelins at Farnborough are two pitot heads mounted well aft oh top of the fuselage, which are thoughtto serve duplicated "feel" simulator devices for the tail controls. Gloster Javelin T.3 (WT 841). Specially modified by Air Ser-vice Training, Ltd., from an early-mark airframe, the T.3 has a completely re-arranged crew compartment and nose section, andalso all FAW.4 refinements. Bodi canopies are considerably higher and the Mk 3 ejector seat for the instructor (rear) pilot is raisedseveral inches above that of the pupil. Furthermore, the rear seat is farther forward than that of the radar observer in fighterJavelins, and the whole nose has therefore been lengthened. While the standard radar nose contours are preserved, the radome ismuch shorter and contains only a radar-ranging unit. The hood itself is in two large sliding sections meeting, in the closed position,over and under a massive, semi-circular bridge. Rearranged panels low along the side of the forward fuselage cover such items asg-suit units, I.L.S. receivers, and emergency batteries. Most interesting addition to the T.3 is a periscope installationfor the instructor, with sighting lenses mounted in the leading edge of streamlined projections attached some way below the cock-pit coaming, level with the instrument panel. H.D.M. 106. A model of this enterprising Anglo-Frenchfreighter project, which combines the Miles company's tradi- tional ingenuity of airframe design with the remarkable Hurel-Dubois high-aspect-ratio wing formula, is to be seen on the Miles stand. An "assessment" prototype of the H.D.M. 106, the 105,is now being built at Shoreham, for flight-testing before the turn of the year; this aircraft will in fact be a standard Miles Aerovan,its wing replaced by the slender-chorded, 75ft 4in-span Hurel- Dubois unit. Once this machine has been evaluated, its wing(complete with the two Lycoming GO-480 engines) will be fitted to a box-shaped fuselage (with rear-loading doors and 563 cu ftin volume) and tail, both of new design. Carrying capacity of the 106 will be one-and-a-half tons or 15 passengers. Handley Page Laminar-Flow Airliner. On the Handley Pagestand new details are given of the potentialities of boundary- layer control in the improvement of big jet airliner efficiency.Reductions of 30 per cent in structure weight and 20 per cent in operating cost—promising a radical change in the commercialabilities of pure-jet airliners—are claimed. Handley Page Victor B.I (XA 917). Appearance of this aircraftat Farnborough was confined to a fly-past and demonstration from the first production machine on two days of the S.B.A.C.Show, the aircraft being based on the manufacturer's airfield. This was the first public appearance of a production Victor. A
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