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Aviation History
1956
1956 - 1330.PDF
482 FLIGHT SHOWGROUND . . . pairs of swivelling joints, and seems togive a quite satisfactory degree of mobil- ity. A series of zip fasteners, replacing thearmpit-to-shoulder sealed joint, would now appear to allow the suit to be put on farmore easily than before. The problem of the operational advan-tages of full pressure and partial pressure suits is thoray. In the case of the fighter,it is simple enough to abandon the mission once cabin pressure has failed and the suitinflated, and to return to base. But what must happen in a bomber half-way to avital and far-distant target? How long can the crew bear either the partial or fullpressure suit once they are pressurized? And if the full pressure suit can beadopted for continuous normal use as a miniature pressure cabin, the full-sizedpressurized crew compartment might be- come redundant. If designers take advan-tage of the fact that a pressure cabin might no longer be needed, the equipment itnormally contains would have to stand up to the ambient as opposed to the artificialatmosphere which would then affect it. Incidentally, there seemed to be no face-piece demisting equipment in any of the pressure helmets shown. Be his finger neverso long, no pilot could reach into the helmet through the feeding hole and suc-cessfully wipe condensation off the inside of his face-piece. In addition to the airmen's natty suitingreferred to above, this group of companies each had a number of other products onview. M.L. presented the drogue gun which they manufacture for de HaviUandsSuper Sprite rocket pack. It is initiated by static line and fires after a delay of 1.5to 2 seconds. Also there was their 3,000-lb release Type A Mk 1, whose particularadvantage is its ability to accept any type of cable loop and to release it over a pullingarc of 120 deg without snagging. This is used in such applications as drogue jetti-soning gear of the R.F.D. air-launched target container. The release actuator iselectric and duplicated. M.L. have also developed—initially for their own use, but Frankenstein's full-pressure suit, at left, wcs displayed on a Martin-Baker Mk 3 ejector scat. The dome covering the head h representative of, but not identical with, the final head gear. M.L. Aviation's three pressure helmets (right). The early and latest IIP partial pressure units are at right and left below, and the F2 full pressure helmet above. "Flight" photographs now for commercial sale—a continuity andinsulation test unit for electrical circuits which reduces the time required to checka particular circuit from one-and-a-half hours to four minutes. It also tests resist-ance, capacity and inductance in its bridge comparator. Finally, there was an im-proved version of the target drone auto- pilot giving three-axis control, throughtwo gyros, and a height lock, resulting in a new roll- and pitch-command systemsuitable for control when the drone is out of sight of the "beeper" pilot on theground. Frankenstein showed a range of life-saving waistcoats for Army, Air Force and civil use with attachments for Burndept'sTALBE and Ultra's Sarah. G.Q. had on their stand the Mk 4 parasuit with back-type parachute and harness and Mae West incorporated in the suit itself. A baro-metric parachute release, the Mk 2 full- coverage air-ventilated suit, and the Mk17 back-type parachute with emergency oxygen supply and barometric release unitcompleted the G.Q. range of exhibits. Siebe Gorman and Co., Ltd., showed arange of seat belts and protective clothing for fire-fighting; and a special suit for usewhen handling high-test peroxide. While G. Q., Ltd., make the parachuteequipment for the Folland ejector seat, Irving Air Chute supply Martin-Baker.On Irving's stand, accordingly, was the new horseshoe-shaped parachute pack forthe Martin-Baker Mk 4, lightweight ejector seat. They also exhibited a back-pack parachute for roving members of V-bomber crews. It is equipped with astatic line attachment so that, before baling out, the static line could be hookedup at any exit to trigger the barostat rip- cord device as the man left the aircraft. EJECTOR SEATS THE state of ejector seat design is nowconsiderably advanced, and the main emphasis this year was on lightweightunits. Martin-Baker exhibited the latest version of the Mk 4 which is now installedin a score of different aircraft types in- cluding the Sea Venom FAW.21 (shownin the aircraft static park), the Vickers N.I 13, and Hunter T.7; the FrenchDurandal, Taon, Etendard II, IV and VI and the Marcel. Dassault M.D.55O Mirage;the Italian Macchi Vampire, Sagitt?rio, Fiat G.82 and G.91; and the Swiss P-16fighter. Having successfully achieved ejections at ground level, 42,000ft, super-sonic speed and underwater with various types of their seats, Martin-Baker haveequipped the Mk 4 with the fi'U range of devices which render it fully automatic.Most recent addition is an automatically selected time-delay mechanism which willof its own accord change over from the 1.5 sec ground-level release delay to the3 sec high-level delay. The Folland lightweight automaticejector seat has, during the past year, been live-tested and was recently used with great success in emergency by S/L."Teddy" Tennant. New features this year are more extensive cushioning, shapedto fit the body, and leg-restraining gear with a locking device. There is a face-blind firing control and a secondary firing handle on the seat pan. The parachuteis a G.Q. Type 20 lightweight canopy giving a 20ft/sec rate of descent and incor-porating in the pack emergency oxygen, a barometric rip-cord and a stabilizer para-chute which steadies the man in free fall. Three-quarters of a second after ejection,seat and man are separated and, two seconds later (below 13,000ft), the para-chute opens. Tennant's seat had a single cartridge giving a 65/ft sec velocity and heejected at about 420 kt at 200ft with con- siderable bank angle. The wholemechanism worked perfectly and Tennant was descending beneath the parachute forten seconds. The seat's installed weight is 41.5 1b and considerable interest hasbeen shown by companies abroad. A later version, the Type 3, will have alonger stroke gun and an 80ft/sec telescopic gun is also projected. A new development being tested on aMartin-Baker Mk 3J ejector seat is the Redwing gas cartridge automatic harnessrelease which acts on the four root fasteners of Irving Air Chute's combinedseat and parachute harness for this equip- ment. Redwing have also applied thegas-cartridge principle to an automatic para- chute release device carried on the harnessitself. Manual override facility is provided, and the barometric control unit is set forthe present standard height of 13,000ft. PRESSURIZATION, AIR CONDITIONING AND OXYGEN EQUIPMENT PRINCIPAL developments in the fieldof air-conditioning and oxygen equipment were the introduction of Freon vapour-cycle cooling systems and the increasing production of liquid-oxygen converters.British Oxygen Aro Equipment, Ltd., (a new member of the British OxygenGroup) introduced a licence-built range of liquid-oxygen converters together with50 gallon and 500 gallon vacuum-insulated liquid-oxygen storage tanks. The con-verter equipment, which is carried in an aircraft as the main oxygen supply, wasshown in 5, 8 and 20 litre sizes and in a new 3j litre fighter installation whichweighs 18| lb. This latter is equivalent
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