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Aviation History
1956
1956 - 1477.PDF
FIRST AERONAUTICAL WEEKLY IN THE WORLD FOUNDED 1909 ^^ and AIRCRAFT ENGINEER No 2491 Vol 70 FRIDAY 1 9 OCTOBER 1 956 Editor MAURICE A. SMITH D.F.C. and BAR Associate Editor H. F. KING M.B.E. Technical Editor W. T. GUNSTON Production Editor ROY CASEY Iliffe and Sons Ltd Dorset House Stamford Street London, S.E.I Telephone • Waterloo 3333 (60 lines) BRANCH OFFICES Coventry 8-10 Corporation Street Telephone • Coventry 5210 Birmingham 2 King Edward House, New Street Telephone • Midland 7191 (7 lines) Manchester 3 260 Deansgate Telephone • Blackfriars 4412 (3 lines) Deansgate 3595 (2 lines) Glasgow C.2 26B Renfield Street Telephone • Central 1265 (2 lines) Toronto 1, Ontario 67 Yonge Street Telephone • Empire 6-0873 New York 6, N.Y. Ill Broadway Telephone • Digby 9-1197 SUBSCRIPTION RATES Home and Overseas • Twelve Months, £4 10s. U.S.A. and Canada, $14.00 in this issue 634 Fitted for a King 637 Rocket-Motor Design 639 Duster-Sprayer 640 Kaman's Robot 641 Navigation in Air Transport 644 Spear Thrower 646 Handling the Agricola 648 P.R.9, B(I).8, P.I 650 Better Braking for Miles Geminis 651 Strain - gauging Helicopter Rotors 653 Controlling the Traffic 660 Herald in the Islands Mach Number a Back Number?S MARTLY contemporary as our title may appear, we must confess to having grafted it from an editorial now ten years old. The term Mach number, we observed at the time, had been on everybody's lips for a year or two when along came Mr. R. Smelt with a lecture and largely debunked it by declaring that it was of little significance. Mr. Smelt had disclosed that the benefit of sweep-back in delaying shock-stall had been foreseen in Germany before the war, but that no one in this country had appreciated its importance. At the time, it is true, the speed record stood to our own credit, and the superiority of our fighters was everywhere acknowledged. But thenceforth the story was that of our resting, in penurious indolence, on the Meteor's laurels, while the Americans cut their way forward with the Germanic Sabre, clearing the way beyond Mach 1 and striking the decisive blow in Korea. We threw down no challenge to the Sabre until, with a brief and splendid resurgence, Hawker and Supermarine successively retrieved the record. Then back across the Atlantic it returned, to rest secure until Peter Twiss, in Fairey's F.D.2, won it with his resounding 1,132 m.p.h. But though records, by definition, are observed performances, it does not follow that every achievement is a matter of record; and if the Americans claim that their F-104 has flown in the high Mach 2s, we must give them heed, if not blind credence. We can at least be sure, from page 632 of this issue, that before its recent accident their Bell X-2 had flown faster than any man-carrying vehicle— perhaps at 2,200 m.p.h. From the same page we learn that the projected X-15 may exceed 4,000 m.p.h. and that a missile has already attained Mach 10.4. We may suppose that by "Mach number" our ten-year-old leader implied "Mach 1"; so the term is now even more of a back number than the issue of Flight containing it. Not so the deathless dictum which opens H. G. Wells' The War In The Air (published 1908):— "This here Progress," said Mr. Tom Smallways, "it keeps on. You'ld hardly think it could keep on " The Living-Room Look I HE trouble with tourist-class cabin layouts," somebody once said, "is how to make them more uncomfortable than first-class." For years people had been trying to make the final cynical comment on modern airliner accommodation—and that was it. Uncomfortable, to be just, was perhaps too strong a word: uninspired might have been more appropriate. But it was not altogether unfair. We know of a good many first-class services on which one fifth of the passengers are required to sit in the middle of that social solecism, the triple chair. Tourist travellers will, as a rule, submit to such sardinery—but not those who pay first-class fares. Since tourist traffic now accounts for about 40 per cent of the world total (it is, of course, gaining steadily), the problem today is how to differentiate between first-class and tourist-class standards of comfort. The margin between the two types of layout is narrowing. (Should anyone doubt this, let him travel tourist by PanAm DC-7C.) If first-class traffic and the rich revenue therefrom is still to be attracted, a radically new approach to the airliner's cabin may have to be made. For a start, we suggest, throw away the tramcar-seating, die hat-racks, and everything that contributes to the "tube-look." Next, a leaf might be taken out of American Airlines' furnishings book. Their new and original treatment of the Lockheed Electra's interior (first revealed at the recent I.A.T.A. conference, and illustrated on page 633 of this issue) is something that airline sales departments have been wanting to do for years—but dared not for fear of the revenue-conscious accounts department. We shall see more and more of "the living-room look" in the future. And although the airlines may turn to specialist design consultants for ideas, the manu- facturers might well breathe new life into their furnishings D.O.s (as Bristol have just done) in readiness for this new, inevitable, and most welcome trend. 1,
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