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Aviation History
1957
1957 - 0007.PDF
A January 1957 HERE .JT AND THERE J52 Tooling Starts LAST month Mr. Leonard C. Mallet,general manager of Pratt and Whitney Air- craft, stated that tooling for production ofthe J52 turbojet was being planned. The J52 is virtually a scaled-down J57, retainingthe same high-pressure two-spool arrange- ment and with a maximum rating of about8,000 1b. Last year Douglas chose it as the powerplant for the Model 1925 (DC-9) andit is now scheduled to power several Navy aircraft. International Rally Postponed THE committee of the Royal Aero Clubhas announced the postponement until 1958 —because of the "uncertain petrol situa-tion"—of the invitation international air rally which was to have been held in Lon-don on May 18-20. CL-28 Nears Completion MAINTAINING the schedule fixed threeyears ago, Canadair, Ltd., have rolled out the first CL-28 maritime reconnaissancedevelopment of the Britannia. On Decem- ber 28 the first aircraft (there is no proto-type as such) left the assembly line in the HORNETS: Hiller H-32 ramjet helicopters (the type is popularly known as the Hornet) before delivery to the U.S. Army from Palo Alto, California. Field evaluation will be undertaken at Fort Rucker, Alabama. Glass-fibre is used extensively in the construction of these tiny two-seaters. Montreal plant and was moved to the fit-ting-out hangar. It should fly in March or April after vibration and weight checking.A number (25 or 50) of CL-28s are at present in production for the R.C.A.F. anda transport variant known as the CL-44 (with turboprop power instead of the fourWright Turbo Compounds) is also being considered. Supersonic Leduc Flies ON December 26 the prototype Leduc 022supersonic ramjet aircraft made a success- ful test flight at Istres, near Marseilles.The flight lasted 25 min and was described by the pilot as "entirely satisfactory." Adescriptive note on this remarkable aircraft was published in Flight of December 28. Balloons in the News AT Easter, the Dutch balloonist Boesmanand his wife are to make a "Victorian- style" ascent from Alexandra Park, Lon-don; and next Thursday, January 10, Mrs. Griffith Brewer, the first woman to crossthe English Channel by balloon, is to be interviewed on the B.B.C. Home Serviceby Mr. Charles Gibbs-Smith and will talk about her ascents between 1895 and 1906. The Bell 47J's Tour THE Bell 47J helicopter which recentlycompleted a 17,000-mile tour of 15 countries in Central and South America flew 250hours during 83 days, only one day being lost through "unflyable" weather. Secondcivil 47J off the production line, the air- craft was piloted by Joseph Mashman,Bell's assistant director of contracts, with service representative Joseph Beebe as pas-senger. Included in the tour were several 600-mile non-stop stages. Swiss Fighter Programme THERE is now further news of the SwissGovernment's plans for equipping its Air Force with fighters to bridge the gapbetween the British- and Swiss-built Vam- pires and Venoms and more up-to-dateaircraft. Just before Christmas (as reported in Flight of December 21, page 952) parlia-ment debated the purchase of 40 Dassault Mystere IVAs for a total of 100m Swissfrancs. It is now known that strong oppo- sition was voiced against this proposal;reasons given were that the Mystere had ATAR VOLANT: Now well advanced in trials at Melun-Villaroche, the S.N.E.C.M.A. Flying Atar P.I makes an interesting comparison with the Rolls-Royce "bedstead." Unlike the British device, it is remotely controlled from a small cupola through electric cables which deflect the efflux from the propelling nozzle. not been fully evaluated by Swiss test pilots,was not entirely suitable for alpine condi- tions and had "not very satisfying shootingqualities" (i.e., was not the optimum gun- platform). Funds for the purchase havenot therefore been granted; parliament has, however, voted 20m Swiss francs foraccelerated development of the indigenous F.F.A. P-16. Apart from the four proto-types, two of which have flown, 36 aircraft should be delivered by the autumn of 1958. Furious Feline IN our issue of November 9 we illustratedthe new Grumman F11F-1F Tiger, a re- vised version of the well-known U.S. Navycarrier-borne intercepter, powered by an afterburning General Electric J79. Accord-ing to Aviation Week the F11F-1F has flown at more than 1,220 m.p.h. in levelflight at 40,000ft, and has also reached an altitude of more than 72,000ft. V.T.O. Ejection THE problem of escape from a V.T.O.L.aircraft during any of its various flight phases is a tricky one. Shorts have resortedto a light-weight automatic ejection seat; and an example was visible in the first pic-ture of the Short SC.l in Flight of December 21. We now learn that, cor-rectly, the seat in question is a Folland/ Saab Type 1A. Commemorating the First V.T.O. EACH day of the 22nd International Aero-nautical Meeting, to take place at Le Bourget between May 24 and June 2, willbe devoted to a certain aspect of aero- nautics. For example, May 30 will be setaside for rotary-wing aircraft and is being called "Journee Louis Breguet," as it willmark the 50th anniversary of the first ver- tical take-off. (On September 20, 1907,the Breguet Richet made its first vertical flight, piloted by M. Breguet. Two monthslater another Frenchman made the first free flight in a helicopter. He was PaulCornu; the date was November 13, 1907.) Hunter T.7's Power Unit ] THE latest information circular of theF.A.I., published in Paris on December 10, includes the homologation (reported in ourissue of December 14) of the point-to-point, out-and-return records between Londonand Rome set by the prototype Hawker Hunter T.7 two-seater on its way for evalua-tion by the Italian Air Force. Average speeds were 566.07 and 534 m.p.h. It isof interest to note that the bulletin refers to the Hunter T.7 by its project number,P.1101, and describes the engine as a Rolls- Royce Avon Mk 121 A—a designationforbidden by "security" in this country.
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