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Aviation History
1957
1957 - 0162.PDF
164 FLIGHT, 1 February 1957 THE INDUSTRY Thermo-Plastics' Quarter-Century ON January 16 the 25th anniversary of Thermo-Plastics, Ltd.,was celebrated, and in a historical note the company records that during the war years it was wholly engaged on work for theaircraft industry, and that now approximately 30 per cent of its output is for aviation applications. In 1932, however, the company's work was confined to themanufacture of facia letters, signs and display items, and it concentrated on the use of the sheet plastic material then inexistence, cellulose acetate; but within a few years the produc- tion of components for aircraft began. During the war, with new materials such as Perspex and wire-reinforced acetate becoming available, this side of production increased tremendously in importance and among componentsmanufactured were aircraft canopies, air chutes, radomes—in which the firm specializes—and air ducts. War-time work onradome equipment led to Thermo-Plastics becoming one of the pioneers in the production of components from glass-reinforcedmaterials. In 1941, Plastra Components, Ltd. (one of two associated com-panies), was acquired and in 1947 a permanent factory was built at Dunstable, where temporary premises had been occupiedsince 1939. Compact Radar Receiver ILLUSTRATED below is a sub-miniature radar receiver—thecompact design of which is largely due to the maximum use of printed-circuit techniques—introduced recently by ElliottBrothers (London), Ltd., Borehamwood, Herts. The receiver comprises six replaceable plug-in units, five ofthem made with all components on one side of a Bakelite copper- clad laminated sheet, the etched circuit (including gold-platedetched plugs) being arranged on the opposite side to allow connec- tions to be made by dip soldering. Where valve wires are to be On the left is a complete sub-miniature radar receiver by Elliott Brothers. Five of the six plug-in units are based on printed circuits made from Bakelite copper-clad laminated material; one such unit is shown below. Members of the Hawker Siddeley design council visited the Avro factory at Chadderton last week. Included in this picture are Sir Thomas Sopwith (seated, in the centre of the picture), group chairman, and on his immediate right (seated) Sir Roy Dobson, Avro managing direc- tor, and Sir William Farren, Avro technical director. On Sir Thomas's immediate left (seated) are Sir Frank Spriggs, group managing director, Sir Arnold Hall, group technical director, and Sir Sydney Camm, director and chief designer, Hawker Aircraft. connected, small eyelets have been inserted into the board, so that if a valve change is necessary at a later date, no damage can be caused to the copper foil due to careless hand soldering. One of the receiver's main features is the use of printed-circuitsheet connections at the rear of the sockets, demonstrating that dip soldering or automatic soldering techniques can be appliedas readily to these inter-connecting points as to the individual replaceable units. Throughout the receiver, indeed, almost allwired joints have been eliminated. Bristol Aero-Engines Appointment THE appointment of Mr. Basil Blackwell as assistant chiefengineer of Bristol Aero-engines, Ltd., was briefly announced in a late news item (p. 96) last week, and it is now possible togive further details. Mr. Blackwell joined the engine division of the BristolAeroplane Co. (now Bristol Aero- engines, Ltd.) in 1949, having previouslybeen with Rolls-Royce, Ltd., and—from 1942 to 1945—with the Directorate ofScientific Research at the Admiralty. At Bristol, he was first responsible for theaerodynamic design and development of turbines on all Bristol engines; then hebecame a member of the project team which designed the Olympus 6, Orpheusand Orion, and in 1955 he initiated a new blade engineering department forresearch, design and liaison work on compressor and turbine blading. Thisdepartment, of which he has been in charge until now, will continue to be one of Mr. Blackwell's responsibilities. He willbe directly responsible to the chief engineer, Dr. S. G. Hooker, and will represent him in certain special activities. IN BRIEF A recent development in the forging side of the work ofHadfields, Ltd., East Hecla Works, Sheffield 9, has been the manufacture of aircraft forgings in certain of the Nimonic alloys.* * * Mr. C. M. L. Walker has been appointed sales consultantin the Midlands for Ferranti, Ltd. Formerly area manager, he has been succeeded in that position by Mr. R. S. Winter. * * * Mr. John Drummond, who has edited Shell Aviation News forthe past ten years, moved over last month to a marketing appointment in the aviation department of the Shell PetroleumCo., Ltd. He is succeeded as editor by Mr. Brian Haimes. * * * From Montreal comes news that Sandford Bruce Fleming hasrejoined the flight operations department of Canadair and is to test Sabre 6s, T-33s and CL-28s. Mr. Fleming originallyjoined Canadaii in 1949; in the interim he has served for a second time with the R.C.A.F. * * * An exclusive manufacturing and sales agreement for Metalastikproducts with Carl Freudenberg, Weinheim, Germany, has been announced by the chairman and managing director of Metalastik,RnKK T »5*- Goldsm/th- Metalastik, Ltd., with Precision Rubbers, Ltd., are members of the John Bull group, Leicester. Mr. B. Blackwell. T ^ *£ ^nUal TaPPrentice Prize-giving of George Kent, Ltd.,Luton, Beds, on January 7, so many apprentices qualified for the Sf1™" *"*& had to assemble in two ranks in frontawards. Cdr. P. W. Kent, R.N. (Retd.), TS^^^TS8 director' PreseI"ed the prizes and Sir JohnBurgoyne, O.B.E., J.P., was guest speaker. sales appointments have been announced by the nw nn<°tUPf ° comPanies- Mr- T. Dawson has taken up on^h?e fn gr°UP exP?Vales manager and he will also te
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