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Aviation History
1957
1957 - 0531.PDF
FIRST AERONAUTICAL WEEKLY IN THE WORLD FOUNDED 1909 ^ and AIRCRAFT ENGINEER No 2518 Vol 71 FRIDAY 26 APRIL 1957 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 Thomas Skinner of Canada, Ltd. 67 Yonge Street Telephone • Empire 6-0873 New York 6, N.V. Thomas Skinner and Co. (Publishers). Ltd. 111 Broadway Telephone • Digby 9-1197 SUBSCRIPTION RATES Home and Overseas • Twelve Months, 14 10s. U.S.A. and Canada, $14.00 in this issue 537 539 541 546 548 551 552 553 America Turmos Buys Blackburn The Jet v Turboprop Cost Controversy Progress with the P.I Chester-Built "Pronounced Vi-Count" The Hawk's Talons Italian Industry The Sopwith Triplane—Part 2 Shock TreatmentO NE more fighter; no more bombers. The decree sent a shock through the land like a low-level supersonic cross-country by a P.I. But while shock treatment is generally considered to straighten out the mind, it is clear that public thinking on defence is more tortuous than before. We ourselves sought to make some clinical contribution last week by pointing out that lack of a supersonic bomber might not prove so serious after all; and we now offer a simple prescription for dispelling illusions in respect of fighters and missiles. First, let it be understood that years must elapse before an effective ground-to-air missile system can be set up for the defence of the United Kingdom. Once this truth succeeds in penetrating, the public may realize that they must go on living with manned combat aeroplanes, flown by genuine non-redundant, fighting-type pilots, for years to come; and their thoughts may veer from magical mushroomings of missile sites towards tangible flesh, blood and hardware. Then they may enquire what manner of fighter will be defending them; and they will find a large part of the answer in this issue (pages 541-545). Simply stated, the P.I is comparable, in all aspects of performance, with the best of America's Century series. Allied with Mach-2-plus potentiality it has exceptional manoeuvrability at all levels; it displays uncommon possibilities in the matter of armament; and though a single-seater, it has all-weather capability. But several score, or even a few hundred, P. Is will not constitute the whole fighter sum. Too often is it forgotten that production of early marks of the Gloster Javelin was slackened off some months ago so that later versions could be advanced in the time scale; and Javelin 7s should shortly be reaching the Service. Though not having level supersonic speed, they will achieve long endurance and a lofty ceiling and will have impressive armament and electronics capacity. If these fighter facts are accepted, a persistent, mild missile-fixation will not be an unhealthy sign—provided that the missiles are those intended to multiply the killing power of the fighters. Transistor Art—or Artifice ?A LITTLE operational experience of transistors in airborne equipment has now been accumulated, and some operators may soon be in a position to - evaluate the claims of the various American manufacturers who have so ardently publicized the merits of these new electronic devices. In performing the task of the traditional thermionic valve, the transistor offers several very important advantages. It requires low power supplies, generates little heat, and is very small. In aircraft applications these three characteristics are of the greatest importance, because power supply, cooling resources, space and weight-lifting ability are now being strained to the limit. On the other hand, the germanium crystal transistors now in use have certain critical shortcomings. It is difficult to give them uniform characteristics; they do not readily handle high frequencies; and cannot stand up to high temperatures. The greatest difficulty is that of manufacture: only extremely long production runs, such as those for domestic appliances, can give any reasonable return without excessively high rejection-rates. Aeronautical equipment does not require such mass-production. Transistors, then, have a limited application at the moment, and they are certainly not capable of replacing all valves in even a medium-wave airborne radio receiver with sure promise of reliable performance. The reliability of such transistors as have been put into operation—in fuel-gauge systems, cabin public- address apparatus or intercom equipment, for example—is to some extent an unknown quantity; so far, it shows no signs of being better than that of valves. Development of many kinds of transistor is proceeding at full speed on both sides of the Atlantic; but the standards of reliability and producibility implied in the typical high-powered publicity of the New World have yet to be attained.
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