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Aviation History
1957
1957 - 0817.PDF
AGUSTA'S LATEST, the licence-built Bell 47 J Ranger (250 h.p. Lycoming) visited Britain last week, as reported below. A feature of the four-seat cockpit is the offset placing of the instrument pedestal. Note the appropriate Italian registration. "Flight" photographs In addition to these facilities, provision is made for feedingcourse-error signals to the autopilot. Automatic correction is made for magnetic variation; and changes of destination or turningpoints can be made at any time. Should the groundspeed vector fail, the computation continues, using the last-known groundspeedand drift angle. Corrections to groundspeed and drift angle can then be inserted manually to allow for changes in the forecast windvector. When the groundspeed signal is restored, the equipment automatically locks on to the signal and resumes normal working.The AD.2300 employs a continuous-wave system and uses an electro-mechanical tracker which requires no calibration and failssafe. Rack-mounted units are designed to ARINC standards and all valves have American equivalents. The complete equipment,including aerial, computer and cables, weighs only 130 lb. The AD.2300 will operate at between 150ft and 50,000ft at ground-speeds between 80 kt and 900 kt and drift angles up to 45 deg. It is therefore suitable for slow aircraft as well as fast jet airliners.It is certain that the versatility of this new aid has not been remotely approached in any one other equipment. Aircraft willbe able to follow planned tracks much more closely; positions can be known more accurately and E.T.A.s can be constantly checkedand revised if necessary. This should considerably ease air traffic control problems as well as greatly simplifying the task of naviga-tion. Instantaneous and continuous information on wind direction and speed, correlated with weather forecasts, will allow coursealterations to avoid headwinds and to take full advantage of tail- winds. Bell 47J at Croydon DEMONSTRATED at Croydon Airport last Friday was thelatest helicopter product of the Italian Agusta company, the licence-built Bell 47J Ranger. Army, R.A.F., Scotland Yard andother representatives attended the demonstration, which was organized in co-operation with Hordern-Richmond, Ltd., ofHaddenham, Bucks, who are agents for Bell and for Agusta. The 47J is powered by a 250 h.p. Lycoming VO-435 engine,and has a gross weight of 2,565 lb. Optimum cruising speed is 87 m.p.h. at this weight and 98 m.p.h. at basic operational weightof 1,942 lb. Hovering ceiling is 7,350ft at 2,565 lb and 14,700ft at 1,942 lb; absolute ceiling is 14,500 and 20,000ft respectively. Apparent from the demonstration nights made by I-AGUS onthis occasion was the impressive flight stability of the 47J. Normal accommodation is for pilot and three passengers; other configura-tions can accommodate two stretchers and attendant, or freight. Skywriting Again SELDOM seen in this country since the nineteen-twenties,when Maj. Jack Savage was its principal exponent, skywriting appears to be returning to favour as a method of (literally) large-scale advertising. Overseas Aviation, of 26 Hill Street, St. Helier, Jersey, C.I., and their associates in Germany, Overseas MotorSales Luftfahrt Abteilung, of Frankfurt-am-Main, now have three aircraft engaged on such work—singly or together—inGermany, Holland and Belgium. The machines, they say, can be made available for demonstration in the U.K. or anywhereelse in the world. . High efficiency is claimed for the new oil/chemical smoke- DfLEGATES' DAY OUT: The Champion Spark Plug Co. (Toledo, Ohio) and the Champion Sparking Plug Co. (Feltham, Middx.) recently held a very successful plug and ignition conference in London. Here delegates are seen at the B.O.A.C. engineering building, London Airport; behind them is Bristol Britannia G-ANBD. generating system employed, and Burnley Aircraft Products,Ltd., well known for jet-pipe construction, have supplied special tubular components in heat-resisting steel and surrounded byinsulating blankets. Russian Refuelling /"OBSERVERS watching rehearsals for the Red Air Force dis-^-' play to be held at Tushino airfield, Moscow, on June 30, have seen a Bison four-jet bomber make a refuelling connectionwith a tanker of the same type, using the probe-and-drogue method. Reporting this, Aviation Daily remarks that hitherto theonly Russian refuelling system was a primitive "buddy" affair used experimentally for the Badger twin-jet bomber. The samesource reports that a transport version of the Bison may appear in the display as well as a transport version of the Bear turbopropbomber. The latter is said to have a fuselage similar to that of the Stratocruiser and a tail resembling that of the Tu-104. TheIlyushin 11-18 turboprop transport—similar to the Lockheed Electra—is said to have been flying over the Moscow area recently. Boulton Paul Prospects TN his statement presented at the annual general meeting ofA Bouhon Paul Aircraft, Ltd., on June 7, the chairman, Mr. J. D. North, spoke of the effect of the new defence policy on the com-pany's work. "We have yet to see just what will be the effects of the implementation of this policy," he said, "but the immediateresult has been the cancellation of some development projects, amongst them the supersonic bomber; and since this companywas engaged on the control system for this aircraft we have been immediately affected. On the other hand, the policy may wellhave the effect of prolonging the life of existing military types, so that the full consequence may not be apparent for some years tocome. It is perhaps fortunate for us that the market for our
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