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Aviation History
1957
1957 - 0897.PDF
FIRST AERONAUTICAL WEEKLY IN THE WORLD FOUNDED 1909 ^^ and AIRCRAFT ENGINEER No 2528 Vol 72 FRI D A Y 5 JULY 1 95 7 Editor • MAURICE A. SMITH D.r.r. and BAR Associate Editor H.F.KINGM.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.Y. Thomas Skinner and Co. (Publishers), Ltd. 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 4 Opening Day at Bedford 8 The Comparative Economics of Jet and Propeller-Turbine Operations 12 The A.R.B.'s Year 15 Skeeter in the Air 18 R.A.E. Bedford 21 Progress with the Orpheus 31 The Future of the Flight Engineer The Laminar Art •,-,•••". \ .O F all the aphorisms with which Sir Frederick Handley Page has enriched the literature of aeronautics (and we may be thankful that his wit and vision continue unimpaired with the passage of years), few have so impressed themselves on our memory as did a pronouncement of his on laminar flow. The occasion was an H.P. senior staff dinner in London, and Sir Frederick had his audi- ence in thrall with his visions of things to come. "We are on the edge of a great ocean of undiscovered truth," he said, "but we have got to learn to use the untapped stores of energy around us." The phrase that we especially remember was his likening the achievement of laminar flow to "fitting ball or roller bearings to an old cart with a squeaking axle and solid wheels." In those homely but graphic words he pictured the very nucleus of the matter. Under the direction of the indefatigable Dr. G. V. Lachmann, his company's research department has propounded the theory in detail, following years'-long investigations at Radlett, and on page 14 we describe the gist of their enquiries into this fascinating and richly promising technique. We hope to pursue the sub- ject in early issues, for it is clear that the laminar art has advanced significantly in recent months, especially in respect of swept surfaces. Already Handley Page are able to claim their ability and readiness to build an airliner with sufficient range to fly non-stop between Britain and Australia. This unorthodox strut-braced high- aspect-ratio, high-wing monoplane—one of three projects under consideration— would cruise at Mach 0.9. In strategic terms, it could over-fly all present "problem areas"; and it would carry more than 13 tons for 15,650 miles in still air. Ranges of this order are, of course, well beyond the capacity of any transport— jet, turboprop, or piston-engined—in being or in prospect. So from that con- sideration alone, we must hope that the competent authorities who attended last week's laminar-flow symposium (and the Air Minister was among them) will have emerged stimulated by these new and auspicious British developments. Moving Towards MissilesI T has been suggested that Britain's future reliance on guided missiles may be unwise, and that during the 1960s we shall bitterly rue our lack of aeroplanes. America continues to spend immense sums to keep her squadrons of manned aircraft up to date. But what shall we in Britain have to match Weapons System 110A, the chemical-fuel long-range bomber capable of over Mach 3.5? Or WS-125A, the nuclear-fuel bomber which could fly 600 hours non-stop? Or WS-202A, the fantastic long-range intercepter family for six years hence? The fact is that we have announced our intention of giving up trying to make such "systems." This means that our missiles must be of the very highest quality, and it is greatly heartening to know that quality is indeed characteristic of our first generation of anti-aircraft weapons—de Havilland Firestreak, Bristol Blood- hound and English Electric Thunderbird. What of offensive missiles? First to come into service with British forces— excluding the American Corporal—will probably be Avro's stand-off bomb. Here we have something which should multiply by an incalculable amount the ability of Bomber Command to hit defended targets. Of the ballistic weapon, it is only possible to comment that it would be incredible if we were able to produce a weapon to the time scales of Atlas, Titan, Thor, Jupiter or Polaris. Possibly it is our intention to evolve a missile with particular qualities suited to our own purposes, and meanwhile to rely entirely on whichever IRBM (intermediate-range ballistic missile) we get from the U.S.A. Apropos of which it is to be hoped that the M.P. who expressed concern over the failure of an Atlas on June 11 has now been reassured. Missile engineers are not dismayed to have an early firing end in a failure, for they can learn best from their mistakes. Moreover, Britain is not at present going to get Atlas, nor any other ICBM—so that we can merely play the part of interested spectators.
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