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Aviation History
1957
1957 - 1010.PDF
100 FLIGHT, 26 July 1957 FROM ALL QUARTERS . „ , The Gliding Championships 'THIS year's National Gliding Championships at Lasham airfield,A Hampshire, will begin with a practice day tomorrow (Satur- day, July 27), which will include an air display and an aerobaticcompetition. The championships will be officially opened by the Duke of Edinburgh at 10 a.m. on Sunday, July 28, and will con-tinue until Monday, August 5. As mentioned in last week's special gliding section of Flight,there will be two separate leagues in the contest. As we go to press there are 29 entries in League 1 and 43 in League 2. Among theaircraft are nine Slingsby Skylark 3s, three Eagle two-seaters, a Schweizer 1-26A and the Short Nimbus two-seater. Entrance to the championships for the general public will cost2s 6d (children Is, car park 2s 6d, motor-cycles Is). From London, the main routes to Lasham are (a) through Guildford, Farnhamand Alton, turning right from A.31 on to A.32 and left at the Golden Pot; and (b) through Egham, Camberley, Hartley Wintneyand Odiham. Bradford Celebrations WELL known in thi" motor and aircraft industries as manu-facturers of pistons and associated components, the Bradford firm of Hepworth and Grandage, Ltd., is this year celebrating itsgolden jubilee. Among events of the celebration was the opening, last week,of a new office building and warehouse opposite the present factory, the ceremony being performed by racing motorist StirlingMoss, assisted by the company's chairman and joint managing director, Mr. G. C. Hepworth. In the new extensions—erectedon the 8^-acre site of a former cinder-tip—a large degree of auto- mation will assist in the handling of an increasingly large flowof the firm's products. The opening ceremony was attended by a number of famousexponents of speed on the road and in the air, the latter including A. W. ("Bill") Bedford, Hawker chief test pilot, and racing pilotFred Dunkerley. At a luncheon after the ceremony, attended by nearly 400 guests,Mr. J. L. Hepworth (joint managing director) spoke of the com- pany's progress since 1907, and Aid. Harry Weston, J.P., a formerLord Mayor of Coventry, replied. The Bradford firm have more than kept pace with changes inaero-engine design; since 1951 a subsidiary company, Hepworth and Grandage (Yeadon), Ltd., has been in large-scale productionwith turbine blades. For these, as with pistons, the old-established trade-name "Hepolite" is retained. APPOINTED to the Board of the Hawker Siddeley Group are Mr. H. G. Herrington (left) and Mr. G. C. R. Eley. Further details, page 145. Cranfield Presentation Day /COMPLETION of the tenth two-year post-graduate course at^ the College of Aeronautics, Cranfield, was marked by the presentation of diplomas and prizes at the College on Friday,July 5. The presentation was performed by Mr. A. A. Part of the Ministry of Education, deputizing for Sir Gilbert Fleming,Permanent Secretary to the Ministry. Diplomas were awarded to the following students, whose namesare grouped according to specializations: — Aerodynamics: K. W. Bateman, J. W. Bugler, G. F. Churchill, M. A.Coote, G. G. Hall, N. C. Hanslip, M. J. Hawker, E. R. Kendall, E. Kisielowski, D. J. Marsden, D. J. McNally, T. P. S. Opatowski, G.Radhakrishnan, J. L. Robinson, R. W. Simpson, D. J. Stewart; Aircraft Design: P. J. Armitage, A. J. Bamford, S. Barrett, J. A. Boddy, C. D.Coxhead, G. A. O. Davies, D. Iredale, E. E. S. Jones, A. Lawson, C. S. Naik, D. H. Pepper, P. R. Reed, J. Robinson, J. W. C. Sandford,D. H. Smith, B. J. Summers, M. A. Wallis, P. Westmoreland; Aircraft Economics and Production: C. C. Brake, R. E. Catterwell, E. M. Cow-burn, J. K. Foden, J. A. Leitch, R. C. G. T. Rogers, J. M. Smith, P. R. Smithers, H. E. Tuisku; Aircraft Electrical Engineering: P. Albu-querque, R. I. Gray, A. F. V. Leat, V. S. Narayanan, J. E. Toplis; Aircraft Propulsion: P. N. Cockshott, B. H. Croft, G. W. Ellis, J. R.Hatfield, W. F. Hayes, E. R. Norster, J. R. Romanow; D. M. Squires, P. Susilvorn. A certificate for the one-year advanced course wasawarded to A. O. M. Vialls (Aircraft Propulsion). Special prizes were presented as follows: R. I. Gray, Governors'Prize; E. M. Cowbum, Principal's Prize; E. R. Kendall and G. Radha- krishnan, Woods of Colchester Prize in Aerodynamics; R. I. Gray, Woodsof Colchester Prize in Aircraft Electrical Engineering; G. A. O. Davies, S.B.A.C. Prize in Aircraft Design; P. R. Smithers, S.B.A.C. Prize inAircraft Economics and Production; J. R. Hatfield, S.B.A.C. Prize in Aircraft Propulsion, and Royal Aeronautical Society Prize for 1956. P.I POSTSCRIPT the restricting limits of security classification, addi-tional information was forthcoming last week from English Electric about the P.I, including an announcement that "a pro-totype [the P.1B] has flown at speeds in excess of the existing world speed record". It was not intended to imply that a P.Iwould attempt to recapture the record in the near future (Fairey have also flown the F.D.2 faster than the timed speed); or indeedanything except to use 1,132 m.p.h. as a reference to the P.l's potential performance where more exact information could notbe given. Design speed is higher than this, and the Mach num- ber attained by the F.D.2 in establishing the record (M = 1.73)had been passed by the P.I in a slight climb and still accelerating. Four prototypes (three P.lAs and one P.1B) have been built,and these will be followed by two further P.IB prototypes and by 20 pre-production aircraft to develop the production standard.One P.I A has been used for ground mechanical test and another is now flying (as we described in our issue of April 26, 1957)with a modified leading edge near-conically cambered and cranked to increase the tip chord and to reduce the t/c ratio outboardof the vortex-control slots. These slots have been reduced in width since the aircraft first appeared and can be seen to shroudthe intake to an open pipe—possibly the fuel-tank vents. An interesting control detail is that the adjacent trailing edgesof the aileron and flaps are thickened locally with glass-fibre inserts in order to reduce the chordwise included taper anglebelow 10 deg; this has been established as the empirical maxi- mum if flow break-away over the control surfaces at transonicspeeds is to be avoided. Aerodynamic troubles with the P.I have been remarkably few,thanks largely to the extensive use that has been made of the wind-tunnel facilities available at Warton. These include a 9ft by7ft slow-speed tunnel (operated almost entirely by girls) and an 18in-square-section high-speed tunnel in which the flow is inducedby two Nenes. This tunnel runs at Mach numbers of 0.5 to 1.1, and section chokes can be fitted to raise the operating Mach numberup to 1.8. Heat from the Nene exhausts is used to raise the tem- perature of the induced-flow air and thus reduce condensation inthe working section. A start has also been made at Warton upon a 4ft-square-section blow-through tunnel having an operatingMach number range of M=0.4 to M = 4.0, and also on another tunnel which will operate at about M=6.0. These will be usedfor both missile and aircraft development. Relocation of the speed brakes between the P.1A and P.1B havebeen made as a result of careful tunnel testing. The position originally chosen on the rear fuselage sides ahead of the jet nozzleswas chosen to avoid a pitching moment when the brakes were extended, but caused some buffeting from interference with thetailplane. It seems unlikely that all airflow interference can have been avoided in the position adopted forward and above the tail-plane of the P.IB, but interaction between wing, airbrakes and tailplane could result in a neutral overall effect. During a recent demonstration of the P.1A at Warton, it wasnoticed that the spring-loaded auxiliary intake doors—which relieve negative pressures during ground running—remained openduring position-error test runs at speeds of up to about 200 kt. On low-speed runs, incidentally, it was noticeable that W/C.Beamont was able to make turns of not more than 1,000 yards' radius—i.e., comfortably within the airfield boundary. The brak-ing parachute which was streamed on landing is housed in an enclosed bay forward of the tail bumper, which also acts as afairlead for the parachute cables. The anchorage is on top of the fuselage aft of the rudder, and the cables are neatly stowed inlipped grooves on the trailing edges of the fuselage skin around the jet-pipe nozzles. Afterwards, W/C. Beamont, commenting upon the P.l's abilityto pull very high g without running into control difficulties, said that he had "never before flown a fighter which gives the pilotso many of the qualities wanted in a fighting aeroplane ... it is straightforward and simple, with no vices." Transition from theHunter to the P.I should be accomplished without difficulty. [The P.I flight-test programme was the subject of an exclusive feature article in our last week's issue.]
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