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Aviation History
1957
1957 - 1326.PDF
414 FLIGHT, 6 September 1957 THE AERONAUTICAL BOOKSHELF "The Ship-Busters" by Ralph Barker. Chatto and Windus, Ltd., 40-42 William IV Street, London, W.C.2. Illustrated. Price 16s. BOOKS about the Royal Air Force in the Second World Warare still published at much the same rate as immediately after the war; but they are not all of the same high standard as Mr.Barker's story of the squadrons of torpedo-bombers and strike aircraft of Coastal Command.The Ship-Busters is a true saga of the aircrews who, probably more than those of any other R.A.F. command, faced death everytime they made their attacks. They could kill their enemy in one way only—by flying 50ft above the water and straight at him andthen, after dropping their "torp," passing within a few yards of their quarry. Very, very many did not survive; but they were notlike the Japanese Kamikaze pilots who went out with the express purpose of making a one-way journey to their ancestors; thetorpedo-bomber crews knew how great was the risk, but they always kept enough fuel to get back to base. Mr. Barker has reflected the stoicism of these men and of theirsturdy Beauforts and Beaufighters. He tells of the suicidal attack of six Swordfish of the Fleet Air Arm on Scharnhorst, Gneisenauand Prinz Eugen in the Straits of Dover; and of the chances of war which led to these ships surviving attack after attack at Brest andthen escaping through the Channel—this despite the fact that most of Bomber and Coastal Command's aircraft were thrown againstthem. The humble pie which we ate over that affair may have been covered in glory, but it was still humble pie. Some of it wasavenged later in the Mediterranean when Beauforts, having J earned how best to deliver their weapons, wrought havoc amongAxis shipping. The author has an unruffled and immensely clear approach towriting, and his book is easily read. A. C. B. "Behaviour of Metals at Elevated Temperatures." Published forthe Institution of Metallurgists, 4 Grosvenor Gardens, London, S.W.I, by Iliffe and Sons, Ltd., Dorset House, Stamford Street,London, S.E.1. Illustrated. Price 21s. EACH year the Institution of Metallurgists conducts a refreshercourse available to all members at which selected subjects are discussed following papers outlining the latest knowledge in thetechnique concerned. It is particularly appropriate that the 1956 course chose the subject which is the title of this book. It contains four papers: "The Engineering Properties of Metalsat High Temperatures," by Dr. N. P. Allen, F.R.S., Super- intendent, Metallurgy Division, National Physical Laboratory;"The Effect of Temperatures up to 450 deg C on Metals," by G. Meikle, B.Sc, F.I.M., Metallurgy Department, Ministry ofSupply, Royal Aircraft Establishment, Farnborough; "Non- Ferrous High-Temperature Materials," by L. B. Pfeil, O.B.E.,D.Sc, F.R.S., Director, Mond Nickel Co., Ltd.; and "High- Temperature Steels," by W. E. Bardgett, B.Sc., A.M.I.Mech.E.,F.I.M., Research Manager, The United Steel Companies, Ltd. The editing throughout is excellent and each paper includes acomprehensive bibliography. W. T. G. "Aircraft Hydraulics." Vol. 1: "Hydraulic Systems," price 35snet; Vol. 2: "Component Design," price 45s net. Both illustrated. Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 37 Essex Street, London, W.C.2. A WISE suggestion of the Royal Aeronautical Society's Tech-**• nical Committee has been the compilation of a series of text- books designed to cater for the special needs of aeronauticalengineers. The second set in the series, prepared under the direction of aSociety sub-committee and published under their authority, is devoted to aircraft hydraulics. This work is a compilation ofchapters by well-known aircraft hydraulics engineers, ably edited by Mr. H. G. Conway, the chief engineer of Short Bros, andHarland, and probably the best-known hydraulics engineer in the aircraft industry. In the first volume, chapters on "Hydraulic Theory and Per-formance of Pipes and Components" (E. G. Collinson) are included alongside a chapter on "Test Rigs" (A. Black). But, to such dif-ferent backgrounds do these treatises appeal that the obvious efforts to make the volume comprehensive may prove academic.The university student who will easily absorb the mathematical treatment of the theoretical chapters will not require to be led bysimple steps into rig design, nor is the rig engineer likely to benefit from a knowledge of the Blasius and Nikuradse expressions forReynolds number. In short, each may feel that the scope (and price) of Vol. 1 could have been reduced to match his particularneed. This criticism does not apply to the second volume (though apossible exception is C. D. Holland's final chapter on pipework, which could with advantage precede the chapters on rigs and circuits in Vol. 1). The first volume is an introduction to aircrafthydraulics, the second is a text-book of design. That each chapter differs in its approach matters less in the second volume, wherethe overall aim is common. S. M. Parker's chapter on sealing is excellent and, although more might have been said about low-temperature applications and problems, it is a useful contribution to a subject on which little general information is available.Other chapters cover hydraulic pumps and motors, jacks, selec- tors, valves and servo controls. Most of the text is new, but a smallamount of this information has been published before: Mr. Conway's chapters contain some familiar illustrations. The student who turns to one chapter of the readable secondvolume for a particular reference (there is a short but compre- hensive index) would generally do well to study the whole volume.J. K. Simpson, in his chapter on valves, for example, is content with only a reference to the design of spool-valves, but the prin-ciples of over- and underlap and stability are discussed under "Hydraulic Servo-Controls" (F. J. Bradbury) and methods ofconstruction and design under "Selectors" (H. G. Conway). Infor- mation on the interesting techniques of stabilizing valves and valveguides in liquid oxygen is thus missed. A. T. P. "Aircraft of World War One," by John Lloyd. Ian Allan, Ltd.,Hampton Court, Surrey. Illustrated. Price 2s 6d. THIS little book represents a commendable attempt by itspublishers to provide a modestly-priced introduction to the aircraft of the 1914-18 war. The author cannot be envied his taskof compressing his information into the compact and sensible format which has been adopted. Each aeroplane is illustrated byone photograph and has a brief narrative accompanied by a data panel. An illustrated introductory passage sketches the develop-ment of aerial fighting during the war, and a section is devoted to a few of the airships of the period. The illustrations are, on thewhole, adequate but not inspiring: in several cases much better photographs exist. (One wonders why both illustrations of theBristol F.2B depict post-war variants, and why the Pup and Camel are illustrated by photographs of specimens surviving, not tooauthentically, at the present day.) It would be facile to say that the book has suffered from com-pression, and to argue indefinitely about which types should have been included and which omitted; but it would have been pleasingto give it, with no more than those reservations, a recommendation as a sound introduction to the study of 1914-18 aircraft. Unfor-tunately, however, a fair number of the "facts" presented are incorrect: for example, the Farman Longhorns built by thePhoenix Dynamo Manufacturing Co. (oddly, the contractor is not identified) had the Rolls-Royce Hawk engine, not a 100 h.p. Sun-beam; the Bristol Scout is given designations it never had; the Vickers Gun Bus had little or nothing to do with overcoming theFokker monoplane; the Short 184 appears as the S.I84; production of Handley Page 0/100s exceeded the three prototypes mentioned;no Sopwith 2F.1 ever had a 150 h.p. Gnome Monosoupape engine; and some of the statistical information quoted is suspect. It is alsodaunting to find the resuscitation of such discredited fables as the Sopwith Triplane/Spad S.7 "exchange" and the Gotha/HandleyPage 0/100 link (not 0/400, as is wrongly stated). The most charitable thing one can say about the proof-readingis that it has not been good (e.g., "Fokker Glugzeugwerke Co."). There is no excuse, however, for such repeated mis-spellings asEindekker, Dorme, Richtofen and Oberursal (for Eindecker, Dorme, Richthofen and Oberursel).All of which is a great pity, for the book aims at meeting a real need. It is to be hoped that a corrected reprint will be produced.J.M.B. OTHER BOOKS RECEIVED The Role of Air Freight in Physical Distribution, by HowardT. Lewis et al. Harvard Business School. Bailey Bros, and Swinfen, Ltd., 46 St. Giles High Street, London, W.C.2. Price20s. Guided Weapons, by Eric Burgess. Chapman and Hall, Ltd.,37 Essex Street, London, W.C.2. Price 25s. Survival in the Sky, by Charles Coombs. Robert Hale, Ltd.,63 Old Brompton Road, London, S.W.7. Price 15s. Practical Microscopical Metallography, by Richard HenryGreaves and Harold Wrighton. Chapman and Hall, 37, Essex Street, London, W.C.2. Price 70s.Magnesium Casting Technology, by A. W. Brace and F. A. Allen. Chapman and Hall, 37, Essex Street, London. W.C.2.Price 21s. Combustion Researches and Reviews 1957, Agardograph 15.Butterworths Scientific Publications, 88 Kingsway, London, W.C.2. Price 40s. /•
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