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Aviation History
1957
1957 - 1464.PDF
554 FLIGHT, 4 October 1957 THE INDUSTRY Vacuum-melted Steel VESTERDAY, October 3, an inaugural ceremony was taking*• place in Sheffield, where Sir Frederick Pickworth, the Master Cutler (and chairman of the English Steel Corporation) was dueto open the new high-vacuum melting department of G. L. Willan, Ltd., at Sussex Street. The company, a comparatively small one incorporated in 1952,specializes in the production of high-quality steel, particularly for the aircraft industry, in which connection A.I.D. approval wasgiven in 1954. Some eighteen months ago it was decided to investigate the possibilities of the vacuum melting process. Earlylast year work started on the installation of 50 kW 56 Ib-capacity equipment made by the EFCO-Edwards Vacuum MetallurgicalCo., Ltd., and a new 40ft span x 75ft long building was erected to house it. Preliminary melting trials were made last summer.The aim, it is stated, is to use the new plant as a production unit rather than for research, and orders have already been receivedfrom a number of aircraft firms. Heenan Japanese Order AN order has been placed by the National Aeronautical Research** Laboratory of Tokyo with Heenan and Froude, Ltd., Wor- cester Engineering Works, Worcester, for a Heenan dynamaticdynamometer designed to absorb 5,000 b.h.p. at speeds between 5,000 and 10,000 r.p.m. It is to be used for research and develop-ment work on gas turbines, and the design allows for a similar machine to be added in tandem at a later date. The type orderedoperates on the Heenan dynamatic eddy-current principle control of load and speed being achieved electronically. Bristol Aircraft Appointment TN a news-item last week, brief reference was made to the appqint-*• ment of Mr. P. E. G. Bates as commercial manager of Bristol Aircraft, Ltd., in succession to Mr. F. E. Davey. Mr. Davey, who has held the post for 15 years, is for the timebeing to remain with the company in an advisory capacity. He joined the Bristol Aeroplane Co. (as it was then) in 1910, only fourmonths after its formation. From 1914 to 1940 he served in the Mr. P. E. G. Bates. Mr. F. E. Davey. specifications department, being responsible for liaison betweenthe management and the works and also for the preparation of aircraft material requirements. Then after two years as assistantcommercial manager, Mr. Davey was appointed commercial manager in 1943. Mr. Bates, who succeeds him, was in the Colonial Administra-tive Service after the war, leaving in 1954 to join the aero-engine division of Rolls-Royce, Ltd. From there he went to Bristol Air-craft in March this year. In his new post he will be responsible for the company's commercial and contractual activities. Peter King Leaving Bristol "DUBLIC Relations Officer to the Bristol Aeroplane Company•*• since 1954, Mr. Peter King is leaving to take up a new appoint- ment as general manager of Crop Culture (Aerial), Ltd., and itsassociated company Britten-Norman, Ltd. Crop Culture was formed in 1954 to specialize in the applicationof chemical treatments by air. Its fleet of 14 aircraft is equipped for aerial spraying and top dressing, and operations have beenundertaken in the United Kingdom, the Sudan and in French and British West Africa. In the Sudan last year, the company sprayed 65,000 acres of cotton in five weeks. Work completedthis year includes 150,000 acres, out of a total of a quarter of a million, on banana crops, and about 12,000 acres of treatment onvarious farms in the United Kingdom. Britten-Norman, Ltd., are engaged in the design and manufac-ture of agricultural aviation equipment, mainly for export. IQ addition, they manage Bembridge Airport, I.o.W., which is theheadquarters and engineering base of both companies. Before going to Bristol, Mr. King was with the Society ofBritish Aircraft Constructors. He .was an Exhibitioner of Jesus College, Cambridge, and served with the Royal Air Force from1943 to 1947. D.H. Propellers Changes UNDER a reorganization of the sales division at de HavillandPropellers, Ltd., referred to briefly in last week's issue, Mr. J. A. Airey has been appointed sales manager, guided weapons;Mr. J. B. Waite has now joined the company as technical sales liaison officer, guided weapons; and there have been two other newappointments, Mr. P. Brett becoming sales manager, propellers and associated equipment, and Mr. G. K. Webb being appointedadministration manager, sales division. A.V-M. F. W. Long will continue to act as liaison officer. Mr. Airey, who will be responsible for co-ordinating the saleseffort for Firestreak, both at home and overseas, was formerly the company's chief dynamics engineer. Mr. Waite has joined D.H.Propellers from D. Napier and Son, Ltd., where for the last six years—having been with that company since 1942—he was salesmanager, aero engines. Mr. Brett has been chief project engineer at D.H. Propellers for the past two years; and Mr. Webb wasformerly chief sales engineer. All these new appointments have been made under Mr. C. R.Burgess, sales director of de Havilland Propellers, Ltd. Mr. Cyril Waine T TNTIL his death in a recent helicopter accident at East Stratton,*-' Hants (as recorded in our issue for September 20), Mr. Cyril Waine had been with Alvis, Ltd., for more than twenty years,most of it spent in the development and servicing of the company's aero engines. He helped to build the prototype Leonides, beingresponsible for installing and maintaining the first one in the Bristol Bulldog; and during the Second World War he wasengaged in planning the repair of Rolls-Royce Kestrels and Merlins at the dispersal factories of Alvis, Ltd. After the war hereturned to Coventry and was a founder of the aero engine service department, for which he had since worked as advisory engineer. IN BRIEF Automotive Products Associated, Ltd., announced recently"with the greatest regret" the death after a long illness of Mr. J. K. Simpson, chief engineer and executive director of theLockheed Hydraulic Brake Co., Ltd., and associated companies. * • * A memorial service was held at Chelsea parish church of St.Luke on September 24 for Mr. S. C. H. Roberts, A.M.I.Mech.E., F.I.M.I., A.I.B.A.E., chairman and founder of the College ofAeronautical and Automobile Engineering, Chelsea, and of the British School of Motoring, and J. Caryton, Ltd., who died on September 3 at the age of 68. * * * Aero Research, Ltd., Duxford, Cambs, have published an infor-mative illustrated booklet, Araldite Resins for Tooling, describing the applications of Araldite epoxy resins as tooling materials. * * * Referring to their trade-marks "Cocoon" and "Texikoon," men-tioned in our Farnborough Show Report, R. A. Brand and Co., Ltd., emphasize the "k" spelling of the latter name.* * * Technical information is now available on new high-tempera-ture cements marketed under the trade name "Brimor" by the Morgan Crucible Co., Ltd., Battersea Church Road, Battersea,London, S.W.I 1. * * •* The year book just issued by Teddington Aircraft Controls,Ltd., Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales, provides comprehensive and up-to-date technical data on equipment designed and manufac-tured by the company; in appearance and content it forms a model for such publications. * * * Mr. W. McLelland, since 1945 foundry manager at the Black-heath works of Firth-Vickers Stainless Steels, Ltd., has been appointed area sales manager (Scotland and North-East England)by A.P.V.-Paramount, Ltd., of Crawley, stainless and alloy steel founders. He will also act in a technical advisory capacity in thisnew appointment, which he talces up on October 1.
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