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Aviation History
1957
1957 - 1478.PDF
568 FLIGHT, 11 October 1057 CORRESPONDENCE The Editor of "Flight" is not necessarily in agreement with the views expressed by correspondents in these columns;the names and addresses of the writers, not for publication in detail, must in all cases accompany letters. The R.Ae.S. and Veteran AircraftI HAVE read with no little interest the letter of "Ichabod"[October 4] and would agree that the veteran aircraft ought to be maintained in good order. I agree that to possess the aircraft is not enough, but there havebeen some difficulties unknown to your correspondent. As I am aware of the proverb which speaks of "excusing" and "accusing,"I do not intend to catalogue all the difficulties. All the Society's aircraft will be housed, in the immediate future,in a hangar, to which, I hope, access will be given. It is my hope that a maintenance squad will be formed, with the specific purposeof maintaining the aircraft until they are handed over to the National Aeronautical Museum. The ground over which "Ichabod" has sown his seed is notstony, for it has already been ploughed. London, W.I. A. M. BALLANTYNE,Secretary, the Royal Aeronautical Society. Underneath the Arches - TTHE letter from Mr. Maurice Austin, under the above heading,•*• immediately brought to mind the late Sir Francis McClean's flight up the Thames and under the arches of four bridges afterhaying first flown between the upper and lower spans of Tower Bridge. One of our national newspapers had arranged for a Frenchman,Lt. de Conneau, to fly a seaplane from France and land on the Thames and, on August 10, 1912, a large crowd and all the Pressassembled on the banks to watch this event. Mr. F. K. McClean, as he then was, had the idea that anything the French could dohe could do better and, armed with a Short Seaplane, took off from Harty Ferry, Isle of Sheppey, at 6.30 a.m. Havingnegotiated Tower Bridge he flew into a battery of Press cameras, all poised for the arrival of the Frenchman, and then underLondon Bridge, Southwark Bridge, Blackfriars Bridge and Waterloo Bridge, to land at Westminster at about 8 a.m. After the police had made enquiries as to how long Mr. McClean proposed leaving his machine on the water he taxeddown the river to below Tower Bridge and took off for his return flight. In turning at about 50ft he stalled and broke a float onhitting the water, which necessitated the machine being dis- mantled for its return to Sheppey.This was the first time that an aircraft had flown under a bridge in this country.While on this topic one wonders if there was ever any truth in the stories of the "Mad Majors" of the 1914-18 war who weresupposed to have flown through open hangars unscathed, and whether there is any photographic evidence of these escapades.Hounslow, Middx. H. F. COWLEY. A/CAY I call attention to what I consider the finest book on-"•*• air warfare that will ever be written, namely F/L. Richard Hillary's The Last Enemy On page 80 of the edition in myproud possession the author gives an extremely graphic account of flying a Spitfire under a bridge situated somewhere on theSevern. This was before he was posted to 603 Squadron at Turnhouse, just before the Battle of Britain. Letchworth, Herts. R. CROSS. The First Inverted Loop TN reply to Mr. Patrick Johnson's letter (September 20) I am••• certain that he can justly claim to be the first man to do an inverted loop in a light aircraft (as distinct from a "bunted" loopwith a roll off the top). Mr. Johnson is also quite correct about Pegoud. According to R. Dallas Brett's (Vol. 2) "History ofBritish Aviation," Pegoud did a bunt on September 1, 1913, in a Bleriot monoplane. It took the form of a large vertical "S" in thesky. Perhaps Mr. Johnson would be amused to know that on October 29, 1950, as a passenger in an R.A.F. de Havilland Chip-munk I enjoyed half-an-hour's aerobatics which included the lot— except an inverted loop ! Now, at the age of 53,1 have ambitionsto fly at over 40,000ft in a jet. Birmingham 14. MAURICE AUSTIN. THE INDUSTRY Transistor Production ON Tuesday of last week the new transistor factory of TexasInstruments, Ltd., at Bedford, was formally opened by Capt. Christopher Soames, Parliamentary and Financial Secretary to theAdmiralty and M.P. for Bedford. Among those present at the ceremony were Mr. Pat Haggerty, executive vice-president of theAmerican parent organization, Texas Instruments, Inc.; Mr. Dudley Saward, the British company's managing director (onwhose R.A.F. and civil aviation career a note was published in Flight for September 20); and Aid. A. A. Jones, the Mayor ofBedford. The plant is already in production with silicon tran- sistors; on the process, an interesting one, we hope to publisha note in the near future. .. r ; v -. Northern Aluminium Appointments SEVERAL new appointments have been announced in the salesdepartment of the Northern Aluminium Co., Ltd. Mr. E. D. Robinson, formerly assistant manager of the London areasales office, is now area sales manager in charge of the Man- chester office (where he succeeds Mr. D. A. Corbett-Thompson,whose appointment as sales manager in charge of export sales was announced earlier). Air. M. Bridgewater, who was previouslyin charge of the building and construction section of the sales development division and has just completed a year's study at theCentre d'Etudes Industrielles at Geneva, is now manager of the Northern Aluminium sales development division at Banbury.He succeeds Mr. E. D. Iliff, who (as already announced) has been appointed sales manager in charge of sales development,advertising and publicity. Hadfields Changes "FOLLOWING the departure of J. R. Rait, D.Sc, Ph.D.,•*• A.R.T.C., from Hadfields, Ltd., to take up a new appointment as joint managing director of Briton Ferry Steel Co.—leavingHadfields, as the company puts it, "with our grateful thanks for the good work he has done for us and our very best wishes for hisfuture success"—his place as research controller has been filled by T. H. Arnold, M.B.E., F.I.M. Mr. Arnold has also been made a local director of Hadfields, Ltd., and appointed to the Board ofHadfields Steels, Ltd., and Hadfields Forgings, Ltd. L. G. Finch, B.Met., Ph.D., has been made deputy researchcontroller; and the company further announce that Mr. D. R. Eastwood, M.I.Mech.E., M.I.E.E., deputy chief engineer, hasbeen appointed a local director of Hadfields, Ltd., and director of Hadfields Foundry and Engineering Co., Ltd.Mr. S. Leetch, M.C., who joined the parent firm in 1946 as steel-foundry controller and later became local director and workscontroller, has now retired. IN BRIEF Mr. James Annandale, D.F.C., A.M.I.E.E., has been appointeda director of Partridge, Wilson and Co., Ltd. He has been with them for over 25 years, latterly as sales manager.* * * Mr. Harold Caplan, D.C.Ae., A.F.R.Ae.S., A.M.I.Mech.E., hasbeen appointed chief technical officer of the air safety and survey division of the British Aviation Insurance Co, Ltd., following theresignation of Mr. Anderson. Mr. William M. Looman has severed his connection withBritish Plywood Manufacturers, Ltd., and London Plywood and Timber Co., Ltd., and in association with Spark Alloys, Ltd., hasestablished a new company under the title of W. M. Looman and Co., Ltd., as plywood and veneer importers. * * * The 1956 Brabazon Premium for the most outstanding contri-bution on radio and electronic devices for aircraft safety has been awarded by the British Institution of Radio Engineers to Mr. K. E.Harris, technical director of Cossor Radar and Electronics, Ltd., for his paper on Some Problems of Secondary Surveillance Radar. * * * Information on Nyvin cable from Rists Wires and Cables, Ltd.,Lower Milehouse Lane, Newcastle, Staffs, states that this is a light-weight cable of small cross-section, possessing high resistanceto damage from oils and fuels and good abrasion resistance, with the ability to operate at temperatures up to 90 deg C. It is to becovered by a new British Standards specification.
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