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Aviation History
1957
1957 - 1703.PDF
FLIGHT, 22 November 1957 791 COMMERCIAL TRAVELLER: The de Havilland Comet 3 prototype flew to Zurich on November 13 to be sampled by Swissair. Dr. Rudolf V. Heberlein, the airline's chairman, made flights over the Alps with his co-directors and with senior executives of the airline. Swissair, who are expected soon to decide on their medium transport re-equipment programme, are studying the new 4C, described in "Flight" last week. a necessary preliminary for C.A.A. certification—at the full NE1.6rating of 3,500 e.h.p. has not yet been run but, now that prepara- tion of the demonstrator is complete, say Napier, the observedtest is "imminent." TV Discussion on the Industry I>J the B.B.C. television programme Panorama last Monday nightSir George Edwards, Mr. E. C. Bowyer, Rear Admiral Sir Matthew Slattery and Dr. G. V. Lachmann were asked for theirviews on the British aircraft industry. On the whole, considering that they were expected to give balanced answers to WoodrowWyatt's weighted questions in the space of seven minutes, they did quite well. It seemed a pity, however, that a potentially usefulpiece of television journalism should have been in such a rush to beat the studio clock. Sir George Edwards felt that if the industry concentrated itsresources to back up its brains it could "see its competitors off." Mr. Bowyer thought "the present set-up is pretty efficient"; it wasexporting at the rate of £100 million a year, and he did not agree that a great deal of money had been wasted on it. He hoped thatany amalgamations would happen naturally. Sir Matthew Slattery did not deny that the Britannia was late, but pointed out that itwas the final result that mattered. The Britannia 102's reliability was such that it was getting in more hours a day [7| hr per aircraft;B.CXA.C.'s overall figure is 6.91 hr/aircraft/day—Ed.] than air- craft that had been in service for some time. He did not think thatthe 707 and DC-8 "would knock us out altogether": air transport would increase only by cheap fares, which were what the turbo-prop would bring. Dr. Lachmann made a plea for more Govern- ment support of basic research, "the lifeblood of the industry";and Sir George had the final word by saying that it would be a big help to the industry if it could sometimes have a bit ofencouragement instead of ill-informed comment. Aviation M.P.'s New Chairmanship f ELL known for his knowledgable comments in the course ofaviation debates in the House of Commons, A. Cdre. Sir Arthur Vere Harvey, C.B.E., M.P., who is deputy chairman ofHandley Page, Ltd., has accepted an invitation to become chairman of theBoards of Aero Research, Ltd., Dux- ford, and of Ciba, Ltd., Horsham. Inannouncing the appointment, Aero Research state that he succeeds SirRaymond Needham, Q.C., who has been chairman since 1947 and remainsa director of both companies. Sir Arthur, who is 51 years of age,first served in the R.A.F. from 1925 to 1930, qualifying as a flying instruc-tor, and was the founder of No. 615 (County of Surrey) Squadron,R.Aux.A.F. During die succeeding years he had civil aviation interests inA. Cdre. Sir Arthur Harvey, the Far East, and also served as adviser to the Southern Chinese Air Forces.In 1939-40, during his second period of R.A.F. service (1939-45), he commanded No. 615 Sqn. in France, and was twice Mentionedin Despatches. Since 1945 he has been M.P. for the Macclesfield Division of Cheshire, and chairman of the Conservative PartyCivil Aviation Sub-Committee. His directorships include those of Milliard, Ltd., and Philips Electrical, Ltd. Sputnik II Details A DDITIONAL information was given in Moscow last week*• concerning the second artificial Earth satellite. An editorial article in Pravda of November 13 described the structure of thesatellite (pictures, p. 792), and at a Press conference two days later the first official announcement was made that the dog Laika haddied from a deficiency of oxygen. The Pravda article stated that, on the basis of data from thetracking of the first sputnik, this satellite's life would be about three months from the date of launching (October 4). The life ofits carrier rocket would be shorter than this, and the second sputnik would continue in orbit for "an appreciably longer timethan Sputnik I." Also included in the article were the following extracts:"Soviet Sputnik II, as distinct from Sputnik I, is the last stage of a ro£iet, housing all the scientific and measuring equipment. This method of housing the equipment appreciably simplified the task of ascertaining the sputnik's bearings by means of optical observation. . ."Both the chamber for the test animal and the spherical container were made of aluminium alloys. They had a polished surface, speciallytreated so as to impart the required coefficients of emission and absorp- tion of solar radiance. The heat-regulating arrangement inside thespherical container and the animal's chamber maintained a fixed temperature, deflecting the heat into the hull by forced gas circula-tion. . . "Though the use of high-altitude rockets has also yielded valuableresults, only the sputniks enable us to carry out systematic measure- ments over the long periods of time necessary to study the variations inthe intensity of short-wave ultra-violet radiation. "Three special photo-electronic multipliers, set at an angle of 120degrees to each other, serve as receptors of radiation. Each photo- multiplier is consecutively covered with several filters of thin metallicand organic film and also of special optical materials, making it possible to single out the different bands in the X-ray region of the solar spectrum,and the hydrogen line in the extreme ultra-violet region. The electric signals given out by the photo-multiplier trained on the sun wereamplified by radio devices and telemetered to stations on the ground. "Owing to the continual change in the sputnik's bearings in relationto the Sun and also owing to the fact that part of its orbit was not lit by the Sun for a certain period of time, the electric circuits in the apparatuswere switched on, in order to feed the batteries, only when the Sun came within range of vision of any of the three light receptors. This was doneby means of photo-resistors lit by the Sun at the same time as the photo-multipliers, and by an automatically functioning device. . . "The particles comprising cosmic radiation are recorded aboard thesputnik by means of counters of charged particles. When the counter traps an electrically charged particle, a spark arises, sending an impulseto a radio arrangement of semi-conductor triodes, the purpose of which is to count the number of cosmic ray particles and send out a signalwhen a definite number of particles has been counted. . . "The sputnik had two identical devices for recording charged par-ticles. The axes of the counters in the two devices were reciprocally perpendicular."Preliminary systematization of data provided by the sputnik on cosmic radiation has shown that both devices functioned normally. Thedependance of the number of cosmic-ray particles on the geomagnetic latitude was clearly discernible. . ." Referring to the study of biological phenomena in connectionwith the test dog Laika, the article stated, "Already at the present time we can say that the test animal stood up well to the protractedeffects of acceleration when the sputnik was being aligned on orbit and to the subsequent state of zero gravity which continued forseveral days . . ." Confirmation that the dog had died came at a Moscow Press conference on November 15, when Prof. AlexeiPokrovski said, "The dog Laika is dead. The work of the oxygen regeneration plant came to an end when the experiment finished." By Tuesday last the two satellites had completed 700 and 250orbits respectively. In Washington, a possible delay in launching the first fully instrumented U.S. satellite was reported; the firsttest satellite launch remained scheduled for December. Croydon Gets a "No" QUESTION and answer about the future of Croydon airportin the House of Commons on November 13 brought a re- affirmation from Mr. Airey Neave, Joint Parliamentary Secretaryto the M.T.C.A., of the Minister's decision to close the airport. An informal meeting with representatives of tenant firms andaero clubs has been arranged for today at Biggin Hill, the alter- native airfield which the Minister has proposed. The Minister's refusal to reconsider the continuation of Croydonnotwithstanding, there is likely to be considerable resistance to any move to Biggin unless adequate assurance can be given thataccess and facilities will be improved and the air traffic control problem will be considerably eased. Hawker P.1121: Late Report /COMMENTING on the report (page 792) that work had been^ stopped on the P.I 121, Hawker Aircraft state as we go to press, "The expression 'cocooned' was merely a figure of speech. Workhas not been stopped, although it is going on at a very much reduced rate." They hoped that orders would come; and the workwould then be "at full bore."
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