FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1958
1958 - 0341.PDF
FIRST AERONAUTICAL WEEKLY IN THE WORLD FOUNDED 1909 ^^ and AIRCRAFT ENGINEER No 2565 Vol 73 FRIDAY 21 MARCH 1958 Editor-in-Chief MAURICE A. SMITH D.F.C. AND BAR Editor H. F. KING M.B.E. Technical Editor W. T. GUNSTON Production Editor ROY CASEY Iliffe and Sons Ltd. Dorset House Stamford Street London, S.E.I Telephone • Waterloo 3333 Telegrams • Flightpres Sedist London BRANCH OFFICES Coventry 8-10 Corporation Street Telephone • Coventry 5210 Birmingham King Edward House, New Street, 2 Telephone • Midland 7191 (7 lines) Manchester 260 Deansgate, 2 Telephone • Blackfriars 4412 (3 lines) Deansgate 3595 (2 lines) Glasgow 26B Renfield Street, C.2 Telephone • Central 1265 (2 lines) New York, N.Y. Thomas Skinner and Co. (Publishers),Ltd. Ill Broadway, 6 Telephone • Digby 9-1197 ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION Home £4 15s Od, overseas £5 0s Od. Canada and US.A. $15.00. Second Class Mail privileges author- ised at New York, N.Y. in this issue 361 Air Estimates Debated 366 Opening Day at Embakasi 367 The New Tipsy 389-402 Hel'c°Pters of the World 379 Who Believes in Helicopters? 387 Helicopter Power 388 Helicopters in Civil Operation 405 Blackburn Turbomeca B By Thermal, Hill and WaveC UTTING through the gloomy fog of British sporting flying like a shaft of sunlight is the vigorous progress of this country's gliding movement. In popularity, flying activity and standard of performance, continued and well- defined advances were reported by Mr. Philip Wills in his annual report, last Saturday, as chairman of the British Gliding Association. Active membership of the clubs totalled 3,000 pilots; hours flown during 1957 increased by no less than 38 per cent to over 20,000; and eleven United Kingdom and British national records were broken. This steady increase in activity is not the only sign of the health of the move- ment. New ideas are continually being tried, and new problems—which in many cases are corollaries to increasingly high standards—are being tackled firmly. Intelligent and constructive discussion of ways to overcome these problems was a notable feature of the B.G.A. instructors' conference which preceded the annual general meeting. One problem tied to the increasingly high standards of pilotage and of aircraft performance was mentioned by Mr. Wills in his report. "The natural difficulties of the Channel barrier are getting less and less," he said, "and the best possibilities of breaking our present distance records and achieving distance flights of inter- national standard lie in flights across the Channel and into Europe. But although by our skill and techniques the difficulties imposed by Nature are being overcome, those imposed by man are indeed formidable. . . . The trouble is that a cross- channel day cannot be foreseen in time to make it possible to conform with the existing Customs and other procedures. . . . Additional problems for us are associated with international requirements for airworthiness and air navigation." Clearly the Channel should not be a major obstacle to high-performance flights— provided that ill-judged attempts in marginal weather are effectively discouraged. Prospects for Poland Britain's team for the 1958 World Gliding Championships to be held at Leszno, near Poznan, in June, also has its problems. The first is simply to raise enough money to equip the team and send it 850 miles, by sea and road, to Leszno. Once again the Society of British Aircraft Constructors has contributed generously with a gift of £1,000; and once again the Standard Motor Company is lending Vanguard estate cars, the Pye company is providing its lightweight and efficient radio equip- ment, and the oxygen companies are co-operating wholeheartedly. The Gliding Ball at Londonderry House on Friday last was a sparkling occasion and also, we hope, successful in its aim of raising more money for the Championships Fund. This sort of effort no doubt causes many a smile in those countries where gliding, as well as powered sporting flying, is completely subsidized by the government. There were a number of wondrous, all-metal glamour-sailplanes from these countries competing at St. Yan in 1956—the contest at which Fred Slingsby's T-42 boite a sardines, at about one-eighth the cost, won the two-seater class—and there will doubtless be many more exotic sophisticates at Leszno. Here in this country, the final selection of aircraft to be flown by the British team has not yet been made. From the famous Slingsby stable an improved-wing Skylark 3 is emerging, while the Skylark 2 already fits very well into the standard category. Elliotts of Newbury, having developed the Olympia 4 through succes- sive improvements since 1954, are producing the definitive version, the 419, for the open category, and the 15-metre 415 for the standard class. Aircraft for aircraft, the British types will probably compare well in handling qualities, well in medium-weather performance, and not so well in absolute per- formance in exceptionally strong soaring weather, with their more refined and expensive foreign competitors. Pilot for pilot, national differences are less clearly marked. Certainly the Navy/Army/civilian combination of the formidable Goodhart brothers, the resolute Colonel Deane-Drummond and veteran birdman Philip Wills is the strongest team ever produced by Britain.
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
