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Aviation History
1958
1958 - 0712.PDF
728 FLIGHT, 30 May 1958 FROM ALL QUARTERS . . . Royal Visitor to Shoreham DURING a visit to Shoreham last week, the Duke of Edinburghtoured the works of F. G. Miles, Ltd., at Shoreham Airport and witnessed flight demonstrations of the M.100 Student jettrainer and HDM.105 light transport prototype. Static exhibits arranged for the occasion included examples of the work of theMiles companies, Meridian Airmaps, Ltd., F. G. Miles technical publications department, Miles Development Products, Ltd.,Miles Electronics, Ltd., Miles Plastics, Ltd., and Marketad, Ltd. Durestos plastics were shown as applied in a large underwingfuel tank, a suppressed fin-tip aerial for the Vickers 544, an all-plastics, laminar-flow glider wing, a slat section for the MilesHDM.106 flap system, a container for a Cory Brothers 20-man inflatable life raft, a booster fin for the Bristol Bloodhound andmany other parts, one of them chromium-plated. The slat section was balsa-wood filled, while the Bloodhound fin was mouldedintegrally with its metal spar and skins, internal stiffening consist- ing of spanwise corrugations forming sloped spars. Technicalpublications included the handbook drawings for Viscount and Hunter.Miles Development Products, Ltd., exhibited chemically milled metal, precision machining and a twin-motor aircraft-servoactuator in which the two drives were so geared to the single output shaft that failure of one motor caused the other to rotatethe output shaft at half speed and half power, but at the same torque. Adjustable limit-switches were incorporated. Made forthe Atomic Weapons Research Establishment was a remote air- valve control for high-speed cameras in which angular positionsaccurate to \ deg could be remotely reproduced. There was also automatic photographic processing equipment capable of passingfilm of any size at controlled speeds through developer, water and fixer tanks held at constant temperature. Miles Electronics are engaged mainly in the production of theSea Vixen simulator and of procedure trainers for the Scimitar and Javelin. A system of standard "building block" componentshas been developed to allow construction of any simulator with The Duke of Edinburgh, accompanied by Mr. F. G. Miles, inspects the cockpit of the Miles Student jet trainer at Shoreham. DJINN AND LIME? Transported from Le Touquet to Lydd in a Silver City Airways Freighter, this Sud-Aviation Djinn was assembled and flown on to Ipswich Airport, where it was demonstrated. It is one of two which, fitted with 44 gal chemical tanks and spray-booms, are to be used for crop spraying in this country by European Helicopters, a new firm with headquarters at Ipswich. Well shown in this picture is the Turbomeca Palouste turbo-generator and its hand-starting gear. Duncan Mclntosh, recently appointed chief test pilot for F. G. Miles, Ltd., demonstrated the M.100 Student before the Duke of Edinburgh. the minimum of expensive one-offcomponents. There are a standard plug-in amplifier unit, gearboxesand linear potentiometers. The last- named can be adapted to reproducenon-linear functions by adding resistances at any of a large num-ber of tappings on the standard potentiometer. The responses of aparticular simulator section can also be changed if, with modifica-tions, the aircraft characteristics alter, simply by soldering in new resistors on the relevant potentiometer tappings—a relativelyunskilled task causing the minimum of down-time. Special potentiometer cards are not required. Computation is by A.C.methods. Another important simulator is the training system for flight refuelling of Valiant, Vulcan and Victor, all three controlpositions being included in a single simulator. In addition to producing the prototypes of the Student anddeveloping the use of the very-high-aspect ratio wing in conjunc- tion with the French Hurel Dubois company, Miles have mademany aircraft sub-assemblies for other companies. They are at the moment engaged in producing complete nacelle nose-ringsfor the Rolls-Royce Conway powerplants for Boeing 707s. The HDM.105 now has its limited C. of A. and plans are in handfor production of the promising HDM.106 Caravan. Powered by two 340 h.p. Lycoming GSO-480 engines, this machine offersexcellent short-field performance, particularly in tropical condi- tions. A Scandinavian sales tour for the Student is planned forthe near future. Long-stroke LeonidesN OW completing its first 50 hours' running at Alvis is a;developed version of the Leonides that should produce about" 630 b.h.p. for take-off. The well-known tuning expedient oi:overstroking has been adopted, i.e., the stroke has been increased by boring the connecting rod on extended centres; the sameforging blank is used. Leonides engines from the Coventry factory are now beingproduced at a rate of about 30 a month. Of these, about one- ; third are still Leonides Majors, although production of this engineis now tapering off. Alvis say that the Navy are very satisfied with the performance of the Leonides Major engines in their WestlandWhirlwinds; these powerplants are being operated at overhaul lives of about 250 hr. Although Leonides Majors in the Whirlwindsfor Austria may have about double this overhaul life, 250 hr is quite : a satisfactory figure for Service use; R.A.F. Flying Training Com-mand operated their Leonides-powered Provosts at this life (largely for ground-crew training purposes), although the number of hours •could easily have been extended. Scottish Aviation's Twin Pioneers, for example, have just been cleared for engine lives of1,000 hr. The latest application for the Leonides is the four-enginedGiovanni Agusta AZ-8 which has been rolled out for engine runs : at Gallarate, Northern Italy, and should make its first flight by the send of this month. Alvis may see in this supply of engines for an Italian light transport and executive an augury for the future; theyare considering seriously the marketing possibilities of aero engines; for light executive singles or twins. There is little Europeancompetition in this field and many observers contend that there': should be a wide increase in the demand for this type of aircraft in;Europe during the next ten years. : The Billion-dollar League DURING the calendar year 1957 five firms in the Americaraircraft industry achieved sales in excess of one billion (i.e. in America, 109) dollars. Their results are as follows: Boeing Airplane Co., $1,596,509,000; General Dynamics (Conyair, Canadair and other companies), $1,562,539,000; North American Aviation$1,243,767,000; United Aircraft, $1,232,919,000; and Douglas. $1,091,000,000. In each case the result was an improvement overthe calendar year 1956. '
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