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Aviation History
1958
1958 - 0771.PDF
6 June 1958 Correspondence The Editor of "Flight" is not necessarily in agreement with the views expressed by correspondents in these columns; the namesand addresses of the writers, not for publication in detail, must in all cases accompany letters. Cody and his BiographersI WOULD sooner trust the accuracy of Mr. G. A. Broomfield'smemory of Cody (Flight, May 16) than Mr. Charles Gibbs- Smith's (May 23) second-, third-, or fourth-hand knowledgegleaned from delving into ancient tomes. Gibbs-Smith's touching faith in the infallibility of The Timesof those days is so naive! I remember so well how we laughed at the inaccuracy and downright wrongness of the aviation newspublished in the daily Press of those days. The people in the Balloon Factory at Farnborough at thatperiod were allergic to the Press and told reporters what suited them at the time; and Colonel Capper enjoyed leg-pullins, as alsodid Cody. They little realized that fifty years later there would be a Gibbs-Smith to swallow it all, hook, line and sinker. How little he can visualize Cody is seen from his last sentence,in which he refers to him as the "old gentleman"! Cody was only 52 when he was killed in 1913. London, S.W.5. GEOFFREY DORMAN. taking sides in the discussion in print on Cody'sfirst flight, may I make two points in a cautionary fashion concerned with Mr. Gibbs-Smith's statements? He says: "There is no known contemporary account of theMay 16 tests." But what he must mean is known to him: if the flight(s) took place, it is certain someone knew of them, and it isimpossible for Mr. Gibbs-Smith to have had time to conduct a full-scale search in the ultimate sense of that term. Secondly, to trace events through mentions in The Times of50 years ago, and believe that there must lie the fons et origo of truth, displays a naivete that is to be distrusted. The Timesof 1908 was one of the worst news-papers: and was easily eclipsed and outclassed by many defunct publications such as the West-minster Gazette, the Pall Mall Gazette, and so on. Had Mr. Gibbs- Smith reported that the local newspapers of the time at Weybridgehad no account; had he searched the local newspapers at Hendon and Eastchurch (where the spies were always on the qui vive fornews of activities at rival camps); had he searched the secret archives of the War Office; and had he traced living people of thetime and their descendants of today; had he done all this—which in the time he could not have done—then there might be weight tohis views. But merely to quote The Times of yesteryear, giving that deadly Thunderer the zing and prestige of its current issues,is merely to fail to grasp the realities of the newspaper revolution of the past half-century. Far more important is the general proposition that everythingwould have been written down—ergo, if it was not recorded in writing then the situation was non est. Nothing could be furtherfrom the truth. London, W.I. B. J. HURREN. REFERRING to Mr. Charles H. Gibbs-Smith's article in Flightfor May 23, may I bring to your notice the Journal of the Royal Aeronautical Society for September 1954, in which it islaid down by no less an authority than Mr. Charles H. Gibbs-Smith that Cody made the first sustained flight in Great Britain onMay 16, 1908. The paragraph reads as follows: — "Here may we say with fervour that if Cody had been naturalized in1908 instead of 1910, all the bitter nonsense about certain claims to be the first Englishman to fly would have been knocked decisively on thehead, for Cody unquestionably made the first proper powered aeroplane flight in this country—powered, sustained and controlled—on May 16th,1908, on his British Army Aeroplane Number One. He made five flights on that day over Laffan's Plain, the longest being 150ft, at a height ofabout 10ft. On the 5th October that year he flew 496 yds at about 5O-6Oft above the ground." May I add that in consequence of this evidence I consider that the inscription to this effect should be restored to the plaque on the celebrated tree at Farnborough. Virginia Water, Surrey. G. A. BROOMFIELD. [Mr. Broomfield appends a number of cuttings from recent issues ofThe Aldershot News. One of them is a letter from Mr. Vivian Cody (S. F. Cody's son), who writes—referring to an earlier note in thatnewspaper—"I am afraid I did not explain clearly the first flights on May 16, 1908. There were five flights in all on the first day. The firstwas only a few inches from the ground to test the lift of the machine, the second, third and fourth were better than the first, but on the fifthrun the machine left the ground for about 150ft, and reached a height of about eight feet, the highest point being about half-way along theflight."—Ed.] 787 Aircraft Electrical Systems T WOULD like to refer to Mr. Lionel G. Hill's most interesting,*- but in my view misleading, article on "Electrical Systems in the Air" in Flight dated May 2. Since I have been directly concerned with the test and develop-ment of an all-A.C. aircraft my remarks will be confined to some of the technical aspects of such a system, leaving others to dealwith the remainder of the article. In all constant-speed mechanical or hydraulic drives a free-wheel device is incorporated to prevent the alternator attempting to motor the engine. My experience with a particular hydraulicdrive has shown that its free-wheel device, far from being a "bodge," has been trouble-free, and there is no tendency foralternators to fall out of synchronism even on full load switching. As Mr. Hill remarks, accurate frequency control is not aninsuperable problem; and, in fact from our experience on the system under test, the problem never existed. Your contributor's notes on load-sharing appear to be somewhatconfused. In the case of the system under test the governor only receives one signal relayed from a magnetic amplifier. It is thelatter which receives the separate frequency and load-control signals. There is no doubt about the ability of the magneticamplifier to sort out the signals. Moreover, the system is analogous to the voltage regulator on a D.C. generator which receives twosignals; one from the voltage sensing gear and the other from the equalizing system. As regards mismatched alternators, my experience has shownthat the degree of mismatching arising from production tolerances, both on alternators and control gear, is quite acceptable. Both thereal and reactive load-sharing obtained in our tests are better than comparable results from the most modern D.C. system. Theprotection system is engineered with unearthed current trans- formers, thus one earth fault on the protection lines will not causesystem failure. Mr. Hill's suggestion of a common constant-frequency referenceis surely rather dangerous. What happens in the event of a failure of the reference, or is it duplicated? My experience of the multiple-reference system is that it works very well. I cannot agree that it is difficult to arrange for aircraft loads tobe in reasonable balance in all three phases—we have not found it so. Mr. Hill does not appear to be aware that the Merz Price system,whilst detecting line-to-line and line-to-earth faults, does not detect an out-of-balance between phase currents. As previouslymentioned, in a properly designed aircraft system large out-of- balance phase currents do not exist. Admittedly I am only writing on the basis of actual testexperience, but it is surely more valuable than the conjectures of your correspondent. Stockport, Cheshire. J. C. PILCHER. T MUST clear up some misconceptions which are bound to have•*• arisen as a result of Mr. Hill's recent article. On what authority or first-hand experience does he base such rash statements aboutparalleled A.C. systems? I have been directing the efforts of a team—which does not include Mr. Hill—who for the past 18months have been testing in the laboratory and in flight the first constant-frequency paralleled system in this country, so perhapsthe opinion of one with practical experience in these matters will bear more weight than one who is just theorising. I will not dwell on the misleading statements in the article,but wish to assure all prospective users of the constant-frequency system that it has survived rigorous flight testing, which includedeliberate faulting in an attempt to induce complete loss of control and failure. As a result of these trials we have the confidence toinstall this equipment in an aircraft with electrically powered flying-control surfaces. The suggestion that electrical engineers—any type of engineerfor that matter—would allow political considerations to over- rule his natural sense of responsibility is sheer bunkum. D.C.,rectified A.C. and constant-frequency systems each have their own advantages, but it is the nature and amount of power required onan aircraft which dictates the best system to use. One point in Mr. Hill's favour. I do admire his ability as acartoonist. Gatley, Cheshire. P. C. FINUCANE._ Atlantic Carriers YOUR article headed "The Most Important Route" in Flightdated May 23 was very interesting; however, you mention Aerlinte as being the seventeenth carrier on the North Atlantic. Surely you have overlooked Qantas, as they have been operating on this route since January of this year. London, S.W.5. D. GRANTHAM, [Including Seaboard and Western—the all-cargo airline—Aerlinteare in fact the eighteenth airline to compete for North Atlantic traffic —Ed.]
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