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Aviation History
1959
1959 - 0235.PDF
110 FLIGHT, 16 January 195? CORRESPONDENCE ... A.T.CO.s should be, in all cases, a completely independent body,and not remain under normal Civil Service procedures; this would iron out a lot of the present difficulties existing (e.g., a five-day iweek, which no working Grade A.T.C.O. enjoys, in the sense of Saturday and Sunday off each week. Public holidays in lieu do notcompletely compensate for periods worked—last Christmas, for example, when most normal Civil Servants finished Wednesdaynoon and returned Monday morning). It seems entirely wrong to me that a pilot of a public transportaircraft must be licensed, and yet may well be controlled at some airports by A.T.C.O.s, in I.M.C. conditions, who are unlicensed(licensing is not yet compulsory). M.T.C.A. have had plenty of time to introduce licensing, and have not yet done so, althoughI am aware of the hard work put in by the Guild of Air Traffic Control Officers in this direction, and that it will be introducedabout 1960; the time is ripe now—A.T.C.O.s have had plenty of time and warning about this.Let me end with a thought for 1959. The military and civil air- craft air collision in Italy could be repeated in this country now,under the present system; remember, we have not one A.T.C. system but at least three—M.T.C.A., R.A.F., and U.S.A.F. TheUnited States have tackled the same problem by an immediate formation of a new overall authority in F.A.A. Let us follow suitnow, before the summer traffic starts, with legislation as neces- sary, and not wait until our near-miss and accident totals are ashigh as theirs. V.M.C. in Airways is stupid and solves nothing, but simply allows buck-passing to an already overloaded pilot respon-sibility list. London, W.I. -* LA DELUGE. Croydonization I WAS shocked to read in recent issues of Flight that South-ampton Airport is at the top of the short list for Croydoniza- tion. What folly is this that is besieging our airports? Indeed, ifone examines the reason given, it would seem that they apply to 90 per cent of all airfields.The annual loss on Eastleigh is quoted at £145,000. May we be told how this figure is derived? Surely revenue from the airfieldpremises housing active industrial concerns must go a long way to supporting the airport's overheads, or is Eastleigh blessed withexcessive luxuries? Could it be that the rates levied on the place are unrealistically high and inability to meet these is regarded asa loss? We live in an age which thinks in terms of continuous develop-ment and expansion, but is this really necessary? Does not East- leigh serve adequately the only sort of aircraft ever likely to use it?As for the railway development scheme which it is said prevents the runways being lengthened, we all know the colour of our rail-ways' balance sheet, which leaves little doubt as to who will pay for that, if ever it receives approval. With the growth of population and the saturation of surface FORTHCOMING EVENTS Jan. 16. Institute of Navigation: "Blind Landing Problems," by W. J. Charnley. Jan. 17. Aircraft Recognition Society: All-England Contest. Jan. 21. Manchester Metallurgical Society (Institute of Metals): "Investigation of Metallurgical Failures in Aircraft," by D. A. Ryder. Jan. 26-29. Institute of the Aeronautical Sciences: 27th Annual Meeting. Jan. 27. R.Ae.S.: "The Noise Problem in Relation to Engine Design," by P. Lloyd. Feb. 5. R.Ae.S.: First Halford Memorial Lecture, by J. L. P. Brodie (at Hatfield Branch). Feb. 6. Helicopter Association: "Some Engineering Aspects of Helicopter Assessment Trials," by H. J. Webb. Feb. 7. British Interplanetary Society: "High-energy Fuels and Rocket Propulsion," by Dr. F. Fitzgerald. Feb. 9. R.Ae.S. Guided Flight Section: "Theoretical Studies of Guided-missile Control Systems," by E. G. C. Burt. R.Ae.S. Branch Fixtures (to Jan. 23): Jan. 20, Luton, junior paper evening. Jan. 22, Bristol, "Guided Missiles," by Dr. R. Cockburn; Isle of Wight, "Nuclear Propulsion of Aircraft," by J. V. Dunworth; Southend, "Modern Aircraft Production Methods." transport, it is a short-sighted policy to destroy the few remainingcentrally situated airfields, however small. Those responsible for the future of Eastleigh might do well totake a leaf out of Southend's book. Gerrards Cross, Bucks. MICHAEL J. DIBLE. "Party Politics" EchoI SHOULD like to refute Mr. Alec Smith's suggestion [Corres-pondence, December 26] that I do not read my copy of Flight. I do read it—most avidly, from cover to cover in fact. However, asmy original letter [December 12] was written before I received the previous week's copy to "which he refers, I hope I am excused onthat point. As to his second remark, I must confess with shame that I am notof the "Top People," and I cannot afford their newspaper. All my spare money is spent on aeronautical publications.Bodmin, Cornwall. JONATHAN EASTHOPE. Early Oddities TN All the World's Airships (Aeroplanes and Dirigibles') 1909-10,•*• by Fred T. Jane, I have found a reference to the Barber Mono- plane and the Howard Wright biplane, both fitted with contra-propengines. Which was the first contra-prop aeroplane to fly (with the propellers on one shaft)? And was the Howard Wright biplane thefirst contra-prop pusher aeroplane? Again, was the Humphrey flying-boat the first aeroplane to be equipped with elevons? Furthermore, do any photographs of the following aeroplanesstill exist?: (1) The French Vermoral Tri-drumplane; (2) the Givaudan Drumplane (also built in France)—these two have to beseen to be believed; (3) the American Kunow Flapper; and (4) the following: the Thompson, the Lake, and the Wade Air Sucker(which unfortunately are not illustrated). Birmingham 14. MAURICE AUSTIN. EVALUATING INTEGRATING GYROSCOPES APPARATUS for the precise evaluation of low-wander-rate**• gyroscopes has been developed by the weapons research division of A. V. Roe and Co. Ltd. The gyro under test isconnected by means of flexible cable to a control rack containing the necessary electrical supplies and monitoring equipment.These include a tuning-fork-stabilized 400 c/s supply for feeding the spinner and signal generator, a heater-control circuit whichholds the gyro temperature to ±-| deg C. and a signal generator output-meter which gives a direct indication of gimbal angulardisplacement. The gyro is mounted on an accurately designed rotating tablewith its axis in the vertical plane through the local meridian and which may be inclined at any suitable angle to the vertical. Thetable is driven through a reduction gearbox by a servo motor, the signal input of which is derived from the gyro signal generatoroutput. The "tightness" of this loop ensures that the table rate is a faithful reproduction of the gyro output rate. The table is fitted with an optical pick-off arranged to give aphase reversal of an A.C. signal for every 18 sec of arc angular movement. This signal is used to drive a phase-sensitive relayin such a way that a pulse output is obtained for each angular interval. Overall angular accuracy of each of these pulses isbetter than 1 sec of arc and the cumulative error over the full 360 deg is from 2 to 4 sec of arc. The optical pick-off output pulses are fed into an electronicinterval selector which, by means of two decade switches, can be set up to give an output pulse for every 1 to 100 input pulses—i.e., any angular interval in steps of 18 sec of arc may be selected from 18 to 1,800 sec of arc (^ deg). The interval selector output is used to trigger a time counterwhich is fed by 10 millisec pulses derived from the standard tuning-fork supply. The decimal counter has a five-digit capacityand can thus measure the time taken for the table to traverse the selected angular interval up to a maximum of 1,000 sec oftime. Accuracy of time measurement is ± 1 count ± tuning-fork stability. At the end of each count the state of the counter is automatic-ally scanned and the resulting information fed to an electric type- writer. The counters are in fact employed so that one is main-taining the continuity of the count whilst information is being printed out from the other and vice versa. Facilities are aisoavailable for subjecting the gyro to toppling tests. ITALIAN AERONAUTICAL FILM FESTIVAL A SERIES of film sessions lasting up to a week have beenorganized in Milan by the Italian Centro di Cultura Aero- nautica, whose president is the well-known pilot and writer ManerLualdi. For a week at the end of last November the first session, held in one of the major cinemas of Milan, was dedicated to theU.S.A. The American Air Attache in Rome presided at the showing of numerous new films on such subjects as flight testing,the launching of Explorer and Pioneer, the Thunderbirds aero- batic team, aero-medical research, Air Proving Ground Commandand the work of the Air Striking Force of Tactical Air Command. Lectures on associated subjects were also delivered and the sessionis reported to have achieved considerable success. This month a second session is to be devoted to Russianaviation, and the Russian Air Attache in Rome is reported to have promised to supply a quantity of new information and films.Further sessions this year are to be devoted to Britain and France.
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