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Aviation History
1959
1959 - 1930.PDF
28 August 1959 81 areas of Bolivia, Photographic Survey Corporation Ltd. in Canadawas busy in early 1959 with major mapping projects leading to the realignment and improvement of existing arterial roadways byvarious Canadian provincial and municipal authorities. Flood- line mapping of 250 miles of rivers for the Metropolitan Torontoand Regional Conservation Authority, which has jurisdiction over 950 square miles, is under way. Serious flooding in the fall of1954, a result of a tail-end twister from Hurricane Hazel, necessi- tated a ten-year flood control plan and the establishment ofreservoir sites. P.S.C.'s topographic mapping will be used as a base from which high water marks are established for maximumflood conditions with resultant conservation planning. Also this year, P.S.C. finally completed the colour proofing of1,134 separate colour separation negatives for the manufacture of 21 full-colour maps of the geology, soils and landforms of Pakistanfor a Colombo Plan survey. The substantial oil magnetometer survey of the MackenzieRiver in the North West Territories of Canada continues this year and will take a total of three seasons to complete. An area ofabout 25,000 square miles must be covered and members of both Hunting Airborne Geophysics Limited and Renting Aviation Ltd.maintain a two-way radio system with ground stations already established at Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk in the Arctic. The mainbase at Inuvik is in constant communication with the Toronto headquarters of the Hunting Group. Underwater seismic work in the waters of Central Canada hasalso been undertaken during 1958-59. An instrument known as the sparker has been used by geophysicists of Hunting Technicaland Exploration Services Ltd. in Lake Erie, Ontario, for sub- marine studies, chiefly related to foundation conditions for newdocks and dams. The instrument made available to Hunting by Marine Geophysical Services Co. of Houston, Texas, is designedto map shallow geological horizons for application to foundation engineering. Elsewhere in the world, Hunting experts havesupervised the use of this instrument in the Persian Gulf, for use in the English Channel tunnel and in the St. John River in NewBrunswick. Equipment Development Though some of the major instrumentation companies inCanada, now rated as potential sub-contractors for the Lockheed, are eagerly waiting the volume business the Lockheed contractscan bring them, they are continuing with developmental work and the compleuon of apparatus for aircraft now under manufacturein Canada. Sperry Gyroscope Co. of Canada Ltd., for example, is completing the development model Stable Platform which ispresently undergoing flight trials by the R.C.N. and de Havilland for the R.C.N.'s Tracker anti-submarine aircraft. Developmentwork during 1958-59 reached a record high at Sperry and has included the following: the Models Control, a large radar trainingsimulator; AN/FPS-35 antenna bearing instrumentation, a system measuring and recording some fifty parameters of a very largeradar system antenna bearing; and automatic circuit tester, rape- controlled test equipment with a capacity of 2,400 test points forchecking wiring and component values of complex electronic assemblies. Compass equipment and flight instrumentation weresupplied during the year for several programmes. Rolls-Royce of Canada Limited, though it will probably missout on engine work for the Lockheed F-104G, unlike many other aviation supplier companies still awaiting Lockheed business, hasplenty of work ahead from civilian aircraft commitments. These include the installation and servicing of the Tynes for the VickersVanguards for T.C.A., as well as in Canadair's CL-44s for the R.C.A.F., Seaboard and Western Airlines and Flying Tiger Line.Also following is the Conway jet which will see service with the Douglas DC-8s under construction for T.C.A. The plant atMontreal, which has long overhauled the Dart engine which powers T.CA.'s fleet of Vickers Viscounts, is ready for similar This is the 50th anniversary year of the first heavier-than-air flight in Canada, by J. A. D. McCurdy. The anniversary was celebrated in February, and on June 75 Lt-Gen. E. C. Plow, Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia, unveiled this memorial—a stylized stainless-steel model of McCurdy''s Silver Dart—at Baddeck Bay, near the scene of the flight. In this picture are Mrs. G. 6. Ross of the Canadian Aeronautical Institute, sponsors of the memorial, and Mr. J. K. Hawhhaw of Field Aviation, constructors of the model duties for the Tyne engine when the above aircraft are ready foroperation in Canada and the U.S.A. Computing Devices of Canada Ltd., while awaiting possibleword on Lockheed sub-contracts, will nevertheless supply its Mk 4 version of the position and homing indicator for theF-104s already purchased by the West German Government. As far as Canadian civilian business is concerned, a simplified versionof the company's ANT AC (Air Navigation and Tactical Control) Universal Navigation System is in production for the transportversion of Canadair's CL-28 Argus and the CL-44. On January 1, 1959, Computing Devices took over operation ofthe four Canadian Decca chains from the Decca Navigator Com- pany Ltd. and now operates them on behalf of the Department ofTransport. The chains cover about a million square miles of Eastern Canada from Newfoundland to Montreal. Total per-sonnel of C.D.C., including the Decca chain staff, now stands at about 650. Elsewhere, with world sales rights (except for Canada),the C.D.C. has developed the Skyline Doppler computer for trans- port aircraft. Acquired by the Radio Division of Bendix AviationCorporation, the company is building an initial quantity of 50 sets. Bendix plans to team the Skyline computer with its own Dopplerradar system. The supreme irony of the year 1959 for Canada is that the 50thanniversary of the first flight made in Canada (and in the British Empire for that matter) was celebrated within weeks of thetermination of the Avro Arrow contract. Within this short span, Canada had moved from the era of struts, nuts and bolts of whichthe Hon. J. A. D. McCurdy's Silver Dart in 1909 was mainly composed, to the Arrow, a warplane which needed 104,000 pre-cision-fitting items to fly. In the midst of all this there remains the consoling factor that Canada's rugged terrain and demanding,harsh geography, which brought about the creation of de Havilland's all-Canadian STOL line of utilitarian aircraft, willcontinue to demand the best of Canadian aeroplane design, even if military aircraft become a thing of the past. INDIA'S CONTRIBUTION A DETAILED account of Indian aircraft production was given**in Flight of December 19 last by a member of Flight's staff, following a tour of inspection. The company is styledHindustan Aircraft (Private) Ltd., and its plant occupies over 1,100 acres. An extract from the report read: "Current activitiesat the South Indian factory are the manufacture of Vampires, both Mk 52 (Mk 5Bs) and T. Mk 55s (Tils), development work on thePushpak and a new light aero engine, and overhaul of Canberras and Avons. In addition to this programme, the design depart-ment, under Dr. V. M. Ghatage, has been very active and designs have been produced for a 10-passenger high-wing transport, theHCP-25 "two-ton truck," an all-through jet trainer and an advanced fighter." The Folland Gnat light fighter/strike aircraft (Bristol SiddeleyOrpheus) has been adopted by the Indian Air Force and will be produced under licence by the company. Components and tooling are already being shipped to India. Hindustan Aircraft Ltd. alsohold the licence for the manufacture of the Orpheus. The HT-2 two-seat trainer, produced in considerable quantityat the same factory, is extensively used by the Indian Air Force and was favourably reported upon by our representative. The Pushpak was described in these terms: ". . . the cockpitis kept as simple as possible. A fire extinguisher is fitted and the bench-seat is adjustable; radio can be fitted in the luggage com-partment behind the seat, access to which is from the cockpit. Instruments (A.S.I., altimeter, compass, bubble slip-indicator,r.p.m., oil temperature and pressure) are of American origin, actually stockpiled instruments that have been adjusted andequipped with re-calibrated dials. Ailerons are of the Frise type and are differential in operation. Performance figures quotedwere: maximum speed 115 m.p.h., cruising speed 86 m.p.h., and stalling speed 35 m.p.h."
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