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Aviation History
1960
1960 - 0114.PDF
114 INTERIOR INDUSTRY... FLIGHT, 22 January 1960 The prototype Dart Herald cabin and (right) the Charles-Butler-restyled cabin in the production version. Rumbold seats are installed in both travel in; and if the British industry can find the way to do this,then British airliners will increasingly attract not only passengers but also overseas sales. She would like to see key members ofthe transport and manufacturing industries getting together to determine policy with the leading consultants in the field ofindustrial design. Chief executives, sales directors, and such people as design engineers engaged on structural and systemsdetails should all be represented on the panel. She has already approached a number of well-known aviation personalities, andwithin a year it is probable that the panel will become a clearing- house of engineering information, good taste and dynamic newideas. There is still, unfortunately, a slight tendency among a fewaircraft engineers to regard all such efforts as "arty" eyewash, and to treat stylists as prima donnas who are to be suffered, not wel-comed, and who contribute little to the airliner as a practical vehicle. Yet the fact remains that they are of very great, andrapidly increasing, importance. Today any transport aeroplane being developed for worldmarkets has to be very good indeed. Its aerodynamic efficiency, powerplant efficiency, airworthiness, systems engineering andgeneral reliability can be taken for granted, unless something is very wrong. It follows that in so competitive a world nothingcan be left undone which might increase the appeal of the aircraft to a potential customer, and the engineering of the interior cannow be regarded as being in every way as important as the engineering of the vehicle as a whole. Like politeness, good design,costs little, and it can similarly pay handsome dividends. Sport and Business THE TAWNEY OWL /CONSTRUCTION of the Tawney Owl two-seat, twin-boom^"* pusher light aircraft at Stapleford Tawney airfield, Essex, is now well advanced and first flights might take place in the spring.The accompanying drawings by Flight artist Arthur Bowbeer indicate the simplicity and lightness of the all-metal structure, inwhich stiffness of the thin-gauge skins is achieved largely by a rigid plastic foam glued to the inner surface. Terylene fabric covers the control surfaces and nylon isextensively used in bearings and as a sandwich material in some fittings. Empty weight is only 5501b and cruising speed should bemore than 100 m.p.h. The aerofoil section is a constant NACA 43018 with no washout; and this, with split flaps, should providegood low-speed performance. It is claimed that the structure, including the slender tail-booms, is stressed to a maximum loadfactor of 4.5. The drawings show the condition of the aircraft last month and assembly is progressing steadily. It is planned thatthe aircraft should be produced in some numbers and sold for club use. Initial test flightsare to be made by a College of Aeronautics staff pilot. ' - The Tawney Owl wasdesigned some years ago by Tony Creedon and the pro-ject came to the notice of Eric Thurston, who formedTawney Aircraft Ltd and appointed Mr Creedon asone of the directors. The designer is thus able to workvery closely with those of Centre-section structure show- ing engine mounting and 15gal fuel tank located between PVC foam sandwich steel firewalls. Basic structure in cockpit area is also shown Mr Thurston's staff who are producing Tawney Owl com-ponents. The bread-and-butter work of Thurston Engineering is aircraft and motor car engine overhaul and maintenance ofsome 30 club and private aircraft at Stapleford. Detail design work is now shared by Mr Creedon and David Kent, who wasformerly with Edgar Percival Aircraft Ltd. The compact Porsche power unit is already offered-up to itsthree-point mounting above the centre-section. It is the 75 PVC
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