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Aviation History
1960
1960 - 0451.PDF
FLIGHT, 1 April 1960 Correspondence Th' Editor of "Flight" is not necessarily in agreement with the views expressed by correspondents in these columns. Names and addresses of ariors, not for publication in detail, must in all cases accompany letters. "Fire-reluctant" Hydraulic Fluid From Sir Miles Thomas, chairman, Monsanto Chemicals LtdY OUR March 18 issue has caught up with me in New York. Inote with interest that you attached a footnote to my letter on hydraulic fluids for aircraft. Being not unfamiliar with the duties and virtues of air corpora-tion spokesmen, it does not surprise me that no "prima facie" evidence is available concerning the burn-out of the Viscountthat snagged its nosewheel assembly in London. If the fire was not caused by combustion of mineral hydraulicfluid, what was the cause? Obviously it was a "hot" fire. The remains of the fuselage testify to that. But the seriousness of the situation surely lies in the fact thatthe head of the Air Registration Board was apparently unadvised of die availability—and, indeed, the use on aircraft such as theD.H.121, the Boeing 707, the Douglas DC-8, and the TCA Van- guard—of non-mineral fire-reluctant fluid. Surely this availabilityshould be more widely known and its adoption more widely encouraged. _.New York ~Z ;;? I;; : ^•- , •...':- .' . MILES THOMAS REFERENCE the letter on hydraulic fluid from Sir MilesThomas in your issue of March 18, I would like to cross swords with him and stand by the assertions made by LordBrabazon in his recent speech to the Guild of Airline Pilots and Air Navigators. It seems that Sir Miles will insist that Skydrol 500A hydraulicfluid is non-inflammable. This is not so. It will burn quite well as a lamp wick oil. It gives off a black smoke which, I believe,is toxic. However, Skydrol is less inflammable than DTD.585 hydraulic fluid and the use of Skydrol fluid in a hydraulic systemin preference to DTD.585 will certainly reduce the fire hazard where such hazard is entirely due to spilled hydraulic fluid.Though Skydrol is claimed by Sir Miles to be non-inflammable I would prefer to say it is "fire-resistant," as he himself says ina later paragraph in his letter. It is interesting to note that no insurance company has everconsidered the use of Skydrol as a case for reduction in premiums. In any aircraft accident where the fuel tanks are ruptured thecontribution to fire hazard from the limited amount of hydraulic fluid available must be negligible. The only non-inflammablehydraulic fluids known to me are the water/glycol-based fluids. However, very little is known about these yet, since they are stillunder development. I myself would dearly like to see the introduction of an efficient-under-all-conditions, truly non-inflammable hydraulic fluid in service, especially on aircraft.Laleham-on-Thames, Middx R. M. BRADLEY (Development engineer, aircraft) Aviation in Antarctica 'THE reader of "Antarctic Promise" (Flight, December 18, 1959)•*• would be pardoned were he to assume that the staging of com- mercial flights through Antarctica will shortly take place. Unfor-tunately, it is evident that the author has been seriously misled. Aside from the fact that the volume of current and potentialpassenger exchange between Australia, South Africa and South America is so small that the construction of a normal en routeairfield could not be justified, the cost and problems of Antarctic construction of airfields, navigation aids and communications—to civil or military standards—beggars description. In any language, "6,000,000 square miles" of ice is a lot of ice,particularly when its average thickness is in the order of 6,000ft. (The 48 states of Continental USA total 3,022,387 square miles.)I draw this comparison to help get a perspective of this ice mass which, some years ago, calved one iceberg measured by anastonished ship's captain as "over 100 miles long." Mr Scholes is aware of these matters, of course, but his information on presentairfields in Antarctica suitable for commercial use is widely astray, as are other aspects of his article. Of the three airfields quoted as "suitable for commercial use,"that at McMurdo Sound is on sea ice and subject to disappearing (in pieces) to the north, during the summer, as it did in March1958; when the airfield is "in," operations are restricted to October and November. Mirny is used for aircraft up to and including theRussian equivalents of DC-3 and Convair, basically on skis. At wiikes there is no airfield, nor is an ice airfield of adequatestrength feasible. Neither has action been taken to have either «AAF Airfield Construction Squadron construct a ski-way, norlas any other organization been instructed so to do. 451 H. B. Passat's 1920 ornithopter (see letter below) Rear Admiral Tyree, USN commander of "Deep Freeze 5," wasquoted on February 26 as saying that the Marble Point airfield proposal is feasible. However, the cost could be several hundredmillion dollars (not "£20,000,000"), the construction time being seven years. (The US vacated two Antarctic bases in 1959 on thegrounds of economy, following a $23,000,000 budget in 1958.) It is not clear why Australia should have competed with theRussian and American Antarctic air programmes just because an Australian national, Sir Hubert Wilkins, was the first man to fly inAntarctica. While Australians are justifiably proud of the late Sir Hubert's pioneering, it should be remembered that he was flyingAmerican aircraft as a member of an American expedition. He was, in fact, a long time resident of the USA, acting in an advisorycapacity up to his death last year. Three last points. The "Australian parliamentary party [sent]to Antarctica to survey airfields" did not set out to, nor did it in practice, survey airfields; the Perth - Kerguelen - Johannesburgroute proposed by Mr Scholes does not run along latitude 50°S but 32°S-49°S-26°S. As to the "prospects that Antarctica will becolonized for its mineral and oil reserves," I am authoritatively assured that, as far as is known, there are no oil reserves nor, otherthan coal, mineral reserves. These criticisms are intended to be constructive; the refutationof inaccuracies stemming from a semi-official authoritative source such as Flight is essential if the vast problems inherent in Antarcticair operations are to be first, clearly appreciated and second, resolved—as resolved they will be in the course of time. We willnot, however, see "commercial air services across and to Antarctica ... in a few years . . ." Canberra, Australia - D. R. BEATTIE, ••'"•• - Wg Cdr, RAAF Ornithopter Experiments in Britain " ' T ENCLOSE a photograph taken in 1920, and not hithertoA published, showing an ornithopter which I hoped would lift almost vertically. It failed. The engine was an ABC twin of10 h.p., and whenever the flapping motion exceeded 120 strokes per minute one of the wings broke. I cannot, unfortunately, show you a photograph of the orni-thopter with which I flew on Wimbledon Common just before the First World War. This had a two-cylinder Werner engine of4j h.p. Owing to lack of control I collided widi a tree, which stopped my flight and most probably saved my life. The photo-graphs of this machine were destroyed when my house was bombed during the last war.Should any readers wish to ask me any questions on how to win the £5,000 Kremer prize ffor man-powered flight] I shall beglad to help them in so far as I am able. London SW20 H. B. PASSAT , Early Aluminium CylindersI NOTED with great interest the illustration of the Viale five-cylinder engine on page 196 of your issue of February 12. As far as I can make out, after considerable investigation, theorigin of the use of aluminium as an air-cooled cylinder material traces back to Viale in 1911. Personal corresDondence with himindicates that the attempt was not successful since, as he said, "he did not have the sense to think of valve seat inserts." WhileViale's work was not successful I think there is no doubt that it inspired the work at the Royal Aircraft Factory which started latein 1915 at the suggestion of H. P. Boot. I think there is no question that the work on aluminium air-cooled cylinders at the RoyalAircraft Factory under the direction of F. M. Green, A. H. Gibson and G. S. Wilkinson from 1915 to 1918 may be said to haveconstituted the origin of the modern air-cooled cylinder as we know it today. While the use of aluminium as a cylinder material may not seemlike a very large step, it nevertheless was a considerable mental
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