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Aviation History
1960
1960 - 0586.PDF
In the text the point is made that the main gear (left) of the Dassault Mirage IV bomber is remarkably small. In the centre picture one of Lufthansa's Conway-Boeings tal'tes off behind a German-registered Beech Queen Air. The third photograph shows Transall's new display model of the twin-Tyne C./60 DEUTSCHE LUFTFAHRTSCHAU (continued from page 583) Argosy, Hunter T.7 demonstrator, two Lancashire Aircraft Prospectors,two Italian Air Force Fiat G.19Rs, F-104, C-130, Do27 and the brand- new production-type Do28, four Klemm 107Cs, two Putzer Elster Bs,a Rhein RW3, German Emeraude 301C and 301S, German-built Nor- atlas, Focke-Wulf/Piaggio P.149, Bolkow AV 36M tailless motor glider,FS24 all-plastics Phdnix glider and the tethered Bdlkow helicopter trainer. France is represented by the Nord 1110 Astazou, the promising Wass-mer Super IV and the Jodel Ambassadeur and Paris Nice (the two-seater), Italy by the Picchio, the Aeromere Falco and Piaggio P. 166, and Czecho-slovakia by an Aero 145, Trener 326 and Meta-Sokol. Switzerland is showing the Pilaws Porter—the more I see i(, the more I like it. Austriahas the Simmering-Graz-Pauker Flamingo—a dark horse, but a potential winner as an executive, Gemini-type twin. American business aircraft are particularly well repesented by thebrand-new Cessna 210 and 3IOC, Beech Queen Air and Debonair, Piper Aztec and Mooney Mk 20A. They also have here the Piper Comanche250, Cessna Skylark and ISO, an Aero Commander, and single and Twin Bonanzas. Helicopters are also here. There is an Agusta Super Ranger, a 47G,an Alouette II (from which we took the aerial picture on the previous page), a Sikorsky S-62 and a US Army H-34 (S-58). The flying fun will really start after this initial story is delivered byBEA to London—and will be reported next week. Although there is only one runway here (east-west), there are several taxiways which thepilots of the small aircraft delight in using for landings and take-offs. I myself arrived this afternoon by Prospector in a brief, screeching 50ydlanding on one tsxiway, and the Do27s plying between here and the industrial fair teem to crop up everywhere with full loads of passengers.Meanwhile the two- apd four-engined airliners on scheduled service continue to u»c the main runway—and a Lufthansa Boeing 707 Inter-continental has soared skyward on its four Conways and returned for a smoking high-speed pass of a kind to gladden a Farnborough-goer'sheart. First Come, First Served But there is no fixed display programme; it is like the Paris Showbefore the final weekend—he who gets bis flight plan in first gets the display time and facilities he wants. There is plenty of time to fly theother man's aeroplane. I can never decide whether for the spectator this free-for-all is better than the splendid but somehow rigid stage-management of Farnborough. For the customer with a quick eye and the right contacts the free-for-all provides more of the personal flyingexperience that is a large factor in cash sales. Certainly this is so with the smaller aircraft—and this is a smaller-aircraft show. German light-aircraft constructors seem to be finding a useful marketfor their types, whether they be home-designed or (mostly French types) produced under licence. Putzer have launched a sizeable batchof Elsters, and Klemm have the backing of the dynamic Bolkow concern for their 107C. Rhein Flugzeugbau have grown from a one-man organ-ization into a thriving enterprise, but in the executive (as opposed to club) field all these companies face stiff competition from American concernswith German representatives. It is notable that all the new American business aircraft here are German-registered and are nearly all shownby German companies. Judged by German or American standards, British light-aircraft representation is pathetic. Our own growing demandis being satisfied almost entirely by imported types, and it would now be pretty nearly impossible for us to catch up before the fairly clear-cutmarket is saturated. Special-purpose types like the Prospector find most of their sales outside Britain, which explains their presence in thisexcellent shop-window show. Two German newcomers are worth noting. First is the true DornierDo28 now on the line (picture p. 607). It has two 255 h.p. Lycoming O-540s instead of O-360s, a 1.8m (5ft llin) increase in span, greatertankage, considerable dihedral, twin ejector exhausts for each engine and large wheel-spats. It should retain the STOL characterisrics of the Do27,but will have much improved cruising performance and be able to carry better loads. The other—the prototype of which is to fly in September—is the Siebelwerkc SIAT 222 four-seat, low-wing, all-metal, sport, touring and glider-towing aircraft powered by a Lycoming 180 h.p.engine. With a "modern" swept fin and nosewheel undercarriage, and small 35 litre (7.7?aJ) tip-tanks to supplement the two 105 litre (23gal)wing-tanks, it will cruise at 288km/hr (189 m.p.h.) for 1,200km (746 miles) and will be fully aerobatic with one occupant. Empty andgross weights are respectively 540kg and 1,000kg (1,190 and 2,2051b). Stalling speed will be 85km/hr (53 m.p.h.). The 180 h.p. four-scatformula has been proved profitable, and this example looks attractive and businesslike. It leans perhaps a fraction too much towards the utility rather than the business market, but for Germany utility isimportant. Among this strong crop of light aircraft the giants look almost forlornThe Boeing 707 bsat-up rightly drew several hundred spectators to the boundary fence and the Argosy straight-through loading demonstrationheld a good audience; but it was a pity that more eyes did not see the graceful slow-rolling arrival of the Hunter Two-Seater. The F-104 wasalmost forsaken, its curvacious length camouflaged in a background of wildly fluttering bunting and its stubby wings barely noticeable. TheFiat G.91R looked more threatening, surrounded by its Nord 5103 missiles, bombs, large and small rockets, Oerlikon rocket packs andshort-finned tanks. Surprising by its very unostentatiousness was a small model of thebrand new Mirage HIE, apparently a PR type having a Voodoo-like camera nose interchangeable with a Cyrano radar. Beside it were allthe many stores this versatile type can tote, toss or trigger. Not far away was the complete Messier four-wheel main gear of the Mirage IV,almost alarmingly small for a supersonic aircraft of any kind, let alone a bomber (picture above). There was a fine cut-away model of the HFB 314 twin-jet airliner(512-532kt cruise and 270-1,835 n.m. range) and there was evidence of growing Franco-German activity with the Transall and Atlantic. Theformer was listed, in this order, as the responsibility of Blume, Hamburger Flugzeugbau, Nord Aviation and Weserflug. The last-named companyis also prepared to produce under licence the Sikorsky S-61A and S-fllC (rear-loading) helicopters, but there was no direct evidence ofthe proposed supersonic VTO fighter. Competition in Equipment Both French Thomson-Houston and CSF showed radars, respec-tively a 3-D scanner and scan-conversion systems of high definition; and Hughes International showed elements of the semi-automatic missiledefence system based on Nike Hercules and the MPS-23 radar. Standard Lorenz are showing the S.T.C. radio altimeter, Marconi the 722 and712 ADFs and Sperry a series of new gyro units and instruments. British Oxygen Aro have the attractive new chin-resting Q-type oxygenmask and Normalair show a wide range of pressurization, oxygen and air-conditioning equipment. Decca are represented by Telefunken. The sales pressure in the equipment field is obviously high, withstrong French, British and American competition (the last-named par- ticularly by Bendix, Hughes and G.P.L.) and it seems to be aimed ataircraft of a present or immediate future generation. Targets for instal- lation must inevitably be the F-104 and certain civil projects, but theyarc not numerous and increasing American and French interest in the European export market is certain to make the going tough for Britishcompanies. _ Prospective exporters cannot afford not to be at Hanover, but it maynot be until the next show that the necessary spectacle of organized demonstration will emerge to form a suitable background for the equip-ment companies. Perhaps the major justification of the Farnboroush stage-management I mentioned before is that it draws the crowd inevit-ably to the "over-the-counter" business of equipment sales. Postscript—Monday, April 25. Flying is fast and furious by thesmoke-trailing, orange and white Hunrer Two-Seater, the Fiat G.91 and the F-104. The Argosy makes both fast and slow passes on fouror two Darts. But the real fun is provided by the light aircraft. In this 20kt wind none of them uses a runway. They leap up from odd cornersof apron and taxiway and land virtually within the exhibition parking area. A ding-dong battle is on between the Porter, the Prospectorand the Do27. The first takes off and lands pretty well in its own length and almost hovers overhead. The Prospector takes a few yardsmore, but has 50 h.p. less power. The first of them is spraying 5001b of coloured water, and making steep turns at the end of each run.The Dornier flies equally well, but has not the reassuring stability on the ground of a wide-track undercarriage. The Porter has now been extensively evaluated, and Its remarkableSTOL and high-altitude performance has been thoroughly proved. The first Porter, named Yeti, has now reached Katmandu in Nepal and hasshipped 2\ tons of stores and several members of the Dhaulagiri climb- ing expedition to the base camp at an altitude of 16,732ft. It even landedfour men and equipment on the north-east saddle of the mountain at 18,865ft—a world record. Full-load take-off at sea level in still air is aguaranteed 120 metres (394ft)—quite an aeroplane! Finally, at least one British firm had a stimulating start to its showweek: on Monday Napier were able to announce an order, "worth at least £1,500,000," for de-icine equipment for the Transall and for theF-104G Starfighters which West Germany is building under licence.
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