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Aviation History
1960
1960 - 0591.PDF
PLIGHT, 29 April 1960 591 fig 4. Various types of missile power units compared by weight against output but it can be made competitive in weight from lOkW-min up-wards. Power units with a maximum duration of less than 30 seconds must also be omitted as so many special features can beallowed, especially in temperature considerations. Summarizing, for most low-power, short-duration units, atransistor/inverter fed from batteries is the most economical system, particularly where environmental problems are non-existent or easily overcome. For some applications, where power- factor loads are necessary or environmental conditions severe, arotary machine driven by bottled gas offers a suitable alternative and often provides a cooling flow as well. For higher powers,monofuels are undoubtedly more economical, despite the complica- tion of converting the fuel to suitable gas for driving turbines.These are also largely unaffected by environmental conditions, particularly that of high temperature, although care is often neces-sary at the low ranges. This can be catered for by small D.C. heaters. The hydraulically driven unit can be used economicallyat almost any power, provided the system is already an essential part of the missile. During the course of this account the various problems havebeen discussed at each stage. Transistor/inverters are still in a very early stage of development and the latest types show promiseof overcoming existing faults, but the temperature limitations of batteries are still a problem. With rotary machines considerable^ development is now being carried out on unregulated inductormodels. The deletion of the voltage regulator, with its tempera- ture-restricted items, is a considerable step forward in meetinghigh temperatures; but as yet this type of machine cannot tolerate large load changes with tight voltage limits. The missile designeris assisting by reducing the load-range requirements, and in many instances it has been found possible for particular items tobe designed to absorb a constant load. In fact it is only by such continued co-operation and liaison that a satisfactory and reliablepower system can be evolved at all. THE AERONAUTICAL BOOKSHELF Small Gas Turbines, by Arthur W. Judge. Chapman and Hal! Ltd, 37 Essex Street, London WC2. Price 48s. Illustrated. FROM an author who needs no introduction to anyone interestedin internal-combustion engines, this is the first "popular" book dealing exclusively with small industrial and automotive gas tur-bines. Aero engines are not excluded, but the bulk of the text deals with surface applications. Like nearly all such works for laymenit is a mixture of strength and weakness. In its favour are clarity, the wide range of subjects covered in a readable manner, and thefact that many engineers of all ages are looking for just such a work. Against this must be set a number of factors which could wellbe rectified in a revised edition. The most basic is that to which any big, solidly bound book is prone to fall prey: that it is out ofdate, and that most of the units dealt with have been superseded. Sadly needed in this case is a properly arranged review of the newgeneration of axial/centrifugal Turbomeca engines, and of the entirely new Allison 250 and Boeing 520 series, all of which setnew standards in the small-turbine field. The Boeing 520, for example, develops a pressure ratio of 6.3:1 from a single centri-fugal stage, which makes nonsense of much of the text dealing with cycle efficiency; while the Allison engine achieves a technical"breakthrough" of the first order in having a really cheap multi- stage compressor. Among specific points needing attention are the descriptions ofthe Armstrong-Siddeley (sic) P.181 and 182, both of which have long since been cancelled; the Napier Gazelle Junior, which nevercame to pass either; and such remarkable statements as the following: "The Bristol Orion turboprop engine, used in theBritannia air liner, first employed the twin-spool arrangement;" "Rolls-Royce Tyne and Conway turboprop engines employ thetwin-spool method;" and, almost unbelievably, "Secondo Campini, one of the pioneer aircraft jet-propulsion inventors,whose Caproni-Campini aircraft appears to have been the first to fly." However, such criticisms are perhaps counterbalanced bythe usefulness of the work in presenting small gas turbines, includ- ing free-piston gasifiers, to a wide public. w. T. G. Fundamentals of Guided Missiles. Aero Publishers Inc, Los Angeles, 26, California, USA. Price $12.50. Illustrated. SINCE about 1940 American publishers have produced a spate ofbooks intended to explain the fundamental principles of all kinds of technology to persons with only the most rudimentary technicaleducation. These books are characterized by their bulk, and by the fact that they are invariably printed lithographically and containmany hundreds of illustrations, nearly all of which are drawings or diagrams. Fundamentals of Guided Missiles is such a book,and it forms a companion to Rocket Encyclopedia Illustrated reviewed in our issue of May 1, 1959. Anybody anxious to find descriptions of actual hardware will bedisappointed. So will anyone who wishes to delve into rocket propulsion, the design of nosecones, the stressing of airframes, orsuch related subjects as environmental testing or weapon-system management. Such areas are either only touched upon or ignoredentirely. On the other hand, a reader approaching the subject with all the trepidation of complete innocence will find the work literallyinvaluable. In particular, the basic theory of almost every kind of guidance and control system will be found adequately describedin accurate and readable American text and swarms of eminently clear illustrations. If the book has any serious fault it is that it appears to includeonly areas with which the authors—it was originally prepared by the USAF Air Training Command—are familiar; whereas, ideally,one should start with modern weapon systems, find out what one ought to know about them and then work backwards from there.As a result one tends to find page after page devoted to a system which, although of theoretical interest, would not be used inpractice, yet to find major subjects (such as cryogenics) not even mentioned. As an example of the type of unbalance which suchan attitude engenders, the current edition contains eight pages on pulsejets and six on turbojets, neither of which is of any realimportance in modern missile propulsion, while the entire field of rocketry occupies but four out of the 575 pages of the work. W. T. G. OTHER BOOKS RECEIVED Jet Propulsion Engines (High Speed Aerodynamics and Jet Propulsion,Vol. XII), edited by O. E. Lancaster. Oxford University Press, Amen House, Warwick Square, London EC4. Price £7. Aeromodeller Annual 1959-60, compiled and edited by D. J. Laidlaw-Dickson and C. S. Rushbrooke, FSMAE. Model Aeronautical Press Ltd, 38 Clarendon Road, Watford, Herts. Price 10s 6d.Satellites and Scientific Research, by Desmond King-Hele. Routledge and Regan Paul Ltd, Broadway House, 68-74 Carter Lane, London EC4.Smithsonian Institution Annual Report 1958. US Government Printing Office, Washington 25, DC. Price $3.75.Comet Round the World—Hunter Hawk, Skyway Detective No. 5, by Eric Leyland and T. E. Scott-Chard. Edmund Ward (Publishers)Ltd, 194-200 Bishopsgate, London EC2. Price 7s 6d. Foundations of Aerodynamics (Second Edition), by A. M. Kuetheand J. D. Schetzer. Chapman & Hall Ltd, 37 Essex Street, London WC2. Price 94s.Great Aircraft, by Wg Cdr Norman Macmillan. G. Bell & Sons Ltd, York House, Portugal Street, London WC2. Price 21s. Science as History, by Heinz Gartmann. Hodder & Stoughton Ltd,Warwick Square, London EC4. Price 25s. Whites Air Directory and Who's Who in New Zealand Aviation,compiled by N. E. Smith. Whites Aviation Publications, Dilworth Building, Auckland, New Zealand. Price 10s 6d.Memoirs from Ghetto to Israel, by Prof Selig Brodetsky. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 20 New Bond Street, London Wl. Price 21s. Top Secret, by David Young. The Brockhampton Press Ltd, CorridorChambers, Market Place, Leicester. Price 6s. Basic of Missile Guidance and Space Techniques, by M. Hobbs.Chapman & Hall Ltd, 37 Essex Street, London WC2. Price 63s. Jahrbuch der Luftfahrtforschung der Deutschen DemokratischenRepublik 1959. Forschungszentrum der Luftfahrtindustrie, Postfach 40, Dresden N2. Price DM14. Rescue From The Air, by Michael Gibson. Abelard-Schuman Ltd,38 Russell Square, London WC1. Price 12s 6d. Die Alien Adler, by Willi Hackenberger. J. F. Lehmanns Verlag,Paul-Heyse-Str 26/28, Munich 15. Price DM16.80. Warplanes of the World, by John W. R. Taylor. Ian Allan Ltd,Craven House, Hampton Court, Surrey. Price 10s 6d. The Survival Book, by P. H. Nesbitt, A. W. Pond and W. H. Allen.D. Van Nostrand Co Ltd, 358 Kensington High Street, London W14. Pricf 56s 6d.The Smirnoff Story, by Anne Robertson Coupar. Jarrolds Publishers (London) Ltd, 178-202 Great Portland Street, London Wl. Price 25s.
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