FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1960
1960 - 0616.PDF
616 FLIGHT, 6 May lo,0 CUT SYSTEM SURVEY Reconnaissance Radar THE US Army Combat Surveillance Agency recently announcedthe development, by the Army Signal Corps, of a new high- definition reconnaissance radar capable of producing better pic-tures than a conventional camera at long range and regardless of weather. It could be used to watch enemy territory from anaircraft flying over friendly country. The equipment, which incorporates a special new aerial system, can be installed in smallaircraft such as those already operated by the US Army. Air Traffic Computer FORMING the core of the data processing central for the new USFederal Airways system, a special computer has now been installed for initial trials at the FAA experimental centre at Atlantic City.Designed and built by the Librascope division of General Pre- cision Equipment Corporation, the computer will provide acomplete data-handling system capable of processing and printing 1,600 flight progress strips per hour and processing 400 aircraftflight plans an hour. It can store 1,000 different flight plans and sequence the arrival, or monitor the departure, of 90 aircraft perhour. Bendix Integrated Instruments BELOW is a photograph, taken at the Hanover Air Show, of thenew Bendix integrated flight instruments, the vertical linear units of which form part of the new USAF standard instrument panel.Attitude and course dials for this panel are provided by Lear. Those shown here are the new Bendix 300 series flight directors.All these units rely on remote sensing and computing devices and some form of stand-by instruments are therefore normally addedto such a panel. The attitude instrument has a black and white ball to showaircraft attitude against the fixed aircraft silhouette. The second silhouette above the horizon in this picture is the attitude director,which may be coupled to ILS and VOR computers. The course display shows VOR/ILS cross-pointers related to a movingcompass card, but the pointers may be manually rotated into the vertical position if the compass component fails.The left-hand vertical scale has g, Mach number and airspeed scales, the actual values for each quantity being read against afixed lubber-line half-way up the scale. Demanded values may be set with the slewing switches and counters beneath the tapesto position command index lines on the scales. On the right are similar scales for vertical speed, height and cabin and targetheight, the last-named set either on verbal instructions from the ground or automatically by a data link. All the lubber-lines, on asingle level passing through level-flight position of the artificial horizon, provide a horizontal reference for all quantities controlled The Bendix vertical scale instruments incorporated in the new USAF standard instrument panel and the attitude and course dials of the new 300 series civil integrated instrument system. This picture was tgken at the Hgnover Air Show last week The Edo 34SA Loran receiver installed between the pilots' seats of Edo's own Cessna 310. Further details below by fore-and-aft movement of the control column. Heading indications appear along a central vertical axis. It is noteworthy that the RAF has abandoned tape indicationfor height and vertical speed because of the difficulties of tap': scaling and because the rotating needle gives a better appreciatedindication of height displacement. The Americans say that the use of command indices restores this visual scale effect to mak •the tape as readily noticed out of the corner of the eye as a moving needle on a dial. Loran for Small Aircraft LONG established as a primary long-range navigation aid fotlarge aircraft, Loran can now be fitted in quite small ones. The model 345A receiver produced by the Edo Corporation has a 3inscope, which can be mounted in an instrument panel, and a 6inX4in control panel on which position-lines can be directlyread. Indicator and controls and the f ATR case together weigh 311b; and dual control heads can be fitted to allow simultaneousreading of two position-lines. The 345A, which costs $4,900 (about £1,750) is used by manyairlines and the USAF Military Air Transport Service. It is now also being fitted in an increasing number of business aircraft,including a Viscount owned by an American company and a Gulfstream operated in Canada. The picture at the head of thispage shows the equipment installed in Edo's own Cessna 310. Narco Expansion THE National Aeronautical Corporation, more usually known asNarco, is well known as a producer of a wide range of light aircraft radio and navigation equipment, and its products are becomingincreasingly familiar in Britain as more and more American aircraft are imported. Not many Narco units are yet officiallyapproved for operational use here, although their installation is permitted. Most recent units are an 18oz marker receiver, the Mk Vcommunications unit with 90 transmitting and 190 receiving channels, and the Mk VI crystal-controlled receiver with VOR/localizer unit. The company is now making prototypes of a DMET receiver for light aircraft and expects to sell between$30m and $40m worth by 1965. A new simplified ADF is also being designed and certain other equipment should be announcedsoon. The American boom in both business aircraft and radio equip-ment for them has launched Narco on a considerable expansion. Sales were 41% higher during the 1959 financial than in theprevious year and manufacturing and design-office space have respectively doubled and quadrupled. United Kingdom distributors for Narco are Vigors Aviation atKidlington. This company also handles A.R.C., Dare and Collins. E.M.I, and Fairbanks Whitney AN agreement has been concluded between E.M.I. ElectronicsLtd and the Fairbanks Whitney Corp of New York under which E.M.I, computers and electronic production and control equip-ment will be marketed and, in some cases produced, in the US. In addition, E.M.I, will also sell certain of the American manu-facturer's equipment in Europe and both companies are studying the possibility of a joint venture in the electronics field in theEuropean Common Market.
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
