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Aviation History
1960
1960 - 0635.PDF
FLIGHT, 6 May 1960 Correspondence i The Editor of "Flight" is not necessarily in agreement with the views ; expressed by correspondents in these columns. Names and addresses of ; wrUers, not for publication in detail, must in all cases accompany letters. Friendship, Herald and the RAAF WE read Stanley Brogden's article "What will the RAAF buy?"(April 1) with very great interest. The statement, however, that I the RAAF values the Handley Page Herald's merits higher than! those of the Friendship is in our opinion not too firmly based upon • the actual facts. Even if this is true, then it certainly cannot bebased upon better long-range capabilities of the Herald. i Before giving our comments, we must stress that neither aircrafti is designed for a long range like Port Darwin - Butterworth, a i distance of about 2,300 n.m. A stage like this can only be flown : when special measures have been taken, such as increase of the\ maximum take-off weight and extension of the present fuel-tank capacity. Without entering into a complete payload-range comparison a few comments may make our point somewhat clearer. For theflight Port Darwin - Butterworth the Friendship would consume some 13,5001b of fuel under ISA+15°C, and still-air conditionsi at a cruising altitude of 20,000ft (the Friendship is certified for a I cruising height of 25,000ft). A block-time of about lOhr would| result for the Friendship. j From a Handley Page publication named Herald Facts—No 7,! it is learned that for a stage-length of 443 n.m. the Herald's block- ; time will be 2hr 17min under ISA conditions, still-air. UnderI these conditions on this stage-length the Friendship will need I a block-time of Ihr 54min, taking into account the same factors.• This means the Herald's block-speed is 87 per cent of that of the Friendship. Now, it may be assumed that the above ratio of 87 per cent will not alter appreciably on longer stage-lengths. Especially for a very-long-range flight, it may also be very well assumed that fuelconsumption will be in the same proportion. As has been said ; above, for a stage-length of 2,300 n.m. the Friendship would con-' sume 13,5001b of fuel; or, taking into account the above block- ; speed ratio, the Herald would require some 15,5001b. Block-timeI for the Herald would be ll|hr against lOhr for the Friendship. ' According to Herald News, or Handley Page's Newsletter on the Herald of July 1959, the empty weight of the 38-seat Heraldis specified at 23,0001b. A 38-seat Friendship 200-series would weigh about 22,3001b. So, if for comparative purposes only a 38-seater airliner is taken, this means : — [ (a) For the Herald, empty weight + fuel for 2,300 n.m. still-air atISA+15°C is 38,5001b or 5001b below the present maximum all-up | weight.(b) For the Friendship, empty weight + fuel for 2,300 n.m. still-air at ISA+15°C is 35,8001b, or 1,7001b below the present certifiedmaximum all-up weight. In order to make both aircraft effective for this sort of long-rangeflight, take-off weight increases would be necessary for both. The Herald, however, would need a higher increase than required forthe Friendship for equal payload on long range, thereby further reducing performance as the Herald would have to operate at ahigher weight-level. The above comments, though probably not exact to the pound,illustrate our point that the statement in your article cannot be founded on the actual facts. The Herald would be the less suitableaircraft of the two for operation on distances as long as Port Darwin - Butterworth, because: —(a) It has a higher empty weight than the Friendship. (b) It has lower block-speeds or, in other words, a performance-standard clearly less than that of the Friendship. So should the RAAF prefer the Herald (which as far as we knowis not the case) then the preference cannot be on these grounds. Schiphol, Amsterdam N.V. KONINKLIJKE NEDERLANDSE VLIEGTUIGENFABRIEK FOKKER YJLfHILE Stanley Brogden's comments on the Herald are gener-" ally as they should be in his review of RAAF needs, he has credited the aeroplane with the ability to fly Darwin - Butterworthnon-stop with full payload. Although well able to fly such a leg (indeed, the Herald has three times crossed the South Atlantic,a distance equivalent to Darwin - Singapore), it would not, of course, carry its maximum payload. However, this journey willonly occur infrequently, e.g., when a VIP requires a personal short-field aeroplane in Malaya and when the opportunity to useintermediate landing grounds is denied. The Herald's block time for Darwin - Butterworth is lOhr 25min,cruising in still air at 20,000ft, a crew of three and various super- numeraries being carried besides sundry baggage and compre-hensive radio equipment. 635 The RAAF's real need is for a reliable aeroplane with particu-larly good flying characteristics, the ability to operate from small unprepared strips and built to an outstanding engineeringstandard. On these points the Herald particularly scores. It has demonstrated this convincingly of late while flying its 150,000miles of see-it-in-action tours of 47 countries. Its handling characteristics are acknowledged to be first class.It can operate under 1959 BCARs at 39,0001b in temperatures up to ISA+30°C from grass strips, tyre pressure being only581b/sq in. Furthermore, the increased power of the RDa.7 in military form gives the Herald an even better performance. London NW2 S. A. H. SCUFFHAM,Public Relations Manager, Handley Page Ltd "SurcouPs" Seaplane TOURING the summer of 1958 there appeared in the corre-XJ spondence columns of Flight (June 20 and July 25) a number of letters dealing with the identity of the small single-float recon-naissance seaplane carried aboard the French submarine Surcouf during the last war as part of her operational equipment, andwhich became airborne on test flights in Poole Harbour, Dorset, when the submarine arrived here after the fall of France.After delving into the archives of the Service Historique de la Marine Francaise, and correspondence with the officer who wasin charge of the seaplane until the time of his posting to St Pierre Miquelon on December 31, 1940, a M Suinat, the true identityof the aircraft has now come to light. It was a Besson two-seat low-wing monoplane of wooden con- General arrangement of the Besson sea- plane. With wings folded (inset) it was stowed in a cylindrical hangar abaft the submarine's conning tower struction which had a square-cut straight tapered wing and alarge central float and two small auxiliary floats. It was powered by a radial air-cooled 170 h.p. Salmson engine, and the twin-bladedwooden airscrew was manufactured by Merville. Span was 19ft 8in and the length 16ft 4in approximately, and althoughthe seaplane was built as a two-seater carrying pilot and radio operator, the latter could be dispensed with and the space madeavailable utilized with an extra fuel tank to enable the range to be extended from 5hr to 7hr duration. The markings and serial number borne by this aircraft arelost in the mists of time, and its ultimate fate is also unknown, but it must be presumed that the Besson perished when Surcoufsank in the Mediterranean in 1942. Bournemouth, Hants K. S. WEST Defence and a Merchant Air Service MUCH attention has been focussed recently on defence policy,particularly on the nuclear weapon aspect of it. Deep emotions have been aroused on its account and although thereis much anxiety in some quarters about our even possessing a nuclear weapon I feel most commonsense people must at heartbe thankful that, however abhorrent the very thought of this hideous weapon may be, we now hold it as a deterrent. To thedoubting I would ask simply—where, if threatened by the nuclear weapon (and this is today a grim possibility) would we be if wedid not have it in our armoury? But the nuclear weapon is not everything and we should notin possessing it fall into the trap of failing to protect ourselves as far as possible against any other foreseeable major threat. I havein mind particularly the danger of starvation. It is a fact, maybe too readily forgotten, that in both the last major wars we werevery nearly humbled by this threat, to which we as an island continue to be particularly susceptible. A possible enemy wouldappear to be fully alive to this if the size and power of the sub- marine fleet which he is known to be building is any indicationof his way of thinking. While we must depend on the sea for our main supplies it seemsa little surprising that having regard to the lessons we have learnt (or should have learnt) of the value and potential of air transport,with its easy ability to by-pass the submarine, so little attention appears to have been paid in the Defence Estimates and debates tothe need for an air transpon fleet to help in maintaining a flow of essential wartime supplies to and from our shores. As the Royal
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