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Aviation History
1960
1960 - 2295.PDF
FLIGHT, 14 October 1960 599 RECORD SWEEP: The Short SB.5 is soon to resume flight trials with its wings adjusted to the sharpest-ever sweepback of 69°. It has already been tested with sweeps of 50° and 60°. The engine—formerly a Derwent—is now a Bristol Siddeley Orpheus and debris were left in the wake of the aircraft, leaving the engine intakescompletely free. "Although it is not envisaged that this will be the normal take-offtechnique for an aircraft employing a system similar to that of the SC.l, the Bedford flights have proved conclusively that, if required in anemergency, such an aircraft could safely operate from an extremely short runway, or even from a stretch of road." In recent allusion to the SC.l we described the aircraft as "thefirst flat-rising jet-lift aircraft in history." This is not, in fact, correct. The distinction belongs to the Bell X-14. More About the TSR.2 AFTER visiting Vickers-Armstrongs (Aircraft) at Weybridge lastFriday and inspecting the full-scale mock-up of the TSR.2, Mr Harold Watkinson, Minister of Defence, held a press conferenceto release some new information. The contract which would lead to the development of the first batch of TSR.2s (numbering fewerthan 20) had, he said, now been placed; RAF squadrons should receive the type in 1965, and the first aircraft should fly early in1963. Sir George Edwards noted that .English Electric had originalydesigned a low-level strike aircraft and Vickers-Armstrongs an STOL type. The designs seemed irreconcilable, but the mergeddesign teams now working in the British Aircraft Corp had managed to combine the two into what was now the TSR.2.Basic design work had been completed to schedule and the contract had been placed on time.Mr Watkinson said: "I have never seen an aircraft which appeared to give so many options" in operational roles. It couldfly at subsonic or supersonic speeds at "a very low height indeed," but at altitude M2 could comfortably be exceeded. The TSR.2could carry a wide range of conventional or nuclear weapons; it had "a unique capacity for reconnaissance" and could give atheatre commander an immediate TV picture of a battlefield from any height, regardless of cloud. It was an important contributionto front-line strength and could be employed either tactically or strategically. It would be able to carry air-launched ballistic mis- siles (not necessarily Skybolt), but would perhaps not need thembecause of its ability to penetrate to a target beneath radar cover. The TSR.2 would not be tied to full-size airfields, and with itsspecial undercarriage would be able to use short, bull-dozed strips. Now that the contract had been signed, NATO was being keptinformed of progress through the normal channels. The US had also been kept informed, but there had as yet been no decisionabout the exact type of aircraft required to meet an equivalent USAF operational requirement. A Vickers team had been to theUS, and both Canadian and Australian governments had been given details.Metal is now being cut for the first airframe. The TSR.2 is, according to Sir George Edwards, "not quite the heaviest militaryaircraft yet built by Vickers." As befits a design for very high speeds in dense air, the wings are to be very small and are"specially designed" to cushion the impact of gust loads on the occupants. A flight control system, involving inertial systems,would automatically control a terrain-following flight path, reliev- ing the pilot of the stress of prolonged low-level flights. Controlsare apparently to be concentrated in a central electronic computer designed jointly by Ministry establishments and the industry. MrWatkinson said that there was no need yet to decide the precise tactical or strategic employment of the aircraft, or whether it wasto carry strike missiles. The army would inevitably have an interest in it, but it would be flown by the RAF. IN BRIEF The 24th International Paris Air Show is being held next year atLe Bourget from May 26 to June 4. Requests for exhibition space should be sent to the Union Syndicale des Industries Aeronautiques,4 Rue Galilee, Paris XVI, not later than November 30. The Ghana Government has bought 14 DHC Beavers. This contract,which apparently includes flying and engineering instruction in the aircraft, is said to be worth just under a million dollars (about £357,000). Air Marshal Sir Geoffrey Turtle, KBE, CB, DFC, has been appointedan additional member of the board of Vickers-Armstrongs (Aircraft) Ltd from October 3. No 111 Sqn gave their final public display as the senior FighterCommand acrobatic team at the International Aeronautical Festival, Barcelona, last Sunday. This was the 103rd occasion on which thecommanding officer, Sqn Ldr Peter Latham, had led the team. No 111 Sqn are shortly converting from Hunters to Lightnings. It was disclosed in Canberra on October 5 by Mr Athol Townley,Australian Minister of Defence, that the United States have instituted a major study of the upper atmosphere over Australia—and of fall-outand radioactivity in particular. From October 17 at least 20 aircraft will arrive in the Commonwealth; among them will be three Lockheed U-2sfrom Strategic Air Command, which will operate from RAAF East Sale. It is reported that Blackburn Electronics have started work againsta MoA contract for equipment, based on their well-known data loggers, for the second-line servicing of the airborne weapon electronics of theBlackburn Buccaneer. In this context, second-line implies removal of the equipment from the aircraft. The company have also received astudy contract for similar equipment for the Lightning. Mr James Watson, an airship pioneer who was concerned in theconstruction of all Vickers rigid airships from the Mayfly in 1909 to the R.100 in 1930, when he was works manager for the Airship GuaranteeCo, died at Morden, Surrey, recently at the age of 79. He was with Airspeed Ltd at York and Portsmouth and subsequently with WestlandAircraft, Yeovil, until his retirement ten years ago. At noon local time on October 5 a Polaris was fired from one of theexperimental launchers installed at Cape Canaveral. The test was described by the Defense Department as "another in the developmentseries leading to a longer range." Objectives . . . were to gather data on the lightweight second-stage motor and on warhead arming andfuzing component performance." The reduction in weight is expected to result in a range of some 1,500 n.m. The four fixed detection radars of the Ballistic Missile Early WarningSystem station at Thule, Greenland, became operational on October 1, linked by a dosed communications circuit to the North American AirDefense Command (NORAD) at Colorado Springs and to Strategic Air Command headquarters at Omaha. Provision has been made atThule for the possible future installation of three tracking radars, of the type to be installed at Fylingdales Moor, Yorkshire. The successful firing of a four-stage, solid-propellant Scout rockettook place on October 4 from the Wallops Island (Virginia) station of the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Altitude andrange achieved on the 79min flight were 3,500 miles and 5,800 miles respectively. A total of 1921b of instrumentation was carried, includinga 781b USAF package which included instruments designed to make radiation measurements in space. The primary test objective was toassess the performance and structural strength of the rocket. Our associated journal The Autocar today (October 14) publishes its London Motor Show Guide. DELAYED REPEATER communications satellite, Courier IB, was developed by the US Army Signal Corps, built by Philco Corporation, and launched by USAF Thor-AbleStar on October 4 (see pages 602 and 610). The SVm-diameter, 5001b sphere is seen together with its protective nose fairing before launch: initial orbit was 500-750 miles
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