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Aviation History
1960
1960 - 2376.PDF
644 FLIGHT, 21 October New Tunnels for Warton . . . Heater section From the valves the air passes through a multi-channel diffuser into a heater section contained within the main tunnel pressure-vessel. The heater is used primarily to preventliquefaction in the working section above M4, and consists of five identical units each consisting of a stack of thin steel plates andelectric heating elements, surrounded by a thin steel shell contain- ing refractory concrete to reduce maintenance time. Design varia-tion of stagnation temperature is ±2 per cent of the mean tem-j, perature in degrees absolute. Working section This is a direct continuation of the nozzle,and is made up of the fixed sidewalls and the downstream ends of the flexible top and bottom. In the sidewalls are rectangularSchlieren windows measuring 24inX 12in, which may be replaced by metal plates. Access to the model is obtainable only by with-drawal of the nozzle cart downstream. Diffuser Located immediately downstream of the model cart,this improves the overall aerodynamic efficiency and reduces stopping loads. It comprises a variable two-dimensional sectionwith moving sidewalls built up from three hinged plates positioned by hydraulic jacks at the hinge points. This section of the diffusermay be continuously adjusted while the tunnel is running. Immediately downstream is a transition running into a conven-tional subsonic diffuser cone of 6° included angle. The diffuser telescopes at the junction between the fixed and variable sections,and the winch which performs this function also serves to pull the model cart downstream to provide access to the model. Model cart Models are sting-mounted, the present adaptorbeing to RAE Farnborough No 19 tunnel design. The sting is carried on a quadrant attached at either end to the cross-beams ofyokes centred on the working-section windows and running on bearing surfaces around the windows themselves. In the course ofeach run models may be subjected to any combination of roll and pitch; continuous roll may be imparted in either direction at upto 2rev/sec, and any pitch-rate up to 2°/sec can be chosen with the facility of an emergency return to zero incidence at 25° /sec. Instrumentation Systems are provided for handling pressures,forces and moments, and for Schlieren photography. Most data are supplied as analogue d.c. voltages, from which discrete valuesare extracted, converted to binary form, temporarily stored and finally transferred to digital tape from which punched cards are produced for the Deuce computer. The system can extract dataupon command from either the pitch or roll transducers or when instructed to do so by the operator, and up to 80 data points canbe handled per second. In parallel is an analogue (12-channel galvanometer) system providing direct sampling information du -ing the course of a run. The Schlieren window has a length of 12in, and photographs may be taken along the length of the windows under remote control, successive viewing positionsvaried to match the length of the model—being traversed in 5sec, Performance It is envisaged that this tunnel will handle modeisroughly 17in in length of vehicles having a full-scale length up to about 50ft, and that runs at between M1.5 and M6 will be accom-plished at Reynolds numbers corresponding to full-scale flight at heights greater than about 80,000ft. Owing to the capacity of thedata-extraction system, and to the fact that models may be simul- taneously pitched and rolled, utilization during a run should bevery high; minimum running time should always exceed 30sec, and in practice it should be possible to obtain the desired informa-tion in a much shorter period. CONTRIBUTORS THE following are the principal contractors for the work, as named by English Electric in a recent announcement. Main air storage vessels, Whessoe Ltd, Darlington; civil engineeringand erection of buildings, George Wimpey & Co Ltd; main air com- pressors, Harland & Wolff Ltd, Belfast; electric-motor drives, EnglishElectric Co Ltd, Stafford. 4ft tunnel Working section and diffuser, Hall Engineering Ltd,Shrewsbury; settling chamber, Whessoe Ltd, Darlington; flexible-nozzle plates,Henry Wiggin Ltd,Birmingham; control valve, JohannesErhard H.Waldenmaier, Heidenheim; control system, English Electric Aviation Ltd, Warton; hydraulic system, Keelavite Hydraulics Ltd, Coventry;relief valves, Swinney Bros Ltd, Morpeth; Schlieren system, Pilkington Bros, St Helens, and Optical Works Ltd, Ealing; Instrumentation, Leedsand Northrup Ltd, Birmingham (recorders), Panellit Ltd, Boreham Wood (recorders), CEC (diaphragm transducers) and General Design Corp(S cam valves). 18in tunnel Working section and diffuser, Hall Engineering Ltd,Shrewsbury (main contractors); piping, Aiton & Co Ltd, Derby; stop valve, James Gordon & Co Ltd, Stanmore; control valve, CompudyneCorp, Hatbro, Pennsylvania; pressure vessel, John Thompson Ltd, Wolverhampton; heaters, AEI, Manchester; control system, John BrownLtd, London (constructors); Schlieren system, Optical Works Ltd, Ealing; instrumentation, New Electronic Products (galvanometers),Langham Thompson (diaphragm transducers); data-handling system, English Electric Aviation Ltd, Luton. "BROOKIE"-AN APPRECIATION T. W. BROOKE-SMITH, AFRAeS, chieftest pilot of Short Bros & Harland Ltd, has retired from active test flying, thoughnot from less specialized kinds of aviation. The following appreciation of the man andhis career has been written by a colleague. WHEN Tom Brooke-Smith climbed out of the Short SC.l'scockpit at the end of Farnborough Show week, on Sunday, September 11, he said simply—according to one of our nationaldailies—"That's it!" Whether this was factual reporting or merely journalistic licenceis largely irrelevant. The fact remains that this was "it" in so far as Brookie's career as a test pilot was concerned. It not onlymarked the culmination of eighteen years of test-piloting but also heralded, following his superb demonstration of the VTOL air-craft, the beginning of a new era in flight. In common with most test pilots, Brookie has never sought thelimelight, and yet the publicity which he and his aircraft received at Farnborough is typical of that which has spotlighted his workthrough the years. Much of this is due to the research aeroplanes with which his name is associated—Sherpa, SB.5, and above all,the SCI—but an appreciable share is also due to the man himself. Brookie was a "personality" long before the term became ahackneyed one. Educated at Bedford School and at the College of AeronauticalEngineering, he began flying at Brooklands in 1934. He made his first solo in a Gipsy Moth on his seventeenth birthday; becamethe proud owner of a Puss Moth shortly afterwards; and used it to fly home to Lincolnshire at weekends.After piloting for several charter companies he took a job with Air Despatch, and 1940 saw him stationed in France, flying Rapideson Army and RAF communications. He joined Air Transport Auxiliary in the following year, and in 1942 came to Belfast toopen the Stirling Pilots Pool for delivery of the four-engined bombers which were then streaming off the Queen's Island pro- duction line. This was his first contact with Shorts; and hisappointment as assistant test pilot, soon afterwards, marked the beginning of an association which was to last unbroken until hisretirement this year. He became chief test pilot in 1948, after a course at the Empire Test Pilots' School. From the end of the war he had been largely concerned withflying-boats—Hythes, Sandringhams, Solents and Sealands—with the Sturgeon twin-engined target-tug thrown in for good measure,and in 1950 he was sent to the West Indies to carry out route surveys for the proposed operation of small flying-boats in theCaribbean. In the following year, when he piloted the Sperrin on its initial test flight, from Aldergrove, he became the first manin Britain to fly a four-jet bomber. Inevitably Brookie encountered his share of "close things,'" butit was not until 1951 that he had an accident which might well have ended the flying career of a less determined man. An experimentalglider—forerunner of the jet-powered Sherpa—which he was test- ing at Belfast was caught in the slipstream of the towing aircraftand crashed on the runway. Brookie was lifted from the wreckage with a broken back. But he was at work again in the followingyear, flying the SB.5 adjustable-wing aircraft—to find a suitable wing-form for the Lightning—and in 1953 he piloted the Sherpaitself, to prove the design of the aero-isoclinic wing. All told, Brookie has flown 150 types of aircraft, from sailplanesto airliners, from helicopters to bombers. But his outstanding achievement has undoubtedly been the flight testing of the SCI,the world's first fully stabilized jet flat-riser. He has been concerned almost exclusively with this aircraft since its first con-ventional flight at Boscombe early in 1957. His major role in its development was marked, in February 1959, by the award of theDerry and Richards Memorial Medal by the Guild of Air Pilots and Air Navigators, in recognition of his outstanding contributionto the development of British aircraft. Since his retirement, Brookie, his wife and their two childrenhave moved house from Northern Ireland to Hampshire. He has a busy future planned, including a partnership in an aircraft rentalbusiness—to keep him from being grounded completely. But he also has a major project in hand which is still as security-veiledas many of the aircraft he has flown. Whatever it may be, he carries with him the good wishes of the entire industry for itssuccess, ...... T. G.
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