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Aviation History
1961
1961 - 0292.PDF
298 FLIGHT, 10 March U FROM ALL QUARTERS The AW.660 Flies THE AW.660 military Argosy made its maiden flight fromArmstrong Whitworth's airfield at Bitteswell, Leics, last Monday, March 6. The first of 56 Argosy C.I aircraft for RAF TransportCommand, it was airborne for lhr 50min, and the company's chief test pilot, Mr Eric Franklin, described the flight as "satisfactory."The AW.660 is considerably heavier and more powerful than the commercial AW.650, and was fully described in our February 10issue. Project Horizon A SPECIAL group has been created by President Kennedy "tostudy and recommend national aviation targets for the next ten years." In a letter to Mr N. E. Halaby, sworn in last Friday asadministrator of the FAA, the president said that definition of these objects was essential if the United States was to have a safe,efficient and economical national aviation system. The group's task will be known as "Project Horizon." Paris Show Programme BECAUSE of traffic requirements at Le Bourget airfield, theprogramme for the XXIVth Paris Salon has been revised and is now as follows: Friday (May 26) inauguration; Saturday, stampcollectors' day; Sunday, commercial, executive and light aviation; Monday, ambulance and medical aviation; Tuesday, electronics;Wednesday, spaceflight; Thursday (June 1), rotary-wing aviation; Friday, foreign missions; Saturday, international flying display;Sunday (June 4), international air show. Naval Hovercraft? IN a debate on the Navy Estimates last week, Mr Orr-Ewing, CivilLord of the Admiralty, said of die Hovercraft: "We are keeping in close touch with developments here, because we foresee someimportant naval applications of the principle as soon as the hover height can be increased sufficiently to allow the craft to be operatedin a great variety of sea conditions. For example, the ability of the Hovercraft to operate equally well over land and water makes itattractive for amphibious warfare and ferrying duties. It might also be used for coastal forces, for air-sea rescue work, and, pos-sibly, for mine hunting. There is even a hope that it might be developed into a useful anti-submarine weapon. All three Servicesare interested in it, but in view of its apparently wider marine application the Admiralty is co-ordinating its initial developmentfor Service use." SAFER SINGLE-ENGINE OPERATION is the primary reason Cessna have chosen to design their new executive aircraft, the Skymaster, to the "push-pull" formula, as seen here. A four-seater, it is claimed to outperform anything in the low price twin-engined field Mr Eric Greenwood Mr Orr-Ewing also made allusion to the Mk 2 Seaslug, wh iwill have greater range, greater height and a more powerful hm. - explosive warhead. Of electronic computers he said the rlr.itapplication would be in the carrier Eagle. The equipment wouid be known as Action Data Automation and would track and class.-ytargets automatically. It would store and display information and would calculate and recommend solutions; and it would prepareand accept information for automatic exchange between other ships in its own or adjacent task forces. Return to AWA A NEW POST has been announced forMr Eric Greenwood, OBE, FRAes, formerly with the Hawker Siddeley Aviation inter-national sales staff; he has rejoined Sir W. G. Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft, thecompany with which he started his test flying career, as chief executive to themanaging director, Mr W. S. D. Lockwood. He will be based in London. Mr Greenwood is a former chief testpilot of Gloster Aircraft and flew Britain's first jet aircraft, the Gloster/WhittkE28/39. He did much of the test flying on the Gloster Meteor, the only Allied jet tosee service in the Second World War, and was closely concerned in die successful world speed record bids by this aircraft in 1945 and1946. He is claimed to have been the first to exceed 600 m.p.h., and for his pioneering work was made an OBE. He was also the firstpilot in the world to fly a turboprop aircraft, the Trent Meteor. Before the war, Mr Greenwood served with the RAF, then in 1936became an assistant test pilot at Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft. He took part with Mr Turner-Hughes in the first flight of theEnsign, then the largest aircraft in the world. Five years later he was made chief test pilot of Air Service Training, before taking upa similar post at Gloster Aircraft in 1943. Flockhart Unlucky TIRED and rather angry, but not despondent, racing driver RonFlockhart abandoned at Athens last Saturday a valiant attempt to fly solo from Sydney to London faster man anyone in a privatepiston-engined aeroplane had ever done before. His sights were set on the record established by Clouston and Ricketts in theGipsy-engined Comet racer—130hr 3min—in 1938. When he abandoned his attempt, owing to overheating of the Packard-Merlin 38 of his red Mustang 20, he was 30hr inside the record. The attempt was made at the end of the Antipodean motorracing season, the Mustang being purchased by United Dominions Trust for die purpose from Arnold Glass, a well-known motoringand aviation enthusiast who holds the unofficial trans-Timor record in the same Australian-built aircraft. When Flockhart tookit over it had flown about lOOhr since new, all in private hands. The significance of last week's flight is that it was made withlimited professional backing by a club-trained pilot. Though experienced, Ron Flockhart holds no instrument rating and for themajority of the journey he navigated "contact" from 1:1,000,000 maps. In the limited space available in the cockpit, two GermanBecker VHF sets were installed to give a total of 36 communica- tions channels, and a Lear T12 ADF was fitted in the positionnormally occupied by the gun-sight. This was the total radio- navigation equipment available; there was no VOR, ILS, marketbeacon receiver, or HF radio. Preparation of the aircraft for the flight—including the installa-tion of two 75 US gal combat tanks to bring total fuel to 35Ogai modification of the fuel system and checking of the PackartMerlin—occupied several weeks, and die pilot had flown th* Mustang for only 12hr (and none of this at night) when he took oflfrom Sydney on February 28. But it was not flying the aircraft that gave him any difficulty norin practice, did he find much hardship in navigating by "eyebalb NOSE FOR BUSINESS: This rare photograph of the CSF Cyrano control radar was obtained in Switzerland and sent to "Flight" i> French journal "Aviation Magazine." CSF still maintains that Swiss and Australian governments have chosen Cyrano for their M'f Of large dimensions, the equipment automatically controls n: launching or toss-bombing and also provides mapping and^ te clearance displays, indicating a "safe plane of operation" c attacks on ground targets in hilly country. Note the twin-wave aerial feed and rack-and-pinion aerial tilting. First details of C and related GCI equipment appeared in "Flight" for August 28 lire -f?es
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