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Aviation History
1961
1961 - 0848.PDF
860 FLIGHT, 22 June •A Aggressive nose, tall fin and eg- ;\e undercarriage fairings charaa••'• ve the Super Broussard, here in flying at the Paris Show wiv -*e starboard engine featherec "Flight" photc.;:.ph BY MARK LAMBERT No 148 of the series HOLSTE SUPER BROUSSARD in the Air DURING the Paris Salon I had a meeting with Max Holste, aman I greatly admire. Having flown the Broussard in 1956and the piston-engined Super Broussard prototype in 1959 (Flight, November 13, 1959) 1 asked him whether I mighttry the latest version with 1,000 h.p. Turbomeca Bastan turboprops. He immediately agreed, and the trip was duly laid on withNord,who now manage the project. Thus I found myself, one Paris afternoon, in the spacious flight deck with test pilot Jouannet anda couple of flight engineers. No passengers were being carried, because it was understood that we were going to wring the aircraftout a bit; and a fine, hard-working trip it turned out to be. In 1959 1 was delighted with the Super Broussard. It handledlike a great big Chipmunk, smoothly and precisely, with excellent manoeuvrability all the way down to the stall and a simplicity ofhandling which made really wild, steep approaches a quite normal procedure. I remember, too, that the undercarriage suspension waslike that of a Rolls-Royce. The new Super Broussard is, of course, larger and much morepotent and cruises a good deal faster. But it still retains the great big flight deck, superb undercarriage and excellent low-speedhandling. In addition it has some new features which particularly impressed me. Handling during simulated engine failure, forexample, is almost unbelievably docile. The flight deck is unusually spacious and can be reached througha separate car-type door to starboard. Controls and instruments are laid out for single-pilot operation, with power, trim and radiocontrols along a broad central console. Only the three basic flight-instruments are repeated for a co-pilot and they are locatedat the top of the engine-instrument panel. Dual controls are fitted, but toe-brakes, used also for steering, are only on the left. Someelectrical switches are on a small panel in the roof. Immediately behind the flight deck, between the propeller discs, are galley andradio racks; and a spacious toilet is at the back of the 23-seat cabin. Ailerons are slotted, with Frise-type projections; the flaps moveback and down and are double-slotted; and the elevator is com- pletely straightforward, without down-load springs. Each Bastan is controlled in flight from two levers, one of whichsets the r.p.m. and the other the fuel input. One hundred per cent is 33,000 r.p.m., but normal take-off and climb speed is 101.5per cent, 33,500 r.p.m. The levers provide limited freedom to adjust r.p.m. down to 96 per cent, and power is controlled in thenormal way with the fuel lever. Indication of power is by P1-P2 gauges (ratio of compressor inlet to compressor outlet pressures).In addition there are four pitch-stops—feather, flight coarse, flight fine and ground fine, the last-named known as pas nul but actuallybeing —2°. The fuel cut-off operates at the closed position of the fuel-input lever (which I will from now on call the throttle), andfeathering is either by pressing a conventional button or by lever. An additional system is automatic feathering, which operates onlyat full power. If thrust is lost, the fact is sensed by loss of pressure differential between pitot heads mounted at the wing-tip and behindeach propeller disc, and feathering follows automatically in a few seconds. For test and demonstration purposes, Holste had pro-vided a cut-out for automatic feathering at lower powers as well. The engines were started in pas nul by pressing a button and,after a few seconds, moving the pitch lever forward until 90 per cent r.p.m. were reached. The engine was then in its power rangeand pitch automatically coarsened to give thrust. High r.p.m. There is a great deal of room in the cockpit and controls are laid out for one-pilot operation. A bank of ganged propeller pitch-stop switcbts is above the blind-flying panel; radio controllers, throttles, pitch levers and trim-wheels are on the central console were therefore essential for power, and engine noise was accordinglyconsiderable in all normal operating conditions. Some improve- ment in cockpit and cabin noise-level is expected when soundproof-ing is completed. At first I found the engine-control system a little difficult to understand, but in flight it was completely simple,involving only the movement of the single pair of throttles. Finally, I noted that the a.s.i. was marked in American style, with a whitestripe from 65kt to 125kt, an overlapping green stripe from 80kt to 209kt and yellow from 209kt to 243kt. Maximum speed for flapswas 112kt and for undercarriage extension 125kt. Jouannet taxied out, using the brakes and asymmetric powerwhere necessary, and then lined up on the runway, ran up to full power, checked the pitch-stop switches and closed the throttles toobserve their correct operation. With the aircraft shuddering and raring to fly he then let go the brakes and held straight for about 20ydbefore handing over control to me. Rudder was already effective and, as we accelerated very rapidly, I began to pull the stick back,finally flying off at 80kt and settling straight into a steep climb at 115kt. Gear retraction was imperceptible but there was a smallnose-down lurch as the 5° of take-off flap came in. Flight coarse- pitch stops were then switched on. As quickly as possible we cleared the crowded Le Bourget circuitand settled down to fly away to the east. Cruising power soon built up 180kt i.a.s. at about 3,000ft and I began to feel the aircraft out.It flew absolutely true, holding itself firmly, and was easy to trim precisely. Co-ordinated turns could be made equally well withrudder or aileron alone, but control forces were high, with a high force-gradient, and the achievable rate of roll was low. The trim-mers were delightful: absolutely precise, easy to move and without the slightest backlash. The trim-wheels were also of just the rightsize and shape. I was a little disappointed to find this machine rather heavy and not "Flight" photograph
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