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Aviation History
1961
1961 - 0973.PDF
FLIGHT, 20 July 1961 73 SYSTEM SURVEY VGPI and Doppler VOR THE first installation of the RAE-developed Visual Glide-pathIndicator in America was commissioned on 13/3J runway at New York La Guardia late last month. Each end of the runway hasbeen equipped with the full complement of 12 lights, made by Sylvania Electric Products Inc, and the installation cost $80,000.The two bars are placed 500ft and 1,000ft from the threshold. VGPI is, of course, now standardized both by the FAA and byICAO. First installation of another recently proved development,Doppler VOR, has also been completed—at Marquette, Michigan; and a second installation will be commissioned, on Rikers Island,New York, at the beginning of next month. Doppler VOR pro- vides the same directional signals as normal VOR, but has a ringof 50 aerials mounted in a circle of 22ft radius on a metal counter- poise. The layout offers much greater freedom from site effects. Finding the Eastern Wind As part of the programme of technical assistance to CENTO coun-tries the Government has ordered five Decca wind-finding radars of an improved model to be located along the main air route betweenAnkara, Teheran and Karachi. The radars will be able to measure winds at heights up to 100,000ft, meeting expected requirements formany years to come. Decca have also received an order for type WF 2 wind-findingradar from the Government of Indonesia. This is part of a pro- gramme to provide accurate wind information over the whole areafor both defence and civil aviation. Decca wind-finding radar is now being used by 34 of the world's meteorological authorities. Pakistan Navaid Calibration THE US has presented to Pakistan a DC-3 equipped for the cali-bration of aeronautical ground facilities. The aircraft was handed over to Air Cdre A. Qadir, Pakistan's Director-General of CivilAviation, by the director of the US Operations Mission to Pakistan. Capable of calibrating VOR, ILS and other navigation aids, itshould be of considerable benefit to PI A and other airlines. Voispond DURING a recent flight by a PanAm jet airliner from Sydney, a system called Voispond was used for the first time, to make auto- matic replies to radio calls from the ground without interrupting normal crew operations. Voispond incorporates a recorded identi- Air traffic controllers at Southend now have a Marconi closed-circuit television link with I4in monitor, shown here, by which they can watch a busy holding area and traffic intersection. The camera is mounted on the corner of a hangar and a second monitor in a weatherproof box is provided for lining-up fication message which is automatically transmitted on normalcommunication frequency whenever the controller on the ground presses a button and addresses a call to the aircraft. Satisfactoryreplies were received from Fiji and Auckland. Texas Instruments Expansion A SOLAR cell. Solid Circuit semi-conductor network and transis-torized amplifier were used with a l5kV, 30mA current to cut the tape for the recent opening of the new 132.000 sq ft factory ofTexas Instruments Ltd in Manton Lane, Bedford. The new works, which was opened by Sir John Cockcroft, Master-designate ofChurchill College, Cambridge, is specially designed for transistor manufacture and also incorporates some new building techniques.Underneath the main manufacturing floor is a 10ft space-frame housing utility and servicing facilities, the outputs from which arefed into the main area through outlets at 10ft intervals. The floor was formed from concrete slabs cast at ground level round thepillars and hoisted up to actual floor level. Special thin hyperbolic paraboloid concrete shells form the roof of the manufacturingsection. The factory includes an office block and canteen and the gardenssurrounding it are landscaped and planted with trees and flowering shrubs. External and interior aspects are illustrated on this page. New Portable Nav Radio THE Royal 790 Super-Navigator transistorized portable radio hasnow been announced by Zenith Sales Corporation in Chicago. It will receive broadcasts on 540 to l,600kc/s, weather broadcastsand beacons on 150 to 400kc/s and certain other signals in the 2.0 to 5.0Mc/s bands. Automatic volume control can be discon-nected and a beat-frequency oscillator switched on to make homing on standard aeronautical and marine beacons possiblewith an internal ferrite rod aerial. The FAA maintains a considerable number of weather broad-cast stations, some of which continuously transmit a local weather summary recorded on a tape which is changed every hour, or morefrequently if weather conditions change rapidly. The Royal 790 weighs 51b 6oz with batteries, is housed in a small leather caseand is reported to cost $99.95 in the US. British agents are United Mercantile Co Ltd, Sovereign House, Queen Street, LondonWl. Safe Flight Stall Warning A RECENT report from Safe Flight Instrument Corporation showsthat new orders are being received in considerable quantities for stall-warning systems and lift instrumentation for a wide variety ofaircraft. Repeat orders have been received for the Grumman Gulfstream, Canadair CL-44 and Cessna T-37 and firm orders for30 sets of precision stall-warning equipment have been received for the Avro 748. The BAC 111 is to be equipped, as is the BeagleAuster Terrier. Pre-stall warning equipment has been requested for a new but unnamed design by Avions Fairey in Belgium and Saabhave requested a proposal for lift instrumentation for the J-35 Draken. Texas Instruments' new 132,000 sq ft factory at Bedford is designed for production of semi-conductor devices. In the tower view is seen a machine for growing silicon crystals under closely controlled conditions. Note the hyperbolic paraboloid concrete roof formation
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