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Aviation History
1961
1961 - 1513.PDF
FLIGHT, 19 October 1961 The German Industry . . . 617 evident and that noise and general feel were very realistic. During360° turns wind effects were clearly evident and cyclic control had to be fully used to counteract them as the Heli-trainer turned.Everything helicopter-like was there, in fact, except the actual translational response to attitude changes and, of course, transition.But the trainer could realistically reproduce almost all that is difficult in helicopter flying—those exercises which take hours ofwearing juggling at full power in a real machine before the basic co-ordinating habits are learnt. Stick forces, noise and feel were allquite realistic, although the noise from 20yd or so away was that of a well-silenced lawn-mower. The Heli-trainer costs 58,OO0DM inGermany (about £5,200) and can therefore offer very considerable savings for normal training. I was also shown two films of the Cobra missile in production andin action. Bolkow are hopeful that Cobra might be adopted as a NATO infantry weapon because it is by far the lightest and cheapestweapon so far available and is already in production. Entac, Bolkow said, still exists only on paper. In addition to the ordersnoted above, Cobra has been evaluated by the US 7th Army and the US Marines; and a production licence has been granted toDaystrom Inc in the US. There seems to be a possibility that orders will come from the US services. Cobra weighs 221b at firing, has a normal range of between 400and 1,800m and can by an average operator be turned as much as 65° off its initial firing line. It flies at 190 m.p.h. roll-stabilized by asingle two-axis gyro, controlled by fluttering spoilers and guided by wires from a joystick and binoculars mounted on a very small con-trol box. The warhead is connected to the missile only by its screw- thread attachment, contains its own acceleration-actuated armingdevice and a hollow charge capable of penetrating 24in of armour plate. Warheads can be rapidly interchanged in the field withouttools and without modification to the missile. The 0.6sec boost motor is inclined at 22° to the missile body so that the Cobra makesa "jack-rabbit" start from the ground without a launcher. A cord is wound round the gyro spindle and the gyro spins-up to 12,000r.p.m. under a 4.41b pull during the actual launch, controls being locked by acceleration-sensitive device until the missile has reacheda height of over 10ft and is aerodynamically stabilized. Carrying handle, clip-on battery and flare case are mounted along the top ofthe body and all fly with the missile. Most of the structure is in plastics and the four-segment, sealedstorage and transport case will float. It contains the warhead in a separate compartment and, in a sealed plastic bag, a 65ft reel of cablefor remote firing, a small stake for anchoring the gyro-running cord and a small metal plate which forms a solid background and dustsuppressor for the boost motor. Eight Cobras can be connected by their 65ft cables to a standard junction box and thence by additionalcable to the firing box, which has an eight-position selector. Two Cobras, extension cables, firing box and junction box can becarried by one man over open ground and set up in under two minutes. Batteries of ten or six Cobras have been mounted respec-tively on the Italian and on US and German field cars, as well as on armoured troop carriers and other vehicles. Additional Cobra equipment includes a very compact field testset for checking all electrical paths in the system and a battery- charging adapter. Finally a simulator, based on a modified domestictelevision tube, has been produced to give preliminary guidance training. Moving or intermittently visible targets, full range/speedand wind effect simulation are possible and the "missile" will stop if it is allowed to fly below the controller-to-target line of sight. Thesimulator consists only of a t.v. tube console and desk bearing control boxes for instructor and student. No special buildings orlarge target screens are needed. The German army training course lasts four weeks, but includes instruction in the tactical employmentand maintenance of Cobra as well as in actual guidance. A US army team became proficient in firing in three days and then achievedabout 75 per cent hits in range trials with moving tanks. Ernst HeinkelFlugzeugbau SOME six factories now form part of the Heinkel group and areresponsible for the manufacture of the Heinkel scooter and for considerable sheet-metal working as well as aircraft production.Total works area is 3,920,000sq ft, of which 200,000sq ft are en- compassed by the aircraft production factory at Speyer. Of thecapital of 5,100,000 DM, some 74£ per cent is owned by Frau Lisel Heinkel and the remainder by Ernst Heinkel MotorenbauGmbH at Karlsruhe. More than 1,500 employees are engaged on aircraft work. Within the Arbeitsgemeinschaften, Heinkel has completed themanufacture of part of the Fouga Magister and is now making the complete wing of the Fiat G.91 and the wing, fin and tailplane of Above, adjusting the undercarriage in a G.9I wing panel made by Ernst Heinkel Flugzeugbau at Speyer Above, an F-I04G tailplane being wade by Heinkel. Below, the cabin section of the Weser/Sikorsky S-64 crane, shown at the Paris Salon earlier this year
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