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Aviation History
1961
1961 - 1534.PDF
638 FLIGHT, 19 October 1961 A 32-year-old Lockheed Vega being used by General Electric for radar tests. Metal parts have where possible been re- placed by wood and plastics to reduce reflectivity. The pro- peller is of laminated wood. The aircraft can still reach 20,000ft and 180 m.p.h. and is one of four remaining out of the 130 built SYSTEM SURVEY Slowed-down Video DEMONSTRATED for the first time in Toronto earlier this month was aland-line transmission system for radar pictures, developed by Raytheon Canada Ltd. By this method the bandwidth occupied bya video picture can be compressed to 3kc/s, the image first being fed into a scan converter and updated every ten seconds. The infor-mation sent over the telephone line is up-dated once every 40sec, but no loss in data rate would result with slightly better lines. The main advantage of the new system, called slowed-downvideo, is that radar pictures can no* be transmitted over land-lines at much lower cost than for existing micro-wave links. Alternatively,micro-wave links could be used to transmit hundreds of radar pictures over the bandwidth now used for single transmissions.Reduced cost and greater simplicity makes it possible to apply multiple remote transmission to single centres, or the transmissionof video from one radar to many sites. All types of radar presenta- tion can be handled. Raytheon Canada claim that Department of Transport airtraffic controllers will now be able to hand-over aircraft traces visually from one centre to another. Additional uses include sur-veillance of all ship traffic on the St Lawrence Seaway, using many radars but a single control centre; and for linking branch officesof a bank with headquarters for verification of bank signatures. One Every Three Working Days SINCE Midsummer's day Elliott Automation have sold 22 com-puters in 63 working days—one every three working days. The sales include 18 National-Elliott 803s, three NCR 315s and aNational-Elliott 405. Excluding the NCR 315s, a total of 126 National-Elliott computers have been ordered and 90 delivered,one-third of them for export. Customers include several govern- ment aviation establishments and aircraft manufacturers; and theMoA has a 502 on order for system simulation study and another for the experimental air traffic control system. A number of special-purpose digital computers, not included in the total above, have been made by Elliott for defence purposes. Now, Elliott have formed the Special Computer Division withintheir group of data processing divisions to study problems associated with the on-line application of digital computers to continuousoperations. An example is the co-ordination of a wide variety of inputs into a computer which is at the same time providing anequally wide variety of outputs. The division is at present studying an experimental air traffic control system. UHF for the Super Starfighter THE first of 250 UHF emergency transceivers for the CF-104 wasdelivered by Collins Radio Co of Canada eleven days early. The unit weighs 9.41b and provides five-watt transmitter power forcommunication on two channels in case of failure of the main power supply or primary radio. The latter is the ARC-552A, madeby Collins in 1,750 and 3,500-channel versions and standardized for all F-104Gs, CF-104s and F-104Js. A recent view of the Short Belfast cockpit mock-up being inspected by Air Ministry and MoA officials. Note the radio control panels on the sloping console and the Smiths triplex autopilot panel aft of the throttle levers. Control position indicators are on the glare shield More Doppler for the Wessex A FURTHER order has been placed with Ryan Electronics forAPN-97A Dopplersfor Westland Wessex anti-submarine helicopters. This time the order was placed by Westland themselves and not bythe Royal Navy. The APN-97A is designed primarily as a ground velocity indicator for helicopters and provides outputs for instru-ments or autopilot which will allow the pilot to keep the machine stationary over a given point. Parameters sensed are headingspeed, drift speed and vertical speed and the outputs may also be used for position or course and distance computers. The controland attack system of the Wessex is produced under Lear licence by Louis Newmark in Britain; and the Texas Instruments dippingSonar is made by R. B. Pullin. Ryan has also signed an agreement with the Compagnie FrancaiseThomson-Houston covering repair, overhaul and maintenance of Ryan Dopplers in Europe. At a later stage, CFTH might manufac-ture such equipment under licence. Racal in Australia RECENTLY formed for the purpose of marketing Racal and otherproducts in Australia and mandated territories is Racal (Australia) Pty Ltd. The company will work closely with CommonwealthElectronics Pty at Sydney; and Racal Electronics, the parent company at Bracknell. will market their products in Britain.The managing director of both Commonwealth Electronics and Racal (Australia) is Mr R. S. Hope, who spent many years withStandard Telephones & Cables. Another ILS and Mercury THE Centre d'Essais en Vol at Bretigny, near Paris, is to be equippedwith a Pye ILS system incorporating the directional localizer. The total number of Pye ILS systems in service now exceeds 35. Recently announced by Pye Telecommunications is the MercuryType PTC 986 HF radiotelephone intended for use overseas where power supplies are limited. The modulator and power supply of thetransmitter and the whole receiver are transistorized; and the set is sufficiently robust for mounting in a vehicle. Eight transmitterchannels can be preset, four in the 1.6 to 3.8Mc/s band and four in the 3.8 to lOMc/s band. The built-in speaker or headphones maybe used and the receiver is continuously tunable over the broad- cast, medium short-wave or short-wave bands. Printed circuitsare incorporated and the two units can be individually removed from the combined chassis. The transmitter has an RF output of20W minimum and either 12V or 24V power supplies are available.
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