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Aviation History
1962
1962 - 0017.PDF
^FLIGHT International, 4 January 1962 17 PROGRESS IN POLAND... the fully qualified pilot will be able to perfect his aerobatic skill on the specialized single-seat high-performance aerobatic sailplane, the SZD-21 Kobuz, which began flight tests on June 3, 1961. It has a laminar-flow wooden wing with two-section ailerons, and a composite fuselage with the sandwich-covered forward portion of metal construction and a wooden monocoque rear fuselage. The single wheel is retractable. In addition to the standard version a special competition variant for glider aerobatic champion ships will be built. Span 14.5m (47ft 7in), length 6.38m (20ft 7in), wing area 13.5m2 (145.3 sq ft), gross weight 340kg (7501b). Esti mated performance: best glide ratio 25.9 : 1; min sinking speed 3.25ft/sec; diving speed 350km/hr (217 m.p.h.). To provide the large number of well-trained pilots with high-per formance equipment, which is cheap to produce and operate the SZD-25 Lis was evolved. The machine has the all-metal pod- and-boom fuselage of the abandoned SZD-16 Gil prototype and the 15m wing of the SZD-22 Mucha-Standart. Its gross weight is 295kg (6501b) and performance includes a best gliding ratio of 27.1 : 1, min sinking speed of 2.5ft/sec and diving speed of 230 km/hr (143 m.p.h.). For the elite of Polish pilots the Standard-Class Foka and Open- Class Zefir super-high-performance sailplanes (both described in Flight for August 19, 1960) will be available in modest numbers. A specially developed Zefir variant is now being evolved for the next World Championships, and looking further ahead the SZD office is already working on a still more advanced and entirely new design for the 1965 championships. Initial work on the pressurized cabin for high-altitude soaring has also began. Another most interesting project is a high-performance single-/two-seat sailplane, provided with a 65 h.p. auxiliary powerplant. The Engine Industry During the fifties the Polish aero-engine industry was considerably expanded, and the following Russian engines went into production and are still being manufactured: piston engines: the 125 h.p. M-11D and 160 h.p. M-llFrl five- cylinder air-cooled radials, the 260 h.p. AI-14R nine-cylinder geared radial, the 1,000 h.p. ASz-62-IR nine-cylinder geared and supercharged radial, and the 575 h.p. LiT-3 (AI-26V) seven-cylinder Channel Air Bridge (continuedfromP.i3) The main freight route is Rotterdam; the Air Bridge carries three times more freight between Holland and the UK than does BEA. Freight alone does not pay, unless the rates are high—and then of course it does not go by air, but by sea. Yet, dealt with as fill-up, attractive rates can be offered to shippers. In Rotterdam-Air's big freight shed something like 400 to 500 tons of freight a month are handled, and 80 per cent is carried by the Air Bridge—Dutch Duo-Matic washing machines (pouring into British homes at the rate of 600 per week) P. de Jager bulbs and fresh lettuces for British markets; Decca radar equipment; ships' diesels; and Jaguar export cars and spares for Dutch and Continental markets. These were typical consignments observed in transit at Rotterdam during a recent visit. The aim is to give shippers prompt, dependable service keyed in with the car-ferry schedules; and that this aim is achieved appears to be evident from the jam-packed freight shed at Rotterdam. "When will this lot be cleared ?" we asked a Rotterdam-Air official. "Oh, by tonight, I expect," was the reply. Freight rates (80 per cent special-commodity) have to be related to the IATA structure, though this is not made of the completely inflexible iron that is often supposed. Nevertheless, the Air Bridge will bless the day when there are more than the two existing weight-breaks (45kg and 100kg) in the rate structure, and fewer commodity rates. Load factor, that volatile index of economic health, is at its most sensitive in the vehicle ferry business. Only one car and its occupants have to be a no-show for load factor to plummet 20 or 30 percent age points. Load factor is in any case difficult to measure, since the primary type of load is driven up in two or three units of varied shape and weight. The no-show problems will ease a little with the advent of the bigger Carvair. About 40 per cent of the Air Bridge's business is booked by the two motoring organizations, the AA and the RAC. The proportion was higher a few years ago, but as international red tape has been The new SZD-2/ Kobuz high-performance aerobatic sailplane with laminar-flow wing. The prototype first flew last June fan-cooled radial helicopter engine; turbojet engines: the LiS-2A VK-1) of 2,700kg (5,9551b) thrust, and the LiS-5 (VK-1A) which, fitted with afterburner, has a rated output of 3,450kg (7.5901b). This range of engines is supplemented by the national 330 h.p. WN-3 seven-cylinder air-cooled radial, evolved by Wiktor Narkie- wicz, which has been in quantity production since 1956. Several indigenous powerplants are presently under development and are expected to reach quantity production status under the 1961-65 plan. In addition to the 2,0301b turbojet engine powering the Iskra, of which nothing is known, the most important among them is the paraffin-burning TO-1 light centrifugal-flow turbojet with single-stage turbine, developing 400kg (8811b) at 22,030 r.p.m. In the piston-engine field the principal new powerplant is the Narkiewicz WN-6 flat-six, pre-production examples of which, rated at 180 b.h.p., are fitted to the Wilga and M.4. The improved 195 h.p. WN-6B is already reaching production, and the 220 h.p. geared variant, the WN-6R, is under development. The 200 h.p. helicopter version, the WN-6S, is also well advanced. The earlier Narkiewicz WN-1 flat-four engine has now been developed into the improved NP-1, rated at 68 h.p., and is accepted for production. In the pure research field there are also some interesting activities to note. In 1960 a team of scientists of the Warsaw Technical University constructed and ran the first Polish plasma-jet engine, based upon original scientific and technological theories evolved at the University. A jet of gas of 4.35 miles/sec velocity is produced with argon and 27.34 miles/sec with hydrogen. Limited experiments are also conducted with single-and two-stage solid-propellant meteorological and postal rockets. cut and the required documentation has simplified, travel agents have become increasingly interested in motorized holidaymaking. About 35 per cent of the Air Bridge's business is now booked by agents. The remaining 25 per cent is booked directly. Probably the majority of bookings will always come from the A A and the RAC; the information services these organizations provide is very good, and the AA is interested enough in the Air Bridge's new long-haul services to have instigated a survey of their potential. The company's traffic is highly sensitive to price—perhaps more so, because of boat competition, than on any other European route. Though boat traffic may now appear to be levelling off, new vessels —and fare cuts—are in prospect; and the services they offer (see map) are vigorously and imaginatively promoted by the railways and private companies concerned. The Air Bridge also has to contend with railway car-sleeper services, enabling the motorist to take his car and his family over night from the UK to within driving distance of his holiday destina tion on the Continent. Looking further ahead, there are hovercraft and the Channel Tunnel for the Air Bridge to think about. All these competitive considerations account not only for the Air Bridge's determination to hold the line on prices; they account also for the Carvair and for the new long-haul routes, planned and market- researched for so long, that the airline has now won. Channel Air Bridge could have plodded on with its Bristols, hoping that tomorrow would look after itself, and allowing com mercial emphasis to remain on the word "Channel." But the world Channel does not mean as much as it used tc do, politically or commercially And it is evidently the Air Bridge's view that an airline's tomorrow can never be allowed to take care of itself; although luck is something that every airline needs, particularly on the eve of a revolution in its operations, it is no substitute for imaginative forward thinking.
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