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Aviation History
1962
1962 - 0487.PDF
Air stairs and inward-opening plug door, above, make JetStar access easy. At right, engine instruments, fire-extinguisher handles, central warning panel, and weather radar are in the central panel area. There is stall-warning with stick-shaker and Mach trim and has been cleared for operation up to 43,000ft and M0.87 or 383kt i.a.s. A series of low-level cross-countries at this i.a.s. were in fact completed during USAF trials last summer. Well over 5,000hr have been flown by Jet Stars so far, and one of them has landed in winter at Samaden, St Moritz, a field length of 6,000ft at over 5,000ft altitude. The JetStar at 32,0001b took off from Gatwick very much like a Comet and flew smoothly. Ailerons and elevator, power-boosted, have two hydraulic supplies and manual reversion as well. The rudder is mechanical and has a geared tab. Tailplane angle is changed for trimming by moving the whole fin with electric motors. Undercarriage retraction is fast and causes loud bangs as the locks go home. When the double-slotted flaps, extending underneath the tanks, are lowered to the take-off/approach setting, the leading edge of the wing outboard of the tanks droops to about 22°. Rubber anti-icing boots cover tailplane, fin and wing leading- t—zr "s ^^ Wl ™| Leading-edge droop and double-slotted flap, together with strongly washed-out ailerons, give good low-speed handling. The blade running along the wing-tip past the nav light is a static discharger edges, except on the large fairing inboard of the wing tanks. Landing and taxi lights are inset in the tank noses. Fuel can be jettisoned from a vent in the fin-tailplane bullet. Metal blades along the extreme wing-tips are intended as static dischargers. The demonstration JetStar was fitted with Collins Doppler radar and NC-103 navigation computer, Collins FD-105 flight director instruments, Sperry SP-40 autopilot and couplers, and Bendix weather radar. DMET is more frequently installed than Doppler in JetStars operating over the USA. Lockheed pilots during the demonstration flight from Gatwick were "Tony" Blalock and Glenn Gray, but "Jock" Bryce, chief test pilot of BAC, did much of the flying by invitation. With everything down, the JetStar stalled at 105kt, giving an approach speed just above 135kt. The stall appeared to be quite straight and gentle. A large airbrake beneath the tail was extended for the let-down from 25,000ft, but had to be retracted during landing and take-off to avoid ground contact. Turbulence-reducing perforations in the airbrake panel were covered with spring-loaded doors. Clam-shell reversers on all four engines deflected efflux up and down ahead of the tailplane, reversing 45 per cent of the rated thrust and allowing a ten per cent reduction in landing runs. For a few minutes Flight International's Mark Lambert flew the "flight International'* photographs JetStar at 25,000ft. He found the controls very responsive, and a high rate of roll was available at the moderate i.a.s. Tailplane trim is adjustable by moving a pair of switches on the left hern of the control yoke, and the trim reaction is fast. Visibility through the shallow, but broad windscreen, was quite good and the roof windows greatly extended the field of vision in turns. We hope to have the opportunity for a full assessment of JetStar handling at a later date. The aircraft was being shown to potential customers in Britain, including, apparently, Shell and the RAF, and was then being taken to France and Italy before beginning on a Middle and Far Eastern tour leading finally to Indonesia. Lockheed have embarked on batch production of JetStars and seem to have good hopes of keeping both civil and military orders in step with production. Gliding in 1961 A continued expansion of the British Gliding movement was reported by Mr Philip Wills, chairman of the British Gliding Association, in his report to the annual general meeting of the association in London on Saturday, March 10. Civilian gliding clubs flew a total of 24,564 hours from club sites, from 139,826 launches, and the RAF Gliding and Soaring Association reported 7,215 flying hours from 54,258 launches. The number of club air craft increased from 153 to 165, and privately owned machines rose from 109 to 124. The number of full member clubs increased to 21, associate member clubs to 28, with three overseas associate member clubs; while Service clubs now include 16 in the RAFGSA and four in the RNGSA. "The greatest triumph of 1961," Mr Wills said, "has been the acquisition at last, after over ten years of struggle and negotiation with the Government, of a long-term lease at Lasham, where 800 members are now enthusiastically organizing the development and building of our first Commonwealth Gliding Centre. There is at least five years' work ahead, and immense problems of finance and planning to solve, but no one has the least doubt that solved they will be. . . "And so 1 come to our never-ending battle to retain sufficient freedom in the air over our country to enable us to survive. After a somewhat bitter battle in the columns of The Times initiated by the Guild of Air Pilots and Navigators, the British sense of com promise won, and nearly all air-using interests got together and produced an agreed paper, involving many compromises, which has now been submitted to the Ministry of Aviation. This is the first time in history that any government has received recommen dations of such unanimity, and it is a hopeful augury when large commercial and professional interests can take into their schemes the views of a body of enthusiasts and amateurs such as ours . .. "But this agreement does not mean that our battle is over. The
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