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Aviation History
1962
1962 - 0808.PDF
806 FLIGHT International, 17 May l%2 INDUSTRY International Flight Systems Products Company News Flight Systems US Autolanding It is reported that the FAA and the USAF have agreed that the Lockheed C-141 jet cargo aircraft shall be equipped from the outset for automatic landing, necessitating the provision of radio altimeter, auto-throttle, flare com puter and an autopilot with stick steering. FAA has also just received its DC-7 with Smiths Autoland and Leader Cable, and the TF-102 fitted with Autonetics APN- 114 flare computer. Boeing have just flown APN-114 in their "Dash 80" 707 prototype. The C-141 now becomes the first firm autolanding project for a production aircraft in America. Some important fundamental decisions on safety principles might now be taken, but it is noteworthy that provision of stick steering indicates that the pilot is being retained at least partly in the control loop. Radar Recording At the Hanover Show Ferranti exhibited for the first time their radarscope recorder, in which a 16mm cine camera photographs a miniature c.r.t. display connected in parallel with the Airpass radar scope. Alongside the c.r.t. are eight event-marker lights and a special time display. Camera and lamps can be Ferranti's radarscope recorder, a 16mm camera photographing a repeater from the main radar display controlled automatically or by the pilot. The unit weighs 151b. Benefits of this system, which Ferranti say they can also provide for other types of radar, are that a precise record of an inter ception can be brought back after a single- seat mission. There is otherwise very little precise information with which to analyse performance of either man or equipment. Autonetics division of North American Aviation were showing at Hanover their Nadar 8, a tape recorder for both flight and radar data, first applied to the F-86D in the early days of the Hughes fire-control system. Then, it was almost impossible to find out whether the pilot or the equip ment was responsible for disappointing weapon performance. The recorder allowed detailed investigation of both possibilities after each flight and led to a great improve ment. Nadar has since been applied to various marks of F-86, F-89, F-101 and F-102, and it is now being used in training F4H crews. Radar video, crew conver sation and various flight factors are recorded continuously on a two-hour length of tape several inches wide. The tape cassette is inserted and removed by the pilot before and after flight and is immediately available for visual play-back on special equipment. The unit shown at Hanover—in company, incidentally, with the 1,000th Verdan air borne digital computer—was fairly heavily constructed and replaced certain oper ational equipment in the F4H, but it had proved extremely effective as a training device. Helicopters Hands-off A very small and light stability augmentation system for helicopters has now been extensively tested by Autonetics. It weighs three pounds per axis and consists of a very small computer/rate gyro unit and series servo for each axis, requiring neither shock-mounts nor special fittings. With a pick-off from flight instruments a cruise control can be produced for 61b. F-104 Simulators The first of 30 simu lators for the F-104 was completed and demonstrated by Canadian Aviation Elec tronics in Montreal at the end of April. The second, an F-104G for Holland, will be completed early in the summer and pro duction will continue for two-and-a-half years. The pilot takes his Autonetics Nadar 8 tope cassette aboard an F4H to record an inter ception mission Surveillance Out East A Decca DASR- surveillance radar is to be installed by next year at Singapore international airport at Paya Lebar. It will be the first civil long- range radar in that part of Asia and will operate in conjunction with a joint civil/ military control centre. Swedish Radar RCA (Great Britain) Ltd are manufacturing at Sunbury-on-Thames 30 Type 3A radar displays as part of the ten Solartron transistorized radar simu lators for the Royal Swedish Air Force. Type 3A has a 12in tube mounted in table- top cabinet, a maximum to minimum range display ratio of 6 : 1 and minimum range setting of ten miles. It can be used with radar in any band, as well as with simulators. Doppler for Comets Two Comet 4Cs recently delivered to United Arab Airlines were fitted with Bendix DRA-12A Dopp ler and CPA-24A computers supplied by FieldTech Ltd at London Airport. UAA's other five Comets will be retro-fitted.
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