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Aviation History
1962
1962 - 1354.PDF
180 FLIGHT International, 2 August 1962 INDUSTRY International Flight Systems Products Company News Flight Systems Belfast Control Testing Short Brothers and Harland are building for the Belfast a complete, dimensionally accurate control systems rig, which, together with the en tire automatic landing system, a rocking gyro table and an analogue computer, will allow evaluation of the control system in advance of the first flight of the aircraft itself. The control runs, with their rods, levers, pressure seals and gearboxes, are accurately located, and electric pick-offs feed control surface movements into a 64- amplifier Short analogue computer. The Smiths triplex SEP.5 autopilot and auto- throttle are fitted and aircraft motion is reproduced by the servo-controlled gyro table, which has a surface area of 400 sq in. Work with the ground rig will continue in parallel with flight tests, which begin during next year, and will considerably reduce development costs. Light-aircraft Oxygen Normalair Ltd at Yeovil have produced an informative brochure on the use of oxygen in private and business aircraft. Explaining first the circumstances under which oxygen is required, and to what extent, the brochure goes on to describe and illustrate the various valves, regulators, masks and installations designed specifically for small aircraft. The components include cylinders, con tents indicators and valves designed for long storage and filling from standard pressure supplies, together with a variety of light weight and simple masks. Scheme for o business-aircraft oxygen system, from the new Normalair brochure noted immediately above Simple Type A flow selectors for high and low flow rates, or the Type B allowing a wide range of flows, are described. Nor malair have for some time produced oxygen kits for gliders, but a newer system is the two-outlet "suitcase" designed specially for business aircraft. Two cylinders with Type A flow regulators, reducing valves, on/off cock and charging points are all housed in a neat suitcase, which also contains a small pocket for the masks. The case remains closed when in use, only a small flap being opened to reveal the regulators. Products Controlling Refuelling Surge One of the problems with airliners employing under- wing pressure refuelling is to control the surge pressures which arise with sudden closure of the tank valve. The difficulty is intensified by requirements for quick re fuelling, especially when the amount specified may have to be determined at the last moment in accordance with payload and weather conditions. When a DC-8, for example, needs to take 18,000 Imp gal at 1,000 gal/min, and the tank valve is closed in 0.5sec, the need to control a sudden surge in back pressure is evident. A new type of pressure control—at the aircraft end of the hose—has now been evolved by Zwicky Ltd, experts of long standing in all forms of refuelling equip ment. At their factory in Buckingham Avenue, Slough, Bucks—and with the co operation of British Petroleum in providing performance specifications and carrying out field tests—they have devised the "Line- master" hose-end pressure controller, for which they have applied for British and overseas patents. The equipment consists of a pressure- control valve at the hose-end coupling, combined into one unit complying in size and weight with international standards, its total weight being given as only 30 per cent greater than that of a conventional coupling. The valve contains a double-diaphragm unit, one diaphragm being subjected to a predetermined air pressure and the other to the fluid pressure on the delivery side of the controller valve. A balance of pressures, air and fluid, determines the position of the valve. The "Linemaster" can be supplied with a fail-safe device which will cut off the flow to the aircraft when subjected to a sustained pressure above the control datum (pressures in general use are 30 and 501b/sq in). Zwicy "Linemaster" hose-end pressure con troller (see col 2) Company News Napier Appointment Mr J. C. Rivett. BSc(Eng), MIEE, has been appointed manager of D. Napier & Son Ltd, Luton Division. on the retirement of Mr C. L. Cowdrev. FRAeS, MSAE. Mr Rivett, who was appointed chief engineer of the English Electric Company Aircraft Equipment Division, Bradford, in 1955, was made deputy manager of the division in 1960. He has been closely associated with the development and manu facture of a wide range of aircraft electrical equipment and also with the introduction to Britain of constant-frequency a.c. electrical systems. Previously he was with the Plessey Co Ltd. Mr Cowdrey formed the Luton division of Napier in 1940 and during the war years was responsible for flight development of the Sabre engine. This was followed by design and development work on ramjets. English Electric's Red Shoes (forerunner of Thunderbird) and the Scorpion range of rocket motors. It was under Mr Cowdrey's direction that the Napier Spraymat ice pro tection system was devised and developed. Before joining Napier, Mr Cowdrey had held senior executive appointments with Rolls-Royce, Hawker and Fairey. Chief designer to Dowty Fuel Systems Ltd for the past seven years, Mr £. B. Dove, AFRAeS, has joined Flight Refuel ling Ltd as engineering manager. In earlier senior technical ap pointments Mr Dove was concerned with propeller, rocket and missile work Schermuly Changes Mr Alfred Schermuly has relinquished his position as joint managing director of Schermuly Pistol Rocket Apparatus Ltd, having felt for some time that the duties allowed him insufficient opportunity of carrying on the research and technical development which have always been his principal interest, and upon which he will now concentrate, while retain ing a seat on the board as consultant. SELF CLOSING VALVE
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