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Aviation History
1962
1962 - 1545.PDF
FLIGHT International, 23 August 1962 287 Letters The Editor of" Flight International" is not necessarily in agreement with the views expressed by correspondents in these columns. Names and addresses of writers, not for publication in detail, must in all cases accompany letters. Nocturnal Goose-flesh SIR,—I read with interest "Icarusty's" letter in your issue dated July 12, dealing with his experiences with a formation of geese over the Canadian prairie. I, too, had an experience with a flock of geese, but unlike "Icarusty," my encounter with the formation was unintentional and took place under cover of darkness. The incident occurred in the late fall of 1943 whilst I was instructing at No 34 EFTS, Assiniboia, in southern Saskatchewan. It was late at night on the downwind leg of a night circuit. The pupil in the front seat of the Cornell was doing exceedingly well and I was letting him have the reins. Without any warning I saw him duck violently and felt him relax control of the aircraft. At that very moment I sensed several severe impacts on the plane which quite upset its equilibrium and resulted in a distinct unevenness in the running of the engine. 1 immediately assumed control and on glancing to both sides was aware of a large number of objects flying past. My first impression was that we had overtaken an aircraft on the downwind leg and run into its rear, and that the flying objects were debris from the collision. However, I was satis fied that this was not the case since I knew the position of all five aircraft that were night-flying that evening. I asked the pupil what he had seen and he said he thought we had encountered a flight of birds. By judicious juggling of the engine I managed to land the aircraft safely and on examina tion on the ground it was quite apparent what had happened. We had struck a flight of Canada geese. Two of them had penetrated through the wing roots as far as the petrol tanks. One was draped around the undercarriage and the propeller had lost part of a tip, and embedded in the brass fairing was part of a goose's foot. The following morning I had great difficulty convincing the CFI and the CO that I had not been low flying over one of the neighbouring sloughs, and they, like many others, refused to believe (until I finally convinced them, with the help of the ACP) that Canada geese do fly at night. For many years I kept two of the goose feathers in my log book, but unfortunately, as a result of many moves since that date, they have disappeared. Ralston, Alt a A. M. PENNIE Dakota Replacement SIR,—In your magazine over the last year there have been innumerable references to the supersonic transport, yet little of importance has been said about a question which is surely- more important—that of the Dakota replacement market. Any SST will only be made in limited quantities; but if a replacement were found for the DC-3 and its various unsuc cessful replacements, production would run into thousands. With this in mind, I think someone ought to point out to the aircraft manufacturers where they are going wrong. An airline must of necessity match its capacity to the need for it, and where this has not been done the airline loses considerably. Thus, as most Dakota replacements have a much greater lifting capability, the number needed to replace x Dakotas must be less than .v. When an airline has based its operations on having, for example, ten Dakotas, it will find itself in trouble if it has to manage with five replace ment aircraft. The Dakota replacement is of much more interest to small airlines than to big. and it is with the smaller operators that flexibility is most important. Rather irrelevant to the case in hand, but interesting, is the fact that BUA bought ten BAC One-Elevens rather than five Tridents as it had intended and cited greater flexibility as one reason for this change in policy. The cost of the replacement is important; before cynical laughs are provoked, let me explain. A Dakota can be bought and operated for several years before the costs equal the initial capital investment needed to buy one Dakota replacement. I do not think that the airlines want an aircraft so much bigger than the DC-3. The need is more for an aircraft of the same size, cheap, with STOL performance, not too sophisticated, piston-engined. high-winged and with decent economics. As a conception of an aircraft, it wouldn't win any prizes for realism, but it would be splendid if a British firm could build it. The whole contemporary concept of the Dakota replace ment boils down, as it has so often before, to the manufac turers' bullying the airlines into buying unsuitable equip ment. This has happened many times before, and unless and until the airlines realize that it is a buyers' market and stand up for what they require. I cannot see this state of affairs changing. Leeds 14 COLIN TAYLOR Historic Aircraft at Farnborough SIR,—Just before the last Farnborough SBAC Display, 1 wrote to you and suggested that the people concerned put the S.E.5A on view. This was done, whether as a result of my letter or not. Later on I wrote to say that if the historic aircraft available in this country were put on show at Farnborough in a separate park, for which an extra charge of Is could be made, at least £5,000 could be put towards getting the machines on show, and for insurance, etc. However, after the poor showing made recently at the RAF Golden Jubilee, I shall go to Farnborough without much hope of seeing any of the historic aircraft which were connected in some way with the airfield, other than the S.E.5, perhaps. Much has been written of the new types to be on show, but it seems to me that some machines that could well be there, home-builts and light aircraft such as the Hampshire Halcyon, will not be. Why not? Surely they could be put in the static park, if not allowed to fly? Ems worth, Hants F. HONEY Safety Without Penalty SIR,—Norman Hall-Warren's letter (Flight International. August 9) is of great interest and undoubtedly deserves serious consideration. There is no fear of it looking a bit odd, for there are a lot of "queer hawks" flying about these days. I am glad the Warren-Young Skycar project was illustrated because it may provide a clue to a print I have of an almost identical unidentified plane which differs only in having a tailwheel in place of a nosewheel, and semi- wing struts sloping down on each side to the bottom of the fuselage from the mainplane. Three men are shown at work on the machine. I wonder whether Mr Hall-Warren was originally inspired by Kitchen's Doughnut of 1911 or the Walton Edward's Rhomboidal biplane of 1909/10, or perhaps the Lee-Richards "Secret Circle Plane" of 1911-14? The question is. are there any more of these efforts? (Perhaps Charles H. Gibbs- Smith could oblige.) Any way, we have stacks of powerful engines, lots of English know-how, and plenty of young engineers who want to build flying machines in preference to washing machines. Birmingham 14 MAURICE AUSTIN
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