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Aviation History
1962
1962 - 2044.PDF
FLIGHT International, 13 September 1962 ELECTRONICS THIS year presented nothing of startling novelty, but it was with out doubt the show in which the transistor and the computer came into their own. Computer and transistor are really complementary, especially where it becomes possible to take extremely complex calculating ability into the field or up into the air, but the transistor has become a bit of a bugbear to some manufacturers. One sales man complained bitterly that if a customer opens up a black box and sees a valve inside he will not buy the equipment. Expensive and lengthy work is required to transistorize many items which do not really require it. Despite complaints that the industry needed more Government financial support, there was a strong sales atmosphere in the electronics exhibits. Not everyone was dissatis fied and it is rare to see so much production equipment and to hear the announcement of so many civil and military orders. Military electronics, at least in their more interesting forms, are usually blanketed with security—to the inevitable disadvantage of the manufacturers who cannot therefore display their best and most recent work. But a hot titbit did break just before the show. E.M.I., who make the V-bomber radar and a whole range of other military systems, announced that they are developing two radars for the TSR.2. One is a sideways-looking type for navigation and reconnaissance purposes and the other is a passive radar in the optical wavelengths, called Line Scan: virtually a visual system, but one which could use infra-red illumination during darkness. A scanning technique is used to form the picture. Line Scan is in tended for use at low level. G.E.C.'s Dexan airborne digital computer has now progressed considerably. The core store and calculator of a "first-stage size reduction" model were on show and flight trials in a Comet have been continuing. Also shown was a model of a version which would fit, complete with core store and power pack, into a 1ATR case. By mounting rectangular components or prefabricated modules in straight rows on a series of boards, G.E.C. plan to achieve a com ponent density of between 250 x 103 and 107—well towards microminiature standards. In this form, Dexan will be able to fulfil five different functions concurrently. Capabilities include processing of Decca Navigator with fixes from astro, navigation satellite, VLF and other aids; plain Doppler or Doppler inertial; flight plan and fuel management; and instrument assessment and data processing. In each case, Dexan would take information from a number of types of source and produce comprehensive predictive information for pilot and autopilot. In most cases data link reporting would be included. The Autonetics Verdan now being produced by Elliott Brothers (London) was on show again, this time operating a moving map navigation display with wind inputs varied by anyone who hap pened to twist the setting knob, plotting strange patterns with a pen recorder and beating a great number of people at noughts and crosses. It was a busy little Verdan. Our representative crowed with delight when he beat Verdan at noughts and crosses, but he was told that it had been programmed to lose once every ten minutes or so, just to keep everybody interested. Elliotts very nearly stole the static show with their own private 4,000 sq ft of exhibition, showing the work of some 24 companies and divisions. They have a thriving business in industrial computers, which they have been quick to integrate into various military and civil operational processes to provide a series of very economical but effective control centres. For the MoA experimental traffic control project they are developing Euclid, based on a 502 computer with teleprinter inputs and digital flight-plan displays. It involves some 9,000 single-letter indicators, mounted in patterned banks to represent flight plans. Some 40 per cent of the indicators are being made by Signaal and the remainder by General Precision Systems. Euclid covers a hypothetical terminal and en route ATC system, which is to be delivered to ATCEU in March 1964—a bit far in the future, but MoA took two years to place the contract after calling for tenders in a spectacular hurry. In the meantime, Elliott are proposing for operational application a smaller system based on an 803 computer and character-at-a-time printers, which could all be delivered in six months. After lengthy trials, ATCEU have adopted the closed-circuit television data display system for SATCC, using Marconi cameras and monitors. Marconi have also supplied a new bright display to be used in ambient light in the control tower at Gatwick, displaying the last few miles of the approach as seen by the surveillance radar. Elliott 502 and 803 computers figure largely in military systems and in a ticket reservation system using a central computer linked by normal GPO Telex lines and printers to each agent. The booking system could be changed at will simply by reprogramming the com puter; and spare line time could be hired out and used when avail able by an automatic punched-tape transmitter. Elliott military systems include Fire Brigade, Super Fire Brigade 443 and Life Brigade, based on normal defence radar, existing radar displays and the commercially available 502 or 803 computers. They are intended as the controlling element for SAGW radars or fighters, rather than for the initial surveillance and filtering task; and the RAF has stated its intention to buy Fire Brigade for controlling "a certain fighter aircraft." The point is that a man alone can no longer compute interception and recovery quickly enough. Super Fire Brigade can handle 100 tracks, 30 inter ceptions and six missile target indicating radars simultaneously and also add such other information as expected fuel state on return to base. Life Brigade handles six TI radars only. There is a mobile Fire Brigade using the miniaturized Elliott 900 series field computer. One of the most remarkable practical instances of miniaturization is surely the reduction of radar display systems from rows of six-foot racks to a suitcase-sized box. Decca Radar showed the military version of this feat last year; and this year they exhibited the Series 5 display in which a comprehensive system with tracking, mapping, marking, inter-console telling and all the accepted advanced facili ties are built into the cabinet behind the tube face, all in a table-top unit. All circuits are transistorized and temperature-stabilized by liquid cooling. Decca offer a variety of systems which can be pro duced by different circuit board combinations. Marconi have entered the same field, but they offer a range of modules from which any customer's requirement can be met, with display and back-up circuitry separately packaged. They claim that, using the most recently available components, they require no temperature stabiliza tion. Finally, Marconi have produced a transistorized tabular display capable of writing extremely fast, generating characters continuously on a short-persistence tube, rather than retaining them on a memory tube. Teleprinter input was being used on the display stand. Continuing the RF interferometer satellite tracking work of D. Fance and W. A. Johnson, RAE are developing the multi-path landing guidance system for VTOL aircraft. Interferometers, ranging from one at an open site to four or even more at a difficult site, would derive azimuth, elevation, and slant range of approaching aircraft from the transmissions of very small airborne beacons. With suitable corrections, the interferometers could even be mounted at different levels relative to the site. A high-speed computer would then compare the position of the aircraft with a programmed profile appropriate to the type of aircraft. Error signals would be transmitted at least every two seconds corrected for handling characteristics and such factors as load by an airborne computer and fed to autopilot and flight director instruments. Airborne weight would be 601b and up to ten aircraft at a time could be handled by time- or frequency-multiplexing. Present VHF frequencies would operationally be replaced by C or J band frequencies. The system is simple and flexible, being omni-directional and having no moving parts. Range with present low-powered beacons is about five miles. No one seems to be able to decide whether there is any future in light and executive aircraft or not but, largely under the stimulus of Beagle, the small-aircraft-equipment business is undergoing a minor boom. There is also a certain cross-infection from the big-time products, because several lines of new equipment are small enough to be used in virtually any size of aircraft. In performance there is the basic dividing line between equipment cleared for use in any aircraft (unrestricted) and that cleared for aircraft under 5,0001b in Class 1, 2 or 3. The unrestricted radios tend to be arranged for rack mounting and remote control, whereas the light aircraft man likes to have it all behind the instrument panel if possible. Per formance is largely equated with price—a further potent deciding factor. Smiths Aviation Division have for some time been selling Motorola radios and autopilot, and were displaying the brand new M-400 Marconi transistorized radar and tabular displays. Note stick and ball steering controls for tracking symbols
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