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Aviation History
1963
1963 - 0136.PDF
124 Furnishing and Finishing Aircraft domestic water-system diaphragm pump by Saunders Valve Co Ltd & Associates Ltd is the result of a fairly recent merger between two companies well known throughout the aircraft industry since the days when any aircraft protective coating was known simply as "dope." In these days the field is somewhat wider, but Cellon-Docker have a finish to finish off any conceivable threat to an aircraft's structure, be it a nuclear flash, London smog or probably, if anybody asked for it, the teredo worm. Among their many approved finishes are a number suitable for internal decoration and protection. Honeycomb sandwich construction is now a much-favoured way by which the necessary high rigidity required in such furnishing items as bulkheads, doors, tables and so on can be attained without going over the meagre weight-limits im posed by economics staffs. Among the busy bees making the honey fillings for such sandwiches are Dufaylite Developments Ltd, Essex Road, Boreham Wood, Herts. Dufaylite honeycombs are made from a variety of materials including resinated paper, glass-fibre cloth, cotton cloth and aluminium foil. Dufaylite back their products with a technical advisory service. Another company well versed in the honey combing art is CIBA (A.R.L.) Ltd, who produce "Aeroweb" at Duxford, Cambs. There are more labels applied to aircraft than the names their manufacturers or operators give—five for every passenger would seem a fair guess, ignoring those that face the crew. Those much-read yet quite unnoticed little tabs which state such things as "Steward," "Press," and "Your lifejacket is under the seat" are produced by a variety of means. R.H. Lighting Ltd, of Anyards Road, Cobham, Surrey, use a photographic process for their Metalphoto plaques. Impervious to just about anything ever likely to be encountered—including tem peratures of up to 530°C (the Concorde team to note)—Metalphotos are reproduced on anodized aluminium plates, using standard darkroom equipment. No etching or messy processing is involved. R.H. Lighting offer a one-day or five-day service FLIGHT International, 24 January 1963 using customers' own negatives or artwork. Alternatively, they can supply unprocessed Metalphoto plates for customers to use in their own darkrooms. Malby's Metal-Cals Ltd, 68 Carlton Hill, Brighton 7, Sussex, print labels on 0.003in anodized aluminium foil. Metal- Cals are available in a combination of natural and anodized aluminium in one or more colours, matt or glossy. They have a pressure-sensitive adhesive backing and are, therefore, simple to put in place, involving no unsightly screws or rivets. They have AID and ARB approvals, which are very respectable labels themselves. Safety Equipment EMERGENCY breathing systems for use in cases of pressurization failure are the primary safety equipment with which the aircraft furnishing designer need concern himself—other types of emergency equip ment are stowed away out of passengers' sight. But not so with emergency oxygen; this has to be readily accessible at all times and at least three firms in Britain ensure that it is. A sudden drop in cabin pressure auto matically triggers off the passenger oxygen systems marketed by the Walter Kidde Company Ltd, Belvue Road, Northolt, Middx. These have an emergency mask for every passenger, which drops down on its lead from a neat stowage in the luggage rack. Pulling the mask down to the face switches on the oxygen supply. Not all passengers will react swiftly enough to use the equipment immediately after decom pression; but the availability of the mask, coupled to supply and swinging over every passenger's head, ensures that crew mem bers can speedily assist them when the aircraft reaches a tolerable altitude and thus reduces the severity of hypoxic effects. Each drop-out mask unit has a therapeutic connection to provide oxygen for invalids or distressed passengers at any time in flight. British Oxygen Aviation Services Ltd, Harlow, Essex, have in recent years been to the fore in the development of liquid, as opposed to gaseous, oxygen systems. Lox systems, by virtue of their relative low pressures—1501b/sq in against, say, 1,800 Ib/sq in—have proved attractive from the weight- and space-saving point of view, first in military and now in commercial "Altair" portable oxygen system for light and executive aircraft, by British Oxygen Aviation Services Normalair portable oxygen set to facilitate crew movements in an emergency aircraft. BOAS developed a lox system in the Comet 4 and is now producing one for the Short Belfast. For light and executive aircraft the company has a portable gaseous system, the Altair, in which a 750-litre storage cylinder, regulator, valves, charging connection, contents gauge and masks are all housed in a neat lightweight case that can be carried aboard as hand baggage. Up to six persons can be connected to the one case. Normalair Ltd, members of the Westland Aircraft group at Yeovil, Somerset, are supplying a 35-litre lox converter for the VC10, which would offer more than enough oxygen for all passengers and the crew during a descent to "breathable" altitude following a high level pressurization failure. The company has also developed a full-face breathing mask, which can be donned by one hand, and can be plugged into an air craft's oxygen supply or be used with a portable breathing set. It is for the use of crew members investigating the source of smoke or fumes occurring in the aircraft. The mask has a diaphragm-type speech transmitter through which normal conversa tion is possible over distances of about 20ft, so an emergency need not be com pounded by confusion througn an inability to communicate with colleagues or soothe passengers' fears. .*^Z**r>
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