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Aviation History
1963
1963 - 0645.PDF
FLIGHT International, 25 April 1963 US-UK Electronics Link The formation was announced on April 18 of a new Anglo- American military electronics company, Emihus Ltd, resulting from negotiations which have recently been completed be tween Electric and Musical Industries Ltd and the Hughes Aircraft Co, Culver City, Calif. The new company, whose chair man and managing director will be Mr P. A. AJlaway, is to handle certain types of Hughes equipment which are to be manu factured in Britain by EMI Electronics Ltd. EMI state that, for the time being, this equipment will cover digital computers, airborne radars, digital test equipment, airborne instrumentation and various 619 airborne navigation and control systems. Commenting on the announcement, Mr Allaway said: "EMI will have even more scope in the field of military electronics than in the past, and will be able to bring US technical development to the assistance of UK military programmes without the expenditure of dollars. Also, I confidently expect that it will be possible to set up a flow in the opposite direction and export to the US armed forces a not insignificant amount of British technical development and know-how." Emihus will be owned fifty-fifty by EMI and Hughes Aircraft and the board will consist of four members from each company. USA PRODUCTS Bendix International Operations A new organization responsible for the activities of overseas affiliates and licensees and for all overseas sales has been formed by the Bendix Corporation. With the title Bendix International Operations, the organization will have executive offices in New York and Mr Frederick J. Borheck has been appointed executive director for international sales and licensees. The Bendix vice-president of international operations, Mr Dugald Black, said recently that the new organization was designed "to meet rapidly changing con ditions and growing volume in world mar kets more effectively." Last year, Bendix export sales and other international activities reached an all-time high of more than S250m. The corporation currently have 15 manufacturing organizations abroad, 430 licence agreements with 136 overseas companies and 358 international represent ative and distributor organizations. Pinpointing Missile Impact A contract has been awarded to Bendix Corporation by the USAF for a sonar system which will help tracking ships to pinpoint the location of missile nosecones or instrument packages when they land in the sea. To be known as ship-tended acoustic relay (STAR), the system will—it is claimed—be the first to use acoustic data transmission for impact locating in place of cables attached to shore-based monitors. Long-life transmitting units, completely self-contained, are placed permanently on the sea bed and turned on and off by ship- hoard electronic control. As the nosecone hits the water, STAR equipment detects the splash and relays the data to the ship. No details of range are revealed, but it is said that at a distance of several hundred miles STAR can maintain accuracy to within a few miles. ^ Bendix Corp, 205 East 42nd Street, New York 17, received the contract from the Air Force Missile Test Center and will deliver the system to Patrick AFB, Cocoa Beach, Fla. Landing the Starlifter An unusual con figuration has been provided for the USAF C-141 Starlifter undercarriage. The cargo deck of this aircraft—scheduled to make its first flight next December—is only 50in from the ground, to facilitate loading without high-lifting devices; but the under carriage has to be high enough to touch down before the tail when the aircraft is in conventional landing attitude. A slow sink capability enables the landing gear to "reach" for the ground, permitting a smooth tail-down landing. After the nose- wheel has made contact the landing gear compresses, bringing 160 tons of aircraft and payload to designed loading height. Lockheed-Georgia Co say that the land ing gear, made by Bendix Products Divi sion, was one of the first components to be completed. Testing Astronaut Ability A device for measuring the deterioration of an astro naut's skills under the stresses of space flight has been developed by General Dynamics/Astronautics, San Diego, Cal. Known as LOGIT (logical inference tester), the equipment can set up more than 3Jm problems and record the astronaut's re sponses, number of moves and time taken to solve each. It is expected that the device will provide information which will not only furnish accurate psychological measurements but bring about improved spacecraft cockpit design. The subject is first tested when not under stress, to provide a "baseline" as to his abilities; then the same tests are conducted under simulated orbital missions to measure loss of skill. LOGIT consists of a two-way instrumentation with which the test subject solves problems by pressing ten buttons in the proper sequence. Per formance is measured in terms of time and the number of moves needed to solve a problem. Stress is introduced by varying the time allowed for a decision from one second to five minutes. Titanium Flexible Shafting Stow Manu facturing Co, 443 State St, Bingham- ton, NY, announced recently that they had developed, and made available for the first time, flexible-shaft core of titanium, de scribing this as "quite a break-through considering the extreme difficulty of wind ing titanium wire." They add that "by using titanium core, flexible shafting can Designated MMC-2 by the US bureau of Naval Weapons, this mobile generator has been pro duced by Inet-Sprague Division of Sprague Engineering Corp, 193000 S. Vermont Ave, Gardena, Calif. A 30KVa, 400-cyde brushless unit which also provides a static 500A 28V regulated d.c. supply, it is 70in long (including tow-bar), 40in wide and 30in high be made lower in weight and yet stronger than stainless-steel flexible shafting. This is also particularly important for high- temperature applications such as on aircraft engine controls and missiles." Titanium, with good fatigue characteristics, is com parable in tensile strength with stainless steel, even at temperatures of 800 to 1,000°F. COMPANY NEWS Bell Helicopter Post Mr J. H. ("Bud") Orpen has been appointed to the new posi tion of export sales manager for Textron's Bell Helicopter Co and will be responsible for the development of industrial and mili tary contracts in foreign areas. Previously Bell's eastern division sales manager, Mr Orpen is working in his new post from Bell headquarters at Fort Worth, Tex. Canada Timmins Aviation aircraft galley, of the type supplied to TCA for their four new DC-8Fs, each of which carries five of these units. The galleys consist of varying combinations of ovens, water heaters, refrigerators and tray carriers, in addition to having magazine- and coat-racks. The Montreal firm recently formed a new divi sion ("Flight International," February 28) to manufacture and market galley equipment
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