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Aviation History
1963
1963 - 1242.PDF
70 FLIGHT International, 11 July 19' INDUSTRY International Flight Systems Products Company News Great Britain FLIGHT SYSTEMS TCA and Midas Some of the background thinking behind TCA's use of a Royston Midas flight recorder installation in a DC-8 was given at a recent industry con ference in Washington. Mr J. T. Bain, TCA Director of Engineering and Main tenance, claimed that engineering and maintenance practices still needed to be updated and improved for the big jets. The recorder installation was thought to offer the required new approach, and the 270-channel Midas, recording each channel every six seconds, was installed under the supervision of Mr Ray Farren, TCA Electrical System Engineer. The evalua tion should be completed by the end of this year. The benefits listed by TCA are more accurate and detailed records to assist the development of improved operations techniques or the investigation of specific problems; availability of use and perform ance records of major units or systems to improve understanding of what is found or observed on disassembly for overhaul; com parative records which will provide warn ing of impending unit failures or of signi ficant changes in the performance of any system; factual data to assist in fast, accurate troubleshooting; accurate and detailed data to feed-back to manufacturers when questions of operating performance require discussion; faster processing of "campaign" actions to eliminate any mech anical interruptions in service. A comprehensive range of components for the Sperry London S.P.L.4S autopilot for executive aircraft and light airliners. They include universal computer /actuators (centre), C.LI I compass system (left) and integrated instru ments (right). Coupling is available for VOR, IIS, director instruments and Zero Reader The above benefits are immediate ones which will be easy to obtain with a success ful data recorder. Beyond these benefits it is easy to foresee a beneficial revision of time between overhauls of the many "units" of the aircraft system; an improve ment in the control and expense of inven tory, particularly with the expensive "rotable" units; and a major improvement in aircraft serviceability and performance from the detailed knowledge and history ofeach individual aircraft. Spin-proof Autopilot The Federal Avia tion Agency has asked the autopilot division of Tactair Inc, who already make pneumatic autopilots for business aircraft, to develop an automatic flight system which will prevent light aircraft from inadvertently entering excessive dives or spirals. The intention is to develop a simple, inexpensive system to prevent inexperienced pilots from spiralling or diving out of cloud and over-stressing their aircraft. Tactair are to use a Beech Debon air for the development flying. Symposium on Redundancy A symposium on Redundancy in System Design is to be held by the systems engineering section of the Society of Instrument Technology at the Northampton College of Advanced Technology on February 14, 1964. The concept of system reliability, as opposed to component reliability, will be discussed in relation to automatic landing, nuclear power systems, techniques of redundancy in logical circuits and reversionary modes in complex systems. Applications and pro posals should be made to the symposium secretary, SIT, 20 Peel Street, London W8. PRODUCTS Mercury RAF Contract Mercury Air field Equipment Ltd, Commercial Road, Gloucester, sole UK concessionaires of Sicard Inc, 2055 Bennett Ave, Montreal, Que, Canada, have received a £140,000 contract from the RAF for Sicard SW.112 high-speed runway sweepers after success ful trials last winter. Developed originally in conjunction with the RCAF for snow and slush clearance from runways, the Sicard SW.112 has been in use on MoA air ports for the last two years and, it is stated, played a large part in keeping London Heathrow operational in severe conditions Shorrock's new IZ-channel VHF com radio with tunable receiver. Weight is 21b, range SO miles, price is £70 and battery operation in gliders is possible. A VOR coupler is under development. (Shorrock Developments Ltd, 51 Preston New Road, Blackburn, Lanes) last January and February. Mercury add that the equipment's use is not confined to snow clearance but gives all-the-year- round performance, dealing equally effi ciently with water, sand and debris. Testing in Tandem Referring to the "tandem" arrangement of metal test-pieces, to enable two or more tests to be carried out at the same time on one machine, Henry Wiggin & Co Ltd (Thames House, Millbank, London SW1), report that a device has been developed in their metal lurgical department which permits the testing to rupture of two test pieces in tandem, without interrupting the test to remove the piece which ruptures first. A coupling device automatically recon nects the pull-rod system when a test-piece ruptures. To prevent shock being trans mitted to the unbroken piece, a damper is fitted underneath the weight hanger to Proposed format of the Autonetics Felicia airborne digital computer incorporating thin- film microelectronics, as described last week
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