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Aviation History
1963
1963 - 1749.PDF
556 FLIGHT International, 26 Septembe 1%$ INDUSTRY International Flight Systems Products Company News Great Britain Sperry and the Belfast In the first Short Belfast Sperry are responsible for the attitude system, the directional gyros and their mountings for the compass system, together with the airspeed indicators, vertical speed indicators, and the Mach- meters for the air data system. When the full OR.988 system is fitted, in the third and subsequent Belfasts, Sperry will also supply part of the flight director system and the rate gyro units forming part of the auto- throttle and autopilot systems. All units have been designed for ease of change ability, and all the instruments are suitable for solid mounting conditions. No recali- bration or readjustment are necessary if any unit is changed. As in the Trident, Sperry are providing approximately one- quarter of the flight control system, and Smiths Aviation Division the remainder. The attitude system on the first Belfast will consist of two attitude directors, two display amplifier units, two vertical reference units, and two yaw rate gyro units. This will be modified on the third and subsequent Belfasts to three vertical reference units, and three rate gyro units, deleting the two yaw rate gyro units. Thus, initially, basic attitude information only is fed to the pilot's and co-pilot's instruments from the vertical reference units via the display amplifiers. The yaw rate gyro units provide pitch bank erection discrimination. Ultimately, three separate sources of attitude information will be provided for the captain's and first officer's instruments, and for flight director computation. A discriminate com parator system will indicate, by means of flags, a failure of information displayed by either of the attitude directors, or the third vertical reference unit from which the flight director information is fed. Each vertical reference unit derives aircraft attitude in pitch and roll to the autopilot, flight director, basic attitude dis plays and the Ekco weather radar in the form of synchronous and proportional a.c. signals. Repeaters carry the liquid-level switches for the erection of the vertical gyro to reduce the transmission errors. Pitch bank erection is used to minimize roll errors in turns and is initiated by a yaw rate signal. The repeaters are driven by an amplifier from synchros mounted on the gimbals of a V.G.L.2 vertical gyro. The comparator modules are housed in the vertical reference unit, with the pick-offs for the comparator housed in the two attitude directors and the third vertical reference unit, which is used for flight director information. The attitude director is a 5in square remote indicating instrument which replaces the conventional artificial horizon, and in addition presents compensatory flight director information, by the location of the intersection of horizonal and vertical wires, over the basic attitude display. Each attitude director receives attitude information from an independent vertical reference unit, but the director information is from a common computer source. The horizon is displayed on a roller blind, coloured light and dark grey. Because of the need for accurate alignment between the units of the sub-channels of a multiplex system, special "triplex trays" have been designed for the Belfast to house the VRUs and RGUs. These consist of standard mounting trays, factory jig- aligned on to a common frame, one for the three vertical reference units, and one for the three rate gyro units. The VRU triplex tray will also house junction boxes, to allow interconnection between the com parator system to save the weight of running cables back to the main junction box. Line droppers are fitted to compensate for different signal levels in different cable lengths in the aircraft. The three airspeed indicators, two vertical speed indicators and the two Machmeters are remote-indicating instruments driven from two Smiths air data computers and form part of the air data system. The third airspeed indicator is to provide airspeed information to the navigator. All these instruments are hermetically sealed to ensure long fife and trouble-free operation. Shorrock Developments The Shorrock lightweight airborne VHF radio, illustrated in these columns on July 11, has aroused wide interest and has found several addi tional applications. Units powered by mercury or kalium batteries with a shelf life of more than two years have been installed Solent trailer-mounted 100 Imp gal/min aircraft- fuel hydrant dispenser by Scottorn Ltd, Victor Works, Kingston Road, New Maiden, Surrey, designed in co-operation with Shell International Petroleum Co and to a tender specification issued by that company. As the fuel passes through the dispenser it is pressure-controlled, micro-filtered, separated from entrained air and/or gas and metered to BoT weights and measures standard in a Comet and Boeing 707 as stand-bj radio, and some sets are in use by airline as ground stations for monitoring compare communications channels. Sales for ligh aireraft have been made in Britain am abroad. Now Shorrock Developments havi produced a version with crystal-controlla receiver, avoiding the need for tuning th< receiver manually to the crystal-controlled transmitted frequency. A further new product is a partly transis torized non-directional MF beacon origin ally made for Blackpool airport, which i near the Shorrock factory. Several of thes beacons, which cost £150 and have a rang of 15 miles, have now been ordered fo private airfields. Later this year, the com pany will provide a means of switching thi beacon on by radio from the air, so that ai owner can start the beacon only when hi needs it and thereby conserve battery life. Shorrock are, of course, also in produc tion with a portable, transistorized broad cast and VHF receiver capable of receivinj airline VHF communications on the grouni as well as normal MF broadcasts. Aircraft Weighing Equipment describe as "a versatile and advanced apparatus fo weighing aircraft" has recently been ir stalled at the English Electric Aviation Lt airfield at Warton, Lanes. It was designe and installed by W. & T. Avery Ltd, Soh Foundry, Birmingham 40, and is based o the weighbridge principle. Three sets of weighing tables are pr< vided, two for the mainwheels and one f< the nosewheel. The mainwheel weighe have been specially designed, with foi short main levers arranged transverse across each pit to withstand frequent heai m
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