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Aviation History
1963
1963 - 1812.PDF
FLIGHT International, 10 October 1963 621 destruction of a Zeppelin in 1915 to the defence of Malta by Faith, Hope and Charity and the exploits of Douglas Bader. But better than the historian's account is an actual first-person story, and one oc the best recent examples of this is Years of Combat by Sholto Douglas (Collins, 14 St James's Place, London SW1; illustrated, 36s), which recounts the RFC/RAF experiences of the present Marshal of the RAF Lord Douglas of Kirtleside, chairman of BE A. One of the interesting things about his story is the changes it reflects in aircraft, from the adventitiously armed and slow BE.2as and 2bs in which he flew as an observer in 1915 to the well-armed and manoeuvrable SE.5s which he flew as a fighter pilot in the later stages of the war. His narrative gives as strong and realistic an impression of 1914-18 air fighting as one could wish for. Lord Douglas was naturally an SE.5a protagonist. Quoting a staff paper he wrote in 1917, he says that "there is little doubt that the S.E. was the most successful of any of the single-seater fighters that we employed during the war," and adds: "repeating that now will cause howls of anguish from the pilots who flew the Sopwith Camel; but it was a fact that the SE.5 retained in a large measure its performance at high altitudes, which the Camel did not." It is interesting, in this context, to read an assessment of the Camel by Maj W. G. Moore, author of Early Bird (Putnam & Co Ltd, 42 Gt Russell St, London WC1; illustrated, 25s). Maj Moore, in the course of retailing in amusing fashion his experiences as a Naval pilot in the First World War, says that "the Camel, being totally unstable in all directions and very sensitive indeed fore and aft, and much influenced by engine torque, was a death-trap for an inex perienced pilot. A skilled pilot could not wish for a better mount. To him it was like having a pair of wings strapped on to his shoulder- blades. Once you knew them, you could do anything you liked with them and turn their peculiarities to a dvantage. They were wonderful in a dog-fight because they could make the quickest change of direction of any machine that flew in that war. In order to counter act the strong torque of the rotary engine the angle of incidence was not the same on port and starboard wings. For a very quick turn all you had to do was to pull up your nose, cut your engine and do a stalled turn. The difference in the angle of incidence without the counteracting torque of the engine would augment the control you had put on with aileron, rudder and elevator and you could flick away—the first very quick movement of going into a spin, so terribly dangerous near the ground." Behind the fighting pilots in both world wars were the test pilots, one of whom, in the Second World War, was the present Air Cdre Allen Wheeler, now Aviation Trustee of the Shuttleworth Collec tion at Old Warden. Two of his wartime posts were the command of the" performance testing squadron at Boscombe Down and, !ater, command of experimental flying at RAE Farnborough, and ji • • • that nothing failed them (G. T. Foulis & Co Ltd, 1-5 Portpool tane,London EC1; illustrated, 35s) he reminisces with modesty and humour. One incident recalls those of the FD.2 and Me 163, but had a happier ending. Flying a Mohawk, he describes how "after ten ^mutes I studied the fuel tank gauges and became doubtful about the amount of fuel in the tank I was using. It was marked in oidons' or some such French unit, so I had to convert to gallons to work out how long it was likely to last me. The actual pointer of th £ gauge was flickering between 'Empty' and 'Full' with an agility which was technically interesting but rather uninformative. Before had time to work out how much fuel I had in that tank the engine ponced it out for me and stopped. A horrible silence ensued, woken chiefly by the barking of my knuckles as I tried to turn on another tank. Finally I got the taps turned on but the engine gave only one spasmodic burst of power as I opened the throttle and then died. I thought of air locks in the system and looked for the airfield but the sun was low in the west and rendered visibility very bad on that misty afternoon. I jiggled the throttle shut and open again and each time I did that I got a burst of power. "Experience told me that that often happens when one is short of fuel because the throttle works a small pump which injects fuel as the throttle is opened thus improving acceleration. I became convinced that I had got an air lock in the system because I had run one tank completely out, so I prepared for a forced landing. The first thing to do was to shut the throttle to prevent the engine coming on suddenly and, possibly, spoiling one's landing. I shut the throttle and immediately the engine came on to full power and ran very nicely. At last the explanation dawned on me. In the excite ment of the engine cut, I had forgotten the French throttle which worked the 'wrong' way so I had mostly had the throttle closed when I meant to have it open." One of the aircraft which Air Cdre Wheeler flew at the outset of his wartime test flying was a Spitfire rebuilt by Morris Motors. He had never flown the type before and his reactions were similar to those of the young pilot referred to in Vickers A History, who described himself as "almost light-headed with exhilaration." This 394-page study of the great engineering firm (Weidenfeld & Nicol- son, 20 New Bond Street, London Wl; illustrated, 42s) accords several chapters to Vickers' aviation achievements, including the R.100, the Schneider Trophy seaplanes, the Spitfire, Wellington and the weapons designed for RAF Bomber Command by Dr Barnes Wallis. They entered the aviation industry on their own initiative, as a private venture, and have produced some of Britain's most distinguished civil and military aeroplanes. One of Mr Scott's illustrations shows the Vimy in which Alcock and Brown flew the Atlantic in 1919. Their story is one of those told in Atlantic Air Conquest, by F. H. and E. Ellis (William Kimber; illustrated, 36s net), which recounts Atlantic air crossings from the NC-4 of 1919, going west to east, to the Short Mayo Composite of 1938, going east to west, and only a short time before Atlantic air crossings became commonplace, first in Ferry Command during the war and then with the development of civil air transports. Nowadays, as New York to Rome Jet Flight 808 indicates, crossing the mighty ocean is routine airline business. This book by Leonard A. Stevens, illustrated with photographs by the author (Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc, 49 East 33rd Street, New York 16, NY; $3.95), describes in minute-by-minute detail a TWA 707 flight, with caviar, turtle soup, steak or double-thick lamb chop* for the first-class passengers at 33,000ft: a contrast with Alcock and Brown, battling along in their open cockpit just above ths waves. But the more sophisticated the aeroplane, the more complex the training; and as is evident from The Airline Crew, a third edition of the book by T. E. Scott-Chard first published in 1952 (The Educational Supply Association Ltd, Britannia House, 233 Shaftesbury Avenue, London WC2; illustrated, 10s 6d), the Boeing 707 and other jet airliners require a high standard of crew training in all departments for their operation. These two books, read in conjunction, can give young people an excellent picture of airline flying from both sides of the Atlantic—a useful indoctrination, for from among their number will one day come the crews of the SST. A book providing an invaluable background to this profession is Careers in Civil Aviation by Derek G. T. Harvey (Museum Press Ltd, 26 Old Brompton Road, London SW7; illustrated, 15s); and in a foreword the Minister of Aviation, Mr Julian Amery, writes of civil aviation that "it has become impossible to conceive of our modern civilization without the airlines."
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