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Aviation History
1964
1964 - 0176.PDF
fUGHT International, 23 January 1964 117 Air Cdre W. Helmore We regret to record the death—last Saturday, January 18, at the age of 69—of Air Cdre William Helmore, CBE, PhD, MSC, FCS, FRAes, RAF (retd). A director of Castrol Ltd and of Redifon Ltd, and at one time Conservative MP for Watford, he will be widely remembered in the Service and the aircraft industry for a career in science and engineering which produced a remarkable series of inventions. After RFC and RAF service in the First World War he was granted a permanent commission, and he worked during the inter-war years with Sir Alan Cobham on flight refuelling, accompanying him on an air-refuelled flight to India in 1934. In 1931 he was awarded the Groves Prize for Aeronautical Research, and during this period he also won renown as a BBC commentator on such events as the Schneider Trophy Races. He retired from the RAF in 1937 in order to undertake research at Cambridge, but returned to the active list in 1939. In 1943 he was appointed a member of the Brabazon Committee, and in succeeding years served on a number of other technical committees. Best known of his inventions, probably, was the lighting equipment used by night fighters to illuminate enemy bombers, and he was also associated with the submarine detection device known as the Leigh light. Other inventions for which Helmore was either wholly or partly responsible included a flame-trap for Merlin induction systems, an injection carburettor, a variable- compression petrol engine, and an aircraft ice detector which measured the rate of formation and gave the pilot visual signals. As early as 1935 he was associated with Castrol—the firm of which he was later to become a director—in work on lubricating additives for fuels. Soviet Speaker for Cranfield Symposium A paper on Soviet test techniques for supersonic aircraft is to be presented at the third International Flight Test Instrumenta- tion Symposium at the College of Aero- nautics, Cranfield, during April 13-16. The speaker will be Mrs A. M. Znamenskaya, and the title of her paper is Instrument and Methods of Measurement for Testing of Supersonic Aircraft. The subjects of other papers on the programme include the North American X-15 supersonic research aircraft, the BAC/Sud Concorde super- sonic transport, the Hawker-Siddeley Trident, the VJ-101C V/STOL aircraft and the UK-3 scientific satellite. BS Chief Joins ARB Dr E. J. Warlow-Davies, BA, PhD, BSC, managing director of Bristol Siddeley Engines since January last year, has been appointed a member of the Air Registration Board. Dr Warlow-Davies, an Australian, joined the then Engine Division of the Bristol Aeroplane Co from Rolls-Royce in 1953. He is chairman of the committee responsible for the development and manu- facture of the BS-SNECMA Olympus 593 engines for the Anglo-French Concorde supersonic transport. Three Into 2M Equals 300 Demonstrated at Gatwick last week was the new low-cost Hughes 300 three-seat light helicopter, a development of the Hughes 269 two-seater, of which over 300 have been sold. Powered by a Lycoming HIO-360 fuel injection engine of 180 h.p. the Hughes 300 cruises at 80 m.p.h. and has an endurance of about three hours. An "In the Air" pilot's assessment will appear in an early issue Aircraft Corporation (Operating) Ltd, and each division is managed by one of the divisional management companies. The new appointments are to these companies and are as follows (in each case we have abbreviated the first part of each company name to "BAC" for reasons of space):— BAC (Operating) Ltd To be special director: G. R. Bryce, OBE. BAC (Filton) Ltd To be special directors: P. E. G. Bates, commercial manager; G. T. Gedge, general manager/manufacturing; H. Giddings, chief development engineer; G. Hanby, secretary and chief accountant. BAC (Preston) Ltd to be a director: F. D. Crowe, chief engineer. To be special directors: A. F. Atkin, project manager (Lightning); Wg Cdr R. P. Beamont, DSO, OBE, DFC, DFC (USA), deputy chief test pilot of the corporation; A. E. Ellison, chief designer; F. E. Roe, manager, administration and development; T. O. Williams, manager/aircraft. BAC (Weybridge) Ltd To be civil salesdirector: R. C. Handasyde. To be special directors: E. S. Allwright, assistant chiefengineer; W. R. Coomber, works manager/ Hum; D. James, chief structural engineer;E. E. Marshall, assistant chief engineer; T. Parker, MBE, general works manager; D. D.Teasdale, commercial manager; E. B. Trubshaw, MVO, chief test pilot; Dr Barnes Sales Post Mr Basil Blackwell, who has been appointed to the Bristol Siddeley board and is responsible for the sales activities of both the Aero and Power divisions, as recently reported in this journal New BAC Directorships British Aircraft Corporation has announ- ced a number of additional appointments of directors and special directors of its divis- ional management companies. On January 1, as already announced, the former subsidiary companies of BAC became divisions of a new company, British Fifty Years of Aero-Engine Development was the subject of a recent lecture by Dr J. W. Drinkwater, Deputy Director of the National Gas Turbine Establishment, at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. The occasion was the Institution's annual reception for overseas students and Dr Drinkwater (third from left) is seen here with Mr R. C. Bond, the president (left), and three students from the Middle East
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