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Aviation History
1964
1964 - 0560.PDF
International, 27 February 1964 327 small group which is very busy on its normal work of design en- gineering. The Woodford machine is the last machine to be started and may be considered to be the personal effort of C. Hodgess-Roper. This machine in its initial project stage was aerodynamically not suffi- ciently attractive to be assisted by the Royal Aeronautical Society, but has been developed into a clean design which has certain features similar to those evidenced in the Haessler-Villinger and Southampton machines in that it has a pusher propeller above the wing. This machine has a span of 79ft, and a large proportion of the primary structure of the wing has been completed and certain other parts such as the propeller, but the fuselage and driving frame have not been commenced. The estimated empty weight is 1161b or 53kg . . . Anybody who has been interested in gliding over many years will be familiar with the name of Alexander Lippisch. For instance, he was the designer of the Professor, the Wien and the Fafnir, and was the first man to design and build a delta-wing aircraft, and he did it as far back as 1930. In 1929 he designed and built a flapping- wing man-powered aircraft which was not successful and ever since he has kept an interest in this subject. At present he is research director of Collins Radio at Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and has formed a group which is designing and building a very lightweight man- powered aircraft. This has a span of 50ft and a wing area of 208 sq ft and is expected to achieve an empty weight of only 601b Therefore, adding the usual pilot weight, we have a gross weight of 2001b and a wing loading of roughly lib per sq ft. The aircraft has a braced wing and the control will be on similar lines to that used by the Haessler-Villinger machine in that the entire wings can be rotated about their spars to give roll when rotated oppositely and pitch when rotated in the same direction. It has been so arranged that the control is irreversible. It is built entirely of balsa wood glued with polyester glue. It has a 2 : 1 gearing to the propeller (diameter 6ft 6in). It is expected to com- plete the aircraft in the summer of 1964. We have recently had photos of the machine designed, built and flown by Vine in South Africa. However, it flew only once and crashed because of gusty conditions. Vine is building another machine with a propeller on the tail on the same principle as that used by the Hatfield group, but his estimated structure weight is very much heavier than that of the Hatfield Group machine and his span is only half as much, so that I feel that technically he will have considerable difficulty in achieving his objects. However, his enthusiasm and ability are certainly worth recognition. Haessler, now in Canada, has brought his design up-to-date with a high-aspect-ratio wing, but is not building it. I should finally mention the efforts of the Canadian Aeronautics and Space Institute and their Man-powered Flight Section which was recently formed out of a man-powered flight committee which has been in existence for a couple of years. They have formed in Ottawa a Propulsion Group which has produced a bicycle ergo- meter and have made a structural specimen of a wing to enable the elastic properties and other information to be made available on which to base a complete design. This structural work has been done by Waclaw Czerwinski, a well-known Polish and Canadian glider designer. A wind-tunnel model is in progress of testing and one may say that this group may soon be in a position to produce some very good work if they are able to find sufficient funds. AVIATION CONTRACTS DEBATED (continued from page 3O8) USA "to build different aircraft, both of which might find a place in the aircraft fleets of our different countries." * * * But what about the main theme of the debate—Ministerial financial control of technical projects ? Were there any constructive proposals, from either side, for the future? All will accept the Parliamentary Secretary's claim that "there is no lack of trying to get at the answer to this problem, nor attempts to improve the financial administration of Ministry of Aviation contracts." Similar answers have been given, equally sincerely, over intervals for at least 15 years. The application of accounting techniques have probably improved almost as much as the technical compli- cations have increased. Sir Henry d'Avigdor-Goldsmid, of whom many complimentary things were said as the Select Committee chairman, suggested that in the Concord case many difficulties might have been avoided if the Government had taken the Commons more into its confidence when announcing the agreement. He quoted from the Plowdon Report on the Control of Public Expenditure; "it would be desirable for the Government to develop means of informing Parliament and enabling it to consider and approve the broad issues of policy, involving public expenditure for some years ahead, at a time when effective decisions are taken." Such developments would be well in line with the proposal made several times in this journal, i.e., that consideration of policy involving technical or defence questions could much more efficiently be conducted by a specialist Parliamentary committee rather than in the debating Chamber. The general approach of Mr Lee was that these difficult problems of control did not arise, at any rate in the same way, if the con- tracting organization was publicly owned. On the other hand, when challenged, he said there was nothing in the Labour Party pro- gramme which called for the nationalization of the aircraft industry. He did, however, want "strong links" with private industry. No doubt on another occasion the nature of these "links" will be more fully explained. The Anglo-French Concord as it might appear in the colours of BOAC, who recently confirmed their interest in the aircraft by paying a deposit and by increasing their order to eight. Although the recent House of Commons aviation debate (see above) revealed considerable Labour dissatisfaction with the terms of the Anglo-French agreement, the Party confirmed that it has no intention of seeking an end to the agreement if it is returned to power
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