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Aviation History
1964
1964 - 1096.PDF
FLIGHT International, 16 April 1964 USA 627 Both Mr Edward Heath, Britain's Secretary of State for Industry, Trades and Regional Development, and Snr Don Alberto Ullastres Calvo, Spanish Minister of Commerce, visited the Rolls-Royce stand at the British Industrial Fair at Barcelona earlier this month, following its opening by Snr Calvo. Standing by a Spey engine are (I to r in foreground) Mr A. I. Fenwick, Rolls-Royce public relations manager; Snr Jose Sirvent, president of the Spanish National Institute of Industry; Senor Calvo; Mr Heath; and Sir William McFadzean, president of the fair and chairman of the Export Council for Europe abreast of new products and to clear up any problems on existing products. Agen- cies in West and East Africa, the Middle East and Ireland serving customers outside the UK are usually visited every six months. Field Tech's original and largest principal is the Bendix Corporation: this company's exceptionally well-engineered range of airborne nav/com, radar, and other navaids, autopilots and instrumentation are widely used. Latest development is the use of solid-state circuitry in VHF navigation and communications equipment. Recently Bendix have taken over the Motorola range of VHF radio for light aircraft, and this is now becoming available in Britain. As well as aviation equipment, Bendix are also having considerable success with specialised equipment for scientific research; their magnetic electron multiplier is being used in the UK satellite programme to detect high altitude solar radiation. Other US companies represented by Field Tech are Sunair, makers of HF and VHF communications equipment for light air- craft; Leach, who make relays, time delays and lightweight airborne recorders for missiles; Electronic Equipment Engineer- ing, constructors of custom-built control panels for aircraft radio and instruments—a useful service for backing up Field Tech's avionics interests; Data Control Systems, who produce aircraft telemetry equipment; and the Technical Material Corp (TMC), makers of ground and shipborne long-range HF communications systems, including some very large transmitters of 200kW, or more, output. Currently, Field Tech are negotiating a contract with a Government research establishment for supplying a TMC high-frequency single sideband trans- ceiver, to be used for ionospheric research. Wherever possible Field Tech try to interest an airline customer in standardizing on a range of equipments throughout the fleet. This is both in the customers' inter- ests, economizing in spare holdings and simplifying maintenance; and profitable for Field Tech. It is important to be able to offer the customer a "parcel" deal—to cover all his needs. The entry of Bendix into executive and light aircraft radios has coincided with more stringent MoA requirements for the car- riage of radio equipment on light aircraft. Field Tech are therefore presented with a very promising potential market. To follow this up requires a somewhat different approach from that made to the airlines. The latter are not very susceptible to advert- ising; private buyers are much more responsive. The private aircraft owner can also be interested in wares displayed at the major air displays and at flying club meetings. He may not, however, be very familiar as yet with the operation of radio, and it is therefore essential to have some means for demonstrating the use of the equipment and the techniques of flying in controlled airspace. With a dual purpose in view—public display and private demonstration—Field Tech have very recently acquired a demon- stration vehicle, which appeared in public for the first time at the Biggin Hill air display last year. The interior of the vehicle has been designed by specialists in this type of work. Armchairs are provided for discussion meetings with clients, and the radio equipment is mounted on exhibition- type racks against pastel-coloured back- grounds. The entire racking is mounted so that it can be slid transversely across the vehicle for public exhibition through top- and-bottom-hinged flaps on the left side of the vehicle. The vehicle is fully equipped with antennae on the roof and a loud- speaker system for public demonstra- tion. The equipment displayed in the vehicle includes the high-quality Bendix-Motorola radio compass ADF-T-12B and M-450 VHF navigation/communication system, together with a less expensive range of Sunair equipment—SA 360E VHF com- munications, SA 1036E VHF navigation/ communications, and SA 14R HF com- munications. All this equipment feeds through a Bendix CNA 30A audio selector panel—used by the pilot for channel selec- tion—to the loudspeaker. Much of this equipment is quite new to Britain, and has still to receive ARB approval. The Bendix radio compass, which is one that has been cleared by ARB, has already been sold to many light aircraft operators. The total sales since its introduction by Bendix into the UK has exceeded 25 units. Lear Co-ordinate Converter The Federal Aviation Agency is making a series of long- range evaluation flights with a Lear Siegler co-ordinate converter designed to produce a digital read-out of position in latitude and longitude and a distance and course to a selected point from the hyperbolic infor- mation derived from Loran C. Extensive laboratory trials have already been carried out. Lear Siegler's Instrument Division is working under a $220,000 FAA contract and claims that the converter will be suitable also for other hyperbolic navigation aids. Keeping the Fuel Cold Development of a new insulation system, designed to reduce heat-transfer in space booster rockets' tankage for liquid-hydrogen fuel at -423CF, has been completed by Goodyear Aerospace Corporation. The insulation was installed on a full-scale lOft-diameter section of a Centaur rocket, under a contract from NASA's Lewis Research Center, Cleveland, Ohio. Centaur, which recently completed a successful flight test, is the United States' first liquid-hydrogen propelled rocket. The fuel tank must be insulated to reduce the amount of liquid hydrogen that boils off between the time it is fuelled and the time it reaches space. The Goodyear insulation weighs only 801b, far less than that currently used on Centaur, permitting a payload increase. The insulation comprises thin panels of flexible polyurethane foam, encased in a special film and bound to the stainless-steel rocket case by a layer of tightly wound glass-fibre filaments. Kidde Wins Fuel Dispenser Contract Walter Kidde and Co, of Belleville, NJ, has been awarded an $82,000 contract by the US Army QM Research and Engineer- ing Command for preliminary prototype design of a portable fuel transport and dispensing system, to be carried inside transport aircraft or slung beneath heli- copters. The aim is to evolve compact, lightweight assemblies to convert a number of US Army aircraft types into temporary tankers distributing and dispensing fuel. Kidde recently received a production contract to supply 50 engine fire-detection systems for the F-l 11. The batch will equip the first 25 aircraft—one system per engine —and has been selected to protect both the USAF F-111A version and the USN's F-l 1 IB. The system is an isolated circuit system featuring a miniature two-contact co-axial connector. The contacts connect two wires embedded in the continuous strip detector's thermistor core. Resistance in the thermistor material between these wires is measured by a circuit within the control unit which supplies a low d.c. applied potential, thus overcoming any problem of moisture appearing as a low resistance and causing a false warning.
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