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Aviation History
1964
1964 - 1516.PDF
Official Organ o! the Royal Aero Club First Aeronautical Weekly in the World Founded in 1909 THURSDAY MAY 21, 1964 Number 2880 Volume 85 Editor-in-Chief MAURICE. A. SMITH DFC Editor H. P. KINO MB! Technical Editor W.T.OUN8TON Air Transport Editor J. M. RAM8DEN Production Editor ROY CASEY Managing Director H. N. PRIAULX MBE In this issue World News 834 Air Commerce 836 Straight and Level 844 VTOL Aircraft 1964 845 The Jersey Rally 867 Letters 868 Missiles and Spacefllgrht 87O Service Aviation 873 Industry International 874 llrih Transport Publications Ltd., DorsetHouse, Stamford Street, London, SB1; telephone Waterloo 3333 (Telex 25137).Telegrams FUghtpres London Telex. Annual subscriptions: Home £4 15s.Overseas £5 5s. Canada and USA J15.00. Second Class Mail privileges authorizedat New York, NY. Branch Offices: Coventry, 8-10 Corpora-tion Street; telephone Coventry 25210. Birmingham, King Edward House, Newstreet, Birmingham 2; telephone Mid- land 7191. Manchester, 260 Deansgate,Manchester 3; telephone Blackfriars 4412 w Deansgate 3595. Glasgow, 123 Hopestreet, Glasgow C2; telephone Central 1265-6. Bristol, 11 Marsh Street, Bristoli; telephone Bristol 21491/2. ^York, NY: Thomas Skinner 4 Co(Publishers) Ltd, 111 Broadway 6; telephone Digby 9-1197. §> Ilin5 Transport Publications Ltd,,£"*• Permission to reproduce illustra- tions and letterpress can be granted onlyunder written agreement. Brief extracts w comments may be made with dueacknowledgement H.P. and BLC A PAPER which is certain to prove of lasting interest and importanceis the Second Handley Page Memorial Lecture, Sir Frederick Handley Page, the Man and his Work, being delivered in London today, May 21, by "H.P.'s" associate of many years (and today the company's director of research) Dr G. V. Lachmann. In sketching a portrait of H.P. the man, Dr Lachmann remarks: "He enjoyed in particular the satisfac- tion that belongs to good salesmanship. This was his life and his hobby ... He hardly had any other hobbies worth mentioning. He did play an occasional mediocre game of golf, of course; but on the accordion, in spite of great perseverance, he never got beyond Silent Night, Holy Night." The lecture is no mere historical dust-blowing. In fact—to pursue the analogy of H.P.'s accordion—it is more concerned with sucking: that is, with the removal of the turbulent boundary layer by this means. With this technique, ahnost as closely as with the leading-edge slot, has the name of Handley Page come to be associated throughout the aeronautical com- munities of the world. Yet what has Dr Lachmann to say on the subject of BLC (boundary layer control) ? In respect of Sir Frederick's own contribution he recalls that throughout all the frustrating delays and disappointing setbacks, H.P. remained con- vinced of the importance and ultimate success of the laminar flow tech- nique as a means of reducing direct operating costs of commercial aircraft and of increasing the range of military transports. He goes on: "His moral backing ensured continuity of research at his company's expense. Our work, of course, has been supported from national funds, although the amount has been very meagre compared with the endowment received by the American team at Northrop. Research contracts on a fixed-price basis in Britain are not profitable. In fact, it is a great achievement if one manages to scrape through a contract without excessive losses. Furthermore, a large amount of work—theoretical investigations, design and technologi- cal studies and so forth—has been done by Handley Page Ltd without contract cover in order to build up and to extend our know-how." Northrop, Boeing:, Douglas, Lockheed The reference to Northrop's work on BLC is a reminder that in the X-21A laminar-flow research aircraft (a converted Douglas WB-66D) the Americans have a research tool of major dimensions. Northrop report: "When X-21 flight testing began in April 1963 the aircraft had sufficient fuel for a flight lasting two hours twenty-five minutes. But with the X-21 reducing air friction with laminar flow control over 65 per cent of its wing span, the test flights were extended to approximately four hours using the same amount of fuel." Already we begin to glimpse the first practical applications of BLC to the next generation of heavy logistics aircraft for America's Military Air Transport Service. Only last week we reported of the Boeing CX-HLS: "All feasible means of achieving short-field performance and high cruise efficiency (including laminarization) are considered, and Boeing believe any military equipment can be flown into, or out of, a rough 3,500ft strip." And what is true of Boeing is equally true of Douglas and Lockheed, in their studies to meet the field requirements for these mammoth aeroplanes of the future. Dr Lachmann's lecture, then, comes not only as a tribute to a great Englishman, but as a sharp reminder that yet another technique nurtured in Great Britain seems destined to achieve productive realization in another land.
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