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Aviation History
1964
1964 - 2045.PDF
66 FLIGHT International, 9 July 1964 US NAVY PILOTS VISIT ETPS WITH typical Service precision the one-page Annex B toETPS/111/4/ORG dated June 16, 1964 gave details ofthe operation to be carried out on the evening of June 24. Special route maps would be provided; transport would leave the mess at 1930 hours; map references 873435, 903396,930382, 961354, and 951294 were to be investigated; cars whose drivers' surnames commenced A to H would proceed on the route counter-clockwise and the remainder clockwise; when fully fuelled, all would return to the mess. The drivers comprised staff and students of the Ministry of Aviation's Empire Test Pilots' School at Farnborough, and their passengers on this occasion were Class 37 and staff of the US Naval Test Pilot School, Patuxent River, Maryland. Graduating classes at Patuxent customarily round off their course with a field trip, normally to industry plants and NASA research centres in the USA; for Class 37 the trip extended as far as Farnboro', England, to include five days at ETPS. An important field trip in itself was the June 24 evening exercise outlined above, in which, as Flight International readers familiar with the Farnborough area will instantly appreciate, the map references denote the Barley Mow at Tilford, the Three Horseshoes at Thursley, the Dog and Pheasant at Brook, the Crown at Chiddingfold and the Half Moon at North Chapel (new readers start at map reference 873435). Overall purpose of the trip, one of a continuing series of exchange visits between the two schools, was to compare and exchange ideas on current flight-test techniques, instrumentation and teaching methods. The two organizations have similar jobs to do, and there is a firm bond of mutual professional respect between them. Led by the Commandant, Gp Capt R. A. Watts, a group of students and staff from Farnborough visited Patuxent in the ETPS Viscount on a similar visit last January. The US pilots arrived at Farnborough on Tuesday, June 23 and departed for the Swedish test centre at Malmslatt on Sunday, June 28. During the Wednesday and Thursday they were given an outline of the work of ETPS; opposite numbers discussed test techniques and training methods; and all spent a full day flying the various ETPS aircraft. Friday's programme, both for the guests and for the regular ETPS students, began with a talk on slender delta wings by Mr W. J. G. Pinsker, a Principal Scientific Officer in the Aerodynamics Department of the Royal Aircraft Establishment, Bedford. The slender-delta story was taken up by Lt-Cdr P. Millet, a test pilot from RAE Bedford, who went on to describe the handling qualities of the HP.l 15, a 75° delta with an aspect ratio of one, a 40ft centre-line chord and 20ft span. After lunch on Friday the group flew by ETPS Viscount to the Hawker Siddeley airfield at Dunsfold for briefings on the P. 1127 and P. 1154 aircraft, and to watch Hugh Merewether make a routine development flight in an 1127. Equally appreciated by the US pilots were demonstrations of superb flying of a less-contem- A brief visit to the Farnborough SE.Sa was included in the US visitors' programme. From the right, Mr C. Wills, curator; Gp Capt R. A. Watts; Cdr N. J. Smith; Lt Cdr M. L. JahntQn and L Q<jr D, £, porary kind—by Bill Bedford in the Hurricane and Duncan Simpson in the Hart. Headed by the Director of the US Naval Test Pilot School, Cdr Nicholas J. Smith, III, and his Assistant Director, Cdr Frank K. Posch, the visiting group comprised six staff officers and the 17 students of Class 37. The students, who had graduated only the previous week, included 11 naval pilots, four Marines and two civilians—Howard R. Auten of General Dynamics (Fort Worth) and Donald J. King of Grumman. Both of the company pilots will be involved in theF-111 programme—Auten, for instance, already knows in detail what his test programme on the third machine will be when he takes it to Edwards next June. The students were representative of a typical class at the US Navy School. US Army and NASA pilots also take the Patuxent River course, together with Swedish Air Force and Royal Canadian Navy and Air Force students. The eight-month course involves about 180 flying hours and 400hr of academic work: entry requirements include l,500hr flying time and two years at college. The Naval Test Pilot School operates 22 aircraft of nine basic types, varying from Albatross to Crusader and including SH-34 and Iroquois helicopters. At the end of the course each student makes four Hhr flights in an aircraft type which he has not previously flown, and writes a "Navy preliminary evaluation"—as compre- hensive an assessment as possible on the basis of these four flights. The school is one of four units which together form the Naval Air Test Center at Patuxent River naval air station. After graduating, students take up test-pilot duties with one of the three other divisions—Flight Test, Service Test or Weapons System Test—at the base, where they are likely to stay for a tour of two-and-a-half to three years. Meanwhile, back in Farnboro', England, a farewell dinner was held to honour the US visitors on the evening of Friday, June 26. Gp Capt Watts presented to Cdr Smith a handsome trophy which is to be awarded to the Patuxent student of each class writing the best Navy preliminary evaluation. No ordinary aviator's trophy this, but a genuine piece of naval history, for did not the wood from which it was carved come from the original timbers of HMS Victory? Yes, it did. And Victory was Nelson's flagship at the battle of Trafalgar, was she not? Er, yes, on the basis of a US Navy preliminary evaluation she probably was. It was most appropriate, the Commandant said, that something traditional had been turned into something of modern significance. Gp Capt Watts went on to compliment the visiting students and their ETPS hosts on their enthusiasm in combining social activity with academic study. That research into the propagation of sound from a post-horn near the Commandant's house in the early hours of that morning, for instance: "I was tremendously impressed." There is reason to believe that his guests, also, had been impressed, both with the ETPS hospitality and with the selection of new ideas on test-pilot training which they had picked up during the week. These ideas would now be fed back into the system at the US Naval Test Pilot School at Patuxent River—a system that to date has produced test pilots of the calibre of Alan Shepard, John Glenn, Walter Schirra and Scott Carpenter. KENNETH OWEN The ETPS award is presented to Cdr Smith by Gp Capt Watts. On the left is Cdr F. M. Posch, Assistant Director of the US Naval Test Pilot School
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