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Aviation History
1969
1969 - 3277.PDF
Doorknob to doorknob Thursday 27 November 1969 Number 3168 Volume 96 Founded in 1909. Official organ of the Royal Aero Club. First aeronautical weekly in the world. Published by lliffe Transport Publications Ltd, Dorset House, Stamford Street, London SE1. Telephone 01-928 3333 Telegrams/Telex: Flight lliffepres London 25137 © IPC Business Press Ltd 1969 International Business Press Associates ibpa Editor: J. M. Ramsden Production editor: Roy Casey Assistant editor: Humphrey Wynn, BA Assistant technical editor: Michael Wilson, BSc, CEng, FBIS, AFRAeS Photographic librarian: Ann C. Tilbury Advertisement manager: David Holmes Editorial director: Maurice A. Smith, DFC Managing director: H. N. Priaulx, MBE In this issue World News 824 Parliament 827 Air Transport 828 Light Commercial and Business 837 Private Flying 838 US racing round-up 839 Industry International 842 Shackleton Airborne Watchkeeper 843 Letters 849 Defence 851 Spaceflight 854 Straight and Level 856a Front cover: Last of a line which began with the Avro Manchester in 1940, the Shackleton still plies the maritime air lanes on search and anti-submarine missions although its replacement, the HS Nimrod, is due to enter service with Strike Command next year. A first-hand account of a typical sortie in a Mk 3 Phase 3 Shackleton begins on page 843 Last week Germany showed just how determined she is to be first in Europe with V/STOL inter-city air liners. Anybody can draw aeroplanes, and the German aircraft industry has drawn its fair share in the last 20 years. But the four projects revealed last week (pages 833-836), though em bodying some ideas of perhaps greater appeal to engineers than to customers, come from an industry which has done some hard experimental flying—in particular with the VJ 101, the Dornier Do31, and three flying hover-rigs. The remarkable success of the Do31 has provided experience which must be taken very seriously. The German Government, which is not short of money, is said to be pre pared to back VTOL with cash and to be aiming for an in-service date of 1975. This may not be as realistic as say 1978, bearing in mind the develop ment difference between experimental hardware and aircraft with public- transport certificates. The point is that the Germans see VTOL as a means of speeding up inter-city communications, utilising their traditional flair for technical innovation, and building an aircraft industry to match that of France, Britain and the USA. It will be noted that Europe's air craft industry is coming up with national rather than with international projects. British manufacturers recently completed V/STOL studies for the Ministry of Technology, and submis sions have been made by BAC, HSA and Westland. These cover a wide range of philosophies including a STOL One-Eleven, tilt-wing and circulation- controlled rotor projects, and a fanjet- lift project. The Westland WG.22 and the Messerschmitt Bo 140 appear to have much in common, while the HS.133 and the Dornier 231—if not as alike as two fanjets in a pod—are simi lar in concept. These pairs of projects represent the two basic V/STOL transport ideologies: rotor-lift and fan- lift. Each is a signpost to the future of inter-city VTOL. While both techniques have a place— simple rotor-lift is already established— the project with the greatest long-term promise in terms of speed and mechani cal simplicity is undoubtedly the fan- lift aircraft. This employs the type of propulsion into which Rolls-Royce are now putting all their vertical-take-off and noise-abatement knowhow. With relatively small conventional cruise engines and small wings, banks of these fan-lift engines appear to be the answer to the problems of noise and cruising deadweight, certainly in long- range supersonic aircraft. A designer with his eye on 1990 obviously has to think in terms of Mach 2 or 3. In fact he has to be thinking in terms of aircraft which can lift perhaps 250 passengers straight up out of, say, the Surrey Commercial Docks and accelerate towards New York at Mach 3. The first step along this road is mixed fan-lift cruise pro pulsion. Britain's Minister of Tech nology has been heard to say that inter city trains may be a better national investment than VTOL. Can rails span the oceans? By 1990 the competition could be hypersonic boost-glide or semi-orbital airliners. While these seem very far in the future, they are only as far ahead as the Comet and Viscount are in the past. The ultimate in air-transport effi ciency is city-centre to city-centre, doorknob-to-doorknob service. Nothing will beat this, and only the signpost marked fan-lift will lead to it, over long ranges and at high speed. The right road now could save much back-tracking and recrimination later on. And how sensible it would be for Britain and Germany to furl their Not Invented Here banners and set out on the road together. Their objectives are the same; Germany has technology and a lot of money, while Britain has money and a lot of tech nology. Hawker Siddeley and Dornier have been collaborating at a company level for five years. The similarity between their latest projects—the HS.133 and the Do231—could be the basis of a sensible collaboration. A joint effort on the more advanced Hawker Siddeley design would probably be the most fruitful. Fan-lift engines in sponson pods or delta wings look more like 1990 than do wing-mounted lift pods, with their drag and assymetry. Dr Griffith of Rolls-Royce got it right 15 years ago.
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