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Aviation History
1991
1991 - 0044.PDF
L ETTERS The benefits of stability SIR — Your Comment on "Hard limits, soft options" (Flight In ternational, 31 October-6 No vember, 1990) contains many of the misconceptions typical of the mythology which so misin forms public discussion of avia tion matters. Inherent stability never had any significant effect on speed, although lack of power did. Pitch responsiveness is faster with higher, not lower, stability. Natural stability was never a bar to good sustained manoeuvra bility. The popular theory that "...stable equals tail download — bad, unstable equals tail upload — good" is wrong as upload is perfectly normal for stable aircraft especially at high angle of attack. Lightness of control only needs well bal anced and powerful control sur faces. Low, neutral or negative pitch stability for responsive ness has always been danger ously fallacious, because much of the pilot's attention is di verted from combat to control, sometimes leading to serious or fatal overcontrol. Instability in modern combat aircraft is usually associated with balance and trim, which results in cambering the nor mal, thin, high-speed wing at high angle of attack to increase its lift and reduce its drag. Digital flight control systems have transformed, not upset, the designer's ability to make such aircraft as responsive as possible while still making it easy and safe to fly. It is commonplace to allow exceedance of the normal g limit in a dire emergency, to go beyond maximum-lift angle of attack if this is aerodynami- cally feasible and operationally useful and to fly right up to the loss of control and strength limits without great skill. This philosophy seems no different to the Soviet one. If, despite this, the opposition turned in side Flight's pilot and shot him down, it did so because it could pull more g, not because it had a better flight control system. J C GIBSON 19 Victoria Road Lytham St Annes Lanes EY8 ILE UK ,S This is a real Convair 580... 340 plus 240 equals 580 DEAR UNCLE ROGER — A United Convair 580? And with a blunt nose and pistons? (Flight Inter national, 5-11 December, 1990) I reckon you are about 340 over the top — isn't it a Convair240? In this week's edition, I espe cially liked the new high-wing mini MD-11 with four engines nosing up to a Flamingo at Hatfield —Aah — de Havilland, you get everywhere! Thinks: had the actual MD-11 vanished into "fin air"? MIKE SAVAGE Saab Aircraft International Leworth House 14-16 Sheet Street Windsor Berks SL4 1BG, UK Sad DH-86 at^? runway's end DEAR UNCLE ROGER —You made reference to a DH-86 —or, rather, rumour of a DH-86 — Exporters export — people die SIR —With reference to your Electronic Warfare Directory (Flight International, 14-20 No vember, 1990), Martin Streetly mentions "...the simple adage 'export or die'". Too simple! The fat cats export and the servicemen die. That was the lesson of the Falklands, which may be about to be repeated in the Gulf. "The end of the Cold War" removes what scant ex cuse there was for hi-tech Arab exports. The "reduced unit costs from large-scale produc tion" are paid for with the blood of our finest youth when im- which might or might not have ended its days at Barajas Air port, Madrid (Flight Interna tional, 28 November-4 Decem ber, 1990). I am pleased to advise you that bar-room gossip sometimes contains a kernel of truth. While in the employ of an airline which no longer exists in its own right, 1 worked for some time at Barajas in the early 1960s. I have a hazy mental picture of the sad, but clearly identifiable remains of a DH-86 mouldering away behind the Iberia hangar, sharing its au tumn days with assorted parts of a Lockheed P-38. From mem ory, the Express was a victim to a heavy landing or a ground loop. It is unlikely that birch ply, spruce, Fl linen and ma- dapollam will have survived 30 Castilian summers. Sic transit... J A ROBERTS A DE HAVILLAND NEPHEW (1950-55) 26 Russells Crescent Horley Surrey RH6 7DN,UK DH-86: an unhappy ending porters turn against the export ers. The only reason for defence industries is to insure against attack; it is not sufficient to "keep your powder dry" — keep it for yourself. MORRIS J CATHERWOOD 56 Norwich Street Cambridge CB2 1NE UK The opinions expressed in these pages do not necessarily represent those of the Editor. Flight International cannot undertake to publish letters without name and address and reserves the right to select or edit letters. Cathay still recruiting SIR — In Flight International (28 November-4 December, 1990, P 9) it was reported that Cathay Pacific had stopped recruiting. This is not correct and could cause disruption to our present aircrew recruitment programme. It is true that there is a freeze on recruitment of additional "overhead" staff, but this does not apply to pilots or cabin crew. We expect to continue taking on between 60 and 80 experienced expatriate pilots in 1991 — somewhat fewer than planned before the Gulf crisis, but nevertheless a significant number when compared with most other airlines' revised re cruitment programmes. The last sentence of this news item implied that our local cadet scheme is replacing expa triate recruitment. This also is not true. While we are pleased with the success of the cadet scheme, we are going to have to rely on the recruitment of expe rienced expatriate pilots for a long time to come. DAVID BELL CORPORATE PR MANAGER Cathay Pacific Swire House 9 Connaught Road Central Hong Kong WHAT'S ON 14 January, 1991 The D F Mclntyre lecture by Wg Cdr C H McLean. RAeS evening lecture, Prestwick Branch. Contact: Conference Office, RAeS, 4 Hamilton Place, London W1V 0BQ, UK; tel: +44 (071) 499 3515. 17 January, 1991 Evening lecture "Design for future combat rotorcraft — a pilot's perspective" by Lt Cdr R 1 Horton, ETPS. RAeS young techni cians and students section. Contact: Conference Office, RAeS, 4 Hamilton Place, London W1V 0BQ, UK; tel: +44 (071) 499 3515. 18 January 1991 Conference "Trans port solutions for improved cost and efficiency". Copthome Hotel, Bir mingham, UK. Contact: Sue Levy; tel: +44 (071) 412 0142; fax +44 (071) 412 0144. 23 January 1991 "Express package services". RAeS conference, air trans port group. Contact: Conference Of fice, RAeS, 4 Hamilton Place, London W1V 0BQ, UK; tel: +44 (071) 499 3515. FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 2 - 8 January, 1991
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