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Aviation History
1957
1957 - 0104.PDF
104 FLIGHT (Top /e/t) "7/ie Stratocruiser layout was designed to make the . . . work of the three flight-crew members . . . as easy as possible." (Top right) Tu-104 layout, providing pilot "shelves" on each side of a central gangway leading to the navigator's nose-position. (Left) The Boeing 707 flight-deck, "designed in accordance with the principles of the Society of Automotive Engineers." THE PILOT'S PLACE . . . speeds of Mach 2 or higher, and at altitudes which will range fromsea level to 100,000ft in a matter of a few minutes. The aircraft of the future may have to have a self-containedcommand capsule. It would be resistant to severe temperature and pressure changes so that its interior is maintained at a constantpressure, humidity and temperature. The capsule would provide an environment within which the man-machine command unit canoperate and be recovered should the aircraft be destroyed; it repre- sents the limit to which the man-machine unit can be developed. Possibly the major feature of the capsule will be a screen orscreens which will display "outside" information made up of combinations of radar, optical and radio information, plus instan-taneous data from the computer. The instantaneous data would give a continuous indication of such data as distance and time totarget or base, and best trajectory for maximum range. The decision controls used for speed changes and displacement inspace would be push buttons—"Up or down," "there or back," "go to position X," and so on. Eventually a day might come when designers reach a stage atwhich it is no longer a practical proposition to continue to handicap aircraft design by having to make provision for a human pilot.Should that happen, then aviation as it has been known and thought about since the time of Leonardo da Vinci will becomea very different subject about which to write. ROLLS-ROYCE AUSTRALIAN CHANGES /CHANGES in the Board of Rolls-Royce of Australia (Pty.), Ltd.,^ have been announced. Lord Hives, Mr. A. Harvey-Bailey and Mr. P. Birch relinquished their appointments on January 11 andtheir places on the Board are being taken . , .„ by Mr. Whitney Straight (deputy chair-man, Rolls-Royce, Ltd.), Mr. F. T. Hinkley (general manager, sales and ser-vice, Rolls-Royce, Ltd.), and Mr. W. P. Calvert. Mr. Calvert is also appointedgeneral manager of Rolls-Royce of Aus- tralia (Pty.), Ltd., and is due to travel toAustralia in the near future to take up his appointment. The new general manager has had along career in the aircraft industry. He was apprenticed at the Royal AircraftFactory, Famborough (now the R.A.E.), and was present during Col. Cody'spioneering adventures; he qualified as an R.F.C. pilot in 1918; in 1920 he joined the pioneer British airline,Air Transport and Travel, Ltd., at Hendon; subsequently he was Mr. W. P. Calvert. associated with K.L.M., Daimler Airways, Fokkers and D. Napierand Son, Ltd., where he helped in the preparation of the Lion engine in the Gloster seaplane for the 1927 Schneider TrophyRace and was responsible for the installation of the Napier engine in the Golden Arrow car and the motor-boat Miss England I. Mr. Calvert joined the Rolls-Royce service department in 1937,later became chief aero service engineer and subsequently man- ager of the aero service department, which he built up. GEE AT SEAR ECENTLY, A. C. Cossor, Ltd., completed sea-going trialsto determine the Gee range performance available to surface craft in coastal areas covered by Gee chains. The General SteamNavigation Company's m.v. Ringdove was equipped with a standard Mk III receiver and the trials took place over the vessel'snormal route, London-Bordeaux. At Belle Isle (47 deg 20 min N, 3 deg 10 min W), 200 n.m. from the south-western Gee chain, anaccurate fix was obtained, across 70 miles of France. The trials, it is stated, showed that accurate fixes at sea level can be relied onup to ranges of 200 n.m. from coastal sited Gee stations.
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