FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1970
1970 - 0586.PDF
536 llllllll being the only guidance available for attitude and heading reference. One pilot remarked on the difference which com plete external darkness made to the usefulness of the display because of the fact that there were no external visual clues to distract from the HUD picture presented. Because the nav/attack and HUD rely on the Ferranti inertial platform it is essential that some way of aligning it is devised. This is done on the ground by locking the platform when the aircraft has landed and taking a bearing on the most distant convenient object. When the platform is run up again it can be checked against the .original heading. The situation aboard a ship, unless there are facilities for taking an input from the ship's inertial system, is clearly different. Ferranti have therefore developed a simple sighting system by which a pilot can align himself on the deck and establish his relationship between the aircraft and the ship's system. Gee Chain Closure TODAY (THURSDAY, MARCH 26) the Gee Chain navigation system is being closed after 28 years' existence. Ten stations are closing down: No 635 Signals Unit, RAF Barkway, Royston, Herts; No 4 Signals Unit, RAF Stenigot, Louth, Lines; No 345 Signals Unit, RAF Swin- gate, Dover, Kent; No 313 Signals Unit, RAF Sparsholt Firs, Childrey, Wantage, Berks; No 899 Signals Unit, RAF Sharpi- tor, Yelverton, Devon; No 428 Signals Unit, RAF Sennen, Penzance, Cornwall; No 407 Signals Unit, RAF Worth Matravers, Swanage, Dorset; No 323 Signals Unit, RAF St Twynells, Hundle- ton, Pembroke; No 585 Signals Unit, RAF Oxenhope Moor, Keighley, Yorks; and the transmitting station, operated by the Board of Trade, at Great Dun Fell, Westmorland^ MoD state that the closure of the Gee chain —"which revolutionised the effec tiveness of RAF bombing raids during World War 2"—ends a 28-year long chapter in the history of aviation. The system was developed during the war as a means of getting bombers accurately to their targets and home again. It con sists of ten transmitting stations which, operating in pairs, provide accurately timed radio pulses. The aircraft receiver measures the difference in time of arrival of the pulses from each pair, which allows the aircraft's position to be quickly and accurately determined on intersecting hyperbolic lines on the pre- FLIGHT International, 26 March 1970 printed GEE lattice chart. The GEE system has now been replaced by other, internationally adopted, ground-based navigation aids and airborne systems. When Gee came into service in 1942, it brought about a dramatic change in the accuracy of RAF bombing raids, as well as increasing the chances of damaged aircraft returning home safely. The first aircraft to use Gee on opera tions was a Wellington of No 115 Sqn, from RAF Walton, Thetford, Norfolk, captained by Pit Off Jack Foster. He said afterwards, "targets were found and bombed as never before." CAF 707 Purchase A SAVING OF AN ESTIMATED $10 million (£3.89 million) has been made by the pur chase of four Boeing 707s for the Cana dian Armed Forces (Flight, February 19), according to the Canadian Defence Minister, Mr Leo Cadieux, in a state ment in Ottawa last week to the Com mons Defence Committee. It was later stated that the Defence Department had originally intended to purchase DC-8s, but the 707s had sud denly come on the market in February when an airline had cancelled an order and they were obtained for $55,900,000, an estimated $10 million less than the DC-8s would have cost if bought at a later date. Rocket launching rails can be seen on these Reims Aviation-built Cessna 337 Skymasters— first to be produced by the French company— owoiting delivery. En^ins Matra and Reim's recently signed an agreement to equip and market a military version of an unspecified twin-engined aircraft manufactured by RA and a Cessna 337 is being flight tested with Matra rockets During recent Warsaw Pact manoeuvres code- named Dvina, this Soviet Air Force An-22 along with others of the type, supplied tactical missiles. This is the first picture of one with a radar nose, which is reminiscent of the version employed on the Beriev Be-12 anti-submarine amphibian. The windows presumably help in the spotting of dropping zones and supply areas
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
