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Aviation History
1973
1973 - 0099.PDF
FLIGHT murnationa'. 11 January 1973 65 Marshal Sir Nigel Maynard succeed ing him as Commander-in-Chief, Royal Air Force Germany, and Commander, 2nd Allied Tactical Air Force. Crosswind landing research The use of direct-side-force control (DSFC) on Stol and conventional air craft is being investigated at Calspan Corporation, formerly Cornell Aero nautical Laboratory, using the con verted Convair 580 Total In-flight Simulator. The research is being spon sored by the US Air Force Flight Dynamics Laboratory, Wright Patter son AFB, Ohio, under a $190,000 con tract. The Air Force is interested in direct-side-force control as a possible aid in crosswind landings. The TIFS is equipped with large ver tical side-force control surfaces on its >: wings. These were originally installed Phantom Hush House at Coningsl t Coningsby AN ANDOVER C.l of No 46 Sqn flew a i party of journalists, including a member of Flight's staff, to RAF Coningsby recently to inspect its new facilities for silencing the Speys of the Phantom during ground run ning. Based on the Viggen silencer manufactured by Granges-Stal of Nybybruk, Sweden, the RAF's proto type test house was constructed under licence by Stainless Metalcraft of Chatteris, Cambs, and is the first of its type in Britain. The MoD Pro curement Executive placed a single tender contract worth £250,000 in October 1971, and the test house was commissioned for full-time use in early November 1972. About 60 Phantoms of 6, 41, 54 and 64 Sqns (the shadow squadron of No 228 OCU) fly from Coningsby. It is the RAF's largest Phantom base and operates more than one-third of the British Phantom force. In the opinion of Gp Capt H. F. Glover, the technical sponsor of the test-house project, re strictions on flying have reached the limits of their effectiveness and the only way to make a significant impact on noise is to reduce that produced by ground running of engines. The new facility, which has become known as the Hush House, is essentially an acoustically treated hangar about 66ft, 20m long and 50ft, 15m wide with elec- In order to account for the 6° difference be tween undercarriage ground-line and the thrust-line of the Spey, the Phantom under test is winched rearwards up ramps so that the jet pipes are horizontal and facing into the attenuator. The aircraft ramps are mounted on an anti-vibration concrete pad isolated from the main foundations of the hangar trically operated sliding doors at the front, and an air-cooled exhaust attenuator in the centre of the rear wall. The attenuator is about 66ft, 20m long, includes a single diverter and ends in a 45° deflector. All interior surfaces are clad with perforated stainless-steel panels that use glass- fibre and sprayed asbestos as the ab sorbing and damping media. The interior of the exhaust attenuator is lined with heavy-gauge perforated stainless-steel sheet, over layers of Basaltstein mineral wool. All hot parts, except the diverter, are designed for a life of ten years. The Phantom has a maximum noise level of between 105 and 130 dB(A) at Seen recently at RAF Chivenor, Devon, was this Hunter F.74B of the Singapore Air Defence Command. There were at the time three F.74Bs and one T.7S of the SADC at the station for Singapore pilot familiarisation, navigation and weapons training to extend its ability to simulate flight characteristics of large civil aircraft and were controlled via an on-board computer. During the USAF pro gramme, however, they will be con trolled by the pilot. Items to be considered during the investigations will include: definition of parameters affecting pilot perform ance and workload during crosswind landings of a Stol aircraft with DSFC; trade-offs between roll control power and DSFC power; types of cockpit controller and schemes for mechanisa tion of a DSFC system; effects of various vehicle characteristics on the effectiveness of DSFC to maximise per formance and minimise pilot work load; miscellaneous aspects of DSFC that affect the application to the cross- wind landing problem. 200m. While this is cut by about 20 dB(A) using existing detuners, the new Hush House allows a reduction of up to 65 dB(A). By day people in the residential and administrative areas of the airfield are unaware that the Hush House is in use while at night residents hear only a distant rumble. The Hush House has been so suc cessful that a programme has been submitted to the ministry to build similar facilities at a number of mili tary airfields. Although this pro gramme has not yet been approved the Phantom Hush House has met its design objectives and has created in terest within several commercial air lines.
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