Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology

1945 Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology

doi: 10.1108/eb031224

IN this issue we are able to give the first authoritative description of the extremely ingenious equipment providing automatic aids to air navigation which has been under development in this country since before the war, but even the fact of the existence of which has only recently been released for publication.

Scrimshaw, F.H.; Wells, J.A.

1945 Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology

doi: 10.1108/eb031225

THE basic method of air navigation is deduced reckoning or simply dead reckoning. The method comprises the maintenance of an air pilot, which is made by calculating true airspeed and hence air distance run and then plotting this along the aircraft's heading from some initial ground fix. Subsequent ground positions may then be deduced by laying off the wind vector from the air position. As an example Fig. 1 suppose an aircraft flics for one hour on a true heading of 060 deg. starting from an initial ground position A. If the true airspeed is 180 knots the air position will be at B, and if the mean wind over the flight is 45 knots from 340 deg. true then the ground position by D.R. corresponding to an air position at B would be at C. Now if the aircraft flics for the next hour on a true heading of 085 deg. and the mean wind over this hour is 30 knots from 310 deg. true, the air position with respect to A would be at D and the ground position at F. If a new air plot had been started at C then the air position, at the end of the second hour, would be at E and the ground position by D.R. again at F.

Hick, W.E.

1945 Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology

doi: 10.1108/eb031226

IN so far as the behaviour of an aeroplane in flight depends upon the behaviour of its pilot, it is relatively unpredictable, and for practical purposes seems likely to remain so, except from a statistical point of view. It is, however, reasonable to suppose that by making certain simplifying assumptions it will be feasable to regard the pilot as a machine which responds to given situations in definite ways in other words, to regard him as a form of servo mechanism with characteristics which may be adjusted to fit the average behaviour, though necessarily differing more or less from that of any given individual.

1945 Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology

doi: 10.1108/eb031227

THE Warwick is the third type to be built entirely on the Wallis principle of geodetic construction and is palpably an enlarged version of the ubiquitous Wellington. In addition to the increased dimensions and engine power the fuselage lines have been slightly refined.

Weyl, A.R.

1945 Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology

doi: 10.1108/eb031228

IN a series of articles entitled Tailless Aircraft and Flying Wings, concluded last month, the evolution of the tailless aeroplane and the flying wing was treated. The different trends of the development were classified, and a short discussion of the difficulties which had been experienced during experimental work given.

1945 Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology

doi: 10.1108/eb031229

APPLICATIONS for the loan of copies of translations mentioned below should be addressed to the SECRETARY R.T.P.3, MINISTRY OF AIRCRAFT PRODUCTION, LONDON, S.W.1, and copies will be loaned as far as availability of stocks permits. Suggestions concerning new translations will be considered in relation to general interest and facilities available. Lists of selected translations have appeared in AIRCRAFT ENGINEERING since September, 1938

Bowen, I.G.

1945 Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology

doi: 10.1108/eb031230

A CONSIDERABLE volume of data on the strength of typical aircraft rivets in joints of Alclad D.T.D. 390 sheet, has been published in the M.A.P.'s Scientific and Technical Memorandum series. The need for such an investigation arose from the use by the stress offices of different aircraft manufacturers, of strength figures which showed little unanimity even when identical riveted joints were compared. The result was that fixed conditions of manufacture of the proportions of the joint of methods of testing and finally of analysis led to a body of data which gives a fairly representative basis for practical design.

Bell, J.E.D.

1945 Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology

doi: 10.1108/eb031231

In Part I the elementary principles of magnetic crack detection have been discussed, and an endeavour made to explain the elements of a system which has been satisfactorily applied to the inspection of aeroengine components.

1945 Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology

doi: 10.1108/eb031232

In a spinner for the hub of an airscrew, a spinner shell, spoked supports therefor adapted for attachment to said hub, an annular member adapted for detachable connexion with said spinner shell, a plurality of brackets fixed around said member, pivot pins carried by said brackets with their axes arranged tangential to a circle concentric with the rotational axis of said spinner shell, openended sockets at the ends of the spokes of said supports adapted for engagement with said pins and rubber bushes arranged between said pins and sockets with their ends bearing against said brackets.