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FreeFlight Models

FreeFlight Models Aircraft Engineering THE MONTHLY ORGAN OF THE AERONAUTICAL ENGINEERING PROFESSION VOL XXV No 290 APRIL 1953 aerodynamic bodies. That this is so is actually brought out in M R SHORTAL'S first paragraph when he writes: This (the N.A.C.A.'s) E have left unaltered the title of MR SHORTAL'S lecture role, as specified by Congress in 1915,1s to "supervise and direct the before the SOCIETY OF AUTOMOTIVE ENGINEERS though it scientific study of the problems of flight with a view to their practical is by no means accurately descriptive of the objects with solution". The chief job of the N.A.C.A. is to find solutions to these which he deals. We feel, if we may say so, that he has to some extent problems and to supply information necessary for the scientific been led astray by the strong appeal a picturesque phrase has for the design of aeroplanes and missiles. The present interest in both types American. We are not necessarily decrying this. It has added many of aircraft covers subsonic speeds, transonic speeds and supersonic welcome words to the language and has certainly contributed to an speeds.' Actually he takes the matter a stage further in the last enhanced vividness which the modern American language possesses sentence of this opening paragraph when he concludes with the fol­ and the English—except through absorption—by comparison lacks. lowing explanation of the ground he is proposing to cover:'Since the It is, of course, fostered by the craze for publicity which is a great wind-tunnel work of the N.A.C.A. is well known, I would like to feature of trans-Atlantic life, as it enables the newspaper sub-editor review a lesser-known programme being conducted by the to pick out for his headlines a telling phrase which is promptly N.A.C.A.'s Langley Laboratory by means of rocket-propelled test adopted by his readers and soon becomes a catchword of the models at its Pilotless Aircraft Research Station at Wallops Island, moment. Va.' Here surely is the true answer. These research vehicles are pilotless rocket-propelled test models as indicated in the N.A.C.A.'s A Misconception own name for its research station. This seems to confirm our sus­ When the method is applied to scientific and technical subjects, picion voiced above that it is M R SHORTAL rather than Authority who however, it is apt to have disadvantages, and may become actively has adopted the picturesque term given in the title to the lecture. misleading. When, for example, we wrote for a copy of MR SHORTAL'S lecture in order to study it with a view to possible publica­ Precision of Phrase tion in AIRCRAFT ENGINEERING—the S.A.E. having decided not to print it in full—we confess that we expected to receive a paper deal­ In case we may be thought to have been labouring our point, we ing with the research, and possibly experimental, work on the de­ would like to argue that it is, we conceive, by no means unimportant. velopment of guided missiles in the sense, as we understand the Let us use for tools of research terms which correctly state what they expression, of weapons that arc guided, or perhaps controlled, on really are and not mislead the engineers, or the general public, to a target. by adopting phrases which, however picturesque and catchpenny, are not in fact accurate. It is true that some portion of the work on which M R SHORTAL reports is directed towards the improvement of the design of guided All of which having been said let us emphasize that we find M R missiles in the limited meaning of the term to which we have referred. SHORTAL a great deal more interesting in the subject with which he actually deals than he would have been if he had confined himself The objects with which he is concerned have, however, a very much to the much more limited objects which, from his title, one would wider scope than this and are in most instances not missiles at all and, suppose him to be covering. Though it is, of course, well known that it might be argued, not even in fact guided. Indeed they are carefully launched in places so remote from civilization as to ensure that on tests on the same general lines are proceeding in England, little or their return to earth they will not hit anything specific at all, nor are nothing on them has appeared in print, though there are certain as yet unpublished R.A.E. reports on the detailed technique of the use they at any point in their trajectory—which might perhaps be more of rocket boosted models for measuring control effectiveness and truly described as a flight path—intended to make contact with any drag. This paper is therefore perhaps the first account we have had target or other object. giving particulars of the precise layout and design of these rocket- propelled models for obtaining aerodynamic data at high Mach The True Meaning numbers. It further gives considerable information on the methods Indeed, if we were ourselves to coin a phrase, or adopt one already of tracking from the ground, the airborne equipment for telemetering in existence, we should call them free-flight models, since in purpose readings to the ground and the type of data that is being sought and they scarcely seem to differ from the seaplane models developed by found. It indeed to a very considerable extent 'puts us wise' as to what M R E. G. STOUT which were described in our February issue this is going on, the details of which had hitherto been shrouded in ob­ year. They are in similar fashion, mutatis mutandis, tracked from the scurity owing, we had imagined, to security considerations in regard ground and their purpose is surely much the same—to obtain in­ to potential weapons of war. formation on the effect of various changes on the performance of http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology Emerald Publishing

FreeFlight Models

Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology , Volume 25 (4): 1 – Apr 1, 1953
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Publisher
Emerald Publishing
Copyright
Copyright © Emerald Group Publishing Limited
ISSN
0002-2667
DOI
10.1108/eb032277
Publisher site
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Abstract

Aircraft Engineering THE MONTHLY ORGAN OF THE AERONAUTICAL ENGINEERING PROFESSION VOL XXV No 290 APRIL 1953 aerodynamic bodies. That this is so is actually brought out in M R SHORTAL'S first paragraph when he writes: This (the N.A.C.A.'s) E have left unaltered the title of MR SHORTAL'S lecture role, as specified by Congress in 1915,1s to "supervise and direct the before the SOCIETY OF AUTOMOTIVE ENGINEERS though it scientific study of the problems of flight with a view to their practical is by no means accurately descriptive of the objects with solution". The chief job of the N.A.C.A. is to find solutions to these which he deals. We feel, if we may say so, that he has to some extent problems and to supply information necessary for the scientific been led astray by the strong appeal a picturesque phrase has for the design of aeroplanes and missiles. The present interest in both types American. We are not necessarily decrying this. It has added many of aircraft covers subsonic speeds, transonic speeds and supersonic welcome words to the language and has certainly contributed to an speeds.' Actually he takes the matter a stage further in the last enhanced vividness which the modern American language possesses sentence of this opening paragraph when he concludes with the fol­ and the English—except through absorption—by comparison lacks. lowing explanation of the ground he is proposing to cover:'Since the It is, of course, fostered by the craze for publicity which is a great wind-tunnel work of the N.A.C.A. is well known, I would like to feature of trans-Atlantic life, as it enables the newspaper sub-editor review a lesser-known programme being conducted by the to pick out for his headlines a telling phrase which is promptly N.A.C.A.'s Langley Laboratory by means of rocket-propelled test adopted by his readers and soon becomes a catchword of the models at its Pilotless Aircraft Research Station at Wallops Island, moment. Va.' Here surely is the true answer. These research vehicles are pilotless rocket-propelled test models as indicated in the N.A.C.A.'s A Misconception own name for its research station. This seems to confirm our sus­ When the method is applied to scientific and technical subjects, picion voiced above that it is M R SHORTAL rather than Authority who however, it is apt to have disadvantages, and may become actively has adopted the picturesque term given in the title to the lecture. misleading. When, for example, we wrote for a copy of MR SHORTAL'S lecture in order to study it with a view to possible publica­ Precision of Phrase tion in AIRCRAFT ENGINEERING—the S.A.E. having decided not to print it in full—we confess that we expected to receive a paper deal­ In case we may be thought to have been labouring our point, we ing with the research, and possibly experimental, work on the de­ would like to argue that it is, we conceive, by no means unimportant. velopment of guided missiles in the sense, as we understand the Let us use for tools of research terms which correctly state what they expression, of weapons that arc guided, or perhaps controlled, on really are and not mislead the engineers, or the general public, to a target. by adopting phrases which, however picturesque and catchpenny, are not in fact accurate. It is true that some portion of the work on which M R SHORTAL reports is directed towards the improvement of the design of guided All of which having been said let us emphasize that we find M R missiles in the limited meaning of the term to which we have referred. SHORTAL a great deal more interesting in the subject with which he actually deals than he would have been if he had confined himself The objects with which he is concerned have, however, a very much to the much more limited objects which, from his title, one would wider scope than this and are in most instances not missiles at all and, suppose him to be covering. Though it is, of course, well known that it might be argued, not even in fact guided. Indeed they are carefully launched in places so remote from civilization as to ensure that on tests on the same general lines are proceeding in England, little or their return to earth they will not hit anything specific at all, nor are nothing on them has appeared in print, though there are certain as yet unpublished R.A.E. reports on the detailed technique of the use they at any point in their trajectory—which might perhaps be more of rocket boosted models for measuring control effectiveness and truly described as a flight path—intended to make contact with any drag. This paper is therefore perhaps the first account we have had target or other object. giving particulars of the precise layout and design of these rocket- propelled models for obtaining aerodynamic data at high Mach The True Meaning numbers. It further gives considerable information on the methods Indeed, if we were ourselves to coin a phrase, or adopt one already of tracking from the ground, the airborne equipment for telemetering in existence, we should call them free-flight models, since in purpose readings to the ground and the type of data that is being sought and they scarcely seem to differ from the seaplane models developed by found. It indeed to a very considerable extent 'puts us wise' as to what M R E. G. STOUT which were described in our February issue this is going on, the details of which had hitherto been shrouded in ob­ year. They are in similar fashion, mutatis mutandis, tracked from the scurity owing, we had imagined, to security considerations in regard ground and their purpose is surely much the same—to obtain in­ to potential weapons of war. formation on the effect of various changes on the performance of

Journal

Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology – Emerald Publishing

Published: Apr 1, 1953

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