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NEWS
NEWSLETTER
147
January 1020
The meeting scheduled for Friday 8 January 2010 was cancelled because of weather conditions
Report on James Labouchere's talk, "Seaplane - Prospect for the Future" 13th November, 2009.
| Our speaker, James Labouchere,
quickly gained the audience's attention with his account of how he built
his first aircraft at the age of 18, but then crashed it at 19. Having established
his entrepreneur status James efforts turned to yachts and hull designs
at nearby Lymington. Here he developed a high speed yacht design which showed
great promise before turning to 'land yacht' design – a sophisticated
high power low drag composite craft to challenge the world land speed record.
Moving to the challenge of seaplanes James first identified the market possibilities and told us that some 12,000 seaplanes are in use today based on 1930's hull designs. For a craft that could be boat or plane, be seaworthy in local waters and yet use existing handling facilities such as marinas, the market would be a further population that lives near the sea / water or travels to use it for fun or sport. Using the audience he identified this market – measured in thousands, that could be tapped if a successful design could be established.
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Problems to overcome were many, needing solutions in folding wings to enable use of marinas, a hull form that would overcome the negative issues of Coanda effect and Froudes Laws (suction and speed limiting effects respectively) but allow a good 'break' from the surface combined with a construction that was not damaged by sea water corrosion.. The use of modern composites
provided a straightforward solution to the latter but achieving an efficient
hull design that was neither too heavy, created too much drag, was not
too expensive and could cope with the choppy waters of coastal areas
posed a special challenge. Inspiration for such a hull design came from
recent revolutions in slender hull technology used in multihull yachts
and fast ferries – long and thin rather than the short and broad
shapes used by the usual planing hull seen on the majority of existing
amphibians. UAV Takeoff |
Warrior (Aero-marine) based in Salisbury is James's company that is forging ahead with a hull
design that has proved itself in large model form. Interest has been achieved with a water launched unmanned air vehicle (UAV) that provides proof of concept to show the ability to tackle choppy water with high wing engine mounting to keep propellers clear of spray. A video showed how effective the design was and now the issue was to scale up to two seat and six seat designs named Centaur 2 and Centaur 6 6.
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| The company struggled to finance the very costly six seat development, but a new start is being made with the two seat aircraft via the new Light Sport Aircraft (LSA) category. This gives the opportunity to get a design into production in much shorter timescales and at much lower cost, having relatively easy certification hurdles. | It was clear from the vigorous
question and answer session that James had won over the audience –
just a shame that none of us had some lottery money to fund him through
the Centaur 2 program – hopefully this will be resolved for it would
be a travesty if lack of funds prevent this aircraft from achieving its
potential, indicated in the artist impression below. |
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INTREPID VISIT by Steve Robson
Having been requested to do a Quality Audit in an oil testing laboratory in
New Jersey, about 40 miles from New York, the flight schedule gave me a Sunday
with no commitments and so I took the train into New York to view a museum I
had heard about.
The Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum situated at Pier 86, Hudson River,
in New York was opened in 1982, the Museum has welcomed more than 10 million
visitors with currently more than 75,000 visitors each year. Refurbished recently
the Museum is housed in the aircraft carrier Intrepid (CVS-11), which served
in World War II and with refits went on to serve as a capsule recovery vessel
for NASA, three tours of duty off Vietnam, and submarine surveillance in the
North Atlantic during the Cold War.
There are 30 aircraft exhibits spread between the hangar deck, and the flight
deck. Naval aircraft such as Skyhawk and Avenger are presented in pristine condition
in the Hangar and on the flight deck is an impressive array which includes Harrier
and Scimitar along with Russian, Israeli and French aircraft as well as prime
examples of Blackbird, Tomcat and F16, with helicopters represented by Huey
and Cobra to mention but a few. On the pier you can view and walk through a
British Airways Concorde, G-BOAD, which set a world speed record for passenger
airliners on February 7, 1996 when it flew from New York to London in 2 hours,
52 minutes and 59 seconds.
Alongside is a submarine, Growler class, which hails from the era when missiles
were housed on deck in hangars. If your partner goes to the big apple for the
shopping there is something for you to see
as well.
Any newsletter contributions, ideas or comments to:
Chris Gilbert-Norton, 89a Belle Vue Road, Southbourne, Dorset, BH6 3DH
Home number: 01202 434372 Mobile number: 07977 721503 E-mail: gilbey70@hotmail.com
NEWSLETTER
146
November 2009
BOURNEMOUTH AIRPORT
For our meeting on 9th October 2009, Sally Windsor, External Affairs officer for Bournemouth Airport (BA), talked to us regarding the changes and future for the airport. Anybody who has flown from Bournemouth will have realised there is a significant change in progress. Manchester Air Group (MAG) became owners of Bournemouth Airport in March 2001 having purchased East Midlands Airport along with Bournemouth in a package deal. A sum of £45m was earmarked by MAG outlined in a master plan published in 2007 made in response to a Government White Paper predicting growth to 4 million passengers per year (ppy) by 2030 – current figures are just over 1 million ppy.
Airlines using BA on a regular basis with aircraft
based at BA include Palmair, long established as a year round holiday package
airline, Ryan Air and Thomson with Easy Jet and other airlines using the airport
depending on season.
The credit crunch had meant reigning back the development but more than £30m
remains scheduled, of which over half has been spent on improving the less visible
aspects such as runways, hard standings and a Cat3a landing system to improve
airport availability during poor visibility.
With the aid of aerial photos Sally showed how effective use has been made of
temporary buildings to maintain the flow of passengers and the provision of
support facilities whilst the very visible terminal has now taken shape and
every day is becoming more similar to the artist’s impression shown.
A lively question session developed with Sally answering that there are plans to improve the road situation, albeit the large majority of traffic is commuter based. The forthcoming Olympics may see a hive of activity at Bournemouth, as it is the closest major airport to the Weymouth sailing venue. Anticipated increased growth in air travel would not mean venturing into unsocial hours as capacity remained for more than one aircraft per hour during the day which would meet expected requirements. The Bournemouth Aviation Museum had been required to move from its hangar as the land was designated as a new parking area but the credit crunch had delayed those plans.
OSAN AIR POWER DAY 2009 by Chris Gilbert-Norton
Whilst on holiday last month in the Republic of South Korea, I was able to attend
the Osan Air Power Day 2009. Osan air force base (K55) is the largest of the
two USAF installations in South Korea, the other being Kunsan. Suwon is just
a couple of minutes flying time from Osan and this free airshow had all the
makings of a great day out. Suwon and Osan were well used during the Korean
war, both operating the Republic F-86 Sabre, of which there are many examples
still dotted around the country on static display.
Prior to the day I had done some research on the internet into where Osan was
located in relation to the capital Seoul, where I was staying and saw that it
was 64km south of Seoul & accessible by travelling on the Seoul Metro system.
So early on Wednesday 21st October, I managed to get a subway train to Songtan
station, the nearest to the base. The USAF laid on a free shuttle bus to the
“Doolitle Gate” of the base for those arriving by public transport.
A quick bag search by a friendly USAF lady, a cursory glance of my passport
and I was in. A pristine McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom is gate guard at the
gate and is painted to represent “69-291”, complete with red star
MiG-21 “kill” markings on the air intakes. 69-291 had a distinguished
combat career, claiming a North Vietnamese MiG-21 during the Vietnam war. A
long walk along the heavily patrolled perimeter road, guarded by a USAF soldier
interspersed with ROKAF personnel every 20 feet or so, to the aircraft apron
area, was rewarded by a low take off of two Osan based F-16’s followed
by two A-10 Thunderbolts of the 51st Fighter Wing, Seventh Air Force, off to
patrol north of Seoul along the De Militarized Zone (DMZ). The F-16’s
roared over me at about 100ft banking sharply to the right over a residential
area. The 51st Fighter Wing is the most forward deployed permanently based wing
in the USAF. Around the end of the runway threshold there were 100’s of
deserted houses, awaiting demolition. Seems that the American & South Korean
government have been busy “persuading” the local population to move
out of their homes to make way for further planned expansions of the base. Once
the F-16’s and A-10’s had departed the area, a Lockheed U-2 “Dragon
Lady” took off & immediately pulled up into a very steep climb. Where
this was off to was anyone’s guess, but I suspect the words North Korea
were mentioned at some stage of the pilot briefing!
The first part of the static line up consisted of Republic of Korea Air Force
(ROKAF) aircraft, ranging from the indigenous built basic trainer of the ROKAF,
the KT-1 “Woongbee”, very similar in appearance to the Short Tucano
to the latest ROKAF combat aircraft, the T-50 “Golden Eagle”, jointly
developed between Korean Aerospace Industries (KAI) & Lockheed Martin. This
is the new mount of the ROKAF aerobatic team, the “Black Eagles”,
who fly eight T-50’s but more of the “Black Eagles” in a future
newsletter. An interesting rotary exhibit was a Kamov HH-32 “Helix”
of the ROKAF, sat alongside a Sikorsky HH-60 “Pave Hawk”. South
Korea is one of a handful of countries worldwide where it is still possible
to see flying examples of the F-4 “Phantom”, with 60-382 & 40-943
present in the static line up. Korean produced examples of the F-15K “Slam
Eagle” and KF-16 “Fighting Falcon” completed the fighter line
up.
For most, the stars of the show were the six immaculate
F-16’s of the USAF “Thunderbirds” aerobatic team, on a visit
to South Korea, for Osan Air Power Day and were also appearing on the following
weekend at the Seoul Air Show. Highlight for me though was the appearance in
the static line up of a Lockheed U-2, 80-084 (BB), which is based at Osan on
regular detachment from the USA. Flying displays included a spirited display
by a C-17 “Globemaster”, the U-2, the “Thunderbirds”
and as the finale a simulated rescue of a downed pilot behind enemy lines, which
needed the participation of four F-16’s, two A-10’s, one Chinook,
two AH-64 Apache helicopters and lots of smoke, chaff and the USMC…!!
Whilst wandering through the crowd I spotted an elderly gentleman who was wearing
an embroidered air force badge on his blazer. After introducing myself I found
out his name was Robert MacIntosh, an ex Australian Air Force pilot who was
on holiday with his wife, and on his first visit back to Korea since the Korean
war! He had been a pilot on 77 Squadron at Kimpo air base (now Seoul domestic
airport) flying Royal Australian Air Force Gloster Meteor F8’s on ground
attack missions. He told me, for his sins he was later sent to Vietnam and UH-1B
Huey helicopters with 9 Sqn RAAF. He couldn’t recognise anything now in
Seoul or any of his former base, such is the frenetic pace of change. He did
however find the country fascinating and I tend to agree with him….
Any newsletter contributions, ideas or comments to:
Chris Gilbert-Norton, 89a Belle Vue Road, Southbourne, Dorset, BH6 3DH
Home number: 01202 434372 Mobile number: 07977 721503 E-m
Newsletter No. 145
October 2009
Bob Wealthy gave us a highly informative talk about Saunders-Roe in general
and the Princess flying boat in particular. He was accompanied by Philip Jewell,
another Princess aficionado, who brought an impressive range of SR models along
with memorabilia.
The name Saunders Roe, came about in 1929 when AV Roe, of Manchester and Hamble,
builder of the famous Avro504, took a controlling interest in the Saunders boat
and flying boat company based in East Cowes.
Prior to WWII SARO made a number of flying boats but only in small batches -
the most notable being the Saro London of which approx 30 were made and went
into service with the RAF. The war years saw production of the Supermarine Walrus
and Sea Otter. During and following the war the emphasis was on large flying
boats and the enormous 10 engined flying boat called the Princess was created
but the days of the flying boat was numbered. Also during the war the air ministry
had expressed interest in a jet flying boat and the SRA1 was built and flew
in 1947 but the project was cancelled shortly afterwards. Post war radical work
continued with the SR53 interceptor, yet another fine aircraft that suffered
under the politicians axe. The first ever hovercraft SRN1 was built by Saunders
Roe and further work continued under the name British Hovercraft Corporation.
Also helicopters were built following a take over of the Cierva factory Eastleigh
which led to absorption by Westland and the Saunders Roe name had gone by 1965.
In 1945 project SR45 was born to meet a request from the Ministry of Supply
for a long range civilian flying boat. Subsequently 3 aircraft were built -
a leviathan of the time - 140 tons, 10 Proteus turbo props, wingspan of 220
ft and length of 148 ft carrying 100 passengers. (Jumbo jet 195ft span, 231
ft long). Much research work was done to achieve hydrodynamic and aerodynamic
efficiency using a long testing tank and large models and fly by wire systems
were developed for production models but were not fitted on the prototype. Bob's
talk was illustrated throughout and showed the various construction stages of
the Princess such as sliding the hull on rails inside the factory and tipping
the tail to get it out of the factory door.
Civil
interest waned with the build up of land based aircraft but despite the low
power achieved by the Proteus engine, which was at an early stage of its life,
one example flew in 1952 and then displayed at Farnborough in 1953. NASA had
considered using them for transporting Saturn rocket components and even for
a nuclear powered aircraft but in the end the massive aircraft that had adorned
the Calshot Spit awaiting their fate were sent for breaking in 1967
l am off to Japan and Korea this month
and am hoping to be able to attend the annual Seoul airshow and also the Osan
air force base ''Air Power day's. The USAF acrobatic team 'The Thunderbirds''
are making an appearance at the Osan show and I will pen an article on both
these shows for future newsletters. Osan AFB is the main base for the USAF in
South Korea, and so with Kim Jong 11 less than an hours flying time north, the
presence of some impressive hardware, including F-15's, F-16's, A-10 and Lockheed
U-2's should hopefully make for an interesting day out at the base. Admission
to the show is free, I only need to show my passport at the gate, that's if
I can actually manage to find the gate after catching a subway train on the
huge Seoul subway network, where not a lot of people speak English! Wish me
luck The air power day is not open to holders of Chinese, Iranian or North Korean
passports, for unexplained reasons!
HURRICANE DEPARTING THESE SHORES
l read this month that Hawker Hurricane LF363, currently flying with the Battle
of Britain Memorial Flight, has been given to the indian Air Force by the RAF,
and will be shipped out soon to form the nucleus of the reformed Indian Air
Force Historic Flight. This particular machine was a founder member of the BBMF
and was totally burnt out at RAF Withering in 1991 after a landing accident.
A Spitfire of the BBMF was sold to finance the rebuild of the Hurricane after
the accident. Apparently the indian Air Force will donate a Mkl Hurricane in
return to rebuild to airworthy condition.. . . . . .please discuss! ! Any newsletter
contributions, ideas or comments to:
Chris Gilbert-Norton, 89a Belle Vue Road, Southbourne, Dorset, BH6 3HD
Home number: 01202 434372 Mobile number: 07977 721503 E-mail: gilbey7@hotmail.com
Newsletter No. 144
September
The speaker for the July talk was Hannah
Griffiths - Custodian at the Needles Battery – came across from
the Isle of Wight to give us a background to the secret world of rocketry that
had existed at High Down prior to the cancellation of Britain's successful test
program in 1971.
First Hannah gave us a bit of history
to the area of High Down and the Needles Battery – a fortification dating
back to the Napoleonic defences prepared by Lord Palmerston during the 1850s.
The site was further developed in the 1900s to counteract any threat to the
Solent from the West – fast patrol boats being one of the threats. A new
battery was built when it was thought that gun vibrations were weakening the
precipitous chalk peninsula on which the old battery was sited.
With this background of strategic use
and natural security – it was easy to seal off the area – when Saunders
Roe at Cowes became involved in rocketry the High Down area became a natural
choice in which to test rocket engines away from prying eyes. The Black Knight
rocket was to provide a test vehicle from which to launch various types of re-entry
vehicles, an essential part to the developing nuclear ICBM program in the latter
1950's. Two test stands, connected by a curved access road, were built and linked
up to the now disused buildings of the new battery. These provided both protection
from any accident and also workshops for preparatory work Following the test
each rocket was shipped to the Woomera rocket range in Australia.
A further exciting development was
the Black Arrow – a rocket with the capability of launching satellites
into orbit. The first rocket flew in 1968 and in 1971 the first (and sadly only)
totally British produced satellite Prospero was launched successfully. This
satellite can still be heard with the right listening apparatus. However, the
British Government had lost interest and saw no future in further development
and the site was closed within a year.
The National Trust looks after the
Needles Old Battery and an exhibition area (entrance is free) has been developed
in one of thenew Battery emplacements.
of the new battery emplacements.
TANGMERE MUSEUM GUIDED TOUR
Christchurch Aviation Society has organised a guided tour around Tangmere Museum
on Tuesday 15th September. Self/Share drive so meet there at 1 lam. If you can
go, need a lift, or can offer one or need directions please let Steve Robson
know on 01425 610471 /07796 470978 or stephen. robso n 1 O(cDbtopenworld. con).
ROAR ON THE SHORE
(photos courtesy of Miss Lee Manning)
I hope that everybody remembers this years "Roar on the Shore" at
Bournemouth, not for the record breaking firework display. that most people
who witnessed it thought was an uncontrolled explosion (fire!) on a barge moored
offshore, but for the sound of four Rolls Royce Olympus engines attached to
Avro Vulcan XH558 powering away from the beach on full afterburners on a glorious
sunny, crowded Bournemouth beach in August.
To put it more simply the free, four
day airshow held between 20-23 August was the best thing to happen locally this
year. The no show of the De Havilland
Aviation Sea Vixen was marred by the news that the new display
pilot of the Vixen for 2009 Lt Cdr Matt Whitfield RN had suffered
a stroke at the early age of 37 a few days earlier. Matt had only taken over
from Brian Grant who retired from flying the Vixen in 2008. Best wishes go to
Matt for a
speedy recovery. The Sea Vixens slot was filled by an F-86 Sabre on the Thursday
and a Vampire T 11 on the Friday.
The rotary wing displays consisted
of the Royal Navy celebrating 100 years of Naval
aviation, in the shape of two Lynx helicopters forming the display team the
"Black Cats and then from the RAF, the solo display by a Chinook from 7
Sqn at RAF Odiham, which most of the crowd around me agreed was most impressive.
The wing walkers on top of two 1930's Boeing Stearman made everyone stop and gasp a few times with barrel rolls and inverted flypasts.
The long overdue appearance of B-17 "Flying Fortress" G-BEDF "Sally B', was made possible after the owner of US based B-17 "Liberty Belle" provided a newly overhauled part-timed engine, after the crankshaft bearing failure on "Sally B's" No 1 engine looked set to ground her for the 2009 season. She had been grounded since October 2007 with various powerplant misfortunes, so it was a joy to see her flying in low over Hengistbury Head on the Saturday of the show.
A Spitfire and P-51 Mustang 'Ferocious Frankie", from Duxford, treated Warbird fans to a very tight 2-ship aerobatic display. This was followed by the rare appearance (certainly over Bournemouth of a P-40 Kittyhawk which gave a spirited solo display The Red Arrows were on hand for three days, having to perform a "flat" display on the Sunday due to low cloud. The "Blades" in their four fully aerobatic Extra 300's demonstrated to the crowd what ex Red Arrows get up to in propeller driven aircraft. Most impressive, this must beat flying an Airbus 340 for Virgin Atlantic Monday to Friday....as is the case for most ex fast jet pilots.
For me being able to watch the Battle
of Britain Memorial Flight's Lancaster,
Hurricane and Spitfire perform in Poole Bay whilst paddling in the sea, holding
Hannah (and a cool tin of beer!) was one of the best days of 2009 for me .....
bring on next years show!
FLYING QUOTES
Controller – "Alitalia 345 continue taxi holding position 26 South
via Tango – check for workers along taxiway" Pilot – 'Alitalia
345, taxi 26 left via Tango, workers checked, all are working"
Controller: "AF123 say call-sign of your wingman* Pilot: "Uh ....
approach, we're a single ship" Controller: 'Uh oh' ... You have traffic"!
Student pilot: "I'm lost, I'm over a lake and heading towards the big E'
Controller: "Make several 90 degree turns so that I can identify you on
radar"
(Short pause) .... Controller: 'OK then, that lake is the Atlantic Ocean. Suggest
you turn to the big W immediately"...
Tower: "...and for you information, you were slightly to the left of the
centreline on that approach" Speedbird "That's correct and my First
Officer was slightly to the right-
Tower: "Hawk 20, is this the same aircraft declaring an emergency about
two hours ago?' Pilot: "Negative sir, it's only the same pilot'
Pilot: 'Good Morning Frankfurt ground. KLM 242 requests startup and push back
please" Tower: "KLM 242 expect start up in two hours'
Pilot: 'Please confirm, two hours delay"?
Tower: "Affirmative"
Pilot: "In that case cancel the Good Morning"
Any newsletter contributions, ideas or comments to:
Chris Gilbert-Norton, 89a Belle Vue Road, Southbourne, Dorset, BH6 3DH
Home number: 01202 434372 Mobile number: 07977 721503 E-mail: gilbey70@hotmail.com