RAE Farnborough - steeped in history
Cool Mod
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Milt, sadly the computer bit seems to have been an aide memoir, the rest was his own papers.
It was a great talk from a modest man. He worked with the best of them and he had a rich talent of his own. He 'worked' on the Whelkin, the Shetland flying boat, Halifax, Hurricane and others. He also had a good understanding of the Farnboro' wind tunnel.
A short film about ditching a P31 was a treasure. That actually might be truer than we think - it belonged to the IWM - showed how they made models to show how to ditch a Mustang. Which also showed it couldn't be done! When it hit the water it just dived to the bottom. They later discovered that with one wing low it was possible - just. But then the war was over.
A good night much enjoyed by everyone. Some I suspect who were also boffins in their own right.
It was a great talk from a modest man. He worked with the best of them and he had a rich talent of his own. He 'worked' on the Whelkin, the Shetland flying boat, Halifax, Hurricane and others. He also had a good understanding of the Farnboro' wind tunnel.
A short film about ditching a P31 was a treasure. That actually might be truer than we think - it belonged to the IWM - showed how they made models to show how to ditch a Mustang. Which also showed it couldn't be done! When it hit the water it just dived to the bottom. They later discovered that with one wing low it was possible - just. But then the war was over.
A good night much enjoyed by everyone. Some I suspect who were also boffins in their own right.
Do a Hover - it avoids G
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Hi All
Well you wil be pleased to know that I have had a word with Hugh Warren and he is quite happy to make his speaking text available to all you RAE enthusiasts.
I also have a copy of the illustrations he used in PowerPoint format.
So advice please on how to go ahead. 6000 words is probably a bit much to paste here and the pics run to 40 megs and would need hosting on a suitable website anyhow........?
JF
Well you wil be pleased to know that I have had a word with Hugh Warren and he is quite happy to make his speaking text available to all you RAE enthusiasts.
I also have a copy of the illustrations he used in PowerPoint format.
So advice please on how to go ahead. 6000 words is probably a bit much to paste here and the pics run to 40 megs and would need hosting on a suitable website anyhow........?
JF
From my morning post.
Announcement: RAE Ex-apprentices association, 95th anniversary celebration, re-union dinner. 3rd September 2005, Princes Hall, Aldershot, Hampshire.
Guest of Honour to be ACM Sir Michael Alcock (Student Apprentice, 1953 intake).
If anybody wants to go and isn't a member of the association, drop me an Email and I'll send you a copy of the contact details. Cost looks to be £29.50 for members, £33.50 for non-members.
G
Guest of Honour to be ACM Sir Michael Alcock (Student Apprentice, 1953 intake).
If anybody wants to go and isn't a member of the association, drop me an Email and I'll send you a copy of the contact details. Cost looks to be £29.50 for members, £33.50 for non-members.
G
Gnome de PPRuNe
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John F and PPP, be delighted to help - I can probably reduce the PPT in size or turn into an Acrobat file if you can get it to me on CD?
I've PM'd you my office address.
Cheers
Treadders.
I've PM'd you my office address.
Cheers
Treadders.
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Meanwhile here is another snippet of Farnborough history in 2 parts as the word count is too high for one post.
Target Aircraft Development
Extract from memoirs by Geoff Taylor, an Australian Research Engineer at Farnborough 1952 - 1954.
On arrival at RAE Farnborough my work situation was immediately pleasant and interesting. I was placed in Radio Department, responsible to a senior engineer by the name of Bill Campe. It seemed in fact that I was cast in a rather similar role to that played four years earlier by my boss at Salisbury, Bob Leslie. Campe's association with pilotless ('drone') aircraft had begun in wartime with a modified Tiger Moth known as the 'Queen Bee' of which quite a few were used as targets - by the Royal Navy in particular. Campe, with Bob Leslie's assistance, had been a driving force in the development of the Jindivik radio control system, however the new task now before us was the conversion of surplus ex-Royal Navy Fairey Firefly aircraft (looking somewhat like a larger version of the well-known Spitfire), to be used as drone targets at the British rocket range in Wales.
At Farnborough, responsibility for the whole operation was divided between Radio Department, which looked after most of the ground and airborne radio control equipment as such, and Instrument and Photographic Department, (lAP) which was responsible for the flight arrangements and the autopilot installation, in collaboration with the RAE test pilots and, of course, the aircraft manufacturers.
Rather to my surprise, advantage was taken of my existing experience with Jindivik to the extent that I was made responsible to Campe for work on virtually the whole of the ground and airborne radio control chain in our new project. It must be said however that much of the basic equipment involved was of the Jindivik variety, already designed and in production in UK. Major exceptions were the main ground control unit containing the various knobs and switches, and also a large logic box called the Relay Set Receiving (RSR), which was the major airborne interface between the basic radio commands and the many functions peculiar to each type of aircraft. The simple command 'Land Glide' for example, set the plane in a shallow dive, lowered the undercarriage, set the landing flaps and reduced the airspeed to a set figure. The control logic to achieve all this in the many different commands was arranged in a box of some fifty multi-contact relays and many metres of wire - no solid-state integrated circuits in those days'.
My first job therefore was to design versions of these pieces of equipment to suit the Firefly; the autopilot adaptation already being underway in IAP Department. Again to my surprise, I found myself allocated several staff in the form of a group of specialist Royal Air Force NCOs who had joined the project with the eventual aim of forming the control team when the target service was launched. They were bright and willing helpers and we made quite rapid progress, managing to get the first Firefly fitted out ready to start its flight checks within about three months.
My work had now progressed to the point where we were running active trials with our first Firefly. It would fly (with a live pilot acting as monitor) and perform the necessary maneouvres quite well at altitude and the effort was now concentrated on developing takeoff and landing techniques. The RAE people had observed the difficulties which the Australian team were still having with Jindivik, and had decided that the Firefly would never be successfully landed without some form of automatic assistance. It was indeed a difficult aircraft to land in any case. Being a tailwheel plane it could not be flown on to the field in a level attitude but had to be made to 'squat' with a carefully timed throttle cut so it would not take off again. It bounced readily and was also difficult to keep straight after touchdown. These problems were overcome in its normal aircraft carrier environment by lowering a hook near the tail on landing to catch a cable stretched across the ship's deck.
Part 2
The IAP Department team had developed a pair of optical sights based on WW2 anti-aircraft predictors, whose function was to align the plane on the desired glidepath, sending the necessary signals automatically to keep it there until touchdown. We conducted many unsuccessful trials on Farnborough airfield, bringing other airfield activities to a standstill in the process, until eventually the exasperated airfield superintendent informed us that it would be appreciated if we took our dangerous and time wasting activities somewhere else! I and my RAF lads had by this time fitted out a three-ton van with all our necessary radio-control and communications gear, so the whole operation was more or less mobile. It was decided to move the landing trials to quieter venues, first Chilbolton and then Dunsfold, a WW2 fighter airfield in Surrey, now used mainly by private firms. These day trips into very pleasant countryside were, it must be said, a very welcome diversion from work in our rather gloomy old laboratory.
Our Firefly trials were still having mixed success, but it was felt that the team must soon move operations to their eventual destination, a little-used ex- WW2 fighter aircraft base at Llanbedr, a small village on the coast in north Wales. We were to provide targets for experimental anti-aircraft missiles launched from the firing base at Aberporth, another village some eighty kilometres south on the other side of Cardigan Bay. The Bay itself forms a great arc on the West coast of Wales, facing across the Irish sea to Ireland, only about one hundred and fifty kilometres distant. The whole arrangement was a sort of Woomera-by-the -sea, but with vastly more stringent geographical constraints, dictating that all operations had to be carried out over water.
Our team had made several inspections of the site, traveling by various strange RAE hack aircraft including a Lincoln bomber (I rode in the empty tail turret - quite a thrill) and an Avro Anson. Now however I had to think seriously about the airfield installation and do some on-site groundwork
By this time also an RAF squadron leader, one Sean Scanlon, had arrived to take up residence at Llanbedr as the formal base commandant with, inter alia, the job of carrying on the whole activity after the RAE group had finished the development phase. There had of course already been other RAF officers, test pilots based at Farnborough, closely involved with our work; notably a very pleasant squadron leader by the name of Ken Ashley. I developed tremendous respect for Ken and his colleagues; people of enormous skill who took considerable risks every day without being pretentious or overbearing about it. Ken was a gem; patient and tolerant of our mishandling of his aircraft and the frights we gave him, and always one for a joke.
Our gear was installed bit by bit. After a few days I left my part of the work in the hands of the RAF lads and returned to Farnborough to finalise activities at that end. There was yet more equipment to be transferred to Wales and this time I was able to make use of a small HilIman utility truck the section had acquired. I also wanted to show Lorna something of Wales so rather illegally took her with me - the Riley still being in Scotland with Jim and Alice.(In retrospect, the rules at RAE in those days seemed to have been pretty relaxed!) I remember that Hillman well. Amongst other deficiencies, the engine \'pinked\' dreadfully on the low-octane fuel the Ministry insisted we use. I once asked the transport supervisor why we had to use second grade petrol. \'Because there\'s no third grade petrol!\' was the growled reply.
Casual accommodation at Llanbedr consisted of the Victoria - the ancient village pub; the airmen\'s huts on the airfield, or various boarding houses. We chose the most imposing of the latter group, a four-hundred-year-old stone manor house named Cae Nest. It was our base for a month, not only for work purposes but as a centre for weekend and evening walks around the district. Among other activities, Lorna and I managed to climb Mt Snowdon on foot, a feat of which my wife in particular was quite proud.
The team was now able to continue with flight trials; the airfield installation having been duly set up - albeit in rather rough-and ready fashion. We had barely got going when it was announced that, at only a day\'s notice, we were to be honoured with an inspection by the Area Officer Commanding - the senior RAF officer for the Western region. There was an immediate flurry in the RAF ranks. Not only did our equipment still lie where we had hastily put it, but the huts themselves had not even been swept since about 1945! All work was temporarily suspended, and the entire team set about trying to tidy up our image. Wives were even called in, including my own. It must be the only occasion on record where officers\' wives have been seen trying to polish the ancient linoleum of an RAF operations office!
The Air Commodore swept in - in his own aircraft of course - and after a cursory look, swept out again. He had little to say, but I gathered that our efforts so far were deemed to be acceptable. We nonetheless still had far to go. The following week, there were failures in the signals along my plastic-covered cables; newly laid on the ground around the airfield. Amazingly, we discovered that the large colony of hares on the airfield were responsible for several gnawed segments. Even though the cable positions were still not settled, we had to hire a local contractor to plough trenches and bury them. Then there was rain - lots of it - and flights were suspended for several days.
Landing was still the main problem. Now on our \'own\' airfield, we were able to make use of cables stretched across the runway (attached to weights) to engage the aircraft deckhook and bring the plane to a halt after touchdown - as on an aircraft carrier. The difficulty of achieving an accurate touchdown point and tail-down attitude however meant that the cables were missed at least half of the time by the bouncing plane. The IAP people persevered, making this or that minor adjustment to the landing sight parameters, with Ken and the other pilots becoming rather fed up with the whole thing. Meanwhile, there were echoes of rumblings in high places in London. The Americans were doing this sort of thing as a matter of routine; why couldn\'t the RAE team?
My radio control gear as such was now working well so I returned to Farnborough (with Lorna) to address a new problem. It had been so far assumed that if hit by a missile the target would promptly crash, and there was a radio signal to make this happen if it looked like traveling any distance after being merely \'wounded\'. But what if only the radio control - perhaps a mere antenna - was destroyed, leaving the Firefly to stagger on until it ran out of fuel ? It could easily reach Ireland!
After brief consultation with various pundits at RAE, I managed to produce in very quick time an armoured steel box containing an electronic timing device which would in effect be \'wound up\' by special timed radio signals sent at short intervals on the normal control channel. if more than a few of these pulses were missed, the plane would immediately self-destruct. After many tests, it received general approval. (This was of course long before the transistor era - how much easier such design tasks would be now!)
I had now been back and forth to Llanbedr several times. The landing trials were still not totally successful but the Ministry had by now lost patience. Political considerations demanded that a British anti-aircraft missile should be seen to have downed a real aircraft. The question of whether we could land our Firefly was now secondary. The objective was to get a pilotless target down to the missile range to be shot at. With any luck, we wouldn\'t have to land it again anyway!
Crunch point came at the beginning of a cold February 1954. A missile (possibly a Bloodhound) was on the launcher at Aberporth. We had to fly tomorrow, willy nilly! There had been a light snowfall overnight, which didn\'t help, but zero hour saw our pride and joy successfully take off and head south, followed by the \'shepherd\' - another Firefly; piloted of course and fitted with emergency control gear in case our base system misbehaved.
We waited anxiously, listening for the shepherd aircraft comment. \'All seems OK. We\'re now nearly within range. Aberporth has control. They\'ve fired! And missed. Target turning north. Control back to you.\' Oh dear! Anxious faces looked at one another. We in the radio control room couldn\'t see the expressions of the RAF boys manning the landing sights, but we could imagine what they felt. The two planes finally appeared. Sean in the little control tower turned the target successfully on to the runway heading but it was seen that the arrester hook had not come down properly. Another try, round again. This time for some unknown reason the hook emerged, and the final approach began.
The lads no doubt did their best, but true to form, the Firefly touched heavily and bounced right over the cables laid across the runway careering blindly onward. The engine had cut, but we had no brake control other than the cables. Providence nonetheless was with us, in the form of the inch or two of snow still on the runway. An uncontrolled aircraft of this type in such circumstances tends to ground loop and the Firefly promptly obliged. Due to the snow however, the plane stayed on all three wheels, eventually ending up sliding gently into a snowbank at the end of the runway, quite undamaged.
The whole team wasted no time in hastening up to the village pub to celebrate. Our flight that day was supposed to be secret but the airfield activities were plainly visible from the village, and Welsh villages being what they are, the publican greeted us at the door with a loud \'Congratulations!\' We duly celebrated, along with most of the pub regulars.
Target Aircraft Development
Extract from memoirs by Geoff Taylor, an Australian Research Engineer at Farnborough 1952 - 1954.
On arrival at RAE Farnborough my work situation was immediately pleasant and interesting. I was placed in Radio Department, responsible to a senior engineer by the name of Bill Campe. It seemed in fact that I was cast in a rather similar role to that played four years earlier by my boss at Salisbury, Bob Leslie. Campe's association with pilotless ('drone') aircraft had begun in wartime with a modified Tiger Moth known as the 'Queen Bee' of which quite a few were used as targets - by the Royal Navy in particular. Campe, with Bob Leslie's assistance, had been a driving force in the development of the Jindivik radio control system, however the new task now before us was the conversion of surplus ex-Royal Navy Fairey Firefly aircraft (looking somewhat like a larger version of the well-known Spitfire), to be used as drone targets at the British rocket range in Wales.
At Farnborough, responsibility for the whole operation was divided between Radio Department, which looked after most of the ground and airborne radio control equipment as such, and Instrument and Photographic Department, (lAP) which was responsible for the flight arrangements and the autopilot installation, in collaboration with the RAE test pilots and, of course, the aircraft manufacturers.
Rather to my surprise, advantage was taken of my existing experience with Jindivik to the extent that I was made responsible to Campe for work on virtually the whole of the ground and airborne radio control chain in our new project. It must be said however that much of the basic equipment involved was of the Jindivik variety, already designed and in production in UK. Major exceptions were the main ground control unit containing the various knobs and switches, and also a large logic box called the Relay Set Receiving (RSR), which was the major airborne interface between the basic radio commands and the many functions peculiar to each type of aircraft. The simple command 'Land Glide' for example, set the plane in a shallow dive, lowered the undercarriage, set the landing flaps and reduced the airspeed to a set figure. The control logic to achieve all this in the many different commands was arranged in a box of some fifty multi-contact relays and many metres of wire - no solid-state integrated circuits in those days'.
My first job therefore was to design versions of these pieces of equipment to suit the Firefly; the autopilot adaptation already being underway in IAP Department. Again to my surprise, I found myself allocated several staff in the form of a group of specialist Royal Air Force NCOs who had joined the project with the eventual aim of forming the control team when the target service was launched. They were bright and willing helpers and we made quite rapid progress, managing to get the first Firefly fitted out ready to start its flight checks within about three months.
My work had now progressed to the point where we were running active trials with our first Firefly. It would fly (with a live pilot acting as monitor) and perform the necessary maneouvres quite well at altitude and the effort was now concentrated on developing takeoff and landing techniques. The RAE people had observed the difficulties which the Australian team were still having with Jindivik, and had decided that the Firefly would never be successfully landed without some form of automatic assistance. It was indeed a difficult aircraft to land in any case. Being a tailwheel plane it could not be flown on to the field in a level attitude but had to be made to 'squat' with a carefully timed throttle cut so it would not take off again. It bounced readily and was also difficult to keep straight after touchdown. These problems were overcome in its normal aircraft carrier environment by lowering a hook near the tail on landing to catch a cable stretched across the ship's deck.
Part 2
The IAP Department team had developed a pair of optical sights based on WW2 anti-aircraft predictors, whose function was to align the plane on the desired glidepath, sending the necessary signals automatically to keep it there until touchdown. We conducted many unsuccessful trials on Farnborough airfield, bringing other airfield activities to a standstill in the process, until eventually the exasperated airfield superintendent informed us that it would be appreciated if we took our dangerous and time wasting activities somewhere else! I and my RAF lads had by this time fitted out a three-ton van with all our necessary radio-control and communications gear, so the whole operation was more or less mobile. It was decided to move the landing trials to quieter venues, first Chilbolton and then Dunsfold, a WW2 fighter airfield in Surrey, now used mainly by private firms. These day trips into very pleasant countryside were, it must be said, a very welcome diversion from work in our rather gloomy old laboratory.
Our Firefly trials were still having mixed success, but it was felt that the team must soon move operations to their eventual destination, a little-used ex- WW2 fighter aircraft base at Llanbedr, a small village on the coast in north Wales. We were to provide targets for experimental anti-aircraft missiles launched from the firing base at Aberporth, another village some eighty kilometres south on the other side of Cardigan Bay. The Bay itself forms a great arc on the West coast of Wales, facing across the Irish sea to Ireland, only about one hundred and fifty kilometres distant. The whole arrangement was a sort of Woomera-by-the -sea, but with vastly more stringent geographical constraints, dictating that all operations had to be carried out over water.
Our team had made several inspections of the site, traveling by various strange RAE hack aircraft including a Lincoln bomber (I rode in the empty tail turret - quite a thrill) and an Avro Anson. Now however I had to think seriously about the airfield installation and do some on-site groundwork
By this time also an RAF squadron leader, one Sean Scanlon, had arrived to take up residence at Llanbedr as the formal base commandant with, inter alia, the job of carrying on the whole activity after the RAE group had finished the development phase. There had of course already been other RAF officers, test pilots based at Farnborough, closely involved with our work; notably a very pleasant squadron leader by the name of Ken Ashley. I developed tremendous respect for Ken and his colleagues; people of enormous skill who took considerable risks every day without being pretentious or overbearing about it. Ken was a gem; patient and tolerant of our mishandling of his aircraft and the frights we gave him, and always one for a joke.
Our gear was installed bit by bit. After a few days I left my part of the work in the hands of the RAF lads and returned to Farnborough to finalise activities at that end. There was yet more equipment to be transferred to Wales and this time I was able to make use of a small HilIman utility truck the section had acquired. I also wanted to show Lorna something of Wales so rather illegally took her with me - the Riley still being in Scotland with Jim and Alice.(In retrospect, the rules at RAE in those days seemed to have been pretty relaxed!) I remember that Hillman well. Amongst other deficiencies, the engine \'pinked\' dreadfully on the low-octane fuel the Ministry insisted we use. I once asked the transport supervisor why we had to use second grade petrol. \'Because there\'s no third grade petrol!\' was the growled reply.
Casual accommodation at Llanbedr consisted of the Victoria - the ancient village pub; the airmen\'s huts on the airfield, or various boarding houses. We chose the most imposing of the latter group, a four-hundred-year-old stone manor house named Cae Nest. It was our base for a month, not only for work purposes but as a centre for weekend and evening walks around the district. Among other activities, Lorna and I managed to climb Mt Snowdon on foot, a feat of which my wife in particular was quite proud.
The team was now able to continue with flight trials; the airfield installation having been duly set up - albeit in rather rough-and ready fashion. We had barely got going when it was announced that, at only a day\'s notice, we were to be honoured with an inspection by the Area Officer Commanding - the senior RAF officer for the Western region. There was an immediate flurry in the RAF ranks. Not only did our equipment still lie where we had hastily put it, but the huts themselves had not even been swept since about 1945! All work was temporarily suspended, and the entire team set about trying to tidy up our image. Wives were even called in, including my own. It must be the only occasion on record where officers\' wives have been seen trying to polish the ancient linoleum of an RAF operations office!
The Air Commodore swept in - in his own aircraft of course - and after a cursory look, swept out again. He had little to say, but I gathered that our efforts so far were deemed to be acceptable. We nonetheless still had far to go. The following week, there were failures in the signals along my plastic-covered cables; newly laid on the ground around the airfield. Amazingly, we discovered that the large colony of hares on the airfield were responsible for several gnawed segments. Even though the cable positions were still not settled, we had to hire a local contractor to plough trenches and bury them. Then there was rain - lots of it - and flights were suspended for several days.
Landing was still the main problem. Now on our \'own\' airfield, we were able to make use of cables stretched across the runway (attached to weights) to engage the aircraft deckhook and bring the plane to a halt after touchdown - as on an aircraft carrier. The difficulty of achieving an accurate touchdown point and tail-down attitude however meant that the cables were missed at least half of the time by the bouncing plane. The IAP people persevered, making this or that minor adjustment to the landing sight parameters, with Ken and the other pilots becoming rather fed up with the whole thing. Meanwhile, there were echoes of rumblings in high places in London. The Americans were doing this sort of thing as a matter of routine; why couldn\'t the RAE team?
My radio control gear as such was now working well so I returned to Farnborough (with Lorna) to address a new problem. It had been so far assumed that if hit by a missile the target would promptly crash, and there was a radio signal to make this happen if it looked like traveling any distance after being merely \'wounded\'. But what if only the radio control - perhaps a mere antenna - was destroyed, leaving the Firefly to stagger on until it ran out of fuel ? It could easily reach Ireland!
After brief consultation with various pundits at RAE, I managed to produce in very quick time an armoured steel box containing an electronic timing device which would in effect be \'wound up\' by special timed radio signals sent at short intervals on the normal control channel. if more than a few of these pulses were missed, the plane would immediately self-destruct. After many tests, it received general approval. (This was of course long before the transistor era - how much easier such design tasks would be now!)
I had now been back and forth to Llanbedr several times. The landing trials were still not totally successful but the Ministry had by now lost patience. Political considerations demanded that a British anti-aircraft missile should be seen to have downed a real aircraft. The question of whether we could land our Firefly was now secondary. The objective was to get a pilotless target down to the missile range to be shot at. With any luck, we wouldn\'t have to land it again anyway!
Crunch point came at the beginning of a cold February 1954. A missile (possibly a Bloodhound) was on the launcher at Aberporth. We had to fly tomorrow, willy nilly! There had been a light snowfall overnight, which didn\'t help, but zero hour saw our pride and joy successfully take off and head south, followed by the \'shepherd\' - another Firefly; piloted of course and fitted with emergency control gear in case our base system misbehaved.
We waited anxiously, listening for the shepherd aircraft comment. \'All seems OK. We\'re now nearly within range. Aberporth has control. They\'ve fired! And missed. Target turning north. Control back to you.\' Oh dear! Anxious faces looked at one another. We in the radio control room couldn\'t see the expressions of the RAF boys manning the landing sights, but we could imagine what they felt. The two planes finally appeared. Sean in the little control tower turned the target successfully on to the runway heading but it was seen that the arrester hook had not come down properly. Another try, round again. This time for some unknown reason the hook emerged, and the final approach began.
The lads no doubt did their best, but true to form, the Firefly touched heavily and bounced right over the cables laid across the runway careering blindly onward. The engine had cut, but we had no brake control other than the cables. Providence nonetheless was with us, in the form of the inch or two of snow still on the runway. An uncontrolled aircraft of this type in such circumstances tends to ground loop and the Firefly promptly obliged. Due to the snow however, the plane stayed on all three wheels, eventually ending up sliding gently into a snowbank at the end of the runway, quite undamaged.
The whole team wasted no time in hastening up to the village pub to celebrate. Our flight that day was supposed to be secret but the airfield activities were plainly visible from the village, and Welsh villages being what they are, the publican greeted us at the door with a loud \'Congratulations!\' We duly celebrated, along with most of the pub regulars.
Gnome de PPRuNe
Join Date: Jan 2002
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Folks, herewith links to the text of Hugh Warren's excellent presentation and the powerpoint presentation which contains the photos... I have converted both to Adobe Acrobat format.
Text - 47kb
Presentation - 807kb
If you don't have Acrobat Reader, you can download it for free from Adobe's site: download - please be warned it may take a little time if you have a slow connection as the basic version is 9.2mb.
Feel free to PM me if you have any problems with the files.
Regards
Treadders
Text - 47kb
Presentation - 807kb
If you don't have Acrobat Reader, you can download it for free from Adobe's site: download - please be warned it may take a little time if you have a slow connection as the basic version is 9.2mb.
Feel free to PM me if you have any problems with the files.
Regards
Treadders
Do a Hover - it avoids G
Join Date: Oct 1999
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No particular reason for posting this pic of the RAE Armorial Bearings but it is nice and it does get the RAE up the top again....
I have a fine copy of that sewn onto the shoulder of one of my flying suits, you can get such things from the ex-apprentices association, or (last I was there) the RAE gardening club, if it still exists.
On the subject how many of us are planning to attend the re-union dinner later this year? Just a thought, but I notice the form asks you to say if there's anybody you'd like to sit with, and on the whole I suspect I'll get better dinner conversation out of ex-RAE ppruners than the alternative which is just people from my year?
G
On the subject how many of us are planning to attend the re-union dinner later this year? Just a thought, but I notice the form asks you to say if there's anybody you'd like to sit with, and on the whole I suspect I'll get better dinner conversation out of ex-RAE ppruners than the alternative which is just people from my year?
G
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Genghis,
Be assured, the RAE Gardening Club continues - and even the occasional, well hidden signpost to the RAE still exists.
lm
Be assured, the RAE Gardening Club continues - and even the occasional, well hidden signpost to the RAE still exists.
lm
Last edited by lightningmate; 1st Jun 2005 at 19:19.
Do a Hover - it avoids G
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For those RAE fans who may have missed the news item (it was good news so it did not get much of a spread) about the VAAC Harrier landing on Invincible on 15 May 2005 here is a pic
So what you might say, but you are actually looking at a pic of the world's first fully automatic recovery and VL of a jet aircraft to a ship. This is the culmination of a journey by RAE Aero Flight boffins (now paid by QinetiQ) that started in 1971 with a meeting at RAE on how to make jump jets easier to fly. I came away from that meeting quite excited by what I had heard and thought to myself (as one does driving back to Dunsfold) 'That will take them a couple or three years to sort out'. It took 34 years but what an achievement.......
I recently spoke to an RAE Aero Flight boffin Dennis Higton who in 1952 was tasked with the job of coming up with a rig to find out how you could control the attitude of a hovering jet aircraft by use of jets. His work led to the RAE being able to specify the control system for the R-R Bedstead and the rest is as they say history
Here is a diagram of his rig
Some flight control journey that - from Dennis's rig to the VAAC auto recovery - and all masterminded by RAE Aero Flight boffins.
Not surprisingly the US JSF programme observers on board Invincible were impressed. Especially as the VAAC (the oldest Harrier still flying) did 107 VLs over the course of the eight day trial.
I am sure PPRuNe members who visit this thread will want to join me in congratulating the entire VAAC team - especially Justin Paines who has been a leading pilot on the programme for several years and who was my safety pilot when I last flew the VAAC in 1999.
So what you might say, but you are actually looking at a pic of the world's first fully automatic recovery and VL of a jet aircraft to a ship. This is the culmination of a journey by RAE Aero Flight boffins (now paid by QinetiQ) that started in 1971 with a meeting at RAE on how to make jump jets easier to fly. I came away from that meeting quite excited by what I had heard and thought to myself (as one does driving back to Dunsfold) 'That will take them a couple or three years to sort out'. It took 34 years but what an achievement.......
I recently spoke to an RAE Aero Flight boffin Dennis Higton who in 1952 was tasked with the job of coming up with a rig to find out how you could control the attitude of a hovering jet aircraft by use of jets. His work led to the RAE being able to specify the control system for the R-R Bedstead and the rest is as they say history
Here is a diagram of his rig
Some flight control journey that - from Dennis's rig to the VAAC auto recovery - and all masterminded by RAE Aero Flight boffins.
Not surprisingly the US JSF programme observers on board Invincible were impressed. Especially as the VAAC (the oldest Harrier still flying) did 107 VLs over the course of the eight day trial.
I am sure PPRuNe members who visit this thread will want to join me in congratulating the entire VAAC team - especially Justin Paines who has been a leading pilot on the programme for several years and who was my safety pilot when I last flew the VAAC in 1999.
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JF:
What a fantastic achievement! (Even if your initial estimate for how long to make it work was a little optomistic.
)
However, the reason for this reply was to ask how much the word 'boffin' was/is still used? Somehow thought it was an old-fashioned word not used much since WWII, which I think is a pity for it always seemed to be used with such high regard and respect.
What a fantastic achievement! (Even if your initial estimate for how long to make it work was a little optomistic.
)However, the reason for this reply was to ask how much the word 'boffin' was/is still used? Somehow thought it was an old-fashioned word not used much since WWII, which I think is a pity for it always seemed to be used with such high regard and respect.
Do a Hover - it avoids G
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TD&H
Speaking personally I have always used boffin as opposed to scientist or engineer to indicate just what you suggest - respect.
In my book all boffins are scientists but not all scientists are boffins. Boffins are totally dedicated to their work, care not what they look like (although may still be smartly dressed these days) and may behave in excentric ways when judged by those who 'conform' to establisment norms. Above all they do what they do for the benefit of knowlege and the project rather than the boss or promotion. Boffins are above such things. Way above.
JF
Speaking personally I have always used boffin as opposed to scientist or engineer to indicate just what you suggest - respect.
In my book all boffins are scientists but not all scientists are boffins. Boffins are totally dedicated to their work, care not what they look like (although may still be smartly dressed these days) and may behave in excentric ways when judged by those who 'conform' to establisment norms. Above all they do what they do for the benefit of knowlege and the project rather than the boss or promotion. Boffins are above such things. Way above.
JF
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JF
Thanks.
Quote: 'Above all they do what they do for the benefit of knowlege and the project rather than the boss or promotion. Boffins are above such things. Way above.'
That will explain why no boffin has become a politician or even worse the PM!
Thanks.
Quote: 'Above all they do what they do for the benefit of knowlege and the project rather than the boss or promotion. Boffins are above such things. Way above.'
That will explain why no boffin has become a politician or even worse the PM!
There always was a shakey dividing line between "Engineer" and "Scientist", particularly at RAE. I've known Engineers with Science degrees, Scientists with Engineering degrees - but the term Boffin was one that we were always very proud of and the ideals JF describes were certainly what we aspired to. Is it still in regular use anywhere?
Incidentally, I was dismayed to learn a couple of years ago that Boffin had, at-least at my stepson's comprehensive, become a term of abuse, roughly equivalent to "swot". Oh well, I'm sure that we'll all outlive that.
G
N.B. Jolly well done the VAAC guys, I was never on that project but was "in the next office" for a few years - damned impressive work over a very long time.
Incidentally, I was dismayed to learn a couple of years ago that Boffin had, at-least at my stepson's comprehensive, become a term of abuse, roughly equivalent to "swot". Oh well, I'm sure that we'll all outlive that.
G
N.B. Jolly well done the VAAC guys, I was never on that project but was "in the next office" for a few years - damned impressive work over a very long time.
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Boffins at Farnborough were always reaching for the sky but were always too busy with boffinry to acquire the additional skills needed for flight testing. They must have felt on the ground what the test pilot feels in the air - extreme dedication to a project and an immense sense of responsibility to get it right. Together they made a hugely successful team.
I am sure PPRuNe members who visit this thread will want to join me in congratulating the entire VAAC team
Seriously impressive, and more so considering that it appears just as it has a significant operational use waiting for it (JSF/JCA, of course).