Originally Posted by
dragartist
I bought a second copy of RV Jones book only last year. The original I had in the 80s went missing. I too consider it essential reading. He is one person I would have wished to have met. Going through the visitors book at EWAU at Wyton he had been a frequent visitor. Unfortunately as a junior I was not able to meet him.
Off thread but perhaps worth adding. I learned a few weeks ago that my old boss, Hd EW, Barry Ellender had died in November at Addenbrookes from Parkinson’s. He lived in Kent, the funeral took place in Kent. Barry left EWAU for a job in DI perhaps following in RVs footsteps.
I enjoyed the Sidewinder story above. I know RV had undertaken the foundation work on IR detectors. Amazing how everything is so miniature these days. I wish I had known of the museum at China Lake as I had been a couple of times to undertake some RCS work on Airborne kit in early 2000s
I heard another story of a British Boffin causing a security flap in the US. A noted aerodynamicist (whose name I cannot recall, to my shame) involved in the Concorde project was invited over to the States, to visit Rockwells. At the time they were having their first go at the B1, and it was not going well. Our chap was given a tour of the plant, and there was the prototype, and afterwards there was a splendid dinner.
Our chap gave the after dinner speech as guest of honour, relating some of the issues that had cropped up on Concorde. During this he says something like "I see that you're having problems with your engine intakes, that your prototype isn't as fast as you thought it would be, and your fuel consumption is terrible". He was bang on the money, this was exactly the situation they were in. Unfortunately, this was a closely guarded secret, and he'd just blurted it out in front of the assembled diners, most of whom were certainly not cleared into that aspect of the program!!! As security fowl ups go, it was a bit of a biggy.
What our chap had noticed on his tour round the plant was that there were lots of pressure probes mounted in front of the engine intakes, and he'd rightly guessed that the Americans were trying to understand the airflows into the engine at high speed. From this he'd deduced that it was under performing, They'd had similar problems with Concorde, and he recognised what they were trying to do.
After the fuss calmed down and they'd decided he wasn't some sort of uber-spy-James-Bond's-brother, he explained what they'd done about it on Concorde. Back in those days, determining airflow from pressure probes was a big numerical challenge, too big to be undertaken unless desperate. However the Concorde guys had a good trick. They'd smear the wing surfaces in front of the engine intake with tar. They'd take off, get up to supersonic speed, cruise for a short while, and then quickly slow down again. The tar would warm up, get blown into the shape of the airflows around the wing surfaces, and then set, preserving the pattern for all to see on the ground.
Wipe it off with solvent and they could do that several times a day for little more than the cost of the fuel, and literally see what was going on. In contrast the number crunching on the data from a bunch of pressure probes would take ages in those days.
I visited the museum in China Lake in the mid 2000s. I think it was fairly new, it may not have been open when you were there.