COMBAT AND COMPETITION.pdf - Lakes Gliding Club

CHAPTER TWELVE ELONGATED BALLS
associated Mk 13 Autopilot had a very simple attitude hold function
- which could be engaged in the midst of any manoeuvre. It featured
an approach coupler and an autothrottle to help the pilot cope with
flight at and below minimum drag speed. A need which had arisen
with highly swept wings.
Elliotts were way ahead, working with full contract cover, and the
basic airframe was already flying. From now on, for a variety of
reasons, automatic flight control systems2 would become increasingly
important on high performance aircraft, integrated from the start, and
matched to the stability and control characteristics of each design. A
fundamental change in technology which could only benefit the sales
strategy that we were evolving. It was an exciting prospect.
Before taking the next step it was necessary to understand the
Lightning system. To wade through the mass of proposals, counter
proposals and amendments, which had flowed between Borehamwood,
the Ministry of Supply and English Electric, and to debate these with
my advisors. An afternoon with the cockpit mockup was time well
spent.
A visit to Martlesham Heath, home of the new Blind Landing
Experimental Unit, filled in another part of the picture. I was able to
try my hand at a Canberra with auto throttle and a Smiths autopilot,
flying coupled approaches into the nearby emergency runway at
Woodbridge.
Just one more item was needed. A general purpose brochure to
leave behind after each visit. A pipe opener on our control system
philosophy. Once again I was to be lucky. Bruce Adkins, in charge of
the publications department, a bearded ex matelot - to be more precise
he was a Cambridge man who had been closely associated with naval
radar from the earliest days - proved to be a tower of strength.
We struck up an immediate rapport and from then on nothing was
too much trouble. In next to no time he had pulled my copywriting
and the other data together, created an elegant logo for the simple
window folder which was used for all Borehamwood technical reports,
and the brochure had arrived. Better still as my visits created a need
for new proposals, and these were developed with the help of my
expert advisers, Bruce continued to provide the same fast and
immaculate service. Not that he was exactly short of work. He just
happened to be one of those busy men who could always find time to
help you out.
I had agreed with Jack Pateman to ignore English Electric on my
199