COMBAT AND COMPETITION.pdf - Lakes Gliding Club

COMBAT AND COMPETITION
travels. To visit Warton would be preaching to the converted. My input
on the Lightning would be through the engineering team at
Borehamwood, unless a problem arose which required a more direct
contribution. And we would deal with that when it happened.
Meantime there were plenty of other advanced projects around.
It was uphill at first. Hawkers were typical. Chief designers of
Sydney Camm's stature knew what was good for the customer - and
his staff knew that he didn't believe in autopilots for fighter aircraft.
If he learned that I was on the premises, and why, he would have me
out in next to no time. In any case why should I want to talk to
someone at his level? Everyone knew that autopilots were add on items
of electrical equipment to be dealt with somewhere down the line in
the drawing office.
I sighed inwardly and looked at Frank Cross, the assistant chief
designer, as he described the situation. Down in the nearby
experimental shop the big Gyron engined two seat supersonic Hawker
1103, or the later 1121, might soon be taking shape. Both seemed to
cry out for flight control systems based on the Lightning design but
the portents were hardly favourable.
Frank was a good egg. I sensed that he was by no means convinced
that his boss was right on this occasion - and he was prepared to listen
- but it would be a long haul. We took ourselves off to lunch near
Hampton Court, where he revealed his addiction for Mediterranean
prawns, and talked over coffee and liqueurs well into the afternoon.
It was a start at least.
The same problem arose when we laid on a presentation for
Handley Page. This was intended to show them our ideas for automatic
flight control on the HP 100, one of four competing Mach 2.5
supersonic reconnaissance bomber designs to OR 330, and start them
thinking about Elliotts as a major subcontractor.
Godfrey Lee, who was chief aerodynamicist and from our point of
view one of the key men on such an advanced project, refused to
come. As I knew him well in the gliding world, I rang and pressed him
to change his mind. But he was adamant. Even if Elliotts were
proposing a fully integrated control system, which would have to be
precisely matched to the aerodynamics of such an advanced canard
delta design, the responsibility for its evaluation must still rest with the
instrumentation and electrical specialists. It was the add on autopilot
complex yet again.
Once the presentation was under away - I got drawn into a
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