COMBAT AND COMPETITION.pdf - Lakes Gliding Club

COMBAT AND COMPETITION
moved smartly backwards to observe the results!
What certainly was true, and it emerged early on during the
discussions with Barnes Wallis, was Sir Victor's opposition to the idea,
then current, of a guided weapons equipped Royal Air Force. As a
retired senior RAF commander he could not, and rightly as events
have proved, accept the demise of manned military aircraft. He gave
substance to this view by referring to all guided weapons as 'Elongated
Balls' - lingering sadistically over the words as if to imply certain
castration!
Sir Victor was a man of compelling enthusiasms, and his
enthusiasm of the moment was a long range, variable sweep controlled,
subsonic transport - the Barnes Wallis 'Swallow'. We gazed at the great
man, as Sir Victor introduced him to us, and tried to equate his white
haired boyish enthusiasm with the developments for which he was
famous. The geodetic structure of the Wellesley and Wellington - the
dam busting and Tallboy' earthquake bombs. The R 100 airship, so
much better engineered than its ill fated sister ship the R101, had been
in his past as well. It was some record.
By the time he came to Borehamwood, Barnes Wallis had been
wrestling with variable geometry for more than 10 years. The first
flight trials of his original 'Wild Goose', a ground launched tailless
radio model controlled in pitch and roll by wing position, had begun
in 1949. He saw it simply as a research tool which would lead to a new
generation of aircraft. To the Ministry of Supply it had been the first
step towards a new anti-aircraft missile - 'Green Lizard' - and he had
gone along with the idea in order to obtain financial support.
He showed us film, airborne and ground shots, of the flight trials
at Thurleigh and latterly at Predannock - a disused airfield in
Cornwall where Leonard Cheshire, still considering his future after the
war, had flown chase in a Spitfire.
'Swallow 1 was the outcome of this earlier work. With its wingtip
mounted engines and revolutionary control system it would form the
basis of an outstanding, ultra long range, jet transport. We listened in
silence and Eric Priestley, who was nothing if not conservative, shook
his head in disbelief and muttered about the aerodynamics giving him
nightmares.
Then came the crunch, they were in trouble over stability and
control - even without the inertia of wingtip mounted engines - and
his friend Victor had suggested that we might be able to help.
Furthermore, although this was a key variable geometry project
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