COMBAT AND COMPETITION.pdf - Lakes Gliding Club

CHAPTER TWELVE ELONGATED BALLS
could have led to a major uplift in sales, but it was much too late in
the aircraft programme and would have involved an expensive retrofit
for the RAF, and a major investment in ground support equipment.
Ground support equipment was the one aspect of the liquid oxygen
converter programme which made the whole exercise more tenable for
BOC. Whichever way the airborne systems went, and in what
proportion between BOAE and Normalair, BOC stood an excellent
chance of getting the contract for any generating plant, plus the
storage tanks and recharging trolleys. So the AVM was already hard at
work on his MoS contacts whilst I headed for HMS Ark Royal, out in
the Channel off the Isle of Wight, to study the carrier environment.
The way aboard was by helicopter, and I found myself in the back
of aWessex with Lettice Curtis, ex ATA and record breaking woman
pilot, who was there on some other business from Boscombe Down.
The briefing beforehand had included a few words on the only 'safe'
method of escape after ditching. Experience had shown that it was
vital to wait for 30 seconds, probably underwater, for the blades to
stop rotating before abandoning ship. An emergency air bottle and
mask, being developed for this very purpose, were not yet available.
But that was still the correct drill.
Standing off the carrier soon afterwards, low over a lumpy sea, our
blades almost intermeshing with those of the guardship helicopter, we
waited for a break in the landing sequence. And I recalled a remark by
Peter Masefield:
"You may take it from me that the safest and most reliable
helicopter is one with twelve engines and one rotor blade - and even
that compares pretty unfavourably with fixed wing!"
And here we were, hanging just above the waves, on one engine,
with three main rotor blades, two more at the tail for good measure,
and the enhanced possibility of a mid air collision. And there was no
emergency air supply. When I gave Lettice a quick resume she was not
amused!
As a spectacle of mind blasting noise and sheer brute force the
flight deck of a carrier is in a class of its own. From a corner of the
bridge I watched in fascination. Captivated by the process of launching
tons of Scimitar or Sea Vixen into immediate flight. Seeing the sudden
plume of steam - almost feeling the violent acceleration. It needed
conscious effort to observe the deck crews and unravel the pattern of
activity which might hold the key to the deployment of our liquid
oxygen support equipment.
209