AIRCRAFT ENGINEER

FIRST AERONAUTICAL WEEKLY IN THE WBRLD FOUNDED WO9

Managing Editor
G. GEOFFREY SMITH

Editor
C. M. POULSEN

Chief Photographer
JOHN YOXALL

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The Outlook" I t Makes You

D
1

Think"

URING the process of aircraft evolution the

search for better and still better performance has
resulted in refinements being forced upon the
designer which were unnecessary in the old biplane days
when retractable undercarriages and variable-pitch airscrews were not. These refinements have undoubtedly
contributed to the efficiency of aircraft, but they have
brought with them the need for instruments and indicators which have, in the course of time, placed in
front of the pilot a panorama of dials that appears
downright terrifying to anyone confronted with them
for the first time.
A contributor to this w e e k s issue raises the question,
" Are all t h $ e dials really unavoidable? " The answer
lo this time-worn question is incredibly difficult to give.
" K i s m e t " argues mainly on the basis of weight of instruments, which may, he considers, be sufficient in
some cases to prevent a damaged aircraft from reaching safety. We are not certain that this argument is a
logical one. If a hundredweight of dials and gadgets
was saved, some other item of equivalent weight would
undoubtedly be installed, and this might well be of such
a nature that, as in the case of the dials, it could not
be jettisoned. In that case the crew would have been
deprived of useful sources of information without benefiting in other ways.
Our contributor compares two fighter aircraft in a
scrap, one with but four instruments and the other with
full complement, and asks if the fully equipped pilot
makes use of all his instruments during the fight. Obviously he does not, but the fact that he disregards them

momentarily can hardly constitute a handicap. What

" K i s m e t " does not appear to take fully into account
is that the actual engagement forms but a very small
percentage of the aircraft's time in the air. During the
rest of the time the instruments are justifying their
presence.
In iong-range bombing the carrying of instruments
appears even more unavoidable. It is not difficult to
visualise the possibility that without them, or at any
rate without the majority of them, a distant objective
might not be within range if a reasonable fuel margin
and a worth-while bomb load were to be carried.
Some time ago we referred to the question of de-icers
and cable cutters. We suggested that only the pilots
could express definite views on which of the two, if
both could not be fitted, they would prefer to have.
The same remark seems to apply with equal force to
instruments. The answer is no easy one, and the concensus of views of practical pilots would be illuminating.
We welcome the reopening of an important subject by
" K i s m e t " because, in the words of the familiar broadcaster, " I t makes you t h i n k . "

Offensive Fighters

N E unexpected result of the German occupation

of France has been the conversion of the shortrange fighter of the R . A . F ! into an offensive
weapon. Before May, 1940, it was possible to assert
that the short-range fighter was the only purely defensive weapon in the world. It had not the tankage to
carry it far into hostile country, and it could lift no
really offensive bomb load. In fact, the term "interc e p t o r " accurately described it. The long-range fighter.