Richardson Transcripts (CT9)
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| Richardson Transcripts (CT9)
Dr W J Hilton of British Aircraft Corporation. He was at Hawker Siddeley in Coventry and talks about the work done there and in the aircraft industry generally. The Brabazon Committee in 1947 I would think it was, although I was in America at the time, (yes) the Brabazon Committee awarded various airliner contracts of which Armstrong Whitworth secured the Apollo (yes). This was in direct competition with the - Viscounts, and the Apollo was designed to take Armstrong Siddeley engines (yes) and the Viscount Rolls-Royce Dart engines. The Dart was undoubtedly the winner (mm) of the two engines and therefore - our Apollo wasn't ordered though B.E.A. thought it was a rather better airframe (and the Apollo never got off the ground?) Oh yes, yes (did it?) we, we everybody (mm) made the - we made two airliners, I think three we made but two were handed over. The third one it is interesting to note, we filled it with water (yes) and cycled it in a water tank for fatigue (yes) long before the Comet was having any troubles (mm) and the door would have blown out of the Argosy as distinct from the windows of the Comet I (yes) and - we found this out in the water tank without any loss of - sort of face or loss of life (mm) and - the Chief Designer beefed up all the door structure and we pressed on to a - hundred years of simulated airline use. (And the – the two – the other two Apollos did go into service?) Oh yes the armed forces had them, they were perfectly good aircraft (mm) similar to the - Viscount (oh yes) only made at Baginton (mm I see and then after 1950 - what?) Well, in about 1950 the - Seaslug Missile Contract was awarded for a very small sum of money, about a half a million. (yes) It gradually escalated to forty three million by instead of it being a cheap and nasty weapon it gradually got to be bigger, more complicated, more certain to strike down the enemy (mm) until you'd hardly afford to launch one without being sure you would shoot down an aircraft (yes) because of the cost of it (mm) and - this took place at the Whitley Works (yes) I remember it (what's happened to Faireys by the way?) Faireys such as there are, well the helicopter interests of Faireys went to Westons and (mm) other interests are part of the British Aircraft Corporation (they are are they?) (mm) and the Fairey factory at Hayes is - is a B.A.C. property now. (yes, mm, I see, well – yes we were wondering) they really sort of died out Faireys did (mm) much more so than many firms. ........., Most of all that was a master aircraft (so I gather, that was a Royce design was it?) I believe so, yes, (mm well we shall be able to see him tomorrow) Yes, Jimmy Lloyd is really (yes) one of the pioneers there (yes, but after the war - turning to Baginton, I mean with Whitley having now been much clearer - much clarified - what exactly was the Brabazon Committee? - Is it the Committee which among other things helped to create that enormous Brabazon aircraft?) Yes, (that flew over London and was never seen again?). Yes, I think I can give you a rough picture of this (yes) seen through an American's eyes. I was living in America then, (yes, quite, you were weren't you?) but in 1940 it was agreed with the Americans that we would concentrate on fighter and bomber aircraft (yes) which we were so much superior to them (yes). The - aircraft we were buying (yes) from America, the - hydro-aircraft were practically useless (quite) just cannon fodder (yes) on the western front (mm) and the Americans concentrated on transport aircraft (that was it). Now it was in fact at Glosters working on the Whittle project (yes) E28/39 (yes) when the Chief Designer, Mr James, showed me (mm) a drawing of a four jet-engine airliner designed to fly the Atlantic (mm) pretty much looking like the Comet 1. This was 1940 (yes) so reluctantly we put this in the drawer because the Ministry have said no effort (yes) civil airliners 'til the war is won (yes). When the war was over the Brabazon Committee was formed (mm) there were two, no three main - things, one was the jet, pure jet (mm) of which the Comet is the best example perhaps (mm), the Viscount Apollo series of turbo jets (yes) and the ordinary prop jets of which the Brabazon is the best known (mm). Stupidly the Brabazon having been built was decided to be too big (mm) a thing one would anticipate they could have thought (before) before they ordered anything (yes, yes). Actually by present standards it is not too big, it's only 230 people. (Where is it, what happened to it?) Oh I don't know. (It flew over London) Oh it flew around for a time but it was judged to be too big (mm). Very silly really (yes, I mean - and that was - sort of propeller and jet combined?) No just ordinary propeller (oh was it?) yes (I see) piston engines, I believe I'm right in saying that. (oh yes). The Britannia was another - turbo prop - engined airliner (what exactly is meant by turbo prop?) Well there is a gas turbine making the rotation (yes) but strapped on the front is a propeller (I see). Instead of a reciprocating engine like you've got in a motor car (yes) of turbine engine drive (yes I see) and somehow it comes out of the jet inevitably (mm) with a jetplane. (I see.)
Fighter. This resembled the Gloster Meteor in shape (yes). It was thirty per cent bigger (mm) in all dimensions (yes) and - really I don't think there was any component of the Meteor Night Fighter that was inter-changeable with the Gloster machine so it really was an Armstrong developed - product although it was not in fact regarded as such, it was regarded as being another sort of Meteor (yes). Quite a formidable aircraft really. These Meteors very nearly had a thrust nearly as great as their weight they would very nearly go up vertically like a rocket, (mm). On what is it that actually was cancelled in the sixties, led to the closing of the factory; was it the Baginton contribution to the TSR2? (There were other things as well weren't there?) I've no idea what caused the closure. I wasn't there. It came as a bolt out of the blue to me, I gather it did to many of the employees (oh yes). They just heard about it on the wireless or - found people coming in their offices measuring them with a view to - (laughter) seeing whether they would be suitable for Mister somebody or other at some other organisation (Good Lord - I think it was something to do with the TSR2 - I remember some other numbered aircraft) but the (as well) TSR2 was a B.A.C. product of course (oh was it?) yes, (Ah: well in that case) standard constructed at Waterman Preston (oh I see, in that case it was not the TSR2) No (It was something that they were - going to do themselves which also had been cancelled). . . . . . . . . . . (Cancellation wasn't it?) Yes, wasn't there a threat of a strike by D.A.T.A. the, the Draughtsman’s Union? (that came into it) I believe - they either had or were going to strike. (they had had one strike - Whitley Aerodrome had ceased to be used long before the war) Before the war, yes, (yes, quite). It really wasn't practical, it wasn't level, it had a hideous slope (yes) downhill in it (yes yes William had a great deal to do with, with getting Baginton didn't they? we were told) I don't know about that (yes). Did you, I mean, was A.W.A. actually using Baginton or did they use Bitteswell?) Oh yes, we made, we made these aircraft at Baginton (yes) then - flew them off the grass aerodrome (yes) light (yes) As soon as they - well fly up (yes) they would be flown may to Bitteswell where they would be finished because there was a concrete runway there (oh yes) and Bitteswell is of course still in the possession of Armstrong Whitworth which still exists there (oh does it?) and Mr G T White (mm) is your man (oh yes) He's 1 think you’ll find in charge and if any fool backs an Argosy into the propellers of another airliner or something and chops a lump out of it Mr White finds the jigs, makes them a spare part (mm - Are there Argosys still around?) Oh yes, (are there?) fly over my house at Twickenham all the time (oh, how many? How many were there?) Oh I don't know really (oh) I suppose B.E.A. must have - something like a dozen - I don't know - (oh dear). (well now) They are not too uncommon. (What about Etrockworth?) - (Is that still working?) I don't know. (you don't) Bitteswell I do know because I have seen Mr White within the last couple of years (oh I see) He's a fellow philatelist (Ah! - and still living in Earlsdon?) Still living in Earlsdon and going to Bitteswell. All the old sweats are out thereabouts (Are they?) Yes, they're all over fifty, most of them over sixty (mm). Been with the firm ever since they were born (oh really, that's still Hawker Siddeley?) Still Armstrong Whitworths (Armstrong, I'm sorry) rather than Hakker Siddeley (Is it?) You know what I mean (laughter) (yes, quite). Now really Hawker Siddeley (oh yes, quite, Ah! Well, that's very kind. Thank you very much for all that). .......... It was five feet long or more (but I mean weren't they as good as any other aircraft firm of comparable size?) They were the best firm for making aircraft in this country, and they've gone and dissolved. They were not the best firm for designing aircraft. (oh) Better production techniques than anybody else. We made the Gloster aircraft cheaper - Gloster's could make them. I would say it is because, I wasn't going to say production (yes, sure, no) The - late Sir Sidney Cam designed the - Seahawk, sorry (yes) he designed - what was it called? Anyway, we did the Seahawk version for the Navy (mm) and - we got our Seahawk delivered before he got his one delivered and he was very wrought about this because they designed it and had a head start on us but we productionised it and we found we could make other people's aircraft cheaper than they could make themselves and quicker. Take the Meteor – Meteor fighters, We - made the half fusilage, pressed it out of a single sheet of metal, Other people had to join - Gloster's joined it up out of a number of pieces. Their thing was both heavier and less good. We had the biggest hydro in Europe and we used to machine these big - big - things for pressing metal so that we could in fact press out half of an aircraft fuselage in one operation. That's the kind of thing they really excelled in. They picked up some work for the - Nuclear Power boys with machined - integral machined 4 sort of cooling things round it. When they said what they really wanted was a spiral fit but we can't have it, "Well", they said, "Why did you never ask us? Produce a drawing of what you want - Lockwood & Co. and Menzies. - They - went away and produced the thing straightaway, just as the fellows wanted it, said "if you want a spiral thing say so, don't draw circular pins on the ground you can't make"(laughter) - spiral. It never occurred to them to - ask for what they wanted. (What's happened to the people?) I don't know. And then - during the war - they'd salted away about a hundred thousand pounds for money for research from, from - Government Contracts and so on and I was given this hundred thousand pounds to build a Supersonic Wind Tunnel. (yes, now) and I went ahead and - placed my orders for two years' delivery ninety eight thousand pounds. In the actual event it took three and a half years and cost a hundred and forty seven thousand (mm). Nevertheless, we had a supersonic tunnel better than any other aircraft firms. In fact we tested everybody else’s aircraft including our own and their missiles. The only firms we didn't test for were Faireys and Westons I remember it. (I see, I mean, we have heard of your wind tunnel which I believe is still there) I don't believe it is, I think it's been - it's been thrown away (oh) Dunlops bought the motor, so they could sell that today I've just discovered (Good Lord) we've found a foreign buyer for it. (Who's got Whitley now, its Rootes Group isn't it?) It belongs to Rootes as I understand it, Yes (and they use it for sort of offices, plumbing or something?) I've no idea really (mm) I went there just after the closure of Whitley was announced and that was - the last time I went there. (mm). .................... it's thirty pounds for electrical charge and - many firms found having built their own supersonic tunnel it paid them to come and use ours. (Why?) However Handley Page found this, they - built a jet engined driven tunnel, it cost them a hundred and ten pounds an hour for fuel for their tunnel (mm) and for instrumentation they just had men writing in notebooks. Here you just pressed the button at Coventry (mm) and twenty two channels, of information were punched onto punch tape (yes) and at four o'clock each day we took the readings across to the - computer and they were reduced to co-efficients and by five o'clock they were ready to be mailed off either in the internal post for - for an Armstrong Whitworth test (yes) or by registered mail - if it was for an outside agency (mm). Next morning there would be an inquest on the previous day's work and the test conductor would be told by - very often by the person - who was paying for the test , to vary - you know - Tuesday's test would be different on account of Monday's results (mm). People began to appreciate this sort of same-day service. Otherwise in America we used to wait six months for the results to come off the tunnel after the readings were taken - very sad. But we did an awful lot of tests on Seaslug (mm) and indeed they used to fire imaginary rounds on my computer to calculate where it would go (mm) and – one time I was finding out how much, how t o organise the computer in the future because I ran it, I needed only one hour a day for my own work, and I ran it for armaments and aircraft divisions the rest of the time. I sent round a memo asking how much people planned to use my computer next year and back they came with the reply nine thousand hours next year and I had t o explain that God so rotated the earth (not enough on it) that there were only eight thousand and something hours in a year. (yes, quite) multiply 365 by 24 (yes) and - (oh yes) we weren't going to work Christmas Day even for them. (yes, yes, but that was - that was your - the wind tunnel in fact was your main field of interest?) Yes. I was a G Code analyst and we had supersonic tunnel, a continuous one, an intermittent trantonic and a lower speed tunnel. (YOU had three?) Yes - there's a drawing of them ................................ Well this wind tunnel of mine took eight percent of the total power that Coventry could produce and - the lights used to run dim in Whitley when we ran. Well the people protested their lunches went cold in the oven when it was full on so they produced a device called a tap changing transformer an on load (yes) so that - as we came on - took power (yes) this tap changing transformer gradually stepped up the volts (yes) every few seconds and step it up until it got the consumers back onto 240 volts, but then - being a supersonic tunnel we could shut it off (mm) by - well - immediately by just pressing a button (mm). In less than a hundredth of a second our load disappeared and of course all the ovens and lights flared up (laughter) a blue sort of colour and everything burnt out. We then had to give an undertaking to off-load gradually by sucking the air out of the tunnel before stopping (mm). This took the electric power down gradually (yes, quite) so that we were compressing next to nothing at the end (mm) then we punched the stop button, but - we had quite a lot of trouble with the local peasantry (laughter) (did you?) Yes (What, the actual Council and people like that you mean?) No, no, people cooking dinners - you know (oh yes, I mean they - did they - they didn't sort of storm the building saying give us back our eleven days) Oh no, no, the noise of course was alright because it was blamed on the rocket test facility of the Seaslug thing which was nothing to do with me, they got all . . . . . . . . . . . . . .(laughter). On the whole we could make a louder and more sustained noise than any rocket ever made (mm) the compressor trials when this was open end it was a simply wicked noise (really?) which for the reasons of economy we did at 3 a.m. (laughter). At least we started about eleven and by about three we had gradually worked up in power to full power (mm) and apparently there were only two men on duty at Coventry Power Station that night, settled down to a nice - evening's (yes) sort of doing the crossword (ah, yes, yes) and suddenly all the alarms go and because we came on load and of course were exceeding their total capacity. Shoveled on coal like mad and made steam (yes) and then just as soon as they'd got things organised we'd stop that test, steam blowing out everywhere, damp the fires down (mm) we did this I think eleven times in the course of the evening. (Good Lord) working up to a bigger load (mm). In fact a little Scotch engineer said to me quietly with his slide rule" I budge eleven tons of coal down there at the by now”. (laughter) and at three o'clock we made a final full power run, (mm) suddenly shut off, because we couldn't shut off gradually, (yes) and - went off and had a steak dinner that I'd laid on for everybody (laughter) about twenty or thirty people and - left them with the whole place full of steam wondering what to do about it whether we were going to come on again or not - because in the day-time you see they are running at a much higher load (yes) but - 8,000 kilowatts at night is more than the lighting load of the whole of Coventry. (yes). .......... Midlands (did you?) Well Pegasus I got to run my thing (yes really? first in the Midlands?) There wasn't another one, there wasn't a computer in Birmingham for some - I should think two or three years after - we had Pegasus. You see I went and took lessons in how (mm) to design a digital computer, went up to London (yes) everyone laughed at me taking - lessons being a Doctor of Science (yes) but the fact was I then we rang the computer market and said the Ferranti Pegasus is head and shoulders above the others (mm) in fact some of them are really not serious contenders (yes) and I ordered Pegasus off the drawing board, the third one to be ordered, the second one to be delivered, and the first one to pass its acceptance trials (mm). Actually it was due in no small part to our Purchase Manager, Mr Cowland - He - I said to him, "That's the, that's the - computer we need but they are not going to be able to deliver it on time." He said, "Leave that to me Hilton, I know what to do," so he went along and had a drink with the people (ah!) "Ooh yes Mr Cowland, rest assured about delivery." "Alright ", he said, "perhaps you wouldn't mind signing a thing if it's late." "Oh it won't be late." "If it's late you will - give us free time on your demonstration computer." and - they signed this. We were the only firm they signed this for. Our boys were using sixteen hours a day of the London computer at the time we got it (quite) (laughter) free, absolutely free (yes, yes quite) (laughter) (that's smart) Yes, well Cowland was a smart type (yes) and - you know I merely told him what the drill was, I said, "This is the one" (yes) "the best value for money, most reliable" (mm) "but - they'll not deliver in the time they say, two years or whatever it is" (yes) "Leave that to me, we'll get it." (and you got it) Yes. Well, we were certainly first in the Midlands, as I said we had people making pilgrimages to this computer from all over (mm). About three important delegations a week we used to average (mm). Most of them so important that nobody less than myself could interview them even. (mm) You know, if a man's a Managing Director of one of the bigger firms (mm) you can't fob him off (can't fob him off) on some twenty year old type can you? (No, quite, no, no). You can bring in the twenty year old and say, "Look, please explain to Mr whatever his name is" (things you don't understand yourself) "how everything goes." (yes). - Before the Nuclear Power Company, Hawker Siddeley Nuclear Power Company was formed, there was this question of - the Government claiming all patent rights on anything nuclear because - they - all nuclear knowledge came from the Government (mm). Now I'd never been clear to nuclear power but I had in fact taken a reasonable physics degree (mm) and Hawkers came to me and said we want you to make a discovery, a patent discovery in nuclear physics, so after some thought we were - we were thinking about fusion of heavy hydrogen (yes). I realised you'd want a million degree temperature to do this and that as an expert with shock waves a shock wave's the thing that if it has infinite ampitude it has infinite temperature behind it (mm) and this looked like the beginnings of a million degrees (yes) and we ended up with exploding hydrogen and oxygen at two thousand atmospheres, no sorry, two thousand pounds per square inch (yes) as you are exploding them with a spark we were breaking quarter inch thick mild steel diaphragms and driving the shock wave down a tube where I'd put a patent mirror at the end which focused all the shock wave onto one unfortunate spot of air (mm), or hydrogen, with a view t o making this temperature. We patented this and this did in fact break the Government monopoly because they said look you've never told Dr Hilton anything about nuclear power, he's not cleared (yes) but that's not to stop him sitting and thinking (ah!) and acting (oh yes) but I remember I went to the Works Engineers and explained in round figures what I was up to. I said I want somewhere - Well they said we've got forty eight air raid shelters - we do need one of them for a certain purpose - you can have the other forty seven. When you've blown all them up you'd better come back and have another think. (Where is this?) At Whitley in the - in the Whitley Works, actually we never blew up the first one. We were fairly cautious. It's always the way when you've got something (yes) very lethal, (mm) one's extremely cautious. There's a picture of it in this Wind Tunnel Facilities book somewhere I think - I was looking at it this morning. Yes, there's a picture, looking along the air - air raid shelters were not given in photography (no) that's the - see eleven inch diameter - bar drilled out three inches diameter internal (yes). I was delighted to find a firm like Armstrong Whitworth could drill that out without a second thought. It seemed to me as a physics man quite impossible. Directory: open open -> Nasa trade-off Das open -> Ddi 2011 Hurricanes Neg open -> 1nc hurricanes Frontline (1/1) 1 1nc hurricanes Frontline (2/2) 2 Download 31.5 Kb. Share with your friends:
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