VENTURE INTO REALM OF UNKNOWN DYNAMICS

Chronicle (Levin), 1 May 1947, Page 5

VENTURE INTO REALM OF UNKNOWN DYNAMICS

Received Wednesday, 7 p.m. LONDON, April 2J. British scientists are on the eve oi their greatest adventure into the only unknown realm of aerodynamic's. Within a few weeks they expect a sleek, small rohot aeroplane driven hy a liquid fuel rocket motor, to reach 900 miles an hour in a brief flight off the Scilly Isles, and thus produce the tirst computable data on the transition stage hetween suh-sonic and super-sonic flight. The chief scientist of the Ministry of Supply, Sir Ben Lockspeiser, told'a Press conference today that scientists knew all about an aeroplane 's behaviour at speeds up to four-tifths of that of sound, and a little had been derived from wind tunnel experiments about the behaviour above the speed of sound. "But no one knows what happens in the transitional transonic stage," he said, The rohot, the wingspan of which is eight feet, with a.length of nine feet and a weight of 900 pounds, will be slung below a Mosauito and taken to 36,000 feet over the Atlantic. Two thousand horsepower, from the compact rocket engine, which has been developed from the one used in the Luftwaffe's Messerschmitt 163 fighter is expected to accelerate it rapidly within just over one minnte to its maximum speed. Meanwhile radar instruments will track it from the ground to check speed and height, and the newly deveioped radio apparatus, insta.'led in the robot. will tell the story of its flight before it , plunges into the sea. Vickers Armstrong are collaboro,ting with the Royal aircraft establishment at Farnborough, and many engineering firms throughout Englsnd made the robot. The research workers plan to make as many successors as they need to uncover the secrets of super-sonic controlled flight. ' ' We will do it all riglit. The question is how many times we will have to try before we succeed," said Sir Ben Lockspeiser.