Alone on a Wide, Wide Sea!

New Zealand Listener, Volume 29, Issue 741, 25 September 1953, Page 6

Alone on a Wide, Wide Sea!

Cocos, tor a lonely coral island group, has already had a full share of drama, but the eyes of the world will be upon it once again on October 9’ when the fast jets in the speed section of the International Air Race touch down on its 10,000-foot runway

CORAL airstrip-"a permanently anchored aircraft car-rier’-on a tiny atoll in the Indian Ocean, about half way between Colombo and Perth, will be the most dramatic stepping stone on the way from London to Christchurch in next month’s big air race There, early on the morning of Octobe 9. at least six of the fastest military planes in the world are likely to land perhaps within ten minutes of each other: They will then have covered 7280 miles of their 12.270 miles journey The airstrip is on West Island of the Cocos-Keeling group a typical pearshaped atoll of five main islands-the largest of them only five miles longsurrounding a lagoon seven miles wide and hine miles long. Accurate navigation on the hop tw Cocos might easily decide the winne: of the race The sea ‘crossing of 1770 miles from Ceylon to the group will be ‘made by planes in the speed section of the race during daylight. so they will have .only the sun for astro-navigation during the period when tLoth ends of the hop are out of radio range. "Navigators will have to be right on the bail," the navigator of one of the RAF Canberras entered for the race said -ecently of this leg of the flight. "Weather conditions over Ceylon and the Indian Ocean at that time of the year may not be so good. and the Cocos are extremely small." Position wil] be determined largely by sextant work on this stage because of the scarcity of tadio and other aids in the area. NAVIGATORS ON GROUND The suggestion in last week’s issue of The Listener that this will be a navipator’s race is also borne out by the latest reports from England. Accouuts

of the preparations being made for the three R.A.F. Canberra entries mention that there will be ground navigators included in the 30-man teams at each of the four refuelling: points, as well as navigators in each crew. The ground navigators will have the job of preparing the all-important flight plans based on the latest weather information for each stage of the journey, and handing them to the race navigators as soon as they touch down. According to The Aeroplane, "a great deal will depend on these resident navigators and their decisions." The decision to use Cocos as a refuelling point instead of following the old Karachi-Singapore route will mean an estimated saving of from five to six hours for the Canberras which, on the strength of the record-breaking flights they have already made-and in the absence of any precise information about the Valiant Mk.l-must al] be considered formidable entries. The

R.A.F. have been training four Canberra crews (one as a reserve) for the past five months at Wyton, in England. They plan to fly the course in five stages, giving a total mileage of 12.270 miles, which they expect to cover at an average speed of 500 m.p.h. in from 24% to 25 hours. The elapsed time following the old Singapore route . would have been about 30 hours, The R.A.F. Canberras (as distinct from the two R.A.A.F. entries, a different version of the same plane) are photo-reconnaissance . models (PR2s) fitted with three extra fuel tank groups including wing-tip tanks and a tank in the flare bay. Their twin Rolls-Royce Avon Mk.3 jet engines have been adjusted to give an additional 1000 Ib. of thrust for take-off under tropical conditions. Special equipment includes a radio compass, periscopic bubble sextant, REBECCA Radar (necessary fo exact timing of the let-down at the end of each stage), and VHF radio-direc-tion-finding apparatus. A great deal of

the navigator’s work will consist of dead reckoning and astro-navigation. Though all five Canberras could make, the Indian Ocean crossing non-stop, they would have to fly more slowly to get their "maximum range. Cocos will be the third of their three stops. The R.A.F. Vickers Valiant will make it the second and last stop before Christchurch. R.A.F. FLIGHT PLAN The R.A.F. Canberra flight-plan runs as follows: London- Shaibah (Iraq), 2875 miles; Shai-yah-Ceylon (2635 miles); Ceylon Cocos Islands ‘1770 miles); Cocos-Perth (1840 miles); PerthChristchurch (3150 miles). The anticipated times for each of these stages are 534 hours, 5 hours, 312 hours, 31% hours and © hours respectively. The contestants will — start

from England between ‘*%.04 ale 5.15 p.m. on October 8, the speediest planes presumably leaving last so that they will have a chance of making a daylight landing at Christchurch, where the sun rises at 5.47 a.m. on Saturday, October 10. Night landings will have to be made, however, at Shaibah and Perth. Three of the stages are the ideal maximum length for Canberra PR3s, with their extra tankage giving a total of 3100 Imp. gallons. According to The Aeroplane, the two Indian Ocean hops are relatively short because of the thinness of navigational aids here, and because there is little to choose between two fast stages with an intervening refuelling delay, and a_ straight runthrough flown at a slower, less-consum-ing speed. In other words, the Canberras could fly from Ceylon to Perth in one hop, but it would take them longer than going at top speed to Cocos, and refuelling within the estimated turn around time of from 20 to 30 minutes.

Sufficient fuel will be carried in reserve (1000 gallons) for a diversion to Changi, Singapore, if the Cocos cannot be found on time. Wing Commander L. MacD. Hodges the 35-year-old leader of the R.A.F Canberra team, told the Birmingham Post tecently that the Air Council of the R.A.F. was at first not keen on the expense of equipping the Cocos as a staging post. They suggested a route by way of Singapore. "That would have been too long,’ Wing Commander Hodges said. "We stressed ‘that if the thing was to be worthwhile at all the only thing to do was to put a party into the Cocos." The party sent to Cocos by the R.A.F. is, in fact, larger than it has sent to any other stopping-place-about 100 men of the 250 which it will use for ground servicing during the race. They will live in tents at the West Island airstrip. All. are trained in the servicing of jet planes and have serviced Canberras in 15. minutes. Flight said recently that the use of the Cocos base has caused much difficulty. Three 2000gallon tankers, auxiliary pumping equipment from the 2nd Tactical Air Force. and Eureka equipment have _ been specially transported there, and as the islands have no natural harbour, thousands: of gallons of jet fuel in 50-gallon drums have had to be manhandled off landing craft. LAST HOP IS LONGEST The longest lap, from Perth to Christchurch, offers two slightly different routes, according: to the weather, If the strong westerly winds expected over Australia materialise, a Rhumb © Line track will be flown. But if the helpful winds are not present a more southerly Great Circle route, passing over Tasmania and 60 miles. shorter than the other, will be followed. Sufficient reserve fuel (estimated at 300 gallons) must be carried on this hop in case a diversion to Auckland has to be made. This is likely if early-morning mist shuts. out Christchurch airport. The decision to make this diversion must be made 800 miles from the New Zealand coast, and the required informa. tion about the condition of the airport will be broadcast to the planes from three NZBS stations. 2YA, 3YA and 3YZ, during the early hours of the morning. The estimated time for the flight of around 2412 ‘hours does not take into account the possibility of the planes picking up the westerly jet streams that are likely to be present over paris of the route. The jet stream has been

described as «a "mysterious wind tunnel in the sky," through which winds blow at very high rates of speed of from 80 to more than 200 m.p.h.. at altitudes of from 20,000. to 50.000 feet. These winds often double the speed of high-fiving aircraft, as occurred recently in America when e Tornado iet bomber averaeed 886 m-p-h. over a distance of 205 miles. In summer the speed of the winds in the iet stream decreases to about half the tremen-: dous winter-time speeds Even so Should the Can berras be able to pick up the jet stream fdr a while on, some stage of the flight. they should get to Christchurch 'n less than 24 hours. FOOD PROBLEM The question of food for the crews on the flight was recently commented on by Wing Commander Hodges. who said: "When you have an oxygen mask on you can’t do much eat-

ing. But we will have tins of orange juice which we can suck through rubber tubes. If the pilots want a prope: mea] diet sheets will be posted ahead to the staging point." Although the R.A.F. is spending £100,000 on its Canberra and Valiant

entries, the value of the race as a testing ground for these new aircraft is said to be mwwch- greater than this Group Captain L. J. Stickley: C.O. 92! the R.A.F_ station at Wyton, said that the race would answer many questions of vital interest to the R.A.F. which would without it have taken many months to solve. ~ In a forecast of the likely winner ot the race the magazine Flight said last month: "On its existing record alone of high-speed, long-distance flying, "he Canberra seems indeed to have a bet ter chance than most other aircraft of winning the speed section."

NEXT WEEK_How to listen to the Race.