HEAT BARRIER

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27036, 11 May 1953, Page 3

HEAT BARRIER

New Aeronautical Problem EXPERIMENTS BEGIN IN BRITAIN (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, May 9. Air Ministry scientists have built the world’s most elaborate Turkish bath. . Built at Farnborough, Hampshire, at a cost of £200,000, it was set up to conquer the heat barrier—a high-speed hazard more dangerous than the sound barrier. At speeds above 1000 miles an hour friction and compression will make aeroplane cockpits unbearably hot. Farnborough’s “hot room” is a little bigger than a suburban kitchen,, but the machines serving it would fill a cinema. Scientists can heat it to 180 deg Fahrenheit and blow hot or cold air through it, or simulate a monsoon rain.

Doctors use each other as guinea pigs. While they sit sweating they measure the temperature and record their symptoms. They survive the heat wearing suits ventilated with refrigerated air or by other secret devices. The doctors are also hoping to solve the problems of fighter pilots who must sit in greenhouse-like cockpits waiting for a bomber attack. They hope to keep the waiting pilot cool by piping cold air into his flying suit.