SUPERSONIC SPEEDS

Evening Star, Issue 25928, 21 October 1946, Page 8

SUPERSONIC SPEEDS

BRITISH EXPERIMENTS OVER NORTH SEA USE OF ROBOT AIRCRAFT : LONDON, October 19. " Experiments ill flight at supersonic speeds which are to : be carried out next month over the North Sea on behalf of the Ministry ;of Supplywith small rocket-driven, pilotless aircraft designed for a speed of between 800 and 880" miles an hour ritay have an important, bearing on the. futufe development of British aircraft, says the aeronautical correspondent of' 1 The Times.’ The pilotless machines will be launched,high over the sea from Mosquito aircraft, and, as soon as .they are released,> automatic controls will guide them until' the rocket fuel is exhausted Then other • controls will send 'them diving seaward. r The whole flight will occupy only about a minute, but during that time telemeters' (a device which records; the readings of all instruments) will transmit to a ground radio station' details of the robots’ performance. Normally the performance.'of a new' aircraft is ascertainable by a- test in a wind ..tunnel, but with aircraft of very high speed this is impossible, because the sides of the wind tunnel also suffer from the effects of, compressibility Robot aircraft ■ are therefore being used for these early experiments, because they are regarded as too dangerous to be undertaken by human pilots. ...