The Syrian airfield prepare for reception of military aircraft of China
The latest news about fast emergence in borders of Syria of navy of China encouraged Syrians and res[...]
. Fifth Story
Before we go on with this story of what is absent—about the absence, for instance, of fear—we need to go back to the formalism to understand what is happening to G and to forget, for the moment, the crew:
‘‘If the gust response parameter, G, is fixed to give a certain response level, and the operational Mach number and the aircraft weight are also fixed, then from (1) it is clear that at-S becomes constant.’’ What is happening here? Let’s deal with formalism first.
If G (gust response), M (speed), and W (weight) are fixed, then the only terms that still have freedom to move are at and S. It’s easier to see what’s going on if we rewrite the first expression
M-at G = –
W/S
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100 Heterogeneities |
as M-a-■S G = (i. i) W But if G, S, and W are now fixed then equation (1.1) reveals that at multiplied by S, is (now going to be) a constant. When one goes up, the other goes down. It’s a nice simplification: speed is inversely correlated to transonic lift slope. So much for the formalism. But what of W and M, weight and speed? How come these have been fixed? Weight can wait. Let’s take the case of speed. Look first at the previous page of the English Electric brochure. This tells us that ‘‘the essential design compromise implied by O. R.339 is between high speed flight at low level, and operation from short airfields. The intermediate choice between a high-wing loading with a low aspect ratio to minimise gust response, and a large wing area assisted by high lift devices to provide plenty of lift at low speeds, must be resolved’’ (English Electric/Short Bros. 1958, 2.1.8). Here there are a lot more complexities, but let’s ignore most of them. Focus instead on the phrase ‘‘high speed at low level.’’ So where has this come from? To answer we need to move to OR 339. We’ve come across this document already, so we know that it is an Air Ministry operational requirement.6 It has been written by air force officers and tells a story about what a new aircraft is supposed to do. Part of paragraph 10 of OR 339 (Air Ministry 1958) runs as follows: ‘‘In order to minimise the effect of enemy defences, primary emphasis will be given to penetration to, and escape from, the target at low altitude.” And part of paragraph 16 reads, ‘‘The penetration speed is to be in excess of M = 0.9 at sea level, with an ability to make a short burst at supersonic speed.’’ So now we know why speed, M, is fixed. It is fixed ‘‘in order to minimise the effect of enemy defences.’’ But let’s push the paper chase one stage further. Let’s ask, who is the ‘‘enemy”? And what are its ‘‘defences”? Here is the opening paragraph of OR 339: ‘‘By 1965 a new aircraft will be required by the Royal Air Force for tactical strike and recon- |
naissance operations in limited war using nuclear and conventional weapons. Such an aircraft will enable the Royal Air Force to continue to make an effective contribution to the strength of SACEUR’s shield forces, as well as to our other regional pacts.’’ SACEUR is an acronym for Supreme Allied Commander Europe, which tells us, as if we didn’t already know, that we have encountered another looming absence/presence: ‘‘We shall wish to consider whether there is a requirement for a low level weapon, either manned or unmanned, in case the Russian defences become effective against high flying aircraft and ballistic missiles’’ (AIR8/2167 1957). Here it is at last, made present not in OR 339 but in the correspondence of government ministers.
And the defenses of the Russian enemy? A background document to OR 339, referring to the earlier Canberra, states that ‘‘the Canberras, operated strictly at a low level, may continue to be effective until the enemy develops an efficient low level surface to air guided weapon’’ (AIR8/2014 1956). A defensive, surface-to-air, guided weapon. If the attacking plane is to evade such a weapon, it must fly at high speed and low altitude.