First public flying demonstration of the Saab 210 Draken was given recently by a Swedish Air Force pilot. With a span of 16ft and overall length of 23ft, the machine is now reported to be a half-scale model of a promising fighter design. It is powered by an Armstrong Siddeley Adder turbojet, and is Sweden's first delta-wing aircraft. Photographs of the Draken, or Kite, appeared in Flight of January 4th and February 22nd, and in a G.A. drawing on March 14th.
A Horse's Life
The second Saunders-Roe Cierva Air Horse - large, Merlin-powered, three-rotor helicopter - has now completed a considerable amount of tethered flying and ground running, and it is expected to begin its free-flight trials shortly. But Saunders-Roe expect to fly Air Horse No. 2 for no more than 25 hours, after which time it will probably be dismantled. The company expect to learn all that they need to know about the Air Horse in this time and, according to a Saro spokesman, it is likely that the information gained will be of great value in the development of new projects. it will be remembered that the first Air Horse was lost in an accident in 1950 after 69 hours' flying.
R.A.F. Jet Accidents
Concern that reports of accidents to R.A.F. jet aircraft continue to make all-too-frequent news may to some extent be alleviated by a statement Mr. George Ward, Undersecretary for Air, made in a recent speech. The R.A.F., he said, was doing more than double the flying it was doing last year and the important figure was the number of accidents in relation to the number of hours flown. That figure he could not give because it would be to the advantage of Russia, who could thereby work out the amount of flying we were doing. But he assured critics that the accident-rate was declining and compared very favourably with the rate of piston-engined machines flown during the war - not taking into account operational flights.
Source: Flight International
