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By: - 7th June 2012 at 17:53 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Sounds like it. I once saw survey Anson G-AMDA trailing its magnetometer.
By: - 7th June 2012 at 18:23 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
It certainly seems plausible.
You have jogged my memory. When I was a boy, I lived N. Worcestershire and we often seemed to get aircraft from presumably RRE Pershore pottering around at fairly low level. On one occasion there was what I took to be a Hastings trailing something behind it, but the Hastings could easily have been a Hermes. The most interesting event was when a Hasting flew round in a wide curve, quite low, with a Canberra shadowing it perhaps less than a mile behind if I remember rightly. The Canberra was dark blue with large orange panels and big white serials. I didn't think to write it down (I remembered it at the time!). I guess there was some sort or radar or emissions trial going on. Right , I am off to start another thread!
By: - 7th June 2012 at 23:31 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Due to differing airflows around an aircraft it is sometimes difficult to find a place to fit a Pitot head and often more difficult to get a good Static source. "Well Bert, I think somewhere about here" doesn't really cut the mustard. So we try Berts suggestion ( He has got it nearly right on the last design) and then trail a towed streamlined stabilised body with known airflow characteristics that has its own Dynamic and Static pressure sensors. As this is remote from the aircraft it can give a true airspeed reading on its own calibrated A.S.I. in the aircraft and these readings can be compared to the aircraft's own instrument. This towed head is also used to give Attitude correction to the aircraft's A.S.I. e.g. on an Auster J1B there is a +12 correction at 30 mph and a -10 correction at 160 mph. The only indicated speed which is also the true airspeed is 105 mph. The towed head is used during prototype testing to find the best position for pitot heads and static ports. This task has now been taken over by the all pervading GPS.
By: - 8th June 2012 at 07:22 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
I thought about the possibility of it being a 'trailing static' as well stan but they were usually a simple shape - ie more like a cone...so I did not think that was what the OP was seeing...however it was the first image that popped into my head especially with prototype testing !
rgds baz
By: - 8th June 2012 at 09:28 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
There were static cones, but also static bombs. It sounds as though the latter was relevant here. The static bomb was earlier with the Douglas static cone coming into use in the 50s and 60s.
(A quick Google does clear the memory!)
By: - 8th June 2012 at 10:31 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Some good points there. I will keep an open mind on my sighting.
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By: 91Regal - 7th June 2012 at 17:47
When I were but a young lad I lived in a village fairly close to Radlett airfield and consequently saw a lot of Handley Page products. On one occasion I saw a Hermes/Hastings type aircraft trailing a cable behind it. At the end of the cable was an object which my childish imagination took to be a guided missile.
With the benefit of some 60 more years of wisdom (?) and my trusty Putnams, my theory is that this sighting was actually the sole Hermes II, variously known as G-AGUB or VX234. In 1951 it was fitted with a Magnetic Anomaly Detector as part of the World Geophysical Survey programme. Would the 'missile' shaped object be the business end of the equipment ? and are there any known pictures of this fitment ? Failing that, would trailing a device similiar to that described be typical of survey hardware of the period ?