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67-499: On the HSI, the aircraft is represented by a schematic figure in the centre of the instrument – the VOR-ILS display is shown in relation to this figure. The heading indicator is usually slaved to a remote compass and the HSI is frequently interconnected with an autopilot capable of following the heading select bug and of executing an ILS approach by following the localizer and glide slope . On

134-435: A pilots' assister that used a pneumatically spun gyroscope to move the flight controls. The autopilot was further developed, to include, for example, improved control algorithms and hydraulic servomechanisms. Adding more instruments, such as radio-navigation aids, made it possible to fly at night and in bad weather. In 1947, a U.S. Air Force C-53 made a transatlantic flight, including takeoff and landing, completely under

201-450: A conventional VOR indicator, left–right and to–from must be interpreted in the context of the selected course. When an HSI is tuned to a VOR station, left and right always mean left and right and TO/FROM is indicated by a simple triangular arrowhead pointing to the VOR. If the arrowhead points to the same side as the course selector arrow, it means TO , and if it points behind to the side opposite

268-428: A fail passive requirement. CAT IIIa -This category permits pilots to land with a decision height as low as 50 feet (15 m) and a RVR of 200 metres (660 ft). It needs a fail-passive autopilot. There must be only a 10 probability of landing outside the prescribed area. CAT IIIb – As IIIa but with the addition of automatic roll out after touchdown incorporated with the pilot taking control some distance along

335-438: A flight into taxi , takeoff, climb, cruise (level flight), descent, approach, and landing phases. Autopilots that automate all of these flight phases except taxi and takeoff exist. An autopilot-controlled approach to landing on a runway and controlling the aircraft on rollout (i.e. keeping it on the centre of the runway) is known as an Autoland, where the autopilot utilizes an Instrument Landing System (ILS) Cat IIIc approach, which

402-429: A gyroscope or a pair of accelerometers), a computer/amplifier and an actuator. The sensor detects when the aircraft begins the yawing part of Dutch roll. A computer processes the signal from the sensor to determine the rudder deflection required to damp the motion. The computer tells the actuator to move the rudder in the opposite direction to the motion since the rudder has to oppose the motion to reduce it. The Dutch roll

469-448: A precise course to landing as it will show you exactly how to position your aircraft on the correct course. How helpful these flight directors are with the flying aspect, they are also very safe. They aid in pilot awareness and help minimize pilot in command work load specifically in challenging flight conditions whether that includes cloudy or rough weather. Royal Aircraft Establishment The Royal Aircraft Establishment ( RAE )

536-427: A required performance factor, therefore the amount of error or actual performance factor must be monitored in order to fly those particular routes. The longer the flight, the more error accumulates within the system. Radio aids such as DME, DME updates, and GPS may be used to correct the aircraft position. An option midway between fully automated flight and manual flying is Control Wheel Steering ( CWS ). Although it

603-440: A series yaw damper is clutched to the rudder control quadrant, and will result in pedal movement when the rudder moves. Some aircraft have stability augmentation systems that will stabilize the aircraft in more than a single axis. The Boeing B-52 , for example, requires both pitch and yaw SAS in order to provide a stable bombing platform. Many helicopters have pitch, roll and yaw SAS systems. Pitch and roll SAS systems operate much

670-535: A sub-scale prototype for the larger 24-ft tunnel, but subsequently modified for use as a noise measurement facility. Both Q121 and R133 are now Grade I listed buildings . To the west of the Farnborough site is the 5-metre pressurised low-speed wind tunnel, which was commissioned in the late 1970s. This facility remains in operation by QinetiQ , primarily for the development and testing of aircraft high lift systems. The hero of Nevil Shute 's 1948 novel No Highway

737-474: A wing leveller with limited pitch oscillation-correcting ability; or it may receive inputs from on-board radio navigation systems to provide true automatic flight guidance once the aircraft has taken off until shortly before landing; or its capabilities may lie somewhere between these two extremes. A three-axis autopilot adds control in the yaw axis and is not required in many small aircraft. Autopilots in modern complex aircraft are three-axis and generally divide

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804-563: Is (as of 2011) occupied by: The National Aerospace Library (NAL), located in the former Weapon Aerodynamics building (Q134 Building), has a collection of over 2,500 technical reports produced by the RAE. The historic Farnborough factory site houses three major wind tunnels , the 24 ft (7.3 m) low-speed wind tunnel (Q121 Building), constructed during the early 1930s, the No. 2 11 ft 6 in (3.51 m) low-speed wind tunnel (R136 Building) and

871-433: Is a reference to American inventor George De Beeson (1897 - 1965), who patented an autopilot in the 1930s, while others claim that Royal Air Force pilots coined the term during World War II to symbolize that their aircraft technically belonged to King George VI . In the early days of aviation, aircraft required the continuous attention of a pilot to fly safely. As aircraft range increased, allowing flights of many hours,

938-585: Is always in CWS mode. The major difference is that in this system the limitations of the aircraft are guarded by the flight control computer , and the pilot cannot steer the aircraft past these limits. The hardware of an autopilot varies between implementations, but is generally designed with redundancy and reliability as foremost considerations. For example, the Rockwell Collins AFDS-770 Autopilot Flight Director System used on

1005-584: Is an eccentric " boffin " at Farnborough who predicts metal fatigue in the United Kingdom's new airliner, the fictional "Rutland Reindeer". The Comets failed for just this reason in 1954, although in the case of the Comet I the problem was in the metal structure around the navigation windows, while the point of failure in the Reindeer aircraft was in the structure of the rear empennage/fuselage joints. A film version of

1072-451: Is becoming less used as a stand-alone option in modern airliners, CWS is still a function on many aircraft today. Generally, an autopilot that is CWS equipped has three positions: off, CWS, and CMD. In CMD (Command) mode the autopilot has full control of the aircraft, and receives its input from either the heading/altitude setting, radio and navaids, or the FMS (Flight Management System). In CWS mode,

1139-411: Is damped and the aircraft becomes stable about the yaw axis. Because Dutch roll is an instability that is inherent in all swept-wing aircraft, most swept-wing aircraft need some sort of yaw damper. There are two types of yaw damper: the series yaw damper and the parallel yaw damper. The actuator of a parallel yaw damper will move the rudder independently of the pilot's rudder pedals while the actuator of

1206-481: Is generally considered unlikely that different engineering teams will make the same mistakes. As the software becomes more expensive and complex, design diversity is becoming less common because fewer engineering companies can afford it. The flight control computers on the Space Shuttle used this design: there were five computers, four of which redundantly ran identical software, and a fifth backup running software that

1273-414: Is generally made mandatory by international aviation regulations. There are three levels of control in autopilots for smaller aircraft. A single-axis autopilot controls an aircraft in the roll axis only; such autopilots are also known colloquially as "wing levellers", reflecting their single capability. A two-axis autopilot controls an aircraft in the pitch axis as well as roll, and may be little more than

1340-451: Is needed: at least fail-passive but it needs to be fail-operational for landing without decision height or for RVR below 100 metres (330 ft). CAT IIIc – As IIIb but without decision height or visibility minimums, also known as "zero-zero". Not yet implemented as it would require the pilots to taxi in zero-zero visibility. An aircraft that is capable of landing in a CAT IIIb that is equipped with autobrake would be able to fully stop on

1407-403: Is part of a remote indicating compass system, which was developed to compensate for the errors and limitations of the older type of heading indicators. The two panel-mounted components of a typical system include the HSI and a slaving control and compensator unit, which pilots can set to auto-correct the gyro error using readings from a remotely mounted magnetic slaving transmitter when the system

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1474-449: Is set to "slave gyro" mode. In a "free gyro" mode, pilots have to manually adjust their HSI. Autopilot An autopilot is a system used to control the path of a vehicle without requiring constant manual control by a human operator. Autopilots do not replace human operators. Instead, the autopilot assists the operator's control of the vehicle, allowing the operator to focus on broader aspects of operations (for example, monitoring

1541-461: Is used when the visibility is zero. These approaches are available at many major airports' runways today, especially at airports subject to adverse weather phenomena such as fog . The aircraft can typically stop on their own, but will require the disengagement of the autopilot in order to exit the runway and taxi to the gate. An autopilot is often an integral component of a Flight Management System . Modern autopilots use computer software to control

1608-410: Is usually a set of extra hardware and software that deals with pre-programming the model's flight. A flight director (FD) is a very important component when it comes to flying an aircraft. It is considered a crucial component within an aircraft's avionics system. The primary function of the flight director is to provide visual guidance to which ever pilot is hand-flying the airplane. Hand-flying or not,

1675-631: The Boeing 777 uses triplicated FCP-2002 microprocessors which have been formally verified and are fabricated in a radiation-resistant process. Software and hardware in an autopilot are tightly controlled, and extensive test procedures are put in place. Some autopilots also use design diversity. In this safety feature, critical software processes will not only run on separate computers, and possibly even using different architectures, but each computer will run software created by different engineering teams, often being programmed in different programming languages. It

1742-411: The F.E.2 (1914) . This last aircraft was the one that went into production and had three main variants, the F.E.2a, F.E.2b, and the F.E.2d. As if this wasn't enough, there is the F.E.2c; this was a generic description rather than a subtype proper, and refers to several one-off conversions of F.E.2b's that experimentally reversed the seating positions of the pilot and the observer. The B.E.1 was basically

1809-744: The Jaguar . Heron later moved to the United States where he worked on the design of the Wright Whirlwind . Other engineers included Major F.M. Green , G.S. Wilkinson, James E. "Jimmy" Ellor, Prof. A.H. Gibson, and A.A. Griffith . Both Ellor and Griffith would later go on to work for Rolls-Royce Limited . In 1918 the Royal Aircraft Factory was once more renamed, becoming the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) to avoid confusion with

1876-680: The Royal Air Force , which was formed on 1 April 1918, and because it had relinquished its manufacturing role to concentrate on research. During WWII the Marine Aircraft Experimental Establishment , which had moved from Felixstowe to a safer location at Helensburgh in Scotland, was under the control of the RAE. In 1946 work began to convert RAF Thurleigh into RAE Bedford. Engineers at the Royal Aircraft Establishment invented high strength carbon fibre in 1963. In 1961,

1943-486: The 8 ft × 6 ft (2.4 m × 1.8 m) transonic wind tunnel within R133 Building, which was originally commissioned in the early 1940s as a 10 ft × 7 ft (3.0 m × 2.1 m) high subsonic speed tunnel but converted during the mid-1950s. A smaller 2 ft × 1.5 ft (0.61 m × 0.46 m) transonic tunnel is housed in R133 Building, while R52 Building contains

2010-513: The Apollo program is an early example of a fully digital autopilot system in spacecraft. Not all of the passenger aircraft flying today have an autopilot system. Older and smaller general aviation aircraft especially are still hand-flown, and even small airliners with fewer than twenty seats may also be without an autopilot as they are used on short-duration flights with two pilots. The installation of autopilots in aircraft with more than twenty seats

2077-536: The Army Balloon Factory, which was part of the Army School of Ballooning , under the command of Colonel James Templer , relocated from Aldershot to the edge of Farnborough Common in order to have enough space to inflate the new "dirigible balloon" or airship which was then under construction. Templer's place was taken by Colonel John Capper and Templer himself retired in 1908. Besides balloons and airships,

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2144-516: The B.E.12 and B.E.12a were indisputable failures. Some of this criticism was prejudiced and ill-informed. Some aviation historians continue to perpetuate the resulting belittling of the important experimental work of the Factory during this period, and the exaggeration of the failings of Factory production types, several of which were described in sensationally derogatory terms. A modern, rather more "pro-factory" point of view, can be found in several of

2211-733: The DRA and other MOD organisations merged to form the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA). The Bedford site was largely shut down in 1994. In 2001 DERA was part-privatised by the MOD, resulting in two separate organisations, the state-owned Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL), and the privatised company QinetiQ . The unit used various aircraft such as : Hawker Hunter, English Electric Canberra B.6 WK163 & B.6 WH953, BAC One-Eleven Series 402 XX919, Hawker Siddeley HS.125 XW930, and Douglas Dakota ZA947 . During February 1988

2278-461: The aircraft control surfaces to damp unacceptable motions. SAS automatically stabilizes the aircraft in one or more axes. The most common type of SAS is the yaw damper which is used to reduce the Dutch roll tendency of swept-wing aircraft. Some yaw dampers are part of the autopilot system while others are stand-alone systems. Yaw dampers use a sensor to detect how fast the aircraft is rotating (either

2345-537: The aircraft. The software reads the aircraft's current position, and then controls a flight control system to guide the aircraft. In such a system, besides classic flight controls, many autopilots incorporate thrust control capabilities that can control throttles to optimize the airspeed. The autopilot in a modern large aircraft typically reads its position and the aircraft's attitude from an inertial guidance system . Inertial guidance systems accumulate errors over time. They will incorporate error reduction systems such as

2412-548: The carousel system that rotates once a minute so that any errors are dissipated in different directions and have an overall nulling effect. Error in gyroscopes is known as drift. This is due to physical properties within the system, be it mechanical or laser guided, that corrupt positional data. The disagreements between the two are resolved with digital signal processing , most often a six-dimensional Kalman filter . The six dimensions are usually roll, pitch, yaw, altitude , latitude , and longitude . Aircraft may fly routes that have

2479-403: The constant attention led to serious fatigue. An autopilot is designed to perform some of the pilot's tasks. The first aircraft autopilot was developed by Sperry Corporation in 1912. The autopilot connected a gyroscopic heading indicator , and attitude indicator to hydraulically operated elevators and rudder . ( Ailerons were not connected as wing dihedral was counted upon to produce

2546-512: The control of an autopilot. Bill Lear developed his F-5 automatic pilot, and automatic approach control system, and was awarded the Collier Trophy in 1949. In the early 1920s, the Standard Oil tanker J.A. Moffet became the first ship to use an autopilot. The Piasecki HUP-2 Retriever was the first production helicopter with an autopilot. The lunar module digital autopilot of

2613-532: The controls and visible to onlookers. Elmer Sperry Jr., the son of Lawrence Sperry, and Capt Shiras continued work on the same autopilot after the war, and in 1930, they tested a more compact and reliable autopilot which kept a U.S. Army Air Corps aircraft on a true heading and altitude for three hours. In 1930, the Royal Aircraft Establishment in the United Kingdom developed an autopilot called

2680-399: The course selector, it means FROM . The HSI illustrated here is a type designed for smaller airplanes and is the size of a standard 3 ¼-inch instrument. Airline and jet aircraft HSIs are larger and may include more display elements. The most modern HSI displays are electronic and often integrated with electronic flight instrument systems into so-called " glass cockpit " systems. HSI

2747-473: The days as the Army Balloon Factory. These include the airships as well as the Cody and Dunne designs. Subsequent Royal Aircraft Factory type designations are inconsistent and confusing. For instance the " F.E.2 " designation refers to three quite distinct types, with only the same broad layout in common, the F.E.2 (1911), the F.E.2 (1913), and finally the famous wartime two-seat fighter and general-purpose design,

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2814-463: The designation letters referred to the general layout of the aircraft, derived from a French manufacturer or designer famous for that type: From 1913/4 onwards this was changed to a designation based on the role for which the aircraft was designed: The B.S.1 of 1913 was a one-off anomaly, combining both systems: B lériot (tractor) S cout (fighter). R.T. & T.E. were also used for strictly one-off prototypes. Several aircraft were produced during

2881-445: The designers in the engine department was Samuel Heron , who later went on to invent the sodium-filled poppet valve , instrumental in achieving greater power levels from piston engines. While at the RAF, Heron designed a radial engine that he was not able to build during his time there, however upon leaving the RAF he then went to Siddeley-Deasy where the design, the RAF.8, was developed as

2948-514: The development of missiles. Research included wind tunnel testing and other aeronautical research, areas which offered rare opportunities for women in STEM fields at this time with examples including Frances Bradfield who worked at the RAE for her entire career from 1919 to her retirement; Muriel Glauert (née Barker) joined in 1918 as a researcher working in aerodynamics and Beatrice Shilling who went on to invent Miss Shilling's orifice , to improve

3015-520: The engine performance of RAF Hurricane and Spitfire fighters during the Battle of Britain as part of wider work at the RAE on aircraft engine problems during World War II . Johanna Weber , a German mathematician who joined the RAE after World War II as part of Operation Surgeon to employ German aeronautical researchers and technicians and bring them to the UK, to prevent their technical knowledge falling into

3082-507: The factory also experimented with Samuel Franklin Cody 's war kites and aeroplanes designed both by Cody and J. W. Dunne . In October 1908 Cody made the first aeroplane flight in the United Kingdom at Farnborough. In 1909 Army work on aeroplanes ceased and the Factory was brought under civilian control. Capper was replaced as Superintendent by Mervyn O'Gorman . In 1912 the Balloon Factory

3149-464: The flight director is used with all autopilot systems today. When the flight director is turned on, it shows a pink triangle along the middle of the PFD, it can also be called or considered a "crosshair". The FD is the aircraft's computer giving instructions to the pilot hand-flying on how to fly the plane and where to put the attitude indicator. When the pilot hand-flying has aligned their attitude indicator with

3216-692: The hands of the Soviet occupying forces in Germany. In 1930 the RAE developed the Robot Air Pilot, an autopilot that used a gyro and flight controls that functioned by compressed air. Aircraft that were developed or tested at the RAE included the Hawker Siddeley Harrier and Concorde . In the late fifties and through the sixties work proceeded at the RAE on several rocket projects – all of which were eventually abandoned The former RAE Farnborough site

3283-456: The last Westland Wessex left after 30 years of trials work. Between 1911 and 1918 the Royal Aircraft Factory produced a number of aircraft designs. Most of these were essentially research aircraft, but a few actually went into mass production, especially during the war period. Some orders were met by the factory itself, but the bulk of production was by private British companies, some of which had not previously built aircraft. Up to about 1913

3350-453: The necessary roll stability.) It permitted the aircraft to fly straight and level on a compass course without a pilot's attention, greatly reducing the pilot's workload. Lawrence Sperry , the son of famous inventor Elmer Sperry , demonstrated it in 1914 at an aviation safety contest held in Paris . Sperry demonstrated the credibility of the invention by flying the aircraft with his hands away from

3417-524: The pilot controls the autopilot through inputs on the yoke or the stick. These inputs are translated to a specific heading and attitude, which the autopilot will then hold until instructed to do otherwise. This provides stability in pitch and roll. Some aircraft employ a form of CWS even in manual mode, such as the MD-11 which uses a constant CWS in roll. In many ways, a modern Airbus fly-by-wire aircraft in Normal Law

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3484-405: The pilot. CAT I – This category permits pilots to land with a decision height of 200 feet (61 m) and a forward visibility or Runway Visual Range (RVR) of 550 metres (1,800 ft). Autopilots are not required. CAT II – This category permits pilots to land with a decision height between 200 feet (61 m) and 100 feet (30 m) and a RVR of 300 metres (980 ft). Autopilots have

3551-429: The pink FD crosshairs, that pilot is flying the correct flight path indicated by the aircraft's computers. The Flight Director is there to help you maintain a multitude of things depending on the situation. It can help you with maintaining a vertical speed, a specific altitude, heading, and/or navigational tracking all in one. Flight directors are extremely useful when it comes to instrument approaches when you must maintain

3618-419: The prototype for the early B.E.2 but the B.E.2c was almost a completely new aeroplane, with very little common with the earlier B.E.2 types apart from engine and fuselage. On the other hand, the B.E.3 to the B.E.7 were all effectively working prototypes for the B.E.8 and were all very similar in design, with progressive minor modifications of the kind that many aircraft undergo during a production run. The B.E.8a

3685-501: The remaining 4 ft × 3 ft (1.22 m × 0.91 m) low turbulence wind tunnel. R52 Building had previously housed two early 10 ft x 7 ft low-speed tunnels in separate bays, which were replaced by the No. 1 11.5' and 4ft x 3ft tunnels respectively. The former remains in operation at the University of Southampton. R52 building also previously contained a 5 ft (1.5 m) open jet low-speed tunnel, originally built as

3752-541: The runway but would have no ability to taxi. Fail-passive autopilot: in case of failure, the aircraft stays in a controllable position and the pilot can take control of it to go around or finish landing. It is usually a dual-channel system. Fail-operational autopilot: in case of a failure below alert height, the approach, flare and landing can still be completed automatically. It is usually a triple-channel system or dual-dual system. In radio-controlled modelling , and especially RC aircraft and helicopters , an autopilot

3819-495: The runway. This category permits pilots to land with a decision height less than 50 feet or no decision height and a forward visibility of 250 feet (76 m) in Europe (76 metres, compare this to aircraft size, some of which are now over 70 metres (230 ft) long) or 300 feet (91 m) in the United States. For a landing-without-decision aid, a fail-operational autopilot is needed. For this category some form of runway guidance system

3886-519: The same way as the yaw damper described above; however, instead of damping Dutch roll, they will damp pitch and roll oscillations to improve the overall stability of the aircraft. Instrument-aided landings are defined in categories by the International Civil Aviation Organization , or ICAO. These are dependent upon the required visibility level and the degree to which the landing can be conducted automatically without input by

3953-405: The trajectory, weather and on-board systems). When present, an autopilot is often used in conjunction with an autothrottle , a system for controlling the power delivered by the engines. An autopilot system is sometimes colloquially referred to as "George" (e.g. "we'll let George fly for a while"; "George is flying the plane now". ). The etymology of the nickname is unclear: some claim it

4020-548: The volumes of War Planes of the First World War , by J.M. Bruce—MacDonald, London, 1965. The Superintendents of the School of Ballooning were James Templer (1878–1906) and John Capper (1906 – 1909). The following have served as Superintendents of the Royal Aircraft Factory / Establishment: After the end of the First World War, the design and development of aircraft types ended – although work continued on general research and

4087-631: The world's first grooved runway for reduced aquaplaning was constructed. In 1965, a US delegation visited to view the new surfacing practice and initiated a study by the FAA and NASA . On 1 May 1988 the RAE was renamed the Royal Aerospace Establishment. On 1 April 1991 the RAE was merged into the Defence Research Agency (DRA), the MOD 's new research organisation. Then, on 1 April 1995

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4154-553: The wreck, in some cases, not even the engine. At the time of the " Fokker Scourge " in 1915, there was a press campaign against the standardisation of Royal Aircraft Factory types in the Royal Flying Corps , allegedly in favour of superior designs available from the design departments of private British firms. This slowly gained currency, especially because of the undeniable fact that the B.E.2c and B.E.2e were kept in production and in service long after they were obsolete and that

4221-549: Was a British research establishment, known by several different names during its history, that eventually came under the aegis of the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD), before finally losing its identity in mergers with other institutions. The British Army Balloon Factory was established on Farnborough Common in the early 1900s. By 1912 it had come under civilian control and was the Royal Aircraft Factory ( RAF ) In 1918 it

4288-447: Was at least as different from the B.E.8 as the B.E.7 was. The S.E.4a had nothing in common at all with the S.E.4, while the S.E.5a was simply a late production S.E.5 with a more powerful engine. Several early RAF designs were officially "reconstructions" of existing aircraft because the Factory did not initially have official authority to build aircraft to their own design. In most cases, the type in question used no parts whatever from

4355-504: Was developed independently. The software on the fifth system provided only the basic functions needed to fly the Shuttle, further reducing any possible commonality with the software running on the four primary systems. A stability augmentation system (SAS) is another type of automatic flight control system; however, instead of maintaining the aircraft required altitude or flight path, the SAS will move

4422-573: Was renamed Royal Aircraft Establishment to prevent confusion with the newly created Royal Air Force. The first site was at Farnborough Airfield ("RAE Farnborough") in Hampshire to which was added a second site RAE Bedford ( Bedfordshire ) in 1946. On 1 May 1988 it was renamed the Royal Aerospace Establishment ( RAE ) before merging with other research entities to become part of the new Defence Research Agency in 1991. In 1904–1906

4489-566: Was renamed the Royal Aircraft Factory (RAF). Its first new designer was Geoffrey de Havilland who later founded his own company. Later colleagues included John Kenworthy who became chief engineer and designer at the Austin Motor Company in 1918 and who went on to found the Redwing Aircraft Co in 1930 and Henry Folland – later chief designer at Gloster Aircraft Company , and founder of his own company Folland Aircraft . One of

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