"Bermuda Triangle" comes to mind here John. Yep, Duxford airfield is slap bang in the middle of a 'no fly zone' Wow! Trust Stan to come up with something like that! Are there any Pilots or Navigators here? Well if you look at the official map for this area you will see what I mean. Fact is pilots are only ' advised ' to avoid flying over GVSs (Gas Venting sites). A warning circle on the chart identifies a GVS and the hazard altitude is shown in thousands of feet AMSL. The reason for this is because the air above becomes too thin for safe flight! Only, due to IRA activities all those years ago most of this information was kept from the public domain i.e. like the IRA attack at the British Gas station Warrington for example. In my day there were only 14 such sites in the UK but these have now gone up to 23. The reason I know all about this is because I was the design engineer working on 'sound cancellation' of RB211 jet engines alongside Cambridge University and British Gas at that time. RB211 jet engines were being used to compress gas around the national grid.
Oh yes, a twenty fold reduction in noise is a serious reduction in noise, bearing in mind this was in the 1970s when commercial computer's, as exemplified in the Hewlett Packard installation above were considerably slower than they are today! The problems I experienced however were with regard to transducers working in Hazardous environments i. e. in temperatures of up to 500 degrees centigrade e. g. the melting point of aluminium! Nonetheless I did achieve this as in the letter I received from Dr Swainbanks from Cambridge University and the basis for which I had to supply British gas, via Atkins scientific Epsom, with 200 units for the Gas Compressor Station Warrington.
This was probably the largest permanent installation of 15" Loudspeakers in the world today 200 x 15" transducers used to cancel out noise from two RB211 Jet engines at the British Gas Compressor station Warrington... and all of 30 years ago now! We did the pioneering work used world-wide today. Cars, Aircraft, Submarines – did you know that Britton had the noisiest diesel submarine fleet in the world?
I see that some of the latest luxery cars are being made quieter by introducing other noises - one noise cancels out the other,or makes 'em sound more sportlike? -------- Don
Yes it's being done in certain luxury cars today in order to cut down on noises transmitted from varying road surfaces. Back in the 1980's I received a telephone call from an avionics’ company in Kent which had the contract for sound cancellation in AWACS early warning aircraft. However this was done more easily through headphones as everybody was required to wear one! As this is a restricted “Royals” site I’ll put my photos of the Compressor Station Warrington up next, together with some photos of the manufacturing processes.
Great set of photos John
ReplyDeleteYes, I took them 2010 at Duxford
ReplyDeleteTwo of them are no longer with us then?
ReplyDeleteBeat a "252" by 2! Great pictures though!
ReplyDelete---------
Don
"Bermuda Triangle" comes to mind here John. Yep, Duxford airfield is slap bang in the middle of a 'no fly zone' Wow! Trust Stan to come up with something like that! Are there any Pilots or Navigators here? Well if you look at the official map for this area you will see what I mean. Fact is pilots are only ' advised ' to avoid flying over GVSs (Gas Venting sites). A warning circle on the chart identifies a GVS and the hazard altitude is shown in thousands of feet AMSL. The reason for this is because the air above becomes too thin for safe flight! Only, due to IRA activities all those years ago most of this information was kept from the public domain i.e. like the IRA attack at the British Gas station Warrington for example. In my day there were only 14 such sites in the UK but these have now gone up to 23. The reason I know all about this is because I was the design engineer working on 'sound cancellation' of RB211 jet engines alongside Cambridge University and British Gas at that time. RB211 jet engines were being used to compress gas around the national grid.
ReplyDeleteBut does or did it work?
ReplyDelete------
Don
Oh yes, a twenty fold reduction in noise is a serious reduction in noise, bearing in mind this was in the 1970s when commercial computer's, as exemplified in the Hewlett Packard installation above were considerably slower than they are today! The problems I experienced however were with regard to transducers working in Hazardous environments i. e. in temperatures of up to 500 degrees centigrade e. g. the melting point of aluminium! Nonetheless I did achieve this as in the letter I received from Dr Swainbanks from Cambridge University and the basis for which I had to supply British gas, via Atkins scientific Epsom, with 200 units for the Gas Compressor Station Warrington.
ReplyDeleteThis was probably the largest permanent installation of 15" Loudspeakers in the world today 200 x 15" transducers used to cancel out noise from two RB211 Jet engines at the British Gas Compressor station Warrington... and all of 30 years ago now! We did the pioneering work used world-wide today. Cars, Aircraft, Submarines – did you know that Britton had the noisiest diesel submarine fleet in the world?
I see that some of the latest luxery cars are being made quieter by introducing other noises - one noise cancels out the other,or makes 'em sound more sportlike?
ReplyDelete--------
Don
Yes it's being done in certain luxury cars today in order to cut down on noises transmitted from varying road surfaces. Back in the 1980's I received a telephone call from an avionics’ company in Kent which had the contract for sound cancellation in AWACS early warning aircraft. However this was done more easily through headphones as everybody was required to wear one! As this is a restricted “Royals” site I’ll put my photos of the Compressor Station Warrington up next, together with some photos of the manufacturing processes.
ReplyDelete