Flying Through Fire - Geoffrey Williams

Flying Through Fire: FIDO - The Fog Buster of World War Two by Geoffrey Williams
Hardcover: 256 pages
Publisher: Sutton Publishing Ltd; First Edition edition (30 Mar 1995)
Language English
ISBN-10: 0750908815
ISBN-13: 978-0750908818

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ORIGINAL POST BY olympuusman as below

Is it worth getting a copy of "FLYING THROUGH FIRE, FIDO - THE FOGBUSTER OF WORLD WAR TWO" ?

I think this is an excellent book - first class coverage of a complex and unique subject. Forty pages on development, plus 170 on the fifteen English airfields. Just two pages on Epinoy (the sole system installed on mainland Europe) though.

G.

Thanks Carnaby

I will get a copy via Abebooks !

Carnaby - given that recommendation, I might have to hunt a copy down.

Oh dear - the book "wish list" is getting longer again.

Chris

is there any mention of Davidstow Moor

Errrr no !
Davidstow reports having had a 'temporary installation' to work alongside Ground Controlled Approach.
I would have thought that to have installed even a temporary FIDO system would take quite a long time.
The prototype GCA installation arrived at Davidstowe on 28 Aug 1943, and moved to St Eval during September as they had calibration problems at the former, hence it was there less than a month.
The St Eval FIDO was proposed in April 1943, installation began in August, and was 'nearing completion' in December 1943.
Arthur C Clarke's descriptions regarding FIDO relate to St Eval.
The book does not mention temporary systems, but describes the portable unit, developed August 1944 and used at Epinoy.

Interesting!

Got my copy today, looks very interesting !

Carnaby, interesting about the FIDO portable system of Epinoy... is there more info to find in another book ?
Any idea if this system was used on other ALG'S during the winter 44/45 ?

Thanks

Olympusman

The only other reference to portable F.I.D.O. systems I have come across is in:

Hartley, A. C. (1948) Fog Dispersal from Airfield Runways. In: Institute of Civil Engineers, The Civil Engineer in War. London: Institute of Civil Engineers.

This is the relevant section:

"Haifox” (Portable) Burners (Hartley Anglo-Iranian Fox).

It was anticipated that the Tactical Air Force would require Fido installations on the Continent after the invasion in 1944. The problem was to reduce the erection work necessary at site, and particularly the welding and concreting, by re-designing components for prefabrication, and at the same time making them suitable for aerial transport.

Coils of 1-inch tubing, 42 inches inside radius, had been tried previously for small burners. A rectangular frame of 12-inch tubing, 7 feet 6 inches long, was designed to support and feed petrol to three pairs of those coils, each 2 feet long. They were arranged in series-parallel flow in order to balance wind variations. The vaporizer, known as the "Haifox," weighed 160 lb., and was heated by 15 per cent. of its total evaporation from a single central burner pipe, down which the remaining vapour passed to 25 yards of 2-inch burner line in four screw-jointed lengths (Fig. 5, facing p. 138). Four such burners on a common valve assembly generated 30 therms along 120 yards of runway. As distortion was practically eliminated concrete anchorages were unnecessary.

Pumping manifolds and valve assemblies were mostly prefabricated, victaulic joints mainly being used on site. Orifice plates were used instead of automatic valves to simplify the control of the fuel distribution to the burners. The system was designed as if for a perfectly level airfield, but was applicable to unsurveyed airfields with variations in static head between burners by selection of the correct orifice plates.

Haifox vaporizers were later modified to develop pressure-output characteristics similar to the Haigill burners, for use as first-aid replacements for the latter when badly damaged.

Extensive use had been made of certain of the Fido burners at the home installations as flares in conditions of mist or haze, and a smaller two-coil vaporizer with 30 feet of 1-inch burner line, the "Light Portable Marker Burner," was evolved in November, 1944, to meet requests for runway or approach funnel marker flares for use at airfields without full Fido equipment. Those markers were issued to T.A.F. Wings with semi-rotary hand pumps, whilst a U.S.A.A.F. station used them with road tankers.

Regards

Mark

Just ended reading "FLYING THROUGH FIRE, FIDO--THE FOGBUSTER OF WORLD WAR TWO"

Great book !

Ooooops !

Mikpail

Thanks for your interesting details about portable FIDO

Looks like we tried as from 1946 to use some 'burning drums' in Belgium but not that sucessfull of course...