The Canterbury Aero Club's Pageant-The Triumph of the Motor

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 19853, 14 February 1930, Page 20

The Canterbury Aero Club's PageantThe Triumph of the Motor

SPEED IN THE AIR. ENGINE DEVELOPMENTS. RESULTS OF SCHNEIDER CONTEST. (teok OTO OWK coerkspohdert.) LONDON, January 2. Mr R. J. Mitchell, the designer of the victorious Supermarine Rolls Royce m the Schneider contest, and Mr H. P. Folland, the designer of the Gloster-Na-pier, have both been giving their opinions of the race, and the result of the contest on sea-plane designs. Mr Mitchell, writing in "The Aeroplane," says: "Owing to the high tak-ing-off speed of racing seaplanes the water resistance of the floats is very high right up to the moment of clearing the water. The propeller, has, therefore, to be adapted for this, and cannot be the one giving the best possible results at high speed in the air. The use of variable pitch propellers therefore indicated, and until this is possible much greater ■ speeds will be unattainable. "Owing to this contest very extensive progress has been made in engine design, and the weight per horse-power of our racing engines has been reduced by 50 per cent, and the frontal air resistance area halved. A large proportion of this progress has been passed on to standard engines used in Service and civil aircraft. Speeding up Development. "It is safe to say that the engine used in this year's winning machine would have taken at least three times as long to produce under normal processes of development had it not been for the spur of a great international

competition. There is little doubt this intensive engine development will have pronounced effect on our aircraft during the next few years.

"The flat-bottomed box-section type of float with a spring chassis was universally used a few years ago. It has now almost completely disappeared, and given way to the V-bottomed and round-top-sided type developed for racing craft. This modern type of float requires no shock-absorbing devices in the chassis, is more seaworthy, and offers much less air resistance. "Radiators developed for racing craft, both for water and oil cooling, have shown moro progress than any other characteristic, and form a highly potential source of improvement in general aircraft design." Duralumin Airscrews. Mr Folland, whose design should have a speed of 350 miles per hour, points out in the journal "Gloster" that this is a satisfactory result for a machine with an engine giving only 1200 h.p. The Gloster type has proved notably good in taking off. He claims that the data obtained from the contest in two years at least equal the results that would have come normally in five to ten years for the same expenditure of money. As a result of the work of preparation for this contest, the top speed of scout types has, in six years, been increased from 150 miles per hour to 210 miles per hour. The contest has stimulated the use of light alloy solid duralumin airscrews and their trials under the most exacting conditions. It has proved the definite advantage of the geared engine over the direct-drive. The research work has enabled body drag and wing drag to approach the irreducible minimum. Extremely useful full-scale experiments have been made possible by means of the Schneider racers to -explore the problem of aerodynamic control at high speed.

ENGINE A REMARKABLE One of the most impressive K-u. plane demonstrations of has been the running of ■ engine for a period 50,000 miles of air travel. * Gipsy as fitted to the Moth J** been in production for and it is also now license by the American turns out the famous Jl wind. % About eight months ago fc-jj cided to put a Gipsy Moth-to^S 1 valuable of testa—-every-day flying conditions. ijLfj Gipsy was taken at random by an official of the Air nautical inspection directorate. M? commenced, and at latest advia*? still proceeding, the only ipwrj being in July, when the was removed from the machia»«! play at the Aero Olympia, report was that the engine had rife hours, covering over 50,000 only attention has been cleaning of filters, the cheekwj spark plug, valve tappet, clearances, and the correctioi7 minor defect in the impulse ifyE l one magneto. The cylinder not been removed, and the intact. Few motor-car would condone treatment of ducts in this way. . * After 500 hours a check miles per gallon of petrol miles per gallon of oil. The 4 -'l»a! speed of the Moth had one mile an hour below "tli 'pert* ance at the start, and on % this hard-worked engine rai,%|sj revolutions, developing only-2 iii low its output on the initial Wfci

FLIGHTS THAT HAVE MADE HISTORY X2\, Bate. Airman. Distance. Time. .lirl' .V'j'fe Dec. 17, 1903. Orville Wright. 850 feet—World'B first controlled flight in power-driven aeroplane. 58 sec. 12 h.p, Wright July 25, 1909. Louis Bleriot. 26 miles—First cross-Channel aeroplane flight from Lea Baraqnes to Dover. 37min. as fc.p. Bi«ria£MH|A April 8, 1910. Louis Paulhan. 183 miles—London-Manchester flight with one halt en route, which won "Daily Mail" prize of £10,000. 4hrs 12min. -56 m#1|J r i' L June, 1919. Sir John Alcock and Sir Arthur Whitten Brown1890 miles—First non-stop Atlantic aeroplane flight. From St. John's, Newfoundland, to Ireland, winning "Daily Mail" prize of £10,000. 16hrs ISmin. Twin-engined flttl . biplane. * *£-?': \ "* ft," Nov.-Dec., 1919. Sir Boss Smith and Sir Keith Smith. 11,295 miles—Flight in stages from England to Australia. 124 flying hours. Twin-engined vUi biplane. ~ l 1924. U.S.A. Army airmen. 27,000 miles in stages round 'the world. 336 flying hours. Douglas biplane. 1925. Marcheae de Pineda. 34,Q00 miles —Eome-Melbourne-Tokio-Rome, in stages. 360 flying hours. Savoia flying bwk 1925-26. Sir Alan Cobham. 17,000 miles—England to South Africa and back. 175 flying hours. 385 h.p. de Hi* biplane. •' 1. 1926. Commandants Franco. 6259 miles—In stages from Spain to South America, including non-stop ocean flight of 1500 miles. 59$ hours. Dornier flying May 9th, 1926. Lt.-Oommander E. E. Byrd. 1300 miles—From Spitzbergen to North Pole and back. 15f hours. 3-engined > J plane. — June-Oct., 1926. Sir Alan Cobham. 28,000 mile9 —England to Australia and back. 230 flying hours. De HaviJaad 'r-""' r'fcs May 20-21, 1927. Colonel Lindbergh. 3639 miles—New York to Paris, nonstop. s • 334 hours. 220 h.p. Jiyaa wwjW Feb., 1928. Bert Hinkler. 10,340 miles—England to Australia. 15$ days. Avian" iiirht April, 1928. Captain Kohl, Baron von Hunefeld, Commandant Fitzmaurice. 2300 miles—Ireland to Labrador (first non-stop North Atlantic aeroplane flight from east to west). 36 hours. German BrttM* ** plane. July, 1928. Captain Ferrarin and Major del Prete. 4850 miles—Non-stop Borne to Brazil. 45 hours lOmin. Savoia ilarehottt V boat p-jg April, 1929. Squad.-Ldr. Jones Williams and Lt. N. H. Jenkins. 4130 . miles—England to India (nonstop). 50i hours. Fairey-Napier ••■'I"' June 27July 11, 1929. Squad.-Ldr. Kingsford Smith, C. T. P. Ulm, W. McWilliams, H. A. Litchfield. 10,500 miles—Australia-England. 12 days 21£hr. Fokker monopi**. Aug. 2-9, 1929. Duchess of Bedford, Capt. C. O. Barnard, B. Little. 9000 miles—England-India-England. i ! days Fokker monop«"k <, Aug. 13-30, 1929. Dale Jackson and Forest Obrine. Duration reeord, refuelling in flight. 17 days 12hr. 21min. Curtiss-Bobertaw*® plane. ■

NEW ZEALAND AIRMAN'S LONE FLIGHT. Mr F. G. Chichester landing in his Moth aeroplane at the Mascot Aerodrome* end of his 13,000 miles' flight from England to Australia.