GIANT CLIPPER SHIP

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 151, 23 March 1938, Page 12

GIANT CLIPPER SHIP

First Of Six Now In “Dry Dock” TEST FLIGHT IN MAY Because the largest hangar structures were no longer large enough to contain it, the first of Pan-America 1. Airways’ six "Atlantic type” Clipper flying-boats for the Pacific service, illustrated in "The Dominion” yesterday, has been moved one step nearer tinDuwamish River, which Hows by the Boeing Aircraft Factory at Seattle: live sister ships are to be built, antll all of them will be launched in the river. The first two-decker flying-boat is expected to be ready for a test flight in May.

Temporarily designated "Clipper IT.” the hull of the giant 72-passenger fly-ing-boat has been moved from the hangar to an outdoor dock wlieie ciew> are working night and day to complete interior installations. Earlier this month the outer wing panels were fastened into place and the boat’s four powerful engines installed. Only a step behind in stage of construction is "Clipper 18.” the second of the series. The hull of the third clipper will soon take form in the space vacated by the first. ' , . The moving of the first big clipper outdoors was a major engineering operation. This all-important step toward the Duwamish River was accomplished primarily by means of tr mobile "dry dock,” which is a 15-ton, eightwheeled cradle of steel. A complicated system of winches and cables was erected to move the hull on to a ramp in the dock outside the assembly hangar. from where the clipper will later be launched.

The structure as it was moved outdoors, with only the inner stubs of its 152 ft.-wings in place, appeared more like a surface vessel than a flying-boat, its highly streamlined hull of glistening aluminium alloy measuring 10'Jl't. long from bow to tail. It has an outside surface area of 4000 square feet, or one-tenth of an acre, and an inside volume equal to that of an average five-roomed house.

The hull itself has a height of I9ft, and the overall height, of the plane is 28ft. Gin.-, including the vertical fin of the tail. The horizontal tail surfaces, which' have an area greater than Hie total wing area of many' twin-engined planes now in operation, measure 49tt. from tip to tip. The giant wings will be attached while the plane is in the dry dock.

Altogether the huge flying-boat will have .15 rooms. Its gross weight will be nearly 40 tons, which' is about three times and a. half the gross weight of the largest overland air-liners in regular service in America. The planes four engines alone weigh considerably more than the total loaded weight of the Boeing transports which flew the airlines of America .10 years ago. These engines, 1500 horse-power tworow Wright Cyclones, the largest of their type ever built, together develop twice as much power as the most powerful railway locomotive in the United States, yet each one is confined to a diameter of less than sft. The plane will fly on any two of its four engines, all of which, and the complete power plant installation, may be reached by mechanics during flight by way of passages through the wings. Each of the three-bladed constant speed automatic adjusting propellers 'has a diameter of 14ft. There are 111 miles of electrical wiring in the plane, and 3000 ft. of piping. The control system involves 5000 ft. of control cable.