MOTOR-CYCLING IN THE AIR

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 124, 26 May 1923, Page 10

MOTOR-CYCLING IN THE AIR

A NEW BRITISH INVENTION SATISFACTORY TESTS AT PRESTON, In view of the flight of the French aviator M." Bartot in his 7-h.p. aeroplane, an additional interest attaches to the completion of the first British-made aeroplane of such a low horse-power. The smallest of the better-known British machines that have hitherto taken part in aerial contests is the Avro Baby, a machine of 35-h.p.; and i\ is only recently that the announcement has been made that tho English Electric Company, Ltd., were constructing at their Preaton works a machine which should provide valuable data on which to base the development of the economical aeroplane of the future. The new machine, which- has been built for the Air Ministry, is called the Wren, Btate»3 a correspondent of the "Manchester Guardian." The preliminary trial flights were conducted by Major Morris Wright, the chief testing pilot of the research, department of the Ministry. The Wren, which has been designed by Mr. W. O. Manning, of the English Electric Company, is 23 feet long, five feet high, and has a span of 37 feet? the engine i 3 a 5-7-h.p. A.8.C.; the weight of the whole machine, empty, is 2051b, and it is estimated that it is capable of travelling at a maximum speed of 48 miles per hour and< at a minimum speed of 25 miles. In form the Wren is a cantilever monoplane, the unsupported wings being mounted directly on the top of the fuselage. The pilot's cockpit is immediately ahead of the main plane, and in front of him is the small engine—no larger than that of -a motor-cycle—supported, together with the petrol and oil tanks, on a steel tubular mounting neatly covered in to reduce head resistance. The landing chassis is; mounted close to the underside of the fuselage, so that the pneumatic-tired wheels are partly enclosed from ■ the wind stream.

The controls follow standard practice, comprising ailerons and elevator, operated by joy-stick and rudder controlled from a rudder bar. There is a tail skid of the usual type, and the whole machine, although an excellent glider, is a complete power-driven aeroplane in miniature. Constructed ' for the Air. Ministry, it has, of course, been designed to pass the.usual' "safety factors," and' has been built throughout of approved materials to A.I.D. inspection. . In' spite,', of this fact the machine is remarkably ..', light, • and it scontrast ■strangely with the. huge flying boats, weighing several tons, which are being, .built in the'.Bame works. At Ashton. Park/ where the trial flight ia to take' place, the machine arrived in the ground "in pieces," and by the time that they had built her up and got her head to the wind to begin the ground tests it was after 7 o'clock. at night. Major Maurice Wright took it for three short runs of about 100 yards on the fairway at the golf course. On each occasion the machine left the ground by a few inches, but the pilot did not allow it to rise more. He afterwards said he was more than satisfied with this little preliminary test. : The controls answered well, and the machine seemed to be stronger than he had expected to find it. Questioned as to the costofthe ma' chine, the expert stated that its production at he moment -was, of course, an expensive business. But in the event of its being successful and its manufacture being standardised, it could be produced very cheaply.