NEW GIANT OF AIR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18334, 26 February 1923, Page 9

NEW GIANT OF AIR.

n ENGINE OF 1600 H.P. CONSTRUCTION ON CLYDE. CRUDE OIL AS MOTIVE POWER A new aeroplane engine of a size not hitherto conceived, which, it is claimed, will revolutionise commercial flight, is being built for the Air Ministry at the Beardmore factory on the Clyde, says a London paper. It is of 1600 h.p., a power 50 per cent, greater than that of the giant Napier Cub." Even more important than its great power, however, is the fact that it will be on the semi-Diesel principle and will burn crude oil instead of petrol. | Not only will this vastly reduce the' cost of running, but it will eliminate the danger of fire, which is ever present when j petrol is the fuel. * j For some time past the Beardmore firm | have been working on a semi-Diesel engine of 800 h.p. This has been eminently sat- j isfactory on its initial tests, which have! been conducted with the greatest possible secrecy. I The 800 h.p. engine was of six cylinj ders in a line commonly called a "straight six," and it is understood that the new I giant is of 12 cylinders on the vertical! "double-six" principle. The Beardmore firm was the first British firm to produce a . reliable high , water-cooled engine, and the first 120 h.p. i Beardmore and later their 160 h.p. engine were among the most reliable in the world. Secret of Success. , Immediately after the war the firm realised that if aviation was to be a commercial success an engine must be produced which would be fireproof and cheap to run, and after consultation with the | directorate of research at the Air Ministry experiments were begun on the semi-Diesel principle. . The great disadvantage of such an en- 1 gine has been the enormous weight for a given power, this being many times in excess of that of a petrol engine. This I difficulty has now been overcome, . and a very low weight per horse-power has been | attained, which compares quite favourably i with any of the high-powered petrol air engines now in use. # The whole future of commercial aviation lies with the big air-engine, which is cheap to run and reliable. Flights to New York. A Handley-Page fitted with four engines ! of 360 h.p. four years ago actually carried, 41 passengers. With the knowledge gained l on high-lift wings and slot w mis since then, which has enabled designers to get more lift out of aeroplanes, it is safe i to say that it would be possible to pro- j duce a machine fitted with two 1600 h.p. j Beardmore engines which would carry more than 100 passengers at a speed of 100 , miles per hour for 12 . hours at a | stretch, and ik is not overstraining the' imagination to visualise such a machine! carrying its load of 100 passengers from j London to New York in 24 hours, possibly changing machines, or at any rate stopping for fuel at the Azores. It must be borne in mind that the late Sir John Aleock and Sir Arthur Whitten Brown, flew from St. John's, Newfoundland, to Clifton, in Ireland, in under 16 hours nearly four years ago, and aerodynamical design and aero engine design have made enormous strides since then. Seven Bays to Australia. . Such a machine as this could make the journey to India in about two days and to 'Australia in under a week. By its means no place in the world need be distant from any other place by more than sevon or eight days at the utmost, and a round-the-world flight might even be accomplished in 14 days. Mr. Alan J. Cobham is setting out shortly to circumnavigate the globe in 60 davs. • } ", When flying was first started in 1903 al2 h.p. engine was used. Mr. A..V.. Roe in. 1907 flew, with 9 h.p. Since those days power has gradually increased. In 1910 the first 100 h. p. engine was produced. 4 _ .