LIGHT FLYING BOATS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19197, 13 June 1924, Page 5

LIGHT FLYING BOATS.

ALL METAL MACHINE. A NEW BEbIGX. (From Ouu Own Correspondent.) LOXHON-. May 1. \t the Lvmpne. light a'croplune competidfculte. "Jf securing without putting oil too much 'A-, 1 -' ad .V wovidiii< r sufficient power to get oU the vater were considered very iormidaWe The latter is one of the more serious practical of sea * - craft; the resistance of the water. i tards the attainment ot. flying speed for the ascent, and there is a strong denev to “stick” to the water. Thw is the more unfortunate because owiig to the fact that sea aircraft (tor commercial purposes) have no occasion Jo ilv at great altitudes, being alwajs within reach of their natural ‘ aerodrome, and forced “landings” having no terrors for them, they would need to be provided with no ‘great excess of power over +ltH needed for normal flight, untmtun atelv however, they leave to be provided with a big surplus of power in order to <mt off the water without taxying for miles As it is, one not infrequently sees a big flyiiif boat take a nun of three miles to get* oiL Needless to say, on water with quite small waves this means a *ot uf 'bumping and vibration. _ and calls fo stout, heavy structures. Nevertheless, a light flvmg boat has iust been built fo an Australian customer by Messrs bhnrt Brothers, and this is described m ihe Observer by Major C. G. Turner. It is a machine with several novel features. Thus, it has two 700 e.c. Blackburn motor bicycle engines, each of about 7h p (nominal). These engines are placed on the top of the wing (the maemne. is a monoplane), right and left of the centre each driving a small tractor screw out on the front edge of the wing. 3701 b IX WEIGHT. The machine is all-metal except tnat the covering of the wing is fabric. The metal used is almost entirely duralumin, which is steadily increasing in favour m» aeroplane engineering and is being used for more and more purposes. British duralumin, indeed, has been brought to such a state of perfection that it is used bv a large number of foreign countries in preference to all rivais eveiywheie, in fact, except in countries where for military reasons it is necessary to pioduce at homo. In the Short light flying boat the hull is of duralumin, this preventing the soaking which in machines with wooden hulls Is so serious. It is also lighter than a wooden hull of reasonable strength. Ao doubt the extreme lightness of the whole construction (“all on” the machine will weigh no more than 3701 b), and its buoyancy will lie in its favour. One imagines it is not intended for other than calm water, and here, like all water aircraft, it will be occasionally liable to damage bv floating objects almost totally submerged ana impossible to see soon enough' to avoid. It will he romemliered that one of the delays in Maclaren's world flight was due to that cause. The new light flying boat, it is claimed, can fly with one engine idle. It will ho extremely interesting to sec the length of iain it will take to get off ; probably this will not be unreasonably long. The span of the machine is 36ft, the wing-loading about 4Alh< per square foot, the overall length about 25ft. This is decidedly one of the most interesting craft of the year, and suggests special competitions designed to .help the development of a new' class.