THE BLUE BIRD

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 20110, 31 March 1928, Page 23 (Supplement)

THE BLUE BIRD

MECHANICAL DETAILS MALCOM CAMPBELL’S CAB A full description of Malcolm Campbell’s world’s record-breaking Napier Campbell car, the Blue Bird, is contained in the latest Autocar to hand. Summed up, it states, the car is a blend to a degree hitherto unknown of automobile and aeroplane practice, notably in the provision of a tail fin to give directional stability.

The car has an immensely stiff frame, a special rear axle, a front axle with adjustment for castor and solid row of big shock absorbers, and the gearbox is off a special epicyclic type designed by Joseph Maina, so arranged that the trains of gears are positively locked when in operation. This feature is considered the most interesting mechanically of the whole chassis. The Xa pier Lion engine is of the broad arrow type, with three tanks of four

cylinders, and has been converted to the same type as that successfully used in the winning aeroplane in the Schneider Cup. The compression has been raised materailly, and the engine is more compact. Its more rigid crankvase makes it smoother at full throttle than previously. The three carburettors are placed iu a more accessible position. To ensure a faster start, the first gear ratio has been altered-

The body, however, attracts the most interest. A side view shows this to resemble a fish in some respects, but with an immense tail. The body was specially designed after wind-tunnel experiments had been carried out to make the car run straight at over 200 miles an hour, and at the same time keep a. firm grip on the sand. In place of the radiator, there is a blunt nose, an-1 under-screen blending into an oval-sec-tion stream-line, tapering away to a pointed tail, and the driver’s head, which, of course, projects above the body, is separately stream-lined by a tapered swelling rising above the body at the rear of his seat. As a protection against the wind blast. There is a dash bulkhead and a windscreen. On the tail of the car, rising like the upper part of a shark’s tail, which prevents the car from deviating from its course or developing tail wag, while the body form tends to press the car down to the ground when it is at full speed.

Si ream-lined sections are carried fore and aft of the wheels, which are in the open, and the most curious sight of ail is that of the two blocks of radiator on either side of the fin astern of the driver, which position proved the most efficient in The experiments carried in a wind tunnel at Vickers’ experimental shop.

There arc two separate steering gears with a drop arm on either side of the frame.