TESTING AIR ENGINES

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 72, Issue 234, 2 October 1929, Page 15

TESTING AIR ENGINES

A “MAN-MADE HURRICANE” THE SCHNEIDER CUP RECORD LONDON, Sept. 16. A man-made 300-mile an hour hurricane contributed materially to the success of the 2000 h.p. Rolls-Royce aero engines, which won the Schneider Trophy, and created a world speed record, says the Daily News. It was recognised that air intakes, which operate successfully on a factory bench might wholly fail at a speed of between 300 and 400 m.p.h. when the air would be thrown up in a huge bow wave of great velocity by the propeller. The designers instituted a test whereby three 500 h.p. Rolls-Royce aero engines, each driving a huge, airscrew were placed in a line. Each was set running at 'full power, the second and third catching up and accelerating the “slip stream” from the first, until it approximated to a 300-mile an hour tornado, in which the models of the different intakes were tested. Although the weight of the engine is still a secret, it is known that it weighs less than a p>und for every unit of horsepower developed, a feat not previously accomplished in engine design.