Aviation

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 77, Issue 82, 7 April 1934, Page 16

Aviation

Notes by

"Airscrew”

AERIAL NAVIGATION AT HESTON There must be scores of instruments which have bee., produced to enable a rapid solution of the triangle of forces to be made with the idea of allowing : the pilot to get from A to B. The inventors all appear to work on the same hypothesis, namely, that the difficulty is to work out a course to steer, therefore an instrument should be produced which will allow this to be done more easily. There is a.ctually no difficulty whatever in working out a course • to steer, and pilots do not go wrong because they have not correctly worked out a course, but because they do pot fly straight. No pre-calculated course is of any use if the pilot wanders about. Heston, then, in its navigation instruction, as in its flying instruction, I gets down to the practical and not the . theoretical aspects. Heston believes I that it is essential to combine with map reading not only a thorough understanding of the compass, so far as ito use —not construction —is concerned, but also the importance of flying straight and level, laterally as well as fore and aft. In addition, the time factor should be appreciated with a view to ascertaining how far one has gone merely by referring to the ground speed calculator. With this fundamental idea in the background, a method of instruction in air pilotage has been built up by Capt. G. W. Ferguson, and, as an aid to reality on the ground, part of the fuselage of a moth has been mounted on a pivot. The pupil sits in the pilot’s seat and in front of him are all the usual instruments —dummies except the compass. The dummies have been supplied by Messrs. Smiths Aircraft Instruments, Ltd., and are capable of independent movement by means of a knob unseen by the pupil. The compass itself is mounted on a stand in the usual way, and underneath it, where the cor-rector-box usually goes, is an electromagnet out of view of the pupil and operated by a double-pole throw-over switch, also out of view of the pupil. The fuselage, besides being on a pivot, is supported by castors which run round on a plate screwed to the floor so as to facilitate turning and to take the load. The pivot is arranged under the seat so that the apparatus may easily be turned by one hand from the outside. A detachable control stick is also fitted, as well as a fixed rudder bar. The rudder bar does not yet turn the apparatus but will eventually do so. Having been made familiar w’ith various sorts of protractors, so that the measurement of bearings on a map presents no difficulty, and then with magnetic bearing, the pupil elimbs into the apparatus and the compass is explained. It is shown how the lubber line alone may be used, and how the verge ring is used. When this has been mastered and when the pupil has learnt how to turn the correct way to get on to a bearing, turning error is demonstrated by means of the electro-magnet under the compass. The pupil learns how to get on to a bearing direct when he can see the ground or a cloud, even though turning error has caused the compass needle to swing. He is then shown how to obtain the direction o.f railways relative to the compass, a stick on the floor taking the place of a railway. Subsequently, he is taught how to estimate his angularity off his track and how to correct for this on the compass and got back to his track line. He then learns how to combine time with distance and obtain, in the air, his actual ground speed and the time taken to reach any intermediate landmark.

Having mastered all these things an imaginary course is taken. The pupil with his map and ground speed calculator gets into the machine and starts off. He is taught how to hold the control stick, keep his feet on the rudder bar, and watch his instruments. He is told that he is over such and such a place and thereupon visually estimates the angularity oft his track. This he corrects for on the compass. He is then told that he has been flying for so many minutes and has to say what radius he will be from his starting point, and must point out on the map the next landmark he will look for and the time interval from the starting point in which it will be reached. Finally, he is token in the air and. a demonstration of the compass is first gone through. After this he sets off with the instructor on an actual crosscountry flight, when he applies in the air the methods learnt on the ground, actual landings at aerodromes being made with practice forced landings, without actually landing, thrown in now and again.—Shell Aviation News No. 31. NEW AIRCRAFT AND AERO ENGINES THE AUTOGIRO C.30.P. It is a significant fact that, compared with all other vehicles of transport, the aeroplane is the only one incapable of remaining stationary or of proceeding at even a slow speed in its own element. Despite the concentrated efforts of designers amd constructors to remedy a defect that acts as a deterrent to the normal and logical application of tho advantages of speed, it seems that a complete breakaway from all preconceived ideas about the shape or form of a heav?«r-than-air craft is likely to provide the solution. However unorthodox in appearance it may be, there is no doubt that by its all-round performance the latest type of “direct control” Autogiro docs embody those characteristics without which commercial aviation could not hope to complete ( except over long distances) with the present-day highly developed methods of land and sea transport. Clean in design and pleasing to the eye, the C.30.P. model represents tho culminating point of 13 years’ patient experimental work on the part of its | brilliant Spanish inventor, Senor .Juan de la Ciena, whose efforts have been encouraged and financed by a British company owning the. patent rights in the invention. When compared with normal aircraft, and previous Autogiro models, tho most noticeable features are the complete suppression of fixed wings, ailerons, elevators and rudder, all control being obtained by simply tilting the rotor disc in any direction by means »f a pendent control column. Powered yith a I 10 h.p. Genet radial engine the qieed range of this machine in horizon-| •I Hight is from 15 to 115 m.p.h., the

take-off run under average conditions being 15 yards and the landing run virtually nil. Not only is the pilot’s control as positive and as effective with engine on or off, but even at an indicated air speed of 0 m.p.h. the machine responds immediately to a normal movement of the control column.

With the airscrew ticking over, the gliding angle varies according to the will of the pilot between 7 to 1 and the vertical descent, whilst steep shallow turns are as easy to perform without as with power. Ground control is positive and tuxi-in extremely simple under all conditions by means of a steerable oleo-action tail wheel. Both the plate-clutch unit, which on being connected to the engine is employed to obtain the initial speeding up of the rotor on the ground, and the front-wheel brakes are operated by hand-levers and Bowden controls. As soon as the clutch is fully engaged the rotor revolutions are built up to 180 r.p.m., when the clutch and -wheel brakes are operated by hand-levers and Bowden controls. As soon as the clutch is fully engaged the rotor revolutions are built up to 180 r.p.m., when the eltuch and wheel brakes are released simultaneously by means of a quick release lever on the dashboard, the rotation of the rotor thereafter being by aerodynamic action only.

According to present porduction plans the C.30.P Autogiro, to carry a pilot and passenger with three hours’ petrol and luggage, will be available for purchasers in the near future at a price to compare favourably with that of normal aircraft of the same horsepower.

With its simplicity of control, its inability to stall or spin, and its quick take off and slow landing characteristics, the Autogiro bids fair to justify the claims of those responsible for its development by providing the “missing link’’ in air transport, particularly in the immediate future, as far as the private aircraft owner is concerned. As every landing involves an accurate estimate of height as well as of distance, flying may never become as simple as motoring; but the indications are that the Autogiro will make it about as simple as it ever will be. In addition, whilst terminal aerodromes will always be a necessity for large aircraft, here for the first time is a machine which enables its pilot to consider every small field a potential aerodrome. A FLYING SUIT TOR THE STRATOSPHERE. AIR MINISTRY’S INTEREST. One of the most remarkable results of the forthcoming ascent into the stratosphere is the interest taken by the Royal Air Force in the ingenious suit designed by Dr. J. S. Haldane and Sir Robert Davis to enable the young American balloonist, Mark E. Ridge, to conquer the deadly conditions 25 miles above the earth’s surface, says the Daily Mail. Experts in high-altitude flying are so impressed by the possibilities of this suit that it may be said to have revolutionised the whole trend of experiments in stratosphere machines. Every important air Power in the world is working on the problem of stratosphere flights. Everyone has been proceeding on the assumption that the first necessity is an enclosed cockpit to give the pilot normal breathing and temeprature conditions. This has meant a weight which had defied the cleverest designers in the world. Now the problem of weight has suddenly been solved for Great Britain. When Mr. Mark Ridge has made his ascent, the suit, or apparatus as it is more technically called, will be placed by its inventors before the Air Ministry. There remains no serious difficulty in building a machine to take up a pilot, armed with this suit, above the height which any existing machine can reach. For the Royal Air Force this means a bigger step forward thaYi any aerial modification or improvement that has taken place since this arm of the services was constituted. Pilot’s Endurance. The day has already been reached when the height of a machine is determined by the physical endurance of its pilot. ‘‘ We regard anything which would enable a pilot in an open cockpit to ascend into the stratosphere as most important,” said an official of the Air Ministry to a Daily Mail reporter. “The development of the idea in Mr. Mark Ridge’s contemplated ascent, is being closely watched by the Ministry but at the moment we have had no practical test of it.” That is because the inventors of the apparatus have given their word to Mr. Mark Ridge that he shall bo the first to use it. When, however, Mr. Ridge has accomplished his ascent early in the spring, a machine will be ready to test it out in the realm of heavier-than-air flying. The significance of this is in the fact that for all practical purposes warplanes of the Royal Air Force are all open-cockpit machines. More than the mere gaining of height or speed records it will give to the Royal Air Force all the advantages of tactics in which height and speed are the essential factors. The apparatus, in short, puts the airman on level terms with the stratosphere. THE CENTENARY AIR RACE Do Havilland’s £5OOO racer for the London-Melbourne Centenary air race in October this year is named the “Comet.” Mr. J. A. Mollis on has ordered one. and serious negotiations for the purchase of others make likely the appearance in the race of five or six of them in all. The “Comet” had to be ordered under novel conditions. One-fifth of the purchase price had to be deposited [at the time of placing orders, which were accepted up to the end of last month. This sum is recoverable if tlw* company fails to fulfil the terms of its contract, which are that the machine will comply wish the technical and other requirements of the contest, that its top speed will be not less than 200 miles an hour, that it will be equipped for a crow of two, and that it will be delivered to the purchaser before the end of September. No details of the machine will bo disclosed, however, even to buyers, until after the closing date for entries for the race. Pilots who arc considering parlii ipation in the event, are studying ways

and means of taking best advantage of the governing conditions. The rules imply, for example, that only one occupant of any racing ’plane, styled the “pilot-in-charge,” need travel in the machine all through the race. Here is an opportunity for the use of relays of second pilots, men who could be taken on board at Karachi, Calcutta and Singapore to help the pilot incharge over the next part of the jour noy. Naturally, men selected for this work would be chosen for their per sonal knowledge of the section of the route that each would fly. The gain to the entrant would be considerable.