Aviation

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 186, 7 August 1936, Page 5

Aviation

Notes bij

“Airscrew"

Two great filing displays have de- , monstraied recently the justice of Sir I Philip Sassoon s claim that the equipment of Britain’s expanded Air Porcc . will be "second to none" in the world. At the Royal Air Force So- : eipty of British Aircraft constructors, j which was held at Hatfield aerodrome, | visitors saw the evolutions of new j types of warplane which are un- i rivalled in performance and military | efficiency. One by one the new machines, designed and produced under conditions i which have allowed the aircraft constructor far more freedom from official supervision than formerly have emerged from secrecy. Exact information about their capabilities is not yet available for publication, but enough has been revealed to prove their altogether extraordinary qualities. Two fighters which considerably exceed 300 miles an hour have already been ordered in large numbers for the equipment or Metropolitan squadrons. New single-engined and twin-engined bombers, including new heavy bombers, of great load capacity, high speed and long range, are also in production The impression of the outstanding quality of the new aircraft has been heightened by a notable display of aeroplanes Resigned and built, by the Kickers and Supermarine companies. Three marine aircraft—the Scapa and Stranraer flying boats and the Walrus amphibian and three landplanes were shown to privileged guests at Eastleigh Aerodrome, near Southampton. The landplanes-one single-seat fighter and two numbers — are especially notable fnr performance and the utilisation of new construe- | tional methods. The fighter is the Supermarine Spit- I fire 1 monoplane, powered with a I Rolls-Royce 12-cylinder liquid-cooled | engine. Designed by Mr. R. J. Mit- i chell, who produced the famous racing i seaplanes that secured Great Britain | in permanent possession of the i Schneider Trophy by a series of cor- I responding gain in useful load and great rigidity and strength. There is - also reason to suppose 1 hat the geodetic system, with its web of winding framework members, gives rise to very little resonance and thereby deadens noise. Certainly the 1 win-enginer bomber, and it predecessor the single-engine Wellesley, are considerably quieter in flight than the i majority of high-powered aeroplanes. | The twin-engined machine can ' carry an enormous load in bombs and | fuel and is designed to cruise at high ; speed over long distance. Like the • Wellesley, it is notable for the high . aspect ratio of the wings, which "neans that the proportion of wingspan to average depth of the wings j Tom front to back is high. The Wei- j esley is also a monoplane with re- | tractable undercarriage. It has a 1 single Pegasus engine driving a con- I trollablc-pitch airscrew. Again exact • details of performance may not be . published, but I am permitted to state that if the Wellesley were equipped to ' carry fuel to the exclusion of o?hcr . load it could fly in calm air approxi- ; mately 8000 miles non-stop. (The present world record for distance flown in a closed circuit on one load of fuel is 6554 miles and in a direct line from point to point 5554 miles. Light Fighter v*» seventh new type of aero- j xane missed the Vickers demonstra- ; lion by an accident of weather. Heavy rain and low clouds over Brooklands Aerodrome, reducing visibility at ' times to less than a hundred yards, ' i delayed there the VicKers light fighter monoplane and made the journey of some fifty miles to the Southampton Aerodrome out of me question. This seventh machine is a low-wing monoplane with retractile undercarriage, powered with a supercharged Bristol Aquila sleeve-valve air cooled radial

‘engine. It has wing flaps to preserve control at the lower end of the speed | range and to facilitate landings. It Is | built entirely of metal, chiefly duraluj min alloy; the after end of the fuselage is built, according to a special "monocoque" form, without, internal smashing victories over the best forI eign machines, the fighter is reminiscent in general outline of the Superi marine S 5 and S 6 racers. Since 1931, however, the rapid march of aerontaulical science has placed at the disposal of the aircraft designer devices and ideas that enable him to build a far more efficient aeroprane than was ■ possible five years ago. The ad vani tages of the Spitfire over the SchneidI er racers are immediately apparent, pt has no external bracing wires to ■ add to head resistance: the wings are | pure cantilever structures. No cori rugations. such as the oil coolers on i 1 he S 6, break the highly polished i smooth surface of its stressed metal ' skin. A clean unbroken cowling ' covers the engine, merging harmoni- • ously into the lines of the transnar- , ent ronf that encloses the cockpit. J The undercarriage. retracted by : swinging the legs outwards and nn, is whollv contained in recesses in the wings during flight. Wing-flaps enable the fighter to glide in steeply and to land comparatively slowly--far different from the flat, glide and dangerously high alighting speed of the racer. Finallv, the fighter carries an imnortant militarv load: the racer carried pilot and fuel for 45 minutes’ flying. Official speed of the Snitfire I is considerably in excess of 300 miles an hour. It. and the Hawker monoI plane which also surpasses 300 miles ner hour, have been ordered in quantity for the Royal Air Force. Long Range Bombers. | Equally notable in a different cate- | gory is the new Vickers twin-engined 1 bomber, built on the “geodetic” sysi tern invented bv Mr. E. N. Wallis and I developed by him in conjunction with the Vickers Company during the past I four or five years. This is a mononlane with the winos set midwav on the fuselage. It derives power from two Bristol Pegasus radial air-con’ed engines which drive controllable-nitch airscrews. Tn flight the undercarriage units retract info recesses at the rear of the engine nacelles. I The new bomber is the second type iof aeroplane built entirely to the ' "geodetic” formula. Tn this ingenious I method of building aeroplane wings ! and bodies, the framework members • follow geodetic lines around the outer shell of the component. (A geodetic I line is the shortest possible line joining two points in a curved surface j which lies wholly in that surface), pts advantages are lightness of strucl tural weight, with bracing, which I gives exceptional torsional strength I relative to structural weight. I MOTHER-SHIP for robot ’PLAXE 3 An old aircraft carrier on the strength of the British Fleet is to be re-equipped as a tender for pilotless radio-controlled aeroplanes of the kind used for anti-aircraft gunnery practice. The ship is the "Argus,” and the Admiralty has decided that the work shall be put in hand without delay. i Hitherto, the ship engaged in con's trolling the flight of “robot” aeroplanes has been any available cruiser fitted with the special radio apparatus required. That system worked admirably- when the number of pilotless target ’planes was limited and firing nraclices were comparatively rare, but the increase in the number of "robots” and the large increase in the amount of time devoted to anti-air-craft gunnery from warships have made provision of a special ship essential.

The converted “Argus” will carry at least eight. Queen Bee pilotless aeroplanes. She will carry special gear for launching and salving the robots, and elaborate radio control apparatus to guide them in the air. An extra marking party and recording machines will be carried for measuring accuracy of gunfire. When she is not needed for gunnery practice, the "Argus” will be used for the training of fleet air arm pilots in the tricky art of deck landing. Secret Mechanism. In external appearance ihe Queen Bee. which is built, by the de HavilJand Company, is similar to the Tiger Moth iigN. trainer biplane which is used in tne Royal Air Force and in several foreign air forces. The chief structural difference is that the Tiger Moth is made of metal and the pilotless ’plane of wood, which ensures, among other qualities desirable in a radio-controlled aircraft, that the machine will float if it be brought down on the water by gunfire. Like ! the Tiger Moth the Queen Bee has i a Gipsy Major 130h.p. four-clyinder air-cooled engine mounted under a streamlined cowling in the nose of the fuselage. Its maximum level speed is about lOOm.p.h. and it can climb to a height of approximately' .10,000 feet. Maximum radius of con--11 rolled pilotless flight is ten miles from the operating centre. Metal projections visible on the fuselage are the noints used in catapult launching. Fixed aerial stretches i from each wing-tip to the tail unit. The front cockpit is open and can be speedily fitted with flying controls for use by a human pilot. In the rear cockpit, which is enclosed, is the secret machanism that controls the aeroplane on its course in obedience to the radio signals. Gunnery Practice for Army'. Critics have pointed out that the speed of the Queen Bee, which is technically just, a low-powered light aeroplane, is about half that of lhe modern bomber and that its “ceiling” is at least, relatively as low. They have expressed grave doubts whether gunnery practice on targets differing so widely from lhe targets that would be presented in war time is really useful. The Admiralty’s reply is that it is a great achievement to have a flying target, at all. So far as is known, no other country has developed nilotless aeroplanes to the same level of efficiency. Queen Bees are also to be adopted by the Army, and several of the machines concerned in the substantial order placed recently by the Air Ministry' will be sent, from time to time for work with anti-aircraft batteries. Other possible uses are being considered. A Queen Bee. for example, might be equipped with an automatic camera and used for Photographic reconnaissance close behind the enemy’s lines, for which duty its ability Io rise from small fields and its small size, making it. a difficult target, would suit it admirably. MILES SPARROWHAWK Latest in the range of high-per-formance touring aircraft is the Miles Sparrowhawk; a fast two-seat monoplane powered with a Gipsy Major engine of either the standard of the special hi’zh-comnression type. On the power of the high-compression engine the Sparrowhawk reaches a maximum at a height of 1000 feet, of ISO miles an hour. yet its landing speed is c taled to be only' 42 miles per hour. Flying dualities are stated to be exceptionally attractive end docile, and the makers claim that, the machine "will give the mo~t hardened aerobatic pilot a thrill, and at lhe same time be an entirely suitable aeroplane for a nunil to make his first solo flight.” External finish is extremely good and the apnearance of the aeroplane, like its predecessors in Ihe Miles family is most pleasing.