AVIATION NOTES.

Waikato Times, Volume 112, Issue 18778, 28 October 1932, Page 2

AVIATION NOTES.

AMPHIBIAN MACHINES. VERSATILE AIRCRAFT. «* GO ANYWHERE ’’ QUALITIES.” (From a Correspondent.) LONDON, sept. 13. One of the most important extensions to the scope of the Royal Air Force that has been made in recent years is indicated by the order placed with Saunders-Roe Ltd. number of “Cloud” amphibian aircraft. The amphibian aircraft is the most versatile vehicle yet devised. The name amphibian is really an understatement, for these machines can Ope'rate on land, on watee ahd in the air; they are three-element vehicles. With the wheels woiind down the aircraft can take off from any Ordinary land aerodrome. It can then fly to a sea port or lake and, the pilot having wound the wheels Up in position at the sides of the boat hull, it can alight on the water. Finally, and this is a feature of great importance from the Operational point of View, tile machine can be taxied to the slipway add, the Wheels having been Woiind down, it Can taxi up the slipway without further preparation. When the ordinary flying boat is taken ashore the process includes the introduction of a form of temporary Wheeled under-carriage beneath the hull and then the use of a manual or an electric winch for hauling it up the slipway. The “Cloud” is a tWlnehgined amphibian, fitted With two Ai\mstrong-Siddeley “Double Mongoose” engines each of 340 h.p. It has a top speed Of 120 miles an hour and can cruise at 100 miles an houf, while the endurance with full load is four hours; although fuel for six hours continuous flying can be cafried if required. ' Military Uses. For military purposes the value of the amphibian has never yet been fully exploited; but the higher command of the Royal Air Force by adopting the “Cloud” as the standard navigational framing aircraft has made a staid, and it is likely lllht the type will be Used much more extensively in the service. It is not only that it offers advantages for training, enabling reductions ih ground staff to be made and allowing pilots to work over both land and sea with eqdal seSUflty, bdl alsO that K offers certain specialised qualities of great value for police work in various outlying parts of Hie Empire. Formerly the amphibian type suffered from a reduction in performance compared with a flying boat of the Same power; but the latest SauttdersRoe amphblans have almost entirely overcome this disadvantage and the reductlbh In performance resulting from th'e drag .'weight of the, 'retractable wheeled undercarriage is so small an to be negligible, Moreover the advantages Conferred by the “go-any-where" qualities of the machine far outweigh the disadvantages of the Blight additional weight and complication.

The uses of the amphibian for civil purposes have been more generally recognised than Its Uses for military purposes and the type Is employed by a number of air transport companies. In its Civil form the “Cloud" seats eight people In a comfortable saloon Cabin and offers notable advantages in silent and safe travel. It can also be used by the private aeroplane Owner. Those who live in the south of England, for example, and who ge to Scotland for the shooting of game, can bo well served by the amphibian because Of tire numerous stretches of water in Scotland which permit a flying float or seaplane to alight in places where there is no suitable ground for landplanes. Speed In Plight. Mr li. E. Wlmperis, Director of Scientific Research at the Air Ministry, lecturing, on “Speed in Plight” before members of 'the British Association, referred to the probable limitations to future development. He said that at about the spded of sound, some TOO miles an hour, there was a great rise in the rate of Increase of drag with speed and that this would constitute a barrier to progress at low altitudes. The Vickers Supermarine Rolls-Royce Schneider Trophy seaplanes, if pul into a terminal dive, or dive in which the speed rises to the highest figure attainable in that particular machine, would reach some 650 miles an hour, a speed but little below the speed of sound. These are the fastest aircraft in the world. A year ago one of them, piloted by Flight Lieutenant G. 11. Stainforth, established the world’s record of 4074 miles an hour overethe international three kilometre course. And although vigorous attempts have been made ever since by the aircraft constructors of other countries, often With full Government support, to improve on this record it has not even been approached. ,It must be clear that the record of 407 i miles an hour is attaihed in level flight and Is the average speed of runs In alternate directions over the course. The speeds spoken of by Mr Wlmperis were those that would be reached in prolonged dives.

Blit although Mr Wlmperis expressed the view that the tremendous increase in drag that occurs at the speed of sound would prevent further speed developments at low altitudes, he suggested that, at high altitudes, there was still scope for notable advances. And it is to the high altitudes aircraft. that the designer of to-day is turning Ills attention. The rarefied air will present less resistance to the forward passage of the aircraft and, if the problem of maintaining the engine power can ho solved, very great increases in speed should be possible. Rate of bllmb. For service, purposes rate of climb must be bracketed with speed as of paramount importance, li is hot so much the absolute ceiling that can he reached as the time taken to get to the operational height, or the height at which tfie aircraft is most ellleient in performing Ist military duties. The extreme of rate of Climb is seen in the Hawker “Fury” with the Rollsllnyco supercharged “Kestrel" engine. Tliis machine, which is Intended primarily for the defence of London, can reach 20,000 feel In 2 minutes 40 seconds. The standard Royal Air Force high altitude fighter, with which eight X Contlnuert in next Column .)

squadrons are equipped, is the Bristol “Bulldog.” With Bristol “Jupiter Vll” engine this machine climbs to 20,000 feet in 14 4 minutes, Even the general purpose class of machine has a high rale of climb; the Westland “Wapiti,” which is the most widely used type of aircraft in the Royal Air Force at the present day, being able 10 reach 13,000 feet in 174 minutes with full military equipment. It is instructive to compare these figures with those Tor the war-time Bristol Fighter, which is the most famous military aircraft ever produced and which remains to-day an exceptionally fine example of design. But whereas llm modern Bristol “Bulldog” can reach 20,000 feet in 141 minutes the Fighter look 17 4 minutes to reach 10,000 feet, or exactly half the height. Similar examples of the rale of progress in both speed and climb are to lie found llirougboui Hie types of aircraft supplied to the 11.A.F.