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Aviation History
1910
1910 - 0256.PDF
" Flight " Copyright. View of the engine and propeller on the Short biplane. The engine is mounted high up in the gap. A fore and aft spar joins the two transverse spars and serves as a means of attachment to one of the vertical struts between the main planes. Provision is made for APRIL 2, 1910. tilting these balancing planes either to a positive or negative angle, and owing to the method of mounting the fabric the planes automatically assume a camber as the result of the air pressure. Control. Control of the Short biplane is effected by means of two levers and a pair of pedals. The lever held in the pilot's left hand operates the elevator by a simple to and fro movement. The lever held in the pilot's right hand controls the lateral equilibrium of the machine by move ments of the balancing planes. The pedals operate the rudder, which is normally held in a straight-ahead position by the action of elastic springs. The coupling up of the right hand lever to the balancing planes is such that the pilot pushes the lever away from him when the right hand extremity of the machine is tilted above its proper level. It will be observed that the head resistances of the two balancing planes are equal to one another for any angle, consequently the machine does not tend to swerve from a straight path as the result of their use, and there is no need to employ the rudder in order to keep the course, as is the case with wing warping. The Engine and Propeller. The engine on this machine is a four-cylinder 35-h.p. Green motor having a bcre and stroke of 105 by 120 mm. and is mounted on two wooden girders that pass fore and aft between a couple of massive transverse girders bolted to four of the vertical struts between the main planes. The engine, as we have already pointed out, is raised above the lower deck so that the axis of the crank-shaft lies about midway in the gap. The two-bladed wooden propeller is direct-coupled to the crank-shaft. The petrol-tank lies just above the lower deck between vertical radiators on either side. Owing to the position of the engine it has been possible to fit a starting-handle on a swiveiling-bracket so that the engine can be started without handling the propeller, a refinement that is commendable, for the use of the propeller as a starting- handle unquestionably involves an element of danger that should be unnecessary. THE HORNSTEIN BIPLANE. THE characteristic feature of Mr. Homstein's machine, on which he had a mishap on Sunday, is extreme lightness of construction, his argument being that, for experimental purposes at any rate, the greater number of advantages lie with such a system. An interesting detail is the use of cork pads as distance-pieces in the con struction of the skids. Each skid consists of two thin strips of wood, set edge on to the ground and braced together by thin bolts passing through the cork pads, as shown in the accompanying sketch. This system of construction, although extremely light, is not very rigid laterally and the skids do not keep their shape very well, but it has been Mr. Hornstein's contention that anything capable of bending would be less liable to break, and therefore safer in the early days of experiments when it is generally a case of either bending or breaking some thing. Mr. Hornstein's biplane has a span of 10 metres, and a chord of 2 metres, the supporting area of the main planes being thus 40 square metres. In front is a biplane elevator, having a span of 2 35 metres, and a chord of 85 cms. Two machines of approximately similar dimen sions have been constructed, one being fitted with a Green engine and the other with a J.A. P. Chauviere propellers of 2'i metres diameter and 1 "6 metres pitch are employed. The estimated total weight of the machine in flight is 403 kilogs., including 193 lbs. for the pilot. "Flight" Copyright. Sketches illustrating two interesting details on the Hornstein biplane. The rib is solid, and steam bent to the required curvature. Each skid is made of two strips of wood, trussed by cork pads. The ribs that stiffen the fabric of the main planes are siso of unusual <vwctnnMu"«n Th^»v have 1 TtrwrjScn T section, as shown in the accompanying sketch, and are steam bent to the required curvature. 254
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