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Aviation History
1910
1910 - 0381.PDF
MAY 14, 1910. towards the earth, in a wind of upward trend it can glide horizontally, because the rising trend of the wind takes the place of the falling on the part of the bird. The bird falls through the air just the same in both cases ; but whereas in still air the bird will ultimately come to earth, in an up current the bird can glide on indefinitely, and may even gain in altitude. It is necessary to the condition of soaring flight that the upward slope of the wind sHould be at least equal to the natural gliding angle of the bird, otherwise the bird will surely come to earth, although its glide may be prolonged.—ED.] CONTROL GEAR. £508] I am serjding you two diagrams, together with the de scription, of a control to be fitted to aeroplanes, which may be of interest to some of your readers. In this control there are two steering-wheels, a large one, B, and a small one, A. B is connected to the outer shaft of the steering- wheel column, while A is connected to the inner shaft, which terminates in the toothed-wheel F. The bevel-gear is operated by the wheel B working the inner shaft at D. E is a rack which is turned by A, through the toothed-wheel F, and is connected to the outer shaft at D. We will first consider the movement of the wheel B only. Suppose B is turned, then the inner shaft at D will turn ; this is connected, to work the vertical rudder for hori zontal steering. If, however, the wheel B, instend of being held firmly and turned, is just spun round, the whole steering-column will swing into a position as shown by the dotted lines in Fig. 2, the shaft D remaining stationary, and so not affecting the vertical rudder. By this a motion similar to that of the tiller of a yacht occurs at C. This movement is for working the ailerons for lateral stability. In this way lateral stability and horizontal steering are both effected by the one wheel, B. If a combined action of ailerons and vertical rudder is required, all the operator has to do is to hold the wheel, B, and push it bodily over to right or left, when it will -be seen from the diagram, Fig. 2, that a simultaneous action of vertical rudder and ailerons will take place. A, the smaller of the two steering-wheels, is intended to be used chiefly for operating the elevator, the toothed-wheel, F, moving the rack, E, which is connected through the outer shaft at D to the elevator. If, however, it is desired to manipulate the ailerons through A, spinning it round will have just the same effect as in the case of B, moving the steering-column over, as shown by dotted lines. Also, holding A firmly, and moving it sideways, will have the effect of combining the movements of the ailerons and elevator. Cleckheaton. G. B. SYKKS. GLIDING DESIGN AND A GLIDING GROUND WANTED. [S°9] 1 take the earliest opportunity of thanking Mr. W. H. Vaughan for his kind letter of advice. I did, as a matter of fact, have a try at building the glider before you were able to publish my letter. I do not mind admitting that it was unsuccessful. I never finished it, but it gave me much valuable experience, of sorts. I found that it was difficult to join my ribs up to the bamboo without unduly weakening the latter, and at the same time to make a firm job. Also that my leading and trailing edge* were too weak with out some support. I must admit that I have a sort of instinctive longing for a tail and elevator, as I rather think a tail gives stability, though I am not sure. As soon as I can I propose to start a new machine on the lines suggested by Mr. Vaughan, which I hope will be more successful. 1 live at Weybridt»e, and though I shall be away till September I hope then to be able to accept Mr. Vaughan's kind offer of showing me his machine. I should be immensely p§§s obliged if he could tell me of any good gliding ground within 20 miles or so of Weybridge. I thought of trying on some of the hills near Sunningdale, but I do not known whether one would be allowed to do so. Windsor. W. WHATELY SMITH. OF INTEREST TO HASTINGS AND DISTRICT RESIDENTS. [510] Will you allow me through the medium of your valuable paper to ask anyone interested in Hastings district, that is to say- Hastings, Bexhill, Battle, Rye, &c, to communicate with me with the idea of forming a " Model Aero Club," to advance, as far as possible, the art of flying in this district, which has splendid sur rounding country for that purpose, and to meet and to have model competitions, &c, and read papers of interest on the subject. We have Mr. Ogilvie flying at Rye, and Mr. Du Cros (the secretary of the Parliamentary Aerial Defence Committee) both local men who would, I am sure, give thrir help and support in this matter, and would do a great deal towards getting a flying week in the district. 60, Cambridge Road, Hastings. H. W. WILLIS. ANOTHER GLIDER. [511] I enclose a photo of my glider, which I think you might care to put in your valuable paper. It is a biplane, built to my own designs, and of somewhat original shape. Note the boat-like shape of the lower plane ; this gives it perfect automatic lateral stability even in a strong wind. I finished it a day before I sailed to South Africa, so was unable to give it a fair trial, but it made a very successful short glide in Wimbledon Park, with a fairly strong side wind. The machine kept a perfectly steady keel throughout, and my model does not object to even a strong wind. The photo, I'm afraid, is a bad one, taken in a rapidly failing light, with a four minutes' exposure. My mechanic is seen silting in it. I give a few dimensions : — Span of main planes ... 224 ft. Total lifting surface Width of same 6| ft. about 285 sq. ft. Length of elevating planes 13 ft. Weight 150 lbs. The whole frame is constructed of ash, except the elevating planes, which are of bamboo. It is mounted on strong bike wheels. Patents are being taken out for this invention. The Karroo, Cape Colony. CEDRIC BOUSTEAD. MODELS. HEAVY MODEL MONOPLANE. [512] In your issue of April 23, Mr. Benson (•172) in answer to Mr. Mackay's question as to the greatest possible weight for a model monoplane of Jijs sq. ft. refers to one of my small models as carrying 6'8 ozs. per sq. ft. It may interest him to know also that my larger models of about ij sq. ft. weigh IJ lbs., and from Mr. Broughton of Brighton I learn that one of his pupils has had flights of 300 yds. with one of these carrying 6 ozs. of lead, which gives a load of very nearly 21 ozs. per sq. ft. Kingston-on-Thames. T. W. K. CLARKE. CLOCKWORK V. ELASTIC. [513] In reply to Mr. Irvine Hoyle (440), I can assure him that, for a Santos-Dumont monoplane, clockwork is entirely out of the question. He will find a geared elastic motor, in turn geared down to the propeller very efficient. I did not make an exact model, but it was near enough. Two brass plates, A, B, are taken 379
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