FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1910
1910 - 0548.PDF
rasi one second, so that his time of 2 mins. 38I sees, now stands at the head of the list, Christiaens, again flying very low but apparently faster, also makes an attempt on speed with a fastest lap in 2 mins. 38^ sees., thus tieing with Radley, and five laps in 13 mins. 32^ sees., which places him first with a lead of 1 min. 7£ sees, on Rolls. Dickson goes up next for a trial flight, and concludes a short spin with an admirably executed steep glide. The wind has now dropped to its lowest recorded value of under three miles an hour, and all the flags hang limp. Again Dickson takes up his Farman, and in a short time goes out of bounds towards Wimborne, and turns seawards. The signal-board, however, shows that this fine flight is not officially observed. Presently Dickson returns and descends so that Grahame-White is left in the air to finish off alone the best day of flying that has yet been seen in Britain. Before Starting on his long-distance flight, Grahame-White asked the Committee to grant an extension of time in his favour under a clause in the rules which gives the officials this power, and as the result of their consent he was able to fly on until 9 p.m., although sunset occurred at 8.13 p.m. Under these circumstances he is credited with 50 laps = 89 miles 360 yds. for the long-distance contest. His time for this distance was 2h. 31m. 49|s., which is equivalent to a speed of 35 "4 m.p.h., or a shade slower than Christiaens. Grahame - White was nearly 2 mins. slower on Christiaens' time for the 47 laps. Tuesday, July 12th. Greater evidence of sunshine brought an increased velocity or wind, the flags waving energetically in the breeze, and the signal mast carrying the white sphere and black cone, to signify " wind between 11 and 14 miles an hour." Until noon, theie is not so much as the sound of an engine, and when Grahame-White ascends in his shirt-sleeves, it is only to make a short circuit for the benefit of his engine, in preparation for the landing prize, that is to be held between the hours of 11 and 1 p.m. A few minutes later he makes the attempt, by crossing a white line in flight, circling a mark tower once, and returning to a white circle that has been described to a radius of 50 yds. on the starting line as its diameter. In the centre of the circle is a white " bull's-eye," 12 ft. in diameter, and driving low across the wind, Grahame-White touches ground within the circle, and pulls up 43 ft. 2| ins. from the centre. But for the fact that Grahame-White had difficulty in getting his engine to stop, he would have come to rest practically on the spot, indeed, everyone in the vicinity expected this to be the result. Next in the field is Audemars on the little Clement-Bayard Santos Dumont type monoplane. He and his machine arrived overnight and his first intention is to take a look at the ground, but he comes down in rather bad ground without hurting either his machine or himself. Rolls then attempts for the landing test with much the same tactics as Grahame-White, but runs 78 ft. 10 ins. past the bull. Jew 6, 1910. Dickson tries to come up in the teeth of the wind, but his landing is too much of a drop and the chassis struts are broken. The propeller also catches in the cross-ties of the chassis and pulls one of the wires under the valve rock-lever on one of the cylinders of his Gnome engine. The mishap suggests that attention should be paid in design to the placing of the wires so that they are not likely to foul a moving part when they sag. One fact that Dickson's descent demonstrated very clearly is the splendid buffer action of the Fannan chassis. Hardly anything that could not be replaced BARRIER ARK TOWER. SRAND STAND Plan of the arena for the Landing Prize, showing how the competitors attempted to land in the ring. The solid line represents the successful attempt of Grahame-White and the first successful attempt of Rolls. The dotted line shows how Rolls in a second attempt tried to dive into the ring from above the grand stands in order to pull up in the ring head to wind. without trouble was broken, yet the machine certainly landed very heavily, and at first sight the apparent crumpling up of the mem bers suggested that the chassis would be a wreck. Each of these attempts pointed to one conclusion, that the position of the circle in respect to the wind made this particular competition extremely difficult and not a little hazardous. The wind was in the worst possible quarter for the pilots, for it was blowing obliquely towards the grand stands, and this precluded the possibility of alighting head on to the wind, except. by flying over the grand stands first. This both Rolls and Grahame-White were disinclined to do, and both very skilfully brought off the alternative &T BOURNEMOUTH AVIATION MEETING.-From left to rights Alderman Bkkerstaff (Blackpool), Mr. W. E. Mandeleck (Underground Railways, London), Mr. Claude Grahame-White, Sir Thomas Lipton Sir Clifton Robinson, Mr. Alfred Bowker (ex-Mayor of Winchester), Lady Clifton Robinson, Mr. Seymour Joseph, Mr. Clifton Robinson, jun. 546
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
