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Aviation History
1911
1911 - 0281.PDF
APRIL I, 191 I. machine is only designed to carry the pilot, its general lines are characterised by short overall length, and so this par ticular machine has an uncommonly neat appearance. More conventional examples of enclosed body-work, in which the surface material is merely laid straight on the frame and forms flat sides are to be seen in the BISriot, Martin- Handasyde, Bristol and Blackburn monoplanes, and, strictly speaking, it is to this latter category that the Nieuport also belongs. [/O GHT of struts in the gap and the engine in front, constitute*the outstanding features of the Breguet type. Various other applications of this principle of enclosed body-work to biplane construction are to be found among the modern examples of the Farman type of aeroplane. The Bristol machine of this pattern, made by the British and Colonial Aeroplane Co., hasja kind of car' for the pilot ^ '•'••.- (k^u, '' [M v/> ^ 'IP 'S. 1 1 _L_ | "V , "^ < >^/ ^>C ^^""^-^ fiXrV* fefKs-^^ S' \M\ FAHNKN Imj REM*-- • MB tuevATOR. "Flight' Copyright. Sketch illustrating how the attitude of the tail is adjusted by a hand wheel on the Sommer-type Humber biplane. The most interesting development of enclosed body-work is, however, in connection with some of the modern biplanes which hitherto have always been characterised by the entire exposure of all the principal masses. The most important— as it was also one of the earliest examples of this system of construction—is the Breguet biplane, which may be described as having a monoplane body supporting biplane wings. The body is completely surfaced from head to tail, and is of ^,reat length. Unfortunately it has a most ungainly appearance, owing to a peculiar discontinuity in its lines ; but this is, perhaps, more pronounced when the pilot is not on board, because the general shape has been based on the aviator's position in the machine and on the amount that his body projects above the level of the frame. A new type of Bristol biplane, which is now being built in addition to the Farman pattern, is designed on Breguet lines and has the characteristic enclosed body, which, with the single row " Flight " Copyright. Detail sketch illustrating the rear elevating plane on the Farman biplane. and passenger, but the engine, being a rotary Gnome, is exposed. On the genuine Maurice Farman, exhibited by the Aeroplane Supply Co., a similar casing extends round the engine also, which in this case is a stationary Renault, with the propeller mounted on the half-speed cam-shaft. On the Grahame-White biplane the pilot and passenger sit in a dainty little gondola. On the Howard Wright the outrigger carrying the foot-rest is covered in underneath and forms a kind of tray, but otherwise everything is exposed as in the original design. ' Turning to a consideration of the machines at Olympia from the point of view of their general design, it is interesting to compare them by classification into broader and somewhat more fundamental divisions than results from a mere dis cussion as to whether they are in the latest mode as regards body construction. There are, as we have mentioned abread) twenty machines on view, ten koi which are biplanes and ten monoplanes. Of the ten biplanes, five may properly be classified as belong' ing, to the Farman type. These include " Flight" Copyright. The boat-like body of the Kny aeroplane, built by Mulliner's of Long Acre and Northampton. Apart from this characteristic feature the most important structural detail is the method of swivelling the wings and depressing the leading edge so as to alter their attitude and camber simultaneously. 283 " Flight" Copyright. View showing the fish-like body on the Handley Page monoplane.
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