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Aviation History
1912
1912 - 0039.PDF
;BBIES. THE other day, in town, I came across Lewis Turner, who has just returned from St. Petersburg, where he has been engaged on work in connection with the Kennedy Avi ation Co. Con- t ra ry to his expectations, the machine was not finished before the advent of the Russian winter, and so tests have yet to be carried out. So severe is the winter in the north of Russia that flying has to be entirely aban doned, owing to difficulties experi enced with the carburettor. In the meantime, the machine, a biplane of entirely novel design, is ap proaching comple tion, and Lewis Turner intends to return to the scene of operations at the commence ment of their spring, in order to complete the practical tests. Lewis ,-W. F. Turner, who has just returned to England after a four months' period of flying in Russia. Although he did not fly the machine he originally went out to test, Lewis Turner was by no means idle, for, before the really •cold weather set in, he was given carte blanche in regard to the club Farmans at the St. Petersburg aerodrome. On these he showed the local talent how figures of eight are done in England. In his last flight, with the thermometer registering 12 degrees below zero, he passed over some of the suburbs of St. Petersburg, a risky thing to do in view of the stringent regulations against flying over that city. Hugues Simon, a Parisian journalist, who will be remembered as having figured in a photograph published some time since in FLIGHT, of "Beaumont" and M. Chereau leaving Buckingham Palace after their audience with the King, has perfected a device to safeguard aeroplanes against fire. * • -. The prospect of receiving Government orders is at least giving rise to developments in the industry. I hear that the well-known •firm of Howard T. Wright is being acquired by the Coventry Ordnance Co., who are extensive contractors to the Government. The machine which they are entering for the Government tests is to be a biplane, equipped with a IOO-h.p. Gnome, and I understand that it will be piloted by that able exponent, Mr. T. O. M. Sopwith. The present works at Battersea are to be retained until this machine is completed, when in all probability they will close down in the metropolitan area and continue their building operations in Coventry. • • • Sydney V. Sippe, who has just qualified for his aviator's certificate on an Avro biplane, at Brooklands, has had a longer connection with ® ® Edinburgh Aero Club. IT should be understood that this club is not a model club, although it is proposed to run a section for model makers and those working with gliders. The club will possess a biplane which has already been successfully flown. The subscription has been fixed at £2 2s,, while that for the glider and model section will be 5-f. A course of lectures is also being arranged. the practice of aviation than is generally known. As early as the latter half of 1909, he, with his friend Jenson, constructed a mono plane on more or less " Demoiselle " lines, built throughout of steel tubing, welded together by the oxy-acetylene process. The machine was taken for testing purposes to Addington in Surrey. • • • On one occasion, when testing the pull of the engine, which was reputed to be of 20 h.p., but which never really gave more than 12, by running the machine, without wings, over the ground, Sippe had the misfortune to get into a rut, with the result that he smashed the propeller, both wheels, and incidentally his poor nose, which came into violent contact with a steel crossbar. With the engine tuned up and the wings fitted the machine flew at its first attempt, but as not much financial encouragement was forthcoming in those days, and indeed for the matter of that even at the present time, these experiments had to be brought to a conclusion, Sippe settling down to study, for the time being, the technical aspects of the science, while his friend Jenson went to India in connection with gas-engine work. • • « The writer, whose destiny it is to remain more or less all the winter working in cheerless London, is just envying Graham Gilmour, who has taken a machine out to sunny Antibes, on the French Riviera, where he intends to carry out flights during the season. • • • As foretold in these paragraphs a short while ago, Lieut. Spencer Grey and his Blackburn monoplane have not been long in proving their joint worth. Last Sunday he made a fine flight across Weymouth Bay to Portland Roadstead, where the Home Fleet are assembled at anchor. Circling overhead many times, he created a great impression, not only of his ability as pilot, but of the superficial grace of his machine. • • • Those of us who have personal recollections of Will Gibson in his capacity of works manager at the Bleriot school at Hendon, will be interested to hear that, since joining Frank Champion, at the latter's school of aviation at Los Angeles, Southern California, he has successfully built and flown a biplane of his own design. The machine is more or less of the Avro type. Imagine a Bleriot fuselage fitted with the Wright type wings, a Farman type chassis, Curtiss type control, with a 60-h.p. Hall-Scott motor mounted in front, and you have a mental perspective sketch of his biplane. That it flew at the first attempt is indicative of his ability as designer-constructor. • • . The new biplane, the first production of its type from the excellent works of the Aeronautical Syndicate, Hendon, the appearance of which was foretold some few weeks ago in FLIGHT has now been completed, and is now awaiting a spell of favourable weather for the initial tests to be carried out. Details I have already obtained, but these I am not at liberty to disclose until these tests have been brought to a satisfactory conclusion. * * . The excellence of the work of the Army aircraft factory at Farnborough is not so open to doubt as some would have us believe, for it was on one of the factory biplanes that Geoffrey de Havilland has just qualified for his superior certificate, completing the return course from Farnborough to Shrewton. • * • Things are moving apace at the Brighton-Shoreham Aerodrome. In order that shedholders may be on the spot and able to avail themselves of every period of early morning calm, a club house is shortly to be erected. A view of this building as it will appear when completed appears elsewhere in this issue. It is intended to furnish 20 bedrooms for their use and two billiard-rooms, each with two tables, are to be provided. Good luck to such sound enterprise. t>„.. "OISEAU BLEU." ® ® By Tube to Hendon Flying Grounds. WHEN the new extension of the Hampstead and Highgate Tube becomes a. fait accompli, Hendon will be much easier of access to Londoners, as one of the five new stations—CoUindale—will be quite near the flying ground. The work, however, will take two years to carry through after the necessary Parliamentary powers have been obtained. 39
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