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Aviation History
1912
1912 - 0439.PDF
It was designed jointly by Mr. W. O. Manning and Mr. Howard Wright to fulfil War Office requirements. And from the tests that have already been carried out—it has lifted with perfect ease two passengers over its full complement, four persons in all, and that with the ignition of its ioo-h.p. Gnome motor very much retarded, and with its extra passengers standing outside on the cellule, where they each were absorbing a considerable power in extra head resistance—we think we can safely predict that it will have no very great difficulty in showing itself to advantage in the military com petitions. Second impressions single out for notice the large gap of 8 ft. between the main supporting surfaces, the hugeness of the propeller, it measures eleven and a half feet from tip to tip, and the neatness of the centre to 5 ft. at the tips. The extra span of the upper surface is made up by an extension on each side. These extensions are virtually complete monoplane wings braced to the rigid plane structure by king posts and steel cable on top, and by stranded steel cable below. They are arranged to warp for the correction of lateral balance. Both their tips and the tips of the lower plane are finished off like those of the Borel wing in order to obtain a very powerful warp. The warping is operated by stout stranded steel cables passing from the rear boom of one extension under stream-line pulleys on the lower plane, straight through to the pulley on the opposite side and up to the other extension. The operating-wires from the control-wheel are " tapped " on to this main cable, for by this arrangement the move- Details of the front section of the machine, showing the engine mounting, the main hickory skid, and the unsprung landing gear. Detail of the Coventry Ordnance landing chassis, showing the small hickory skid in tended to protect the chassis should anything happen to the wheels. The wheel is omitted to avoid complication. the landing gear, unsprung except for the resiliency that its large six-inch tyres afford. A factor of safety of 12 has been worked to throughout, and probably it was the consideration of how to obtain that safety factor without having to resort to too much weight of material that influenced the designers in deciding to make their machine a double-decker. It was built throughout at Howard Wright's original works at Battersea, with the exception of most of the metal work. This was turned out at the Coventry works. The total area of supporting surface is, roughly, 350 square feet, this lifting its total load of about 2,000 lbs. all on, at its flying speed of 60 miles per hour—a loading of approximately si lbs. to the square foot. The upper and lower surfaces span 40 ft. and 20 ft. respectively, the chord in both cases diminishing from 6 ft. in ments and jerkings that are produced in the main warping cable by the action of wind gusts on each warping surface, are communi cated direct to the opposite wing-tip and not, as in many cases, via the control-wheel. This feature should also materially lessen the fatigue of the pilot when flying in anything of a strong wind. The warp-compensating wires on top pass over rocking king posts and down again under pulleys fixed just above the rear wing-spar. For a biplane, the spars, of ash, are of very generous dimensions. They are 3 inches in depth and over an inch thick in both cases. The ribs are of spruce, and solid, except for the drilling in each to allow the internally fitted drift cables to pass. These drift cables are, by the way, of the same size solid core stranded steel cables as are used for taking the main lift. The 8 ft. vertical struts separating the main planes are of silver THE COVENTRY ORDNANCE BIPLANE.—Thta.-quarter back view. 439
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