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Aviation History
1912
1912 - 0756.PDF
[/OGHT "Flight" Copyright. THE MERSEY MONOPLANE.—Sketch of the front central section of the machine. braced in the usual manner to the cabane above and the skids below. The body lay wholly below the wings—although the pilot looked out over the top of them—in order to bring the centre of thrust of the propeller on the line of the centre of resistance. The under- ® ® FATAL ACCIDENT TO IT is a matter of supreme regret when any aviator should lose his life in the cause, but it is especially to be deplored that the military aeroplane trials should thus have been marred by a fatal accident. Mr. R. C. Fenwick, designer, constructor and pilot of the Mersey monoplane, took his machine out for the third time on Tuesday evening, about a quarter past six, and flew off in the direction of Stonehenge. About a mile and a half from the sheds the machine was noticed to fly unsteadily, and the end of this unhappy effort was, by all accounts, a nose dive to earth at the termination of which Mr. Fenwick was killed and the aeroplane wrecked. Few people, apparently, saw, or were in a position to see exactly, what happened, but from observations it was noted that the anemometer registered a sudden increase in gustiness about the time the machine started off on its last journey, while Busteed, who was flying the Bristol monoplane in that vicinity just previously, is similarly reported to have stated that the remous thereabouts were very bad. The why and wherefore of the accident, however, it is *he proper purpose of the Public Safety and Accidents Investigation ® ® HENDON THERE was very little wind last Saturday, but in order, that the aviators should not have it all their own way, the Clerk of the Weather ordered a plentiful supply of rain. But this did not prevent some decent exhibition flying and a Speed Handicap taking place. Lewis Turner, on the Grahame-White Biplane was the first up, flying for about ten minutes. After, Nardini, on his Deperdussin monoplane and Desoutter on the Bleriot gave several exhibition flights, the last named flying in his usual daring manner. A Speed Handicap over four laps of the aerodrome was then held, Turner, Nardini and Desoutter being the starters. The latter was scratch man, giving Nardini 5 sees., and Turner 2 mins. 30 sees, start. By the time Nardini had got away, Turner had nearly completed his first lap, but the monoplane soon overhauled the biplane; Desoutter was unable to gain the lead. The result was, therefore, a win for Nardini by 6£th sees., his time for the four laps AUGUST 17, 1912. carriage, as will be seen from the sketch, was of the wheel and skid type, and the skids continued far in front of the machine to obviate any chance of the machine, when landing on bad ground, turning on to its nose. The landing gear was exceptionally high. This undoubtedly lowered considerably the centre of resistance and was expected to do so by the designer. The tail, with its elevator and rudder, were carried by an outrigger consisting of two tubular steel booms stayed by single piano wires top and bottom to the overhead mast and the undercarriage. On the previous Sunday evening it had flown very satisfactorily, and under none too pleasant conditions. It has carried, in addition to its pilot (Mr. Fenwick) " Flight" Copyright. THE MERSEY MONOPLANE.-The tail of the Mersey monoplane. and its passenger (Mr. H. Petre), a load of fuel sufficient to keep it in the air for six hours. It rose and flew exceptionally well with all that weight, considering it was equipped with such a relatively low-powered motor as the 45-h.p. Isaacson. @ ® MR. R. C. FENWICK. Committee of the Royal Aero Club to investigate, the debris having been thoroughly inspected by responsible persons before it was destroyed by fire. It is, however, to be hoped in this connection that in all cases of disasters of this character, discretion will be used as to the time when the wreckage may be turned into a bonfire, seeing that when a pilot loses his life the least that those living can do in his honour is to profit in all reverence by the lessons of his mis fortune. In all the principal aviation centres, representatives of the safety committee have been appointed by the Royal Aero Club and it is to be hoped that the military authorities, police and aerodrome managers will assist them in efficiently carrying out their work, and will at any rate, as we have suggested, avoid any wanton destruction of invaluable evidence for the sake of hypocritical sentiment. The aviation world suffers a great loss by Mr. Fenwick's death ; he was a clever designer and an able pilot, which combination is none so common that we can afford to lose even one of any we have. The Mersey aeroplane on which the fatal accident occurred was No. 19 in the trials and had made only two previous ascents. ® ® FLYING. being 8 mins. 36^ths sees. Turner was second in 8 mins. 43 sees., and Desoutter's time was 9 mins. Sfths sees. As is generally the case with the week-ends at Hendon, Sunday provided a far better show of flying than the previous day, the weather conditions being very much better. The event of the day, was the return of Robert Slack from his I.C.S. tour of the Midlands. He had left Rugby at 5.10 p.m. and arrived at Hendon at 6.10 p.m., thus covering the seventy miles in exactly one hour. Lieut. Parke flew over from Brooklands on an Avro biplane, taking about thirty minutes and landing just after Slack had arrived. During the after noon exhibition flights were given by the following pilots :—H. J. D. Astley and Marcel Desoutter on the Bleriot, Jules Nardini on the Deperdussin, A. Marty on the Ewen School Caudron, R. T. Gates, Lewis Turner, and A. Blackburn on Grahame-White biplanes.
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