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Aviation History
1912
1912 - 1202.PDF
l/ttfSf) DECEMBER 21, 1912. EDDIES. THINGS are moving along at a fairly rapid pace at Messrs. A. V. Roe and Co.'s works in Manchester. Next week will see the dispatch to Eastchurch of a 100-h.p. Gnome-engined hydro-biplane that has been constructed to an Admiralty order. There, it will be tested on behalf of the firm by Mr. Stanley Adams. As usual with Avro productions, there are many interesting points about the machine, especially as regards the under carriage which is adapted for alighting on and rising from, either water or land. It has one main float, a stepped one of Gnosspelius design, but the combination of wheels and floats is essentially an Avro invention, the subject ot a patent that is at the present time being applied for. All on, with pilot, passenger—the machine is a two-seater—and enough petrol and oil for a six hours' flight aboard, the machine is expected to weigh some thing in the neighbourhood of 2,500 lbs. * • • In addition, four more Avro biplanes with 50-h.p. Gnome engines, the same as those already supplied to them, have been ordered by the War Office. That it is purely a repeat order is sufficient to indicate that the biplanes previously supplied have given every satisfaction in use. « • • If anyone ever did deserve success it is Mr. A. V. Roe, for he was one of the earliest pioneers of the aeroplane movement in England, and throughout the period during which aeroplanes have been arriving at their present-day state of advancement, he has stuck to his guns and persevered in face of many disheartening reverses. As may be remembered, Mr. Roe's early experiments in Hying were carried out at Brooklands during the end of 1907 and the beginning of 1908, but the flying ground as it is now was non existent then, and the hops that he managed to accomplish then were done along the finishing straight of the track. His shed, in those days, was not big enough to house the machine completely erected. It had to be taken out in bits, and two hours of solid hard work had to be gone through before the machine was ready for experimenting with. The same process had to be gone through in getting the biplane back under cover, when the tests were finished for the day. Mr. Roe had no assistance whatsoever in building the machine, or in experimenting with it. How many men would have been content to continue working under such trying conditions ? Another machine, a triplane, was then evolved and taken to Lea Marshes. But there was trouble there with the authorities, for when the grass was long he was ordered off for depreciating the value of somebody's grazing rights, and when the grass was short he was ordered off just the same, but for the reason that he was causing an obstruction on public property. Later on he took up his quarters at Wembley, where the same sort of thing occurred. His presence there was not deemed desirable for the fact that he had had the misfortune to smash up his machine in the middle of the much revered cricket ground with somewhat disastrous effects to the quality of the pitch. • • • And so misfortunes went on for some while. However, it is gratifying to hear that a private limited company of /,3o,ooo capital has been formed to absorb Messrs. A. V. Roe and Co's business, as from the first day of the New Year. With the pressure of business they have had during the past year, they have had to extend their works on several occasions. Their enlarged capital will enable the firm to set out constructing on a much larger scale, and doubtless they will lay themselves out for foreign business to a greater extent than they have up to the present. Mr. A. V. Roe and his company have, I am sure, the sincerest wishes for success of all FLIGHT readers. • • • Undoubtedly one of the most notable flights of the year was that undertaken by Verrier, with Lieut. Mapplebeck as passenger, on a Maurice Farman biplane from Hendon to Brooklands, on Wednesday of last week. The wind throughout the trip was blowing, as shown by the recording anemometer at Brooklands, at velocities of between 35 and 45 m.p.h. From Mr. Clement Greswell, one of our earlier pilots, and at present assistant manager of the Aircraft Company, I was able to glean a few particu lars of this flight. The machine Verrier flew was destined for the Royal Flying Corps, and it was Verrier's intention to fly it over to Farnborough. About half-past eleven in the morning he made an ascent at Hendon to see what things were like, and although the wind was so strong that occasionally he seemed to be standing still, never theless he decided to fly straight ahead to the Royal Aircraft Factory. The wind was dead against Verrier the whole time, and although the trip to Brooklands is only a matter of 22 miles, his flying time for the distance was no less than 2h. 10m. which gives an average speed over the ground of about 10 miles an hour. • » » Mr. Greswell followed the machine in the car, and whereas in the ordinary way in chasing an aeroplane one has to go " all out" to keep the machine in sight, in this case the difficulty was in exactly the opposite direction. Mr. Greswell had to stop several times and wait for Verrier to catch him up. Flying a 55 miles an hour machine in a 45 miles an hour wind needs a good deal of pluck and endurance on the part of the pilot, and so I beg to tender my heartiest congratulations to Verrier for his ability to carry out such a performance, and to the Aircraft Company for the excellence of the Maurice Farman biplane that enabled the feat to be accomplished. • * • It is quite a well-known thing on the aerodromes that a pilot, when turning on a monoplane, which has the propeller revolving in a clockwise direction as seen by him from his seat behind it, feels a good deal more wind on his face when turning to the right than when turning to the left. This is a little problem which will give readers, who are fond of such things, something to ponder over at Christmas time. » • • Mr. G. M. Dyott is back again in England from the States, where he was for some time in charge of the Sloane Aeroplane School. He had an interesting tale to tell of a lady he chatted with after he had been doing some flights out in Mexico city. He had previously been up to a fair height on his two-seater Deperdussin, and his lady friend remarked that flying so high must indeed be difficult. " Not in any way," replied Dyott, " it would be a great deal more difficult to fly from one 1202
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