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Aviation History
1913
1913 - 0115.PDF
FEBRUARY I, 1913. stituted by two planes, 28 ft. and 14 ft. respectively, in span, set at an angle of 5 ' of incidence, and braced together by heavy-gauge piano wire and separated by eight hollow struts in two ranks. The four centre struts —for they support the body—are of ash, the outer ones are of spruce. The planes are built about two main ash spars, both of I-section, and the ribs occur at every foot, approximately, along their length. At those points at which vertical struts are attached to the spars, the ribs used are of the hollow box variety• in other places, they are built up, 1-section, with spruce flanges and three-ply distance pieces. To better maintain the shape of the plane, false ribs, extending from the leading edge to the front spar, are arranged midway between each main rib, and a pair of longitudinal stringers are run, at a point midway between front and rear spars, from one end of the plane to the other. The cross-section employed is that of the later 50-h.p. Gnome-Bleriot wing, the one that Eiffel refers to in his work on wing sections as Aile No. 13 bis. Lateral control of the machine is main tained by two balancing flaps, each of 7 ft. span, hinged to the rear spar at either end of the top plane. They work in conjunction, and are connected one to the other by stranded steel cables, which pass over red fibre pulleys clamped to the front spar. The landing-gear is of a type which, if it cannot be said of it that it is original, still maintains its own as probably the most serviceable type of undercarriage ever devised. The skids are of ash, and each supports its side of the machine through two vertical ash struts and three steel " Flight " Copyrigm. The producers of the new Grahame-White machine. On the right Mr. T. R. Gates, the commercial head of the Grahame-White Aviation Co., Ltd.; on the left Mr. J. D. North, their designer. tubes, which are arranged to give the maximum of rigidity. Throughout, its length between the attachments of the vertical struts, each skid is spindled down to an I-section, and the overhang behind the rear vertical strut is laminated and made flexible in such a way that it may take the weight in landing of the rear part of the machine. Thus we find that the tail skid has been suppressed, as it has been in many machines of late. Of the strength of the chassis there can be little doubt, since the struts have an ample cross-section, and they are only about 18 ins. in length. Ash outriggers support the tail, and they arc braced by a steel wire and by vertical hollow wooden struts, and horizontal steel tubes. For lightness' sake the out riggers are hollowed out to I-section between those points where bolts pass through them to anchor the sockets accommodating the vertical and horizontal cross-members. The tail, being cambered and set at a positive angle of 20, does a small share of the total lift. Behind it are the two elevator-flaps by which the attitude of the machine is controlled. The body of the machine, in which the pilot sits, where are accommodated the fuel tanks, and to which the motor is mounted, is essentially a box girder some 12 ft. in length, built up of ash longitudinals, cross- members of oval-section steel tubing, and vertical members of spruce and ash. It is enclosed in front by three-ply wood, and along its sides by fabric. At its rear end it is capped by a flanged steel plate, to which the motor, a 35-h.p. Anzani of the very popular Y-type, is bolted. It drives a propeller of 2-ioo m. diameter and 1*500 m. pitch. This propeller, by the way, has been designed by Mr. J. D. North, who is also responsible for the general and detail design of the machine under review. In shape it is somewhat reminiscent of, and yet unlike, the Levasseur propeller, for the fact that its blades, scythe- shaped, revolve point first. The cross-section of its blades, however, is different, for, on what may be con sidered as the under surface of the blade, Mr. North has made use of the return curve. It is interesting to record that a static thrust of 310 lbs. has been obtained from an exactly similar propeller driven by a similar engine. Including four hours' supply of petrol and oil, and with the pilot on board, the weight of the machine comes out at slightly over 600 lbs., and thus its surface loading is, approximately speaking, 3 lbs. to the sq. ft. Its average flying speed is estimated at 50 miles an hour. ® ® ® ® Handing Over the I.C.S. Blirlot. THE formal presentation of the I.C.S. Bleriot monoplane took place at the War Office on the 28th ult., when Col. Secly received a deputation, introduced by Lord Desborough, and including Lord Montagu of Beaulieu, Sir Joseph Ward, and the Agents- General of the majority of British Colonies. The machine is the one on which Mr. Bertram Slack made his tour of Great Britain, and it was purchased by students of the International Corres pondence Schools, by subscriptions, the maximum amount of any donation being one shilling. In accepting the gift Col. Seely said that a machine which could be flown 1,700 miles without any mishap was well worth having, but he appreciated still more the splendid spirit which had prompted the gift. The deputation was unique among the many he had received. All before had come to ask him for something, but they came to give him something. They gave him something which would be very useful to the War Office, and he expressed his thanks and the thanks of the Government. Subsequently at a banquet held at the Westminster Palace Hotel, at which Mr. G. A. Seitz presided, Col. Seely said he could assure the company that the War Office were not losing sight of the national importance of the science of aviation. He was not going to anticipate the statement he would have to make in Parliament shortly, but he thought he might say that a remarkable advance had been made in this country, not only in the War Office, but outside, in the science of aviation.
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