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Aviation History
1913
1913 - 0380.PDF
1/JlGHTl sockets at each end of the box are vertically below the sockets in the corners of the roof. The four main uprights of the tent (which are constructed of two tubes fitting into one another, each about 6 ft. 6 ins. long) are then put through the sockets in the roof corners, and let down into the sockets on the boxes. Attached to the top of each of these uprights is a small tackle, the bottom block of which is hooked to a lug at each corner of the roof. Photo No. 7 shows the tent in this condition, and it will be noticed that the front of the tent top only remains APRIL 5 1913. about 40 ft. wide by 45 ft. deep and 12 ft. high to the lower roof girder. It will thus comfortably house any ordinary type of monoplane and a biplane up to the size of, say, a BE 2. Each box when fully loaded with metal tubes for this tent weighs approximately 300 lb., which is also roughly the weight of the tent itself. With three handles on each side of a box, six men can easily carry it at a fairly rapid walk. The tent itself is packed in a cover, which likewise has three handles an each side, and can be transported with equal facility. It can easily be understood that after a little practice four or five to be fixed along the top main girder in front by straps and buckles. When this is complete, the two front curtains of the tent are fixed on similarly over the three vertical uprights, and along the horizontal girder, by straps and buckles, as illustrated in photo No. 8. While a couple of men are fixing the straps and buckles, two or three others are employed in filling the boxes with bags of sand, if available, or if not, with earth, stones, rocks, or any solid weights that can be obtained. Each box will hold in this manner a weight of probably 300 lb., and thus a solid foundation is procured for the tent, obviating the necessity of using numerous stays and pegs, an advantage which cannot be over-estimated when one thinks of the extreme difficulty, if not impossibility, of employing pegs on either rocky or sandy foundations. The tent is now ready to be hoisted, this operation being performed by one man at each main upright. Photo No. 9 shows the tent hoisted halfway, and No. 12 shows it in its final position, with the front curtains clewed up. From the top of the rectangular-shaped girder roof, the tent runs backwards to an aperture about 4 ft. square, and this is built up with two vertical metal posts and one horizontal girder, to the upper extremities of which tackles are fastened, the other ends of which are hooked to stakes firmly driven into the ground, and then the whole of the back of the tent is drawn taut by hauling on these tackles. Another method of fixing the back of the tent that may be employed is to attach the four corners of the back aperture to the back of a motor car, which is then slowly driven ahead until all is taut, when the brakes are immediately applied to the car and it is allowed to remain there. Picture 10 gives an interesting skeleton view of the girder roof hoisted halfway on the four uprights without the tent being placed over it, and the picture n shows the tent half-rolled up on the ground preparatory to being packed away, for which operation both sides are rolled in to the centre to a width of about 4 ft, and then the long strip thus obtained is made up into a roll, as seen at the back of the first photo of the series. The hangar which is represented in these pictures is smart men would have no difficulty in erecting a tent such as this in less than a quarter of an hour, and, as a matter of fact, the five members of the Royal Flying Corps, who had only handled the tent once before the day of the demonstration at Farnborough last week, succeeded on that occasion in completing the erection of the tent in just 27 mins. This in itself is eloquent testimony of the real transportability, lightness, and utility of this new system of tent construction. It should be remarked that the Hervieu tents, although manufactured in all sizes up to 55 ft. in width, and suit able for housing virtually every known type of aeroplane, are not designed simply and solely for aviaiion purposes, but are being constructed in all shapes and sizes, from 6 ft. square upwards, and it seems probable that whilst they should be of immense use to all branches of the army, they will have an even wider range of use for ordinary camping work, mining expeditions, and any other purpose for which tents are required, when lightness, portability, strength and proof against bad weather are the main attributes which it is desired to obtain. The concession for Great Britain for these tents is in the hands of Messrs. Delacombe and Marechal, Carysfort, West Kensington, W. 3*6
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