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Aviation History
1914
1914 - 0644.PDF
JUNE 19, 1914. [ftjGHT] THE BURGESS-DUNNE HYDRO-BIPLANE. DURING the last four months some very successful trials have been carried out in the United States with a Dunne hydro-biplane manufactured by the Burgess Company and Curtiss of Marblehead, Mass., U.S.A., who have acquired the sole rights to manufacture the Dunne machines in America. The production of a hydro-aero plane on the Dunne principle presented numerous technical difficulties, in fact Lieut. J. W. Dunne himself considered that the inherent stability and the balance, both in the air and on the water, would be seriously affected by the fitting of afloat in place of the chassis, the former being considerably heavier and offering much more resistance than the latter. Mr. Burgess, however, set to work and went thoroughly into the matter of the Dunne principle, and after making exhaustive calculations as regards head resistance, weight, and centre of pressure under various conditions, he produced the first Dunne stability, as has been described at length in the columns of FLIGHT. At the centre of the lower plane is a short fuselage, rectangular in section and tapering fore and aft to a horizontal knife-edge. Mounted on the forward portion of this fuselage is a coracle-like nacelle, in which the pilot sits, whilst the rear portion carries the power plant. The latter consists of a 90-100 h.p. 8 cyl. Curtiss model O-X water-cooled engine driving direct an 8 ft. propeller. A single radiator is mounted immediately in front of the engine. The fuel and oil tanks, the former having a capacity of 22 gallons and the latter 4 gallons, are mounted on the upper longerons of the fuselage, two service tanks being placed within the latter just in front of the radiator. The machine is supported on the water by a main central pontoon float 17 ft. 8 ins. in length and 3 ft. 1 in. General view of the Burgess-Dunne hydro-biplane floating on the water. hydro-biplane, which balanced perfectly both on the water and in the air at the first time of asking. A comparison of the accompanying scale drawings of this machine with those of the land model published in FLIGHT for Novem ber 15th last, will show that except for the float, nacelle, and a few minor details, one does not differ from the other. In fact the principal dimensions and most of the constructional details are identical. It will, therefore, only be necessary for us to dwell briefly on the latter, so that we may confine our remarks to the modifications and actual performances. The swept-back planes are of the usual Dunne formation with the leading edge set at an inverted dihedral angle producing a negative angle of incidence at the tips, and are built up on two main spars of spruce, the front one forming the leading edge. The camber increases from practically nil aX the centre to a maximum at the tips. It is to this peculiar formation that the Dunne machine owes its natural inherent beam, with a maximum depth of 15 ins. The float tapers to a horizontal knife-edge forward, and has a single hydro plane step at a point about one-third the length from the stern. It is divided into five transverse water-tight bulk- "heads. Four pairs of spruce struts of steam-line section connect the float with the fuselage, the whole " chassis " being strongly cross-braced with wire. An auxiliary float is mounted at the bottom of each side curtain at the wing tips in order to support the latter when the machine rolls sideways. These auxiliary floats are similar in shape to the main float, but have no step. The Burgess Dunne is controlled in exactly the same manner as the land machine is. This control consists of ailerons only, operated by two separate levers, the right-hand lever operating those on the right side and vice versa. To ascend both levers are pulled back, causing the ailerons on each side to move up, and thus force the wing tips—which virtually form the tail of the machine, being 644
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