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Aviation History
1914
1914 - 0838.PDF
THE " ROUND BRITAIN »» ACHINES. ALTHOUGH the Circuit of Britain for the Daily Mail prize, which was to have started from Southampton on Monday next, has naturally been indefinitely postponed by the Royal Aero Club on account of the calamity of war in which this country has been involved, the work and money expended by the manufacturers on the various machines are not by any means wasted, since it seems likely that they will be called upon to show their istics of all the machines, which should prove useful for purposes of comparison. The machine which was officially numbered i is: The Sopwith Tractor Biplane. Our readers are already familiar with previous Sopwith machines of the tractor type through illustrated descrip tions in FLIGHT, and the Circuit biplane does not differ materially from its prototypes except in dimensions. Particulars and Official Numbers of Machines entered for Round Britain Race. Pilot. Machine. t X H Span. 1 ' i 1 a. ; "• >D wer . o tJ d « O ord . -c U i s < I Weight. Speed, m.p.h. £ 1 Engine. p. 1 V. Mahl ... 2 C. H. Collet C. M. Tixton ... C. Grahame-White F. B. Fowler ... Capt. E. C. Bass F. P. Raynham ... S. Pickles A. Loftus Bryan... Sopwith T.B. Beardmore D.F.W. T.B. Sopwith | Grahame-White ... E.A.C W hite and Thompson (Curtiss) Avio Blackburn ... ... White and Thompson (Curtiss) B.B. T.B. T.B. F.B. T.B. T.B. F.B. it. 36 44 55 28 54 4S 6.3 5° 52 ft. 36 40 45 28 54 34 38 35 40 it. in. 4 9 6 o 7 o 5 H 5 9 5 9 6 6 5 9 ft. 5 5 5 6 5 6 5 S i* 35o 6 450 600 290 700 400 600 464 500 ft. 30 25 36 27 ¥ 27 V 33 32 in. 0 Ail. 0 Ail. 0 Ail. 3 Ail. 0 1 Ail. 6 Ail. 6 Ail. 0 Ail. 3 Ail. lbs. lbs. I 1550 2190 ;8o 1500 2240:85 2300 3180 I 75 1040 1800 '. 85 1850 2809:65 l600 24OO!— 20S0 2S00170 1500 2200 75 2000 3000 J — 45 Gnome Beardmore- AustroDaim. Sunbeam ... Gnome ... Green Beardmore- Austro-Daim. Sunbeam ... Salmson 2 Curtiss ... IOO 120 R.M. V. 200 IVee 100 I R.M. 100 V. 120 !V. 150 135 100 each Vee Rad. Vee T.B. = Tractor biplane. R.M. = Rotary mouosoupape. B.B. = Bat boat. Rad. = Radial. F.B. - Flying boat. V. = Vertical. Ail. = Ailerons. Vee = Vee type. capabilities in actual service instead of in a peaceful race round our coasts. As the nine entries may be said to represent fairly closely the present trend of our seaplane industry, we think that our readers will agree that descrip- tionsof these nine types of seaplanes will be of greatinterest. We therefore intend to publish in the present and succes sive issues articles dealing with the construction of these nine " Circuit" machines, dealing with them in the order of their official numbers in the race. As a number of the machines are, at the time of going to press, still in the shops in a more or less unfinished state, it has been im possible to obtain photographs of all of them, and we From the accompanying illustrations it will be seen that the fuselage is slightly more elongated than is usual in the Sopwith Scouts, probably in order to counteract to a certain extent the side area of the floats. Since the machine was flown as a land aeroplane at Brooklands the size of both rudder and tail fin has been increased, so that the vertical surface aft now seems quite capable of taking care of the side area of the two floats, and the nose of the covered-in fuselage. This member, which is of rectangular section topped by a turtle back, is built up in the usual way of four ash longerons, struts, cross- members, and diagonal bracing. At the rear the fuselage have therefore had perspective sketches prepared, from which those of our readers who are not experts in "reading" scale drawings may obtain a good idea of the general arrangements of the machines. In addition to these sketches we are giving drawings either to scale, or in some cases as nearly as possible to scale, and in the present issue will be found a table of the chief character- 838 ROUND BRITAIN MACHINES. -No. 1. The Sopwith tractor biplane. terminates in a vertical knife-edge, whilst in the nose of the machine the longerons of the fuselage converge to join the front engine bearer, which forms a horizontal knife-edge. The aluminium cowl over the engine is" of the same type as that fitted on the small scouting biplanes, a type which has been found in practice to combine a good entry for the air with sufficient cooling of the engine.
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