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Aviation History
1916
1916 - 0551.PDF
JUNE 29, 1916, THE Judicial Committee of Inquiry into the administration and command of the R.F.C., resumed its sittings at Westminster Hall on Jute 2lst, Mi. Justice Bailhache again presiding. Mr. William Joseph Rusdell, an inventor, ofWolverhampton said that last year he saw the Assistant Director of Military Aero nautics, and put before him certain ideas regarding a helicopter. It was suggested to him that he should submit specifications. Subse quently he was told that he must get a machine made by private enterprise before it could be considered, and he received an offer for a finished article that would fulfil certain conditions. That seemed to him a very unsatisfactory state of things. He thought he should have been given an interview with a member of the Royal Aircraft Factory. He did not carry the matter further, as he was disgusted. Mr. C. Grey, editor of the Aeroplane, said that he had made certain criticisms in his paper about the Air Service. His chief criticism was that those in authority in the Royal Flying Corps- he could not say precisely who, or in what department—had not from, the beginning handled the supply of materials—including engines—in the manner which was best calculated to give our flying officers the best machines available at any one period. If the machines now in use in France had been in use during the past winter, there was every reason to believe that our casualties would have been considerably fewer. He believed that it was possible, not merely to have had the aeroplanes now in u«e, but better aeroplanes, or at any rate aeroplanes more effective as fighting machines and scouts. It was generally under stood that the Royal Aircraft Factory was directly or indirectly responsible for the type of machines used by the Royal Flying Corps. The first machine of any note produced by the Royal Aircraft Factory was the original biplane B.E. 2, invent* by Mr. de Havilland. In 1912 this was by far the best aeroplane in this country. On account of its excellence it was ordered in 1913-14 in considerable quantities, and it certainly did very good work. The chief criticism against it was that the lateral control was effected by warping the wings. That this criticism was sound had been proved by the fact that that system had since been abandoned. Yet a large number of these machines were ordered. From the autumn of 1912, when there was a military aenplane competition on Salisbury Plain, until the outbreak of wai, there was practically no incentive to British aeroplane designers to improve designs on their own account But for the support given to the aircraft industry by the Admiralty, there was no doubt that several firms who had since done good service to the State would have expired just as other firms had. It would be difficult to prove that any real encourage ment was given by the War Office. Criticising various details in the designs of the aeroplanes pro duced by the R.A.F. from 1912, the witness, in referring to one which met with an accident through the breaking of a steel rudder post, said that ordinary common sense would have prevented the use of such a tube. Mr. Botcher, K.C. : Common sense won't "carry you very far without science. Mr. Grey: Common sense has often carried us further in aero nautics than scientific knowledge. It was reasonable to expect, he added, that in endeavouring to improve machines there would be failures. Mr. Grey mentioned one machine in the drawings of which 250 alterations had been made since 1914. This had resulted in a great deal of delay in their production. Many of these alterations were due to sheer bad drawing and office management and errors in the original drawings—errors which ought not to have been made. Delay was also caused by a good deal of unnecessary complexity in design. There seemed, further, to have been a great deal of material wasted by insistence upon too close limits of variation, especially in woodwork. . . The machines which went out with the R.F.C. at the beginning of the war were : The old B.E. 2 C's. Some B.E. 2 B's (70 h.p. Renault). Bleriot monoplanes (80 h.p. Gnomes). Henry Farman (80 h.p. Gnomes). Maurice Farman (70 h.p. Renault). A few Bristol Scouts (80 h.p. Gnomes). Some 80 h.p. Avro biplanes (2-seaters). At that period the 80 h.p. Gnome engines did not give, on the propeller, more than 65 h.p., as against the full 70 of the Renault. Of all these machines the Avro " stood up to >ts work onactive service quite well, and, this considered, one would expect that the authorities would have had a number of machines built by the Avro Company. . - , , MrGrey said his chief criticism was, that private firms had not been encouraged as they should have been encouraged. The Avro people were particularly a case in point. They were cot encouraged THE R.F.C. INQUIRY. I/O GHT early in the war, though they had produced a machine which had made good on active service. They were not encouraged to produce anything letter. The BE. 2 C had been ordered in quite large quantities from firms all over the country. He had it on the authority of one of the best and most successful aeroplane constructors that whereas any fairly experienced aeroplane firm < uce a WAI -act.. plane of the ordinary type on conventional lines in six or right weeks, the B.E 2 Ctook nearly twelve weeks to produce. There had been six months' wasted w.wk over the K. E. 5 »nd the R.E. 7 machines, fitted with 120 h.p. Bcarduorc engines. These machines were never liked by the flying officers, mainb I > reason that it was impossible to land them in a small area, ami I ultimate fate was the scrap heap. Another machine, tl. was considered by pilots to be dangerous; the whole series uu- eventually scrapped. Mr. Bright: Do you know that the S.K. 4 holds the record, and that in 1914 with a 160 h.p. Gnome engine it did 135 mile* »n hour? Mr. Grey repeated that the series wa» scrapped. His criticism was that the machines should not have been made in quant before the first of the type had actually made good on service. It was a waste of time and of money. In the case of the ioo.h,p. engine designed by the Royal Aircraft Factory, between the tat batch of drawings sent out and the final settling down with the design something like 600 alterations in the drawings were made. When the engines began to be delivered they by no means distin guished themselves by their reliability, and gave a great deal of trouble. There was constant complaint al»ut the cylinder*, win. h required to be renewed. He had never come across anyone who was really enthusiastic about the K.A.F. engine. The witness added that the general opinion seemed to be that the German aeroplane engines were extraordinarily reliable, and thsre did not seem to be any sufficient reason why ours should not bs equally reliable. Mr. C. Bright: Have you any evidence that any German machine actually goes at a higher speed and is a belter climb.-i than the B.E. 2 C? Mr. Grey : I cannot for obvious reasons produce evidence, but the information may be obtained from any officer of the Flying Corps who has had experience over the lines. Mr. Grey continued that at the middle of last year various MfP- planes built by trade firms, pit up performances ki advance of what had been achieved previously. The fir»t of these was the Sopwith biplane, commonly known as the " ij-struiter." This machine, with an 80 h.p. engine, beat the British height rec >rd at llendon on June 6h in a climb exceeding 20,000 ft. The speed of it, to.., was l»etter than anything excep' a purely racing machine. It wm« improved soon afterwards, and performed with success al Brook- lands. Towards the end of last yesr a similar machine was produced with a 1 to h. p. engine. Its speed was over too miles an bout. 11 was only in the last eight weeks that these machines bad l«en ordered; and, in fact, the French Government ordered samples of the machine before the British Government. In July last year Mr. de Havilland produced a singleaealer feoui, with the engine— a 100 h.p. (inotne—liehind. That first went M the front on August 15th last. I'nf.rtunately that machine was shot down by the Germans almost the fir.t day it arrivtd. Orders were placed for the manufacture of more machines of this type fairly soon after the disaster, and they had l>een in process of delivery (or some time. That was an example—a solitary one, almost—of what could be done if things were properly push it. He also mentioned a machine by Mr. Hemberfm Billing, of which, he said, advantage was not taken by the War Office. The Admiralty ordered Mime. Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien : Have you any reason to think that this was brought to the notice of the Army authorities ?—I have not the faintest idea. The Chairman drew Mr. Grey's attention to the Awofilant of March 29th, in which the phrase occurred :—" We have lost nan after man through engine failtrtc over the German lines and through inability of our engines to lifl out machines out of the range of tie German guns." " Have you any evidence of that ?" be asked. Mr. Grey : I have no evidence at all except the casualty lists .,( that period as compared with the c sualty lists to-day. To-day *» have more fl)ing men, and mote hours of daylight in which flying is done, and the casualties are certainly not greater than they were at that time. The Chairman : Surely that is a nan sequitur ? Mr. Grey replied that it was common talk among flying officers. Mr. Bright pointed out that teju made with captured German machines showed that they were not superior to the British machines. 551
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