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Aviation History
1918
1918 - 0337.PDF
MARCH 28, 1918. AN ALBATROS FIGHTING BIPLANE. (Continued from page 310.) THE Albatros biplane belongs to the C class, that is to say is a general utility machine variously used for fighting, reconnaissance, artillery spotting and photography, and is therefore not to be considered a bombing machine. It is, however, provided with racks for a small number of bombs—four, to be exact —presumably by way of cases of emergency when a suitable target might present itself. Fig. 20 is a diagrammatic perspective view of the bomb racks and bomb release gear. The bombs are secured underneath the main tank in the pilot's cockpit, but they are released by the gunner in the rear cockpit by means of a small lever and quadrant shown in the upper right-hand corner of Fig. 20. The bomb racks are in the form of sheet steel supports, against the bottom of which rest the nose and the tail of the bombs respectively. These As regards the cams which operate the bombs, these are mounted on a transverse shaft running across the bottom of the fuselage. There are four cams, each operating its trigger, but the gearing of the camshaft is such that it requires five pulls on the lever in the gunner's cockpit to rotate the shaft through a complete revolution. One of these pulls of the lever has no corresponding cam on the shaft, and has, it appears, been incorporated in order tc provide an equivalent of a safety catch. When all the bombs are in place the first pull on the lever does not release a bomb, but merely brings the cam for bomb No. 1 into position, ready to press, on the next pull of the lever, the trigger for the first bomb. This has evidently been done as a precaution against accidentally releasing a bomb until the machine is approaching an objective. Lever 1/1 ,Gunners Cockpit Fig. 20.—Details of the bomb gear on the Albatros biplane. brackets are secured to transverse members in the bottom of the fuselage, which have been omitted in the drawing for the sake of clearness. The bombs themselves are supported by a steel strap or band, passing underneath and approximately under the middle of the bombs. At one end the straps are hinged, while at the other they are provided with an eye, which is secured in the hook under the release trigger. The sketch in the upper left-hand corner of Fig. 20 shows in more detail the hook in which the eye of the strap rests, and the trigger by means of which the strap is released. The trigger is pivoted near its centre, and has an upward projection to which is attached a small coil spring resting in a groove in the base supporting the hook. When the cam on the transverse shaft presses down the rear end of the trigger, the front end moves upward against the tension of the coil spring mentioned above, thus releasing the strap and with it the bomb. We now come to consider the method of operating the transverse camshaft. Near the right-hand side of the fuselage there is mounted on the camshaft a small ratchet having five teeth as shown in the bottom right-hand corner of Fig. 20. On this ratchet is a small cam, roughly of cone shape. This cam engages with grooves in the pulley around which passes the operating cable. A small leaf spring engages at the proper moment with the notches in the ratchet and prevents the shaft from rotating in the reverse direction. One end of the operating cable is attached to a coil spring secured to the side of the fuselage, and passes from there around the pulley to the lever in the gunner's cockpit. Assuming that the first cam is in position ready to release its bomb, a back- ward pull of the lever rotates the pulley and with it the ratchet and camshaft, thus pressing down the trigger of cue of the bomb racks and releasing a bomb. When the gunner releases the lever this is pulled 333 G 2
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