FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1918
1918 - 0338.PDF
MARCH 28, 1918. forward to its normal position by the spring on the side of the fuselage. The little leaf spring engaging with the ratchet prevents this and the shaft from following the pulley round in the opposite direction, 8' x o t -i- si -4-- 7^ 7k • c 4 <O u 03 2I a I 0) O •oil£ and the cam on the ratchet sliding up the sloping bottom of one of the five grooves in the face of the pulley forces the pulley away from the ratchet against the compression of a small coil spring shown in the sketch. By the time the lever has reached its forward position, the pulley has revolved to such an extent as to bring the cam on the ratchet into the next groove in the pulley, and when the lever is again pulled the whole action is repeated. The sketch will probably help to make the action clear. In addition to a bomb release lever, there is in the gunner's cockpit another lever, the function of which appears to have been to engage and disengage a clutch near the engine, by means of which a drum is operated carrying the aerial of the wireless. In the bottom of the gunner's cockpit, near the left- hand side, is an octagonal opening in the floor, in which, so far as we can make out, the camera was mounted. The compass, so as to be visible from both cockpits, has apparently been mounted in a circular opening in the right-hand lower main plane. We now come to deal with the wings of the Albatros. These are, generally speaking, of the construction favoured by the Albatros designer, that is to say, the front spar is well forward close to the leading edge, and the rear spar is approximately half-way along the chord. In addition there is a third false spar, which is not, however, connected up to the body nor supported by any struts, and which cannot therefore be considered as taking any particularly important part of the load. It will, therefore, be realised that the rear main spar may at small angles of incidence, when the centre of pressure moves backwards, be called upon to support all or nearly all of the load. This has evidently been guarded against in the Albatros by making the rear spar of generous proportions. Both main spars are made of spruce, and are of the box type, consisting of two halves spindled out and glued together with a hard- wood tongue running through both flanges. The ribs are of I-section, with spruce webs and ash flanges. Between the main spars false ribs are employed half-way between the adjoining main ribs, so as to better preserve the curvature of the wing for this distance. The general arrangement of the upper left-hand wing is shown with dimensions in Fig. 21, from which the general lay-out of the wing will be clear. The internal drift wiring is in the form of five bays, the compression struts for this wiring being in the form of circular section steel tubes. In the two inner bays both drift and anti-drift wires are in duplicate and are approximately 12 S.W.G. The next two bays have single wiring, also of 12 S.W.G., while the outer bay has single wiring of 14 S.W.G. The attachment for the compression tubes and the drift and anti-drift wires is shown in Fig. 22. A box of thin sheet steel surrounds" the spar at this point and is bent over and bolted as shown in the small section in Fig. 22. On the inner face of the spar this sheet steel box has two wiring plates stamped out, which receive the drift and anti-drift wires. A short cylindrical distance piece is welded on to the box, and around this fits a short tubular sleeve, held in position by a split pin. This sleeve forms a socket for the tubular compression strut. Vertically the spar is pierced at this point by three holes, for the bolts securing the interplane strut and the two interplane cables. The attachment for the latter is shown at the bottom of Fig. 22. The base 334
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
