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Aviation History
1918
1918 - 0568.PDF
MAY 23, 1918. but marked in the usual nautical manner, is being seamen, haye not made a special study of the compass, got ready for issue to the hardy skippers of our and to whom "deviation" and its mysteries is A.P. Service, many of whom, though wonderful frequently as" Greek." Notice to Correspondents in General. FULL particulars regarding the conditions of service in the Royal Air Service were given in " FLIGHT " of April nth. Application to join as a cadet should be made in letter form, stating full personal particulars, to the R.A.F. Reception Dep6t which is nearest to the registered address of the appli- cant. Applications for enlistment should be made personally or by letter, stating full particulars, including age and trade to the R.A.F. Reception Depot which is nearest to the registered address of the applicant. Boys are enlisted from time to time for long service only. They should be Class A and between the ages of 15 and 17 years. Applications should be made as above. No person is eligible for enlistment into the Royal Air Force unless he is a natural born British subject and the son of natural born British subjects. The Royal Air Force Reception Depots are :— 40, Upper Brook Street, Mayfair, London, W.i. 8, Tyndall's Park Road, Bristol. 12, Newport Road. Cardiff. Carlton Chambers, Paradise Street, Birmingham. Midland Bank Warehouse, Kong Street, Nottingham. 117, Mount Pleasant, Liverpool. 6, Portland Crescent, Leeds. 10, Sydenham Terrace, North Road, Newcastle-on-Tyne. 9, Somerset Place, Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow. H. G. G. (Wantage).—The struts of the Albatros fighter are stream-line steel tubes. The " spinner " around the pro- peller boss serves to reduce head resistance. In the earlier machines the wings were warped by having the cables to the rear spars pass over pulleys, those of a monoplane passing over pulleys mounted on cabanes below and above the fuselage. These models can no longer be purchased. The three struts seen near the tip of certain aeroplanes are not all inter-plane struts. Two are plane struts, while the third connects the upper and lower ailerons. This machine is imaginary. Very. T. R. K. (Builth).—Strictly speaking an aeroplane has a variety of gliding angles. In fact there is a gliding angle foi every speed of which the machine is capable. There is one speed, however, for each machine, at which the gliding angle is smallest. This is the angle, usually, although somewhat vaguely, called the gliding angle. In the majority of modem machines this angle will be found to be nearer the minimum than the maximum speed, but its relative position in the scale of speeds will be found to vary with different types of machines. In other words if a curve of gliding angles is plotted against speeds, the top of the curve will always lie between the two extreme speeds of which the particular machine is capable, and usually nearer the minimum speed. Dimensions of the wing section known as Eiffel 32 were pub- lished in our issue of March 21st, 1918. A printer's error crept in, the height above the chord at the leading edgebeing given as Iio. This should be .01. The dimensions of the R.A.F. 3 are as follows :— Distance from leading edge in terms of chord. Upper Lower Upper Lower •4.. -085 .. -032 0 •008 •000 •5•078 •031 •025 •030 — •6•069 •026 •05 •044 •009 •7•056 •021 •1 •064 •016 •8 •041 •014 •2•084 •024 •9 •024 •008 •3•088 •029 i-o •007 •000 It is incorrect to say that a pusher cannot loop. As a matter of fact, we have seen Capt. Hucks loop on a single-seater pusher. It is, however, generally correct to assume that a pusher is more difficult to loop than a tractor. The reason for this is not quite clear, but the pusher type appears to have a tendency to fall out of the top of the loop sideways. This tendency is probably connected with the distribution of vertical fin area, which is somewhat different in this type. The reason for placing the gravity petrol tank some distance out on the upper wing of some machines is that by so doing the danger of the petrol running down in the body and on to the hot engine in case the tank gets punctured is reduced. The rest of your questions we are not at liberty to answer. H. G. B. (R.N.).—In the Gallaudet pusher-fuselage seaplane the fuselage is divided into two parts by the four-bladed propeller which revolves on a fairly large diameter drum rigidly mounted to, and connecting the two parts of the fuselage. The propeller is driven by spur gearing from the motors—of which there are two. The motors are situ- ated in the fuselage behind the cockpits and are so arranged as to be capable of driving the air screw either independently or together. R. C. (Shrewsbury).—The objection to the Paulhan- Tatin monoplane ^of 1911 was, we believe, that she was tricky on the controls. Otherwise she was a most remarkable efficient machine. Possibly also the fact that she was, so to speak, several years before her time may have counted against her. Your question re internal wire bracing is not quite clear. We take it, however, that what you refer to is internal lift bracing of the wings. The objection to it is that unless the wing section is very deep, adequate strength cannot be provided, without great increase in weight. G. E. P. (Boston).—We are not permitted to give par-ticulars of the machines you mention. G. B. H. B. (East Dereham).—The meaning of the following initials is, respectively: L.V.G. Luft Verkehrs Gesellschaft; L.F.G., Luft Fahrzeug Gesellschaft; L.W.F., the initials of the partners in the firm and also Laminated Wood Fuselages ; D.F.W. Deutsche Flugzeug Werke. On the Nieuport chasers the chord of the lower plane is. considerably smaller than that of the top. During the war records for speed, climb, altitude, and duration may not be published. An American Ace Killed. THE little band of Americans who originally formed the Lafayette squadron for service with the French Army is being steadily diminished. Major Raoul Lufbery, who was one of the first twelve and who has for the past few months been attached to the U.S. Air Service, was killed on May 18th. Major Lufbery, who was credited with having brought down 18 German machines, was seen to bs engaged with a German triplane, with two guns, at a height of about 5,000 ft. His machine caught fire, and when at 2,500 ft. Major Luf- bery apparently jumped out, bis body falling near a farm- house. t 'Major Lufbery had been decorated with the Military Medal ,and the Legion of Honour. The*End of M. Gilbert. By the death of Eugene Gilbert, who was killed in a practice flight at Villacoublay on May 16th, France has lost another of her famous sons. It will be remembered that after bombing the Zeppelin works at Friedrichshafen on June 27th, 1915, be was forced to land in Switzerland and was interned. He succeeded in escaping two months later, but as his letter withdrawing his parole did not reach the Swiss authorities until after his escape the French Government sent him back to internment. He nearly got away in February, 1916, and was successful at the third attempt on May 24th, 1916. The accident took place at 6 p.m.; Gilbert was trying a new machine above Chaville, when for some unexplained reason it appeared to turn over and fall to the ground. 566
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