FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1918
1918 - 1226.PDF
OCTOBER 31, 1918. . <The aileron control cables, are attached to a crank passingdown from the fore end of the rocking shaft. The effect of this arrangement is that the positive cable—that is to say, thecable that passes from the controls to the aileron—raises an aileron, while the return cable lowers an aileron. Why thisarrangement has been adopted is not clear, unless it is assumed that the upturned tip of the ailerons has the effectof putting one aileron under a negative load before the corre- sponding aileron on the other side begins to exert a positivelift. " The rudder bar of the Berg is welded up of sheet steel.It is of T shape, as shown in the sketch, the control cables passing from the base of the T instead of from the endsof the main cross bar. The foot bar is mounted on a cone of sheet steel, and is prevented from oscillating by a guideon each side, mounted on two short lengths of steel tubing. The base plate of the rudder bar cone has at its rear a lug,to which is attached a short length of cable that is bolted at its other end to the lower end of the control column.This cable has the effect of limiting the amount the control lever can be pushed forward, and has probably been incor-porated in order to prevent the elevators from hanging down too low when the machine is on the ground* Therudder cables, after leaving the foot bar, pass over pulleys proportions and position of the undercarriage. The track,as nearly as it has been possible to judge, has been about 6 ft., and the tyres are marked 760 by 100.The tail skid is of the simplest possible form, and does not in itself present any unusual features. The manner of mount-ing it is, however, rather different from the majority of machines. As shown in Fig. 8, the swivelling skid is pivotedon a short forked member, which is in turn carried at the truncated end of a structure of light wooden strips coveredwith 3-ply. This structure is of good stream-line form, and although appearing very light, seems to stand up to itswork quite satisfactorily. The details of the arrangement will be obvious from the illustration. Springing of the tailskid is provided by.coil springs of similar type to those employed for the pilot's safety belt and for the foot guardson the rudder bar, i.e., a smaller spring is placed inside a larger one, and the whole is made up into the form of a ring,one loop of which passes over the free end of the tail skid, while the other is resting on a stub having a bell mouth,and which is mounted on the lower corner of the fuselage. Tail Planes. The tail planes of the Berg are built up throughout of steeltubes. As distinct from the majority of German machines Fig. 9.—The tail planes of the Berg single-seater. near the floor, on the sides of the body. These pulleys areindicated in Fig. ^, and one of them is shown in detail in Fig. 6. The pulleys are carried on simple sheet steel bracketsbolted to a wood base. The pulley is surrounded with a guard to prevent the cable getting wedged between thepulley and the brackets. Where the elevator and rudder* cables pass through the3-ply sides of the body, they are provided with guides of the form shown in Fig. 7. On the inside of the body the guidesare in the form of wood blocks shaped to the angle of the cable as shown in the bottom sketch, while on the outsidethe guides are made of thin sheet steel, screwed at each end to the 3-ply. The top sketch of Fig. 7 shows one of these.« Undercarriage.Although in the machine on view at the Enemy Aircraft View Rooms the undercarriage is not in place, there aresufficient of its component parts available to show that it is of the Vee type with struts of stream-line steel tubes. Thesetubes have been welded at their upper ends to base plates on the lower longerons, and in all four struts this welded jointhas given way in the rough landing. The manner in which the struts were joined at the lower end is not apparent fromthe fragments available, and all it has been possible to do by way of reconstruction is to indicate, as was done in dottedlines in the general arrangement drawings and in*the side elevation of Fig. 1, published last week, approximately the in which steel tubing is employed for tail planes, those ofthe Berg are of fairly large diameter, but are everywhere single, whereas in many German machines .the diameter ofthe tubes is very much smaller, but two, used to form a rib. The Berg tail plane is slightly cambered, but owing to itsconstruction of single tubes the upper and lower cambers are parallel. Provision has been made for varying the angle ofincidence of the tail plane to a small extent, but not during flight. The divided elevator is similarly built up, but is, ofcourse, perfectly fiat. The tail plane is brazed to the vertical tube forming the stern post and to the bottom longeronsof the fuselage. On top there is a stream-line strut joining the rear tube of the tail plane to the vertical stern post, and acable bracing the tubular leading edge to the vertical fin, as shown in Fig. 9, while underneath the strut is in front and acable at the rear. Thus on the tail plane a strut on top is balanced by a cable underneath, and vice versa. The lowerbracing members of the tail plane come to a point on the fuselage. This was indicated in the general arrangementdrawings and also in Fig. i, published last week. The vertical fin is formed by a light structure of steeltubes, and to its rear edge is hinged the rudder, which is constructed on lines similar to those of the tail plane andelevator. Wood blocks spanning the hinges are provided for the attachment of the fabric covering. (To be continued.) 1227
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
