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Aviation History
1918
1918 - 1317.PDF
NOVEMBER 21, 1918 THE GOTHA BOMBER WITH NOTES ON GIANT AEROPLANES [Issued by Technical Department (Aircraft Production), Ministrycf Munitions.) (Continued from page 1282.) , .; . Undercarriage THE undercarriages on each side form, with the enginemountings and a small section of the lower main plane, completely independent units. There is no landing wheelunder the nose of the machine as is the case in the Friedrichs- hafen design. Each -undercarriage has four wheels. Thelarger pair are attached to an axle placed immediately under the centre of the chord of the main planes, which point maybe assumed to approach very closely the centre of gravitv. This axle, as shown in the detail sketches reproduced herewith,moves up and down in guides against the action of two long compression springs concealed within the main undercarriagestruts. A stout steel cable is passed over ths^xle and under two pulleys enclosed in the horn plate ; thence it goes upinside the long springs to the heads of adjustable bolts, against which the upper ends of the springs abut. The axleis fitted with a large three-ply fairing attached by means of light straps, and at its outer end terminates in a tee piece, forced with arsteel shoe and with a steel front edge. Fig. 11also shows the attachment of the lower tail struts to the bottom of the fuselage, and it will be seen that these are pro-vided with sharp bars to discourage mechanics from lifting the tail by their means. Engine Mounting The 260 h.p. six-cylinder Mercedes engines are carried onbearers arranged as shown in the drawing of the under- carriage, and illustrated with more detail in Fig. 13. The bearers themselves are of wood, and between the mainvertical supports on which they rest are of the section shown in Fig. 14. They are attached to these main supports byball joints of large diameter, and the struts are stream-lined with casings of thin metal. These are shown in Fig. 15. At their rear ends the engine bearers are united by a curvedcross piece of hollow section, built up of sheet steel riveted together. (Fig. 16.) The engine bearers are triangulated to the plane section n Some constructional details of the Gotha twin-engine bomber. Figs. 10 to 17. which slides up and down in a slot in the horn plate, andprevents the axle from turning round. Only the front undercarriage strut is streamlined. It isstayed with a tube to the middle of the rear strut, and at this point the mudguard brackets are fitted. The front pair of landing wheels, the fitting of which is tofacilitate landing in the dark, are supported on an axle attached to the frame extension by bands of steel coil springsof the type usually found in the smaller German designs. The front wheels are smaller in diameter and narrower intrack than the main landing wheels. In every case the forward extension of the undercarriagewas very badly crumpled up, and it is noticeably light in con- struction compared with the massive main landing gear.As might be expected, a very stout tail skid is fitted. This is shown in detail in Fig. 11. The hinged skid is very st rongly stayed in all directions.At its upper end it is attached with loops of steel coil springs to two tubular steel rings clipped to either side of the fuselage.A steel cable limits the distance through which the tail skid can move. The body of the tail skid is of wood, but it is heavily rein- below them by cross wires as shown in Fig. 13, and also by diagonal steel tubes, the latter being attached by feet of the type shown in Fig. 17, The bracket supporting the bearers in front entirely sur- rounds them, and at is upper end is provided with an attach- ment for the strut which unites the engine mounting to the top plane spar, and also with a ball and socket attachment for the undercarriage bracing cables. At the bottom of the forward engine bearer support is attached one of the diagonal strengthening members of the forward undercarriage framework. Engines In general the engines show no departures from the usual Mercedes practice, but there are a few points which are worth ' of note. Two different kinds of radiators were employed on machines otherwise exactly similar, the principal difference between these radiators being the arrangement of the shutters; in one case a series of vertical panels is used, and in the other a simple sliding door is adapted to be raised or lowered so as to shield the radiator surface to the required degree. 1318
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