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Aviation History
1919
1919 - 0134.PDF
by glue. Fig. 8 shows a typical fairing for the top of a tractor fuselage. fc When the fuselage is complete it should be looked over to see that all turnbuckles and nuts are properly locked, and then sent to the fabric shop for covering, and doping. All nuts should be locked with split pins, and turnbuckles with a keep wire passing through the hole in the barrel and both eyebolts, and twisted so that any tendency to unscrew on the part of the barrel, tends to tighten the keep wire. Wings It is necessary to true up each wing separately before they are covered and erected, in a similar manner to the fuselage but it is a very much simpler job. Fig. 9 shows the usual form of wing construction, in which the front and rear spars are parallel. These spars come from the mill already finished to size, and length, and spindled out, leaving the portions where the compression ribs (marked " C" in the Fig.) occur solid. Both these compression ribs, and the lighter former ribs, are built up separately, and threaded along the spars, the whole being laid in a jig which positions each rib correctly. The wires can then be put in and tightened up to approximately their imitial tension. If the wing is not assembled in a jig, care should be taken to check the position of the fittings for the compression ribs and interspar struts, by laying the spars alongside one another and noting that these coincide . exactly. The position of the former ribs should be marked off on one spar, and the other one marked from it, as it is important that these be put on exactly at right angles to the direction of flight. The plane should then be laid on a pair of trestles, care being taken that it is resting upon the main spars, preferably at the junction of a compression rib, and not upon the leading or trailing edges, or former ribs, which are very light, and easily deformed Commencing from the inside end of the wing, each bay can now be tram melled up, the diagonal wiring being adjusted until the bay is true, in the manner previously described for the fuselage panels. When every bav is true, the whole wing structure should 4> • From Belfast to Sheffield THE following note was issued by the Press Bureau on January 24, six days after the event :— On Saturday, the 18th inst., a Handley-Page aero plane, fitted with four 350-h.p. Rolls-Royce engines, flew from Belfast to Sheffield. The total weight on board was 12 tons, including a crew of seven and half a ton of luggage. The time taken by the flight was 2 hours 35 minutes. The Ipswich to India Flight A TELEGRAM from The Times correspondent at Karachi on January 13, announced that the Gen. Mc.Ewen's machine had left Bander Abbas at the entrance to the Persian Gulf at 8-55 a.m. and passed over Charbar, 350 miles distant, at 1.25. At 4 p.m. the machine was compelled to land at Ormara on the Baluchi coast. Some days later the journey was resumed, and the 150 miles to Karachi was covered in about two and a hall hours. From later information Vt appears that on December 30, when the machine was about 3 miles out to sea, off Ormara, one cylinder of the port propelling engine blew off and the aeroplane was forced to land near the beach. By discarding all spare parts, kit and wireless the pilots, Major A. S. MacLaren and Capt. Halley, with one mtchanic, decidad to try and complete the jo lrney with the remaining three engines. Two of the*? engines were put out of commission soon after the restart owing to the vanes coming off the w nd- mills driving the petrol pressure pumps, but this was rectified by band pumping. Thirty-five miles from Karachi the rear starboard engine stopped, owing to the breaking of one of the oil leads, but with difficulty, the machine was able to reach Karachi. General McEwen and two mechanics completed their journey on H.M\S. " Britomart." be true. It is advisable, however, to sight along the leading and trailing edges, in order to make sure that they are not bent, or in any way out of line. A final test for the align ment of each wing after trueing, is to test each spar separately, either with a long straightedge along the top and side, or by stretching a line along the length of the spar, just clear of one corner, and noticing whether the corner edge runs parallel with the line. The procedure for trueing-up the tail plane and elevators, where these members are wire-braced, is exactly similar ; except that as the tail plane is usually in one piece symmetrical about its centre, the centre bay should be trammelled up, and adjusted first, then each bay in turn, working outwards on either side alternatively. It is equally important with the wings and tail plane, or indeed any unit, to go over the whole, and see that all turnbuckles and nuts are securely locked, before it is passed on to the fabric shop. Covering All the component parts of the machine having been trued, and everything locked, they are ready for covering with fabric and doping. There are two methods in use of fixing the fabric on to the wfhgs, the first is by sewing it on to the ribs, and the second by fixing it to each rib by a cane strip, which is screwed down to the rib by brass screws. The former is in most general favour. With this method the twine should always be waxed before use. The fabric should be sewn together so that the seams will run parallel to the direc tion of flight, these joints should be of the balloon seam type, and double stitched. The fabric should be laid over the leading edge, and the edges dnwn up and sewn along the trailing edge. When sewing it down to the ribs, the pitch of the stitch should be about 4 in., or less in the case of the small wings ; and about every three stitches the twine should be double knotted, so that, should it break, it only become* loose in that section, and not all along the rib. Before putting the fabric on to the wings or any other parts, the woodwork should be shellaced, and the metal parts painted over with dope-resisting paint. After sewing down the fabric to the ribs, the stitches should be covered by a strip of Egyptian tape, well frayed at the edges, and doped on. A similar strip should also be doped on along the leading and trailing edges of the wing. When all parts are covered, they receive four or five coats of dope, each successive coat being allowed to dry, before putting on the next. The number of coats and the mixing of the dope is best carried out according to the manu facturer's instructions for any particular brand- When the last coat of dope is dry, the upper surface is generally given a coat or two of pigment varnish, and the under surface a coat or two of transparent varnish. To be concluded.) An Italian Speed Record ACCORDING to The Times correspondent' at Rome, a new Italian biplane, piloted by Sergeant Elia Lint, has given under its official trials an average certified speed of 260.8 kilometres (162 miles) per hour. The trials were conducted at a height of 30 metres (nearly 32 yards) from the ground, so as to control the " flatness " of the flight; and flights wer made both with and against the wind. The motor was 200 h.p. of the S.P..\. type used in Signor D'Annunzio's flight to Vienna. It is claimed that the average speed attained exceeded by 30 kilometres (18J miles) the previous record under similar conditions. Across the Mediterranean IN spite of bad weather, Lieut. Roget, with Capt. Cole. in a military biplane, fitted with a 300 h.p. engine, succeeded in flying across the Mediterranean from Marseilles to Algiers on January 26. They started from Istres in the Bouches-du- Rhone at 2 a.m., and landed at Algiers five hours later. After a rest of about .an hour they set off on the 500 mile journey back to France, but were forced to land at 7 p.m. at Rosas in Catalonia, having lost their way in the mistral, and flown for about 1,000 miles over the Mediterranean, which they crossed twice. No Zepps. in Jutland Battle A ZEPPELIN officer discussing the Jutland Battle with a member of the Allied Naval Commission in German waters said it was not true that they had Zeppelin reconnaissance on May 31, the day of the battle. " The High Sea Fleet." he went on, " would never have allowed itself to be drawn into action with your Battle Fleet if we had had aerial ob servation to tell us how near they were. We planned to have Zeppelins out on that day, but the weather was not favourable. We did have them the day after the battle, but they were of not much use then." »34
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