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Aviation History
1919
1919 - 1344.PDF
Fig. 3.—The 160 h.p. Oertz flying-boat of 1915 plane of 1,000 h.p. will be about 4,400 lbs. heavier than a boat seaplane of the same power. " From the point of view of air resistance, the fact that a float seaplane has a fairly extensive strutting arrangement for the floats, while the boat seaplane can be made of fairly good stream-line shape, gives the boat type a smaller resistance than that of the float type, even when, as is sometimes the case, the engine of the boat seaplane is placed on a structure above the boat proper. " After balancing up the pros and cons, of the case, taking into consideration the practical experience of the Navy, one arrives at the conclusion that the flying-boat type, as regards medium and large-size machines, is superior, also as regards seaworthiness. For types of up to about 300 h.p., possibly the float seaplane will be found the most suitable, while for types of from 300 h.p. to 700 h.p., there would seem to be little to choose. For larger types, however, the flying boat type appears to be the most promising. The chain of experience of both types is not, how ever, sufficiently long to make it advisable to decide finally for one type or the other. " Among the most successful, and, therefore, most noteworthy, flying boats, are those designed by D. Ing. Max Oertz, which were built at the Oertz Works at Hamburg. Dr. Oertz, the famous yacht and motor- boat builder, was one of the first in Germany to realise the possibilities of flying and the suitability of his works, with their special facilities and trained workmen specialists, for the requirements of aircraft construction. Above all, the Oertz Works were not laid out as quantity production works, but were used to meet the special requirements of yacht construc tion by scientific investigation into the smallest mechanical details, and to devote an absolutely loving care to workmanship and finish. ' These fundamental facts, which were reflected in all new productions of this scientifically working factory, whether boats or flying machines, could already be noticed in the very first machine built in 1910. This was a land machine, a monoplane with monocoque body, which weighed only 770 lbs., and, fitted with a 70 h.p. Gnome engine, reached a speed of 80 m.p.h. This first success encouraged Oertz to return to his proper element, the sea, and to apply the same principles to the construction of a flying boat ; this was ordered by the Navy in the spring of 1913. Already in the autumn of the same year this flying boat could show its usefulness by Fig. 4.—1915 type Oertz flying- boat, 160 h.p. engine m m SKIK2R9ES M M
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