FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1920
1920 - 0008.PDF
JANUARY I, 1920 Some more silhouettes from the Paris Show " Flight ' Copyright conditions, of means for travelling at high speed at great heights, of these and a number of other problems that have to be faced and solved before commercial aviation in all its aspects can come into its own, there is scarcely a trace to be found. It is a pity to have to admit it, but the ftict cannot be denied. One thing, about which we personally have never had any doubts—at any rate during the last four or five years—is very clearly brought out: the British machines are, generally speaking, far ahead of the French equivalents. Now and then the French designer scores with his sense of the artistic, with his eye for the graceful outline or flowing curve. Some- times he shows an inventiveness of mind which his British colleague lacks. But when it comes to carrying the ideas into effect, to give them expression in terms of downright sound engineering, the British designer can more than hold his own. We feel sure that we can state this without fear of being accused or boosting our own constructors, as we heard more than one French aeronautical engineer admit the ex- cellence of British designs. To take one particular instance, that of metal construction. The Boulton and Paul P. 10 is at least two years in advance of any French metal construction shown. For that matter, it is no exaggeration to state that the B. and P. P. 10 is the machine of the show, from a constructional point of view. It is, as a matter of fact, the only machine which marks any real progress in aeroplane construction. Other machines there are which show excellent workmanship and irreproach- able detail design, but they are one and all designed along orthodox lines, quite excellent in their way, but with no attempt at originating new forms of construction which shall1 prove superior in some way to older methods. As for the other examples of metal construction, it is safe to say that in no instance have the designers succeeded in developing more than about 50 per cent, of the actual strength of the metal used. In the Boulton and Paul machine the rolled sections " Flight " Copyright. THE A.IRCO STAND : The lady attendant in her flying costume attracted quite a lot of attention. Thiscostume is the design of Lady Duff Gordon (Lucille), and can be carried in a small box and slipped on over the ordinary dress 8
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
