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Aviation History
1920
1920 - 0009.PDF
JANUARY I, 1920 " Flight " Copyright THE AIRCO 16 : Sketch showing mounting of tail used have only been discovered after extended experiments, and tests to destruction have proved that practically the entire strength of the steel has been developed. This means that full advantage can be taken of the superior weighty- vantage by the fact that the neighbouring stand—the Ansaldo —is'empty, thus allowing one a better view of the Airco than is possible to obtain of most of the machines at the show. The new Airco 16 is very similar, generally speaking, to previous machines carrying this series number, and which have been doing such excellent service on the London-Paris air route. It is, however, now fitted with a 450 h.p. Napier Lion aero engine, which has necessitated a slight alteration to the nose of the machine. The manner in which the in- stallation of the Lion has been effected is a credit to the designers, the nose being a very graceful appearance and, at the same time, a very efficient arrangement both from the aerodynamical and from the engineering point of view. The radiator is placed, as in some of the previous models, projecting through the floor of the fuselage, but it is now rigidly fixed. To vary the cooling as desired a very ingenious arrange- ment has been designed. This is illustrated by some of the accompanying sketches. The floor of the nose of the fuselage is formed by a series of slats, shaped somewhat like ordinary wing sections. These slats are pivoted and operated by cables from the pilot's seat. When the shutter formed by these slats is closed the floor of the body makes a smooth unbroken curve, with only a short length of radiator projecting. According to the amount of opening of the shutter, the amount of air admitted to the radiator is varied, until when the slats are horizontal, the maximum of air is admitted to the space around the radiator. The machine is finished to the highest degree, and it looks extremely well in its " show paint." The pilot's seat and passengers' accommodation are arranged as in earlier models, i.e., the pilot sits in front of the cabin, where, by the way, his view cannot be particularly good, while the four passengers A/Kco. m Flight" ON THE AIRCO 16 : This extremely neat machine has a very ingenious device for varying the cooling. The radiator is no longer movably mounted, but the amount of air is controlled by slats along the bottom of the nose of the body strength ratio of steel over that of wood, with, it may be presumed, considerable advantage from the point of view of durability and resistance to climatic conditions. While thus claiming a certain amount of "ascendancy" for British machines in general, as regards engineering per- fection, when it comes to the problems that are going to make or break the aeroplane as a commercial vehicle there is as little evidence of anything attempted among them as there is among constructors of other nationalities at the show, and our own constructors appear just as satisfied to provide the upholstery and the etceteras, and to let it go at that, as are those of France. We should like, before closing these general remarks and proceeding to a detailed description of the various exhibits, to poftit out that although we have ventured to criticise the lack of serious attempts at solving the problems that really are of paramount importance, we quite admit that many machines shown represent all that is best in aeronautical engineering as we have come to know it during the War. It is merely a question of having gone for the things which, to our way of thinking, are of secondary importance, while leaving alone those that will form the determining factors in the future equation of commercial aviation. As all the British exhibits were dealt with at some length in our issue of December 18, and many of the more important French exhibits were referred to in last week's issue, we have decided to arrange our detailed descriptions of the machines in alphabetical order, as indicated in the accompanying table of dimensions and other characteristics. The Aircraft Manufacturing Co. (Airco) The -main exhibit on this stand is the beautiful new Airco16, which, as it happens, is shown to the best possible afl- "Flight" Copyright View oi the \ee enfeine-strvits and single undercarriagestruts of the Adolpne Bernard mall machine
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