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Aviation History
1920
1920 - 0015.PDF
JANUARY T, 1920 ON THE BRISTOL STAND On the left, the nose of the Bristol Bullet,below, the Bristol Tourer "Flight" Copyright.Top : The Bristol Baby, and advantage that the pull on the bracing wires is nicely cen- tralised in the middle of the spars. The factor of safety of the Bullet is said to be such that the machine can safely be put through an ' sort of aerial acrobatics at its full speed of about 165 m.p.h. There is no doubt that this machine will be heard a good deal of in the races of 1920. Last, but by no means least, though smallest, there is the new Bristol Babe, a small single-seater sporting machine fitted with a two-cylinder opposed air-cooled Siddeley engine. The Bristol Babe is of very pleasing appearance, with its small bottom plane and Vee inter-plane struts, and its three-ply covered fuselage. We are told that the machine flies very nicely, its longitudinal sensitiveness being by no means so great as one might expect in a machine of this small size. The fuselage is built up of a light framework covered with three-ply wood, which is in turn covered by fabric. In this manner the ply-wood is well protected, especially as it is painted with two or three coats of red lead on the inside. The bracing, in addition to that formed by the three-ply covering itself, is in the form of a series of crosses of thin wood laths, the sides of the body being divided horizontally by an auxiliary longeron, and the cross bracing being both above and below this. The pilot's cockpit is very comfortable and quite roomy, considering the small size of the machine. The view obtained is very good on account of the low position of the top plane and the narrow chord of the bottom wing. Ailerons are fitted to the top wing only, and are operated by cables passing over pulleys in the bottom plane, the aileron crank levers being horizontal, somewhat after the manner of German aeroplanes. The lower plane has prac- tically three spars, as the leading edge is very strongly built, thus forming really a third spar. The Vee interplane struts, of which there is only one pair on each side, are reinforced by blocks at the bottom, where they spread out so as to form a rigid attachment for the bottom wing. The undercarriage is of the simple Vee type, with very narrow track, as the undercarriage struts are vertical in front view. It is a question whether it would not be advisable to fit wing tip skids, but this is a small matter which could easily be attended to if it is found necessary. The tail skid is very simple, consisting of a small steel leaf spring. We under- stand that it is contemplated to place the Babe on the market at a price in the neighbourhood of ^400, at which figure the machine should, we think, find ready purchasers. L-..-- :-]f.-:.'-. "^;-•'•;:"- •'"•-, (To be continued.) ..•- ". " "-•, f A Martinsyde for the Coupe Deutsch THE speed competition for Coupe Deutsch is to be given an international turn, the Royal Aero Club having sent to the Aero Club of France an entry of a Martinsyde. In the meantime M. Sadi Lecointe is testing a Nieuport with which he intends to make an attempt to win the Cup. New Height Record Claims IT is claimed that on December 20 Lieut. Roger with two passengers climbed to an altitude of 6,000 m., notwithstanding the fact that he had to fly through a dense fog during the first 4,000 m. This is stated to have beaten the performance of M. Poulet who reached 5,420 m. On December 24 Casale added another 800 metres to the record. With two passengers on a Spad S 27, three-seater limousine, fitted with 300 h.p. Hispano motor, Zenith car- burettor and Lumiere propeller, he climbed to 6,?co metres. He started from the Buc aerodrome and his flight lasted for 1 hour 3 mins. The Next Gordon-Bennett Race THE Aviation Committee of the Aero Club of France is suggesting to the Federation Aeronautique Internationale that the next competition for the Gordon-Bennett Aviation Trophy should be held over a cross-country course of 300 kiloms., made up of three rounds of a circuit over the plains of Beauce. The Aero Club of France will give the winner a prize of 10,000 francs. An Aerial Derby at Hamburg ACCORDING to the Berliner Tageblatt, an aerial Derby isto be held at Hamburg this year, and the prize fund will total 200,000 marks.
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