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Aviation History
1920
1920 - 0755.PDF
JtrtY 15 , ig20 •I s ' • "Flight" Copyright BATS AT OLYMPIA : On the left the Commercial Mark I. On the right the Bantam^'and^in] the; centre the1 Crow' in its favour for commercial work. Otherwise perhaps thetime is scarcely ripe yet for a passenger carrier of this size, since she can hardly be a commercial proposition unless thefull complement of passengers is carried every time. By way of showing what can and will be done, however, themachine is an excellent example of what we may look forward to some day, and needless to say the workmanship is of thequality which has made the Bristol firm famous. A much, more immediately practical proposition is theBristol Coup6 Tourer, which is listed at ^1,400. The Bristol Fighter, from which the Tourer was evolved, was alwaysone of the best liked in the Air Force during the War, for sheer nicety of handling and stability. These featureshave been retained in the Coupe, and at the low selling price referred to there is little doubt the machine will becomeas popular for commercial work as the Fighter was for War purposes.The manner in which the Fighter has been adapted as a three-seater commercial machine is very ingenious. Thefront portion of the fuselage, up to a point behind the pilot's seat, is that of the standard body. Aft of this point, however,a new tail portion has been fitted, curving outwards slightly to give more elbow room in the passenger's cabin. It mightbe expected that the " bulge " thus caused would have an adverse effect on the performance of the machine. In practice, however, this has not been found to be the case, and on thecontrary, if there is any difference in the speed it is rather in favour of the Coupe. We would not suggest that thisimprovement is caused by the " bulge," but rather by the fact that the heads of the passengers are enclosed andstreamlined off. In other respects the-Coupe Tourer is a standard Fighter which is already so well known, wel- tried,and well liked, as to need no further reference here. The Bats On the stand of the British Aerial Transport Co., Ltd., thethree machines shown are already well known to readers of FLIGHT, having been fully described in this journal severalmonths ago. We might point out, however, that the B.A.T. Commercial (F.K.26) was the first machine especially designedfor commercial work to make its appearance in this country after the Armistice.The Bantam is a very fine little single-seater with an extra- ordinarily good performance. Fitted with a Mark II A.B.C.Wasp engine of 200 h.p., she has a speed of 146 m.p.h. at 10,000 ft., while she climbs to 17,000 ft., 16 mins. 18 sees.At the last moment before the opening of the show it was decided to exhibit one of the little B.A.T. " Crow " typecantilever wing monoplanes, similar to the machine shown at Amsterdam. THE B.A.T. FOUR-SEATER COMMERCIAL AT OLYMPIA : 1, Sketch of the pilot's seat and control2, Detail of the trimming gear. 3, Diagram of the tail plane trimming gear „..-• . 755
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