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Aviation History
1920
1920 - 1002.PDF
SEPTEMBER 16, 1920 The S.S.P. (100 h.p. Green) produced in 1916 considered the first trial so satisfactory that hjs ordered twelvemore of what was known as the " Submarine Scout " type on March 20. To complete the story of this first ship, it may 'here be added that work was commenced on March 8 on the construction of an S.S. Airship Station at Capel, on theedge of the cliffs between Folkestone and Dover. S.S.i set out from Kingsnorth on May 7 to "commission" thisstation, but while travelling at about 50 miles an hour close to the ground she struck some telegraph wires on the Dover-Folkestone road ; the envelope caught fire and the airship was completely destroyed, although the occupants escapedpractically undamaged. ' • " S^S.2 was designed by Mr. Willows—who was at that timewith Messrs. Airships, Ltd.—and was delivered during the course of March. The envelope was unusual, being made ofaeroplane fabric unimpregnated with rubber, but being well protected with " dope," of which there were two coats on theinside and five in all on the outside. The suspension was by means of " toggles " from a rigging band, somewhat similarto the subsequent kite-balloon system. The car was of a considerably more complicated nature than the service design,and, to assist in the distribution of the weight over the envelope was lengthened by two spars aft and one forward. A Curtiss100 h.p. engine was fitted, driving, through a leather belt, two swivelling propellers. The same engine also drove the blower.This ship appears not to have met with Admiralty approval and was not duplicated. A number of cars similar to thenacelle of a Maurice Farman car were, however, ordered from this firm.The only other private design submitted came from Messrs. Armstrong, Ltd. The first ship (numbered, for reasons ofclassification, S.S. 22) was delivered in July. (All the events of which we are speaking took place in 1915.) It was verysimilar to the Service design except that it had what was to all intents and purposes the fuselage of an Armstrong-Whit-worth aeroplane, in place of the B.'E. 2c type. A blower driven off the Renault engine was provided, and bamboonose-stiffeners were fitted to the envelope, which had been made by the French Clement-Bayard firm. This was theonly private design to meet with approval, and eight more (numbered S.S 40-47) were ordered ; of which four weresubsequently purchased by the Italian Government. In these the blower was dispensed with and the standard " air'-;scoop " adopted. To return to the chronological sequence of events ; S.S. 3appeared in April. She was the first of the first batch of twelve ships ordered on March 20, all to be of identical patternwith the Service design of S.S. 1, with certain minor modi- fications. She had a 60,000 cubic foot envelope made byMessrs. Short, and was fitted with an " air-scoop " in place of a blower. This was also the first ship in which the principlewas introduced of having two, in place of one, " vertical " planes fitted tangentially to the envelope. This featurewas subsequently the subject of a heated controversy which at one time raged throughout the airship service. The dis-cussion was started by the genial Commanding Officer of Luce Bay—a well-known figure in air circles—sending in areport of the results of taking off the two planes and fitting only one vertical to the ground. A larger rudder was fitted,and it was claimed that the steering was equally good while the resistance was reduced and a certain amount of weightgained.. This modification divided the Service into two camps, and long and bitterly did the.battle rage. Subsequently theprinciple of having one plane only was made standard. The S.S.Z. (75 h.p. Rolls-Royce "#H^wk"), an Improvement of the S.S.P. produced in the Autumn of 1916' 1004
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