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Aviation History
1920
1920 - 1121.PDF
OCTOBER 28, 1920 THE HANDLEY PAGE WING First Public Demonstration IT is now about a year since Mr. Handley Page first told us of his discovery in the matter of high-lift wings, but owing to the slowness with which the mills of Patent Offices are wont to grind, it has not hitherto been permissible to publish any information re- lating to the new wing. The patents have now, however, been published, and this was made the occasion for a public demonstration at the H.P. aerodrome at Cricklewood on October 21. It should be pointed out, however, that the machine with which the demonstration was made did not represent the latest pro- gress in the design of the new wing. On the contrary, the machine used was the same on which the first full-scale •experiments were carried out many months ago, and repre- sents the idea in its crudest form only. It appears desir- able to make this statement, since otherwise an erroneous impression might be created, which would tend to depre- ciate the merits of the new discovery. The demonstration which took place at Cricklewood was given by Major Foote, •who had, by the way, never previously flown the machine. Starting simultaneously was another Airco g, which ob- viously required a much longer run before getting off. The Airco 9 fitted with the H.P. leading edge got off after a surprisingly short run. What particularly impressed one in the climb was the angle at which the machine rose. In point of fact its climb was probably a little slower than that of the THE HANDLEY PAGE WING : Capt. G. de Havilland and Mr. Handley Page in front of the de H.9 to which the H.P. device is fitted standard machine, but its climbing angle was certainly steepfer. This points to the advisability of adopting the suggestion made by Mr. R. F. Mann in our correspondence columns recently that the climb of a machine should be measured by the angle, as well as by the time taken to reach a given height. In this case the standard machine took less time to reach a certain height than did the one fitted with the H.P. leading edge, but the angle of climb of the latter machine was undoubtedly the greater. For a commercial machine at any rate it is the angle of climb that counts, rather than the rate of climb, and the Airco 9 with the H.P. attachment would certainly get out of a smaller field than would the standard machine. The behaviour of the " faked " machine in the air was much the same as that of the standard machine, excepting that the horizontal speed was obviously not im- proved by the attachment. It should be remembered, however, that the false lead- ing edge was rigidly attached in this machine, thus offering much greater resistance than will the more modern de- velopment in which the lead- ing edge can be moved back so as to lie flush with the main leading edge. In that case the wing resistance is hardly affected at all, while with the leading edge in the " out " position the lift is very much increased. It was noticed that when the machine wa« flying horizontal and the pilot throttled down the engine, the machine THE HANDLEY PAGE WING: The Airco 9 fitted with the H.P. device. Inset the machine in flight. The false leading edge and its supporting brackets can be clearly seen v"-v>'- •.••••:' •.-.- , [, . 1123
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