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Aviation History
1920
1920 - 1223.PDF
NOVEMBER 25, 1920 MODELAEROP NOTE. 'IHJJ.MIH -All communications should be addressed to the Model Editor. A stamp should be enclosed for a postal reply Compressed Air Engines HEREWITH I show drawings of what I consider to be the best practice in making compressed air engines, so far as my experiments with rotaries are concerned. Tne valve I can thoroughly recommend is shown. The crankshaft, it will be seen, is made also the inlet and cut-off for the compressed air. The drawing shows a shaft suitable for a fiw-cvlinder merely " taboo " anything that does not emanate from its own little band. Books by good men are " crashed " in reviews ; thoroughly " dud " ones are eulogised. It isj time these things, whether relating to models or other things, stopped. In passing, it is well to know that the present committee of the K.M.A.A. (following the practice of their predecessors in office, tire having none of these things, of which more anon. -^° rotary. Five equi-spaced holes are drilled round its encasing sleeve. In the shaft itself two diametrically opposed holes are drilled, one to form the inlet, and the other the exhaust. I have shown the limits which I consider must be worked to in order that airlocks in the shaft and leaks across the ports do not occur. The other drawings show the piston and cylinder construction, and arc, 1 think, self-explanatory. The Lanchester Trophy I HEAR that the Lanchester Trophy is again to be put up for competition, and it is undecided whether to award it to the best paper on aerodynamics written by a student, or, as previously, for the best model glider. My opinion is that written papers are entirely unsatisfactory. They often do not give any indication of the knowledge of their authors. All the latter have to do is to " swot " up a given subject from existing text-books, present it in a new form, with additions or subtractions, and the paper is done. This is no mere wild statement. I write from knowledge of how it is done. It is also difficult to get the right people to judge the papers. By all means let the trophy be awarded, as previously, for the best glider, and let one of the rules be that the model must have been buik by the competitor. The encouragement given to cranks by awarding trophies to papers is considerable, and people who judge such papers seldom have made good in aeronautics ; neither are they designers of successful aircraft, and they often put forward projects which anybody with an elementary knowledge of aerodynamics would at once dispel as hopeless. One con- fesses to a fear that the awarding of such trophies is seldom a case of the best man winning. I should also like to raise the point of manufacturers being It is uniair for the man who Competitions I SUGGEST that future K.M.A.A. competitions should be run on lines similar to the following :— (1) Judges to have had experience of actual model making and flying ; this would eliminate the egregious per? on who is anxious to pose as an authority. (2) Separate class for actual firms making or selling parts or complete machines ; this would be of benefit to reliable - firms inasmuch as the mushroom firms selling rubbish which could never fly would be squeezed out of the market. This position would be tantamount to what already obtains in other industries. (3) Freak machines not to be encouraged, except in the junior sections. Distance and duration competitions to be for machines bearing proportions similar to those obtaining in full-size practice. (4) Where the r.o.g. record exceeds that of the hand- launched record in the same class, the former shall be deemed to hold both records. This point created an anomalous position in previous records, where hand- launched results were considerably below the r.o.g. (;) Local and provincial competitions to be encouraged, local official observers communicating results with the central committee as with the Farrow Shield Competition, (6) Annual prize to be given for the best power plant (as distinct from rubber or elastic). Drawings of this to be published in the press. (7) With " freak " machines the span to be greater than the length ; rubber not to exceed one-sixth of the total weight, loading to be fixed, as well as the weight of the model. This would produce a competition where all machines would be working under the same penalty, and careful desig.i and workmanship would thereby gain their reward.placed in a separate class.has only his spare time to devote to the hobby to have to compete with the skilled maker. It certainly seems to I would also suggest that the K.M.A.A. become affiliated me that unless one belongs to the " vicious circle " of aero- either to the Royal Aeronautical Society or the Royal Aero nautical nondescripts, one's work is foredoomed, its members Club. 1225
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