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Aviation History
1920
1920 - 1231.PDF
DECEMBER 2, 1920 THE NIEUPORT " LONDON " : Three-quarter frontview of the fuselage the use of bolts and nuts or wood screws which are (or werewhen the design was got out) costly and difficult to obtain in sufficient quantities. The few metal fittings which arerequired for the attachment of wires, landing gear, etc., are of the simplest possible form, and are generally made from ordi-nary mild sheet steel without the necessity of using press tools. reverse. To produce a first-class aeroplane out of such ma-terials is an achievement of which the designer may well be proud, and amid the wartime spirit of " never mind the cost "it is quite refreshing to come across an instance where cost has been seriously studied. This is one of the reasons whythe machine is of such extraordinary interest when viewed from a commercial point of view. As for the success of thisconstruction, itis perhaps too early to venture an opinion until time has got in its work, but in the meantime it might bementioned that an experimental fuselage of this construction was made, and on testing to destruction gave very good results.It was then thrown into the yard, where it was subject to wind and rain, and when last we saw it there, a couple ofmonths ago, it did not look much the worse for its " open-air life," apart from the fractures caused by the destruction tests.There would therefore be grounds for supposing that in actual use such a. fuselage might stand up to wear and tear very well,and as its weight, although naturally on the heavy side, is not such as to be prohibitive to its use on a commercial THE NIEUPORT "LONDON": Some detail sketches of the "packing-case" fuselage construction. Notethe use of brass wire sewing and copper nails turned over on inside. Mention may also be made of the fact that extensive use hasbeen made of tubular rivets, which wherever possible take the piace of bolts and nuts. Finally, the covering takes theform of tongued-and-grooved matchboarding, so that it will be seen ithat our reference to the " packing-case " con-struction is not altogether amiss. We would point out, however, that this is said in no derogatory sense, quite the machine, it seems well to place on record some detailed refer-ence to the principles employed in the construction, not only of the fuselage, but also of the wings, the details of which arealso, in many cases, different from usual practice. The " Packing-Case " BodyFundamentally the body consists of four longerons, connected by vertical and horizontal struts. There is no bracing in the THE NIEUPORT " LONDON " : Front view 1233 D 2
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