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Aviation History
1921
1921 - 0185.PDF
MARCH 17, 1921 THE ZEPPELIN-STAAKEN ALL-METAL MONOPLANE And a New Smaller Edition WE have already published several photographs of the Zeppelin-Staaken monoplane, and a brief description of the machine, which is built of metal throughout, even to the wing covering, the metal chiefly used being aluminium alloy. On its test flights this machine is said to have given very good results, so much so that it rather surprised its designer, Herr A. K. Rohrbach. We understand that a cruising speed of about 120 m.p.h. is attained, and that the full speed is somewhere in the neighbourhood of 135 m.p.h. The wing dive. It is true that the heavy wing loading would tend to increase the average figure, which is based on a wing loading of 7 lbs./sq. ft., but even so it is doubtful whether the speed is possible for that power loading. Our correspondent does not inform us of any tests having been made with cutting-out one of the outer engines, but the fact that the distance from these to the centre line is so great would almost certainly result in a turning moment of such magnitude that the corresponding engine on the other side THE ZEPPELIN-STAAKEN MONOPLANE : Three-quarter front view. THE ZEPPELIN-STAAKEN MONOPLANE : Three-quarter rear view. area is approximately 1,150 sq. ft., and the weight fully- loaded about 18,650 lbs. This gives a wing loading of 16.2 lbs./sq. ft., which is extraordinarily high even considering that the wing is of high-lift section. We have no figures of the landing speed, but it must be rather high for a commercial machine. The power loading is about 18 lbs./h.p., so that if the figures given for maximum speed are correct, the machine appears to be extraordinarily efficient as regards resistance. So much so that one very much doubts whether such a speed has ever been attained by the macliine, except in a steep Anew Zeppelin-Staaken Monoplane: Our photo- graph , the first to be pub- lished in this country, shows the wind channel model of this new machine which is now being built at the Zep- pelin works. This machine, it will be seen, will have two engines only, placed compara- tively close together, so that the turning moment when one engine stops should be quite small. would have to be cut out, or at any rate throttled down. Thus in practice the cutting-out of one engine would really mean the loss of practically half the power. The results attained with this first machine have been so- promising that a second one, of slightly different type, is now being constructed. This machine, of which no photo- graphs are available yet, will have two engines only, as shown in the photograph of the wind-channel model of the machine published herewith. This arrangement should be much better, as the two engines, by being pushed far forward and kept as 185 C 2
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