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Aviation History
1921
1921 - 0776.PDF
NOVEMBER 24, 1921 The Marcel Besson single- seater flying boat type "H.6." SOCIETE DE CONSTRUCTIONS AERONAUTIQUES ET NAVALES MARCEL BESSON 5, Rue Saint-Denis, Boulogne-sur-Seine AT the Paris Show of 1919, this constructor exhibited a small triplane flying boat two-seater, with one of the, then, new 60 h.p Rhone engines. At the time one was somewhat in The tail plane of the Marcel Besson flying boat is supported on a single '' leg- o'-mutton" strut. The sketch shows the adjust- ment. doubt as to the feasibility of getting a flying boat, however lightly built, off the water, with two up, and only a problemati- cal 60 h.p. wherewith to do it. We understand that, as a matter of fact, that machine did get off, after having been fitted with a more powerful engine. At the present Show, Sketch of the engine struts and cockpit of the Marcel Besson flying boat. ~: ™ —-7- a single-seater boat is exhibited, which shows few, if any, traces of the earlier model. This machine, which is a very nicely-built job, has a most unusual wing arrangement. As will be seen from the accompanying photograph, the lower plane is the largest and the top plane the smallest. The strutting is so arranged that a system of triangulation is provided which, presumably, renders bracing wires super- fluous, as none are incorporated in the design. One is some- what at a loss to account for the reasons which led to this unusual arrangement, as the effect of the small top plane would appear to be that the centre of thrust would be a very considerable distance above the centre of resistance. Also, in ordinary triplane arrangements, the top plane is the most efficient and as this is quite diminutive in this machine— which is, by the way, known as the H. 6—it would appear that the whole triplane combination is not likely to prove very efficient, even allowing for the absence of wire bracing. The engine, a 130 h.p. Clerget, is mounted in a streamline power " egg." which also contains the petrol tank. It drives a tractor screw, having a spinner over the boss. The pilot sits just aft of the trailing edge .of the wings. There does not appear to be much room anywhere for mails, nor is the machiue probably capable of carrying more than a relatively small useful load. A model of an extraordinary quadrupline is also shown on this stand. This machine, which is to have a bagatelle of 1,800 h.p. as her power plant, has its four planes placed very close together, certainly not more than about half of the chord, but the planes are staggered in relation to each other. Exactly what is the reason for such an arrangement, which must be costly to build and appears rather difficult to brace properly, one does not presume to be able to state. There is to be a very large cabin on this machine, which is to form a unit separate from the boat hull. One gathers that the machine, which is actually nearing completion at the works, is intended for work between Marseilles and the coast of Africa. Certainly, whatever may be one's opinion of French constructors, they are not lacking in pluck nor in imagination. BLERIOT-AERONAUTIQUE 3, Quai du Marechal Gallieni, Suresnes THERE are not many machine at the Paris Salon this year, which one would stop and look at twice. The majority are very ordinary straightforward pieces of design, with here and there some frankly bad ones. To neither of these cate- gories can the Spad-Herbemont 45 be said to belong. It is certainly not ordinary, and nobody would probably care to say that it is bad. M. Herbemont's record as a designer is such that his work is always entitled to a respectful con- sideration. The " Mammouth " exhibited in 1919 was about as poor a piece of design as it was possible to imagine, but no one who saw that machine could imagine for a moment that Herbemont had had anything to do with its design. That he did have something to do with so altering it that, by the aid of Casale's skill as a pilot, it was possible to coax it up to about 3,000 metres, is now fairly well-known, but it should be made clear that originally the machine was not a Herbe- mont. Indeed to anyone at all familiar with, his work, it was obvious that Herbemont would never have committed such an indiscretion. However, to return to the present machine. The parentage of the 45 is obvious. It has Herbemont written bold in all its lines — even to the single I-strut on each side. And this in spite of the fact that the machine is a four-engined passenger carrier, with seating accommodation for 17 passen- gers plus a pilot, a navigator, and an engineer, bringing the total up to 20. The fuselage is of the monocoque type, and a very beautiful 776
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