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Aviation History
1922
1922 - 0239.PDF
APRIL 27, 1922 THE HANDLEY PAGE W.8B Two Rolls-Royce " Eagle " Engines THE first of the new Handley Page W.8B commercial machines, general arrangement drawings and preliminary description of which appeared in our issue of January 19, 1922, is now completed, and will, by the time these notes appear, be at Martlesham, undergoing its type tests. As soon as these are completed, which should be in about one week's time, the machine will be put on the London-Paris service, where it will gradually supplant the 0/400 type, which, although it has done excellent work, is scarcely to be considered an up-to-date passenger machine. The W.8B is, generally speaking, similar to the machine which won the Air Ministry Competition at Martlesham, with the exception that it is fitted with engines of lower power. The present power plant consists of two Rolls-Royce can be reached and attended to is a very great point in favour of the uncovered engine. Enclosing an engine entirely looks neat, and has, undoubtedly, great aerodynamic advantages, although, as has just been pointed out, not perhaps as great as might be imagined at first sight, owing to the very complicated question of cooling. At any rate, the ground engineers will appreciate the uncovered engine, and an engine which is easy to get at is more likely to be well looked after than is one which is so tucked away in its cowling as to be almost inaccessible. The Petrol System The petrol system of the W.8B is of the simplest possible, i.e., direct gravity feed from tanks placed on top of the THE HANDLEY PAGE W.8B : Front view. •" Eagle" engines, mounted on a structure of steel tubes between the wings. Certain modifications have been carried out with regard to the details of the structure, although, in general, it resembles that of the older machine. The main alteration, apart from questions of dimensions, has been caused by the placing of the petrol tanks on the top plane, instead of in a streamline tail piece behind the engine. As shown in the accompanying illustrations, the Rolls-Royce engines are left entirely uncovered, a feature which is rarely seen on modern machines. After making very careful top plane. There should, therefore, be very little chance of trouble with the petrol system, quite apart from the fact that a very considerable saving in weight has been made possible by the adoption of the gravity feed system. It is interesting to note in this connection that, by doing away with pressure petrol feed, and by omitting the gear for folding the wings, a saving in weight of 500 lbs. has been effected. As this is equivalent to three passengers of average weight, or at any rate to two passengers with a fair amount of luggage, this saving becomes of very considerable import- THE HANDLEY PAGE W.8B : Three-quarter rear view. estimates, however, the designers have come to the conclusion that, by the time the weight of cowling had been added, and considering the extra complication and difficulty of getting at the engines, the gain would have been so small that it has been considered better to leave the engines bare. It should be remembered that one result of this is that smaller radiators .can be fitted, as a goodly portion of the heat is carried away from the engine direct when exposed to the air current. Also, from the point of view of running the machines in service, the ease with which all parts of the uncovered engines ance, as it results in an increase in earning capacity of £13 to ^20 per trip between London and Paris. In the course of a year, this should amount to a considerable sum, and as the arrangement has the further great advantage of a simplified and more reliable petrol system, the change appears to have been distinctly worth while. The petrol tanks, as already mentioned, are mounted on top of the top plane, and pipes run down to the engines along the inter-plane struts. Very large filters are incorporated in the system, so that there should be practically no chance 239 C 2
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