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Aviation History
1922
1922 - 0592.PDF
rnEa OCTOBER 12, 1922 The Espenlaub monoplane, constructed by a carpenter out of all sorts of odds and ends. In spite of its very rough construction the machine flies very well. Handasyde probably knows as much about the monoplane type of aeroplane as any man living, and he may therefore confidently be expected to have turned out a machine worthy of him. When the whole aeronautical world aban doned the monoplane for the biplane, Mr. Handasyde retained his faith in the former, and for several years continued to turn out some of the prettiest machines ever produced. We shall be disappointed if the glider does not come up to the pre-War Martinsyde monoplanes in graceful appearance and aero dynamic efficiency. * * * MR. REX STOCKEN will pilot a machine produced by the Aircraft Disposal Co., but at present ao particulars of the machine are available, beyond the fact that the machine will be a monoplane of 45 ft. span. * * * CLARENCE WINCHESTER, the " Poet-Aviator," and Mr. Brynildson, both of whom were connected with the Ruffy- Baumann school of flying at Hendon in the early days of the War, have entered a biplane, to be piloted by Mr. Win chester. * * * Two de Havilland gliders will be entered, one to be piloted by Capt. Heme and the other by Capt. Broad. The de Havilland glider was described and illustrated in last week's issue of FLIGHT. On Friday and Saturday of last week several test flights were made with the first of these gliders, which was piloted variously by Capt. Broad, Mr. Cobham, and Capt. de Havilland. In spite of the very slight slope of the Stag Lane aerodrome the machine got well into the air and landed at a speed of about 18 m.p.h. At present the glider is fitted with an ordinary Vee undercarriage with wheels, but a different type may be fitted for the competition. * * * SCATTERED among the Gliding Notes of this week's issue will be found photographs of several German glid«rs. One of our photographs shows the start of the Darmstadt monoplane, scale drawings of which were published in our issue of September 21, 1922. This machine, although being somewhat overshadowed by the Hannover at the Rhon Competition, nevertheless has some very excellent flights to its credit. One of these, for instance, was of 1J hrs.' duration. The " Edith," as the machine is named, is now regarded as the only serious competitor for the Industrie Preis which the Hannover " Vampyr " has to reckon with. Piloted by Bottsch "Edith" has proved very nearly equal to the famous Hannover machine. * * * THE Espenlaub monoplane, built by a carpenter out of odds and ends of materials, proved itself quite a good glider, in spite of its very rough construction and somewhat irregular outline. As a matter of fact, the Espenlaub was of quite good workmanship, but of inferior finish. It is characterised by a very high aspect ratio (17 to 1), which may probably account for its efficiency. * * * WE now learn that the machine on which Herr Klemperer crashed, after coming down from a height of 2,000 ft. in a spin (having been dropped from a kite balloon), was of the "tail-first" or "Canard" type. This may explain why Herr Klemperer was unable to get out of the spin. One of the photographs shows the Aachen " Canard " being hauled up to the top of a hill after a flight. It will be noticed that the wings can be dismantled into quite small portions. This is a feature of great practical importance, and we rather fancy that some of the competitors at Itford Hill will have quite a lot of fun getting their gliders back to the top of the hill with the wings in place, especially in a strong wind. * * * BY way of contrast, we have thought that scale drawings of some of last year's German gliders may not be without interest. On page 591 will be found general arrangement drawings of four of the 1921 gliders used in the Rhon Competition. The Darmstadt monoplane was, generally speaking, similar to this year's model, but had a rather more carefully streamlined fuselage than " Edith." * * * THE Dresden biplane was used again this year, and gave fairly good results, although it did not come up to the performances of the Hannover and Darmstadt monoplanes. * * * THE Aachen glider flown by Klemperer won the Competi tion in 1921, but does not appear to have been entered this year, having presumably been supplanted by the " Canard " on which Klemperer crashed. It is mainly remarkable on account of the careful streamlining of the skid undercarriage and the large dihedral angle of its wing-;. * * * OF a much less elaborate, but very light, type is the Munich glidei, which was flown by Koller in last year's Competition. Here the pilot is seated below the wing, and is " faired " by a tail piece behind the seat. The monoplane wing is divided in the centre, and is so mounted that its two halves can be tilted independently for lateral control, each wing-half acting as an aileron. <$> <s> <•> <$> FOKXER'S FIRST FLIGHT IN ENGLAND Gliding Demonstration over South Downs IN connection with the opening of the Peacehaven Hotel, the South Coast Land and Resort Company had arranged, on October 10, for demonstration flights to be made from one of the hills in the South Downs on the Peacehaven Estate, near Newhaven, by Mijnheer Anthony Fokker, the famous Dutch pilot-designer. A number of visitors had availed themselves of the opportunity of witnessing a gliding flight, and many of- them were privileged to see a series of kinematograph films which Fokker has taken in Germany and elsewhere of gliders and gliding flights. Wherever he goes Fokker always carries with him a very neat little kine-camera, and in this way he has collected a most interesting series of moving pictures, some of which were shown at the Peacehaven Hotel. Perhaps by way of showing that gliding is not always plain sailing, Fokker showed a glider crash which took place in Germany. The picture showing Hentzen, the famous German record-holder, flying the Hannover," Vampyr," was viewed with particular interest. After the " pictures," visitors were entertained to luncheon at the Peacehaven Hotel, and later in the afternoon they proceeded out to the hill on which Mijnheer Fokker had erected his tent-hangar. The weather was not very favour able for gliding, what little wind there was coming from the Lifting the Fokker Glider over the heads of the crowd before the start of the flight. 592
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