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Aviation History
1922
1922 - 0654.PDF
allowing for a good margin of exaggeration, and cutting down the 5,000 aeroplanes to 500, the situation is one which must assuredly.bear watching carefully. Germany's handicap within her borders makes it hardly to be wondered at that she has, as was always predicted by us, evolved other means of development. The real menace lies in the fact that there does not appear to be any way of preventing this sort of thing. It is, of course, quite possible that Germany has engineered this scheme simply to be used as a lever against the Allies, in the hope of being able, by promising to build no more machines in Russia, to secure her release from the irksome restrictions now imposed. When the scheme, now in the making, was negotiated there was no knowing when the restrictions would be removed, and we should not be surprised if some such motive was behind the Russian affair. Now the restrictions are likely to be modified, but apparently Germany is still to be allowed to go on with her schemes abroad. Perhaps " allowed " is scarcely the correct word, as there does not appear to be any way of preventing it, but one remedy at any rate remains, that of being prepared ourselves. The hundreds of aircraft which were to be ordered, according to Lloyd George's glowing promises, do not seem to have materialised ; at any rate, we have not noticed that any of our aircraft constructors or engine firms are being swamped with orders. The new types that are being developed do not go into production in any quantities worth mentioning, and no firm yet was able to exist on a few experimental machines per year. The subject is one which the new Air Minister would do well to study very care fully, and which we recommend for his immediate attention. The British aircraft industry has existed mainly on promises much longer than it could reasonably be expected to do. It cannot continue for ever on promises. In fact, there are signs of a debacle which it would be well to neutralise before too late. The formation, in France, of a propa- Rid §aiwa squadron, comprising some of Garros " *ue most famous aviators in the world, sets an example which might well be followed at home. The new squadron, L'Escadrille Roland Garros, is being officially recognised by the French Under-Secretary of State for Air, M. Laurent Eynac, and, furthermore, it is to receive a Govern ment subsidy. The extent and manner of allocating this subsidy is not yet known, but we gather that it is the intention of M. Eynac to use the squadron for propaganda purposes, by sending it to various centres to give demonstrations, by letting it take part in all important aviation events, and by making extensive public use of it generally. There is little doubt that such a squadron will do an immense amount towards keeping alive public interest in flying, and if a similar squadron were formed in this country, recruiting for the R.A.F. Territorial Force would doubtless benefit greatly thereby. Furthermore, such a squadron could be used for " showing the flag " abroad. At the forth coming aircraft exhibition in Sweden it is, we believe, intended to invite aviators of foreign air services to participate, and the sending of a squadron of picked aviators could not fail to do much to maintain British prestige abroad. The cost should NOVEMBER 9, 1922 not necessarily be prohibitive, and even regarded from a purely commercial point of view should be well worth while. *• <* * The recent success of the gliding " M*^6 competition at Itford may be assumed Aviette"' *° have established on a sound footing Coming? gliding as a sport and as a possible method of full-scale research at in significant cost. The week spent on the South Downs taught most of us a great deal, and, not least of all, how much there still is that we do not know. At the same time, it must be clear that gliding, as a means of locomotion, can have no very great future before it. To our way of thinking, gliding may be compared with sailing and yachting. A man may—and a very great number do—get an immense amount of pleasure out of sailing his boat or yacht week ends and holidays. But he does not use his boat for getting about in the ordinary course of business, where a reasonable time-table has to be kept. So with gliding. As a sport, it will, we are sure, become extremely popular, providing as it does an exhilarating pastime at trifling cost. While this is all to the good, we should not lose sight of the fact that experience with gliders may pave the way for the low-power aeroplane of the near future. It is perfectly well known that a small single- seater can be built which will fly horizontally with a power expenditure of about 5 h.p. Another 5 h.p. in reserve should provide sufficient margin for getting=off and climbing, and thus we arrive at a rough estimate of a small single-seater using but 10 or 12 h.p., and doing about 50 miles per gallon of petrol. Such a machine should be produced for £150 to £200, or little more than a motor-cycle and side-car outfit. The mileage would be about the same, and the machine should have a maximum speed of at least 45 m.p.h., with a landing speed of certainly below 30 m.p.h. Such a machine could be landed almost anywhere, and should appeal to hun dreds. Personally we confess we are inclined to think that the tandem arrangement, as exemplified in the Peyret glider, lends itself more readily to making a " fool-proof " machine than does the ordinary form of aeroplane. Most small aeroplanes are somewhat tricky to handle, whereas it would appear that the tandem monoplane can be made very stable, and yet be manceuvrable to a high degree. The view obtained is unsurpassed ; especially is this so in connection with small light engines, which in the normal type necessitate shifting the pilot forward, over, under, or between the wings, unless, of course, the machine is a " pusher." As regards efficiency, we know that the tandem monoplane arrangement is not very efficient, but experiments carried out several years ago by Eiffel indicated that there is little to choose between the ordinary non-staggered biplane and the tandem monoplane. If, therefore, the tandem arrange ment does, as we expect, prove the more " fool proof," the price paid in the way of rather low efficiency should not be too high to be worth while. For the power plant we are in favour of a two- cylinder two-stroke air-cooled engine, placed with its crankshaft vertical, and driving the tractor airscrew through bevel reduction gearing. The cylinder heads would point forward and, being in line with the most effective portion of the propeller blades, would receive a maximum of cooling. 654 w*—
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