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Aviation History
1923
1923 - 0606.PDF
OCTOBER 4, 1923 '. •"T.^ , - ,: ..v The Avro light biplane: Side view. "•'•".• • •m m -"* mm The general are biplanes and one a monoplane. The two biplanes willdiffer only in the engine fitted, the one having a geared-down 500 c.c. Douglas and the other a direct-drive B. and H. engine.The monoplane is fitted with a 700 c.c. Blackburne V-type engine, with direct drive.The Avro light 'plane biplane, which carries the series number 558, is of rather unusual design, and yet the designershave managed to retain in this machine certain lines, pro- portions, etc., which immediately stamp the machine as anAvro. For instance, if the top plane in either the side view or three-quarter front view of the machine, published here-with, is covered up, one immediately sees that the machine is an Avro, the lines of the fuselage being somehow typicallyAvro in spite of certain departures, such as wheels inside the fuselage and a cycle engine in place of the more usual aeroengines. The main feature of the Avro light 'plane 558 is perhapsprovided by the biplane wings, which are of high aspect ratio (10), and have a very pronounced stagger,lay-out of the machine is well shown in the accompanying scale drawings and photo-graphs, and it will be seen that there is a fairly wide-span top centre section, carriedon two I-struts, while the planes themselves are separated by one I-strut on each side.These struts are of unusual design, inasmuch as they consist of solid spruce struts ofstreamline section, into the slotted ends of which are riveted V-shaped Duraluminplates, bolted to fittings on the wing spars. The external bracing is in the form of plain,solid, circular section wire, and there are two lift wires on each side and one landing wire.Owing to the large span and narrow chord an external drag wire is taken from the noseof the fuselage to the spar. The internal construction of the wings is of standard type,in so far as the spars are of box-section made of spruce, and the ribs have spruce flangesand three-ply webs. The leading and trailing edges are formed by small diameter steeltubing. The fuselage is of somewhat unusual con-struction, in that it consists of four longerons braced with diagonal struts forming a Warrengirder, the struts being attached to the longerons by three-ply plates. The toplongerons form a straight horizontal line, and the main structure of the fuselage isfairly shallow, being made up to the required overall depth by a deep deck fairing con-sisting of spruce stringers supported on three-ply formers. The sides are not quiteflat, as stringers have been added on the outside of the struts so as to bring thefabric clear of the latter. The whole of the fuselage is fabric covered. The undercarriage is of very simpletype, and consists of two bicycle wheels of 22 ins. diameter carried on a steel tubeaxle sprung by rubber cord. The wheels are so mounted that only about half oftheir diameter projects through the floor of the fuselage, and they thus present very little head resist-ance. The narrow wheel track thus afforded is made up for by wing tip skids on the lower plane, and from the illustrationsit will be seen that even when the machine is standing on the ground the skids almost touch, so that the machine cannotlean over more than a very small amount before the skids touch and steady it.The 500 c.c. Douglas engine is mounted on Duralumin plates projecting forward from the sides of the fuselage andcarrying cross-tubes on which the engine is mounted, the propeller-shaft being mounted in ball bearings above thecrank-case and magneto. The reduction gearing is 2\ to 1. The propeller is of large diameter, and should be very efficient.The petrol and oil is carried in a twin tank mounted on the top longerons immediately behind the engine, which gives suffi-cient height to enable direct gravity feed to be used. A large petrol filter is introduced between the tank and carburettor.Lubrication is by means of a Best and Lloyd drip feed lubricator. The Avro light biplane : View of engine mounting, chaintransmission, etc. 606
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