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Aviation History
1923
1923 - 0609.PDF
OCTOBER 4, 1923 diagonal spruce skins. This form of construction has beenfound to give an extremely rigid spar. The ribs have T- section spruce flanges tied together by means of corrugatedDuralumin struts and ties. The drag bracing is formed of spruce struts and ties arranged in the form of a Warren girderand attached to the spare by means of three-ply " biscuits." The wing covering is of special light linen fabric, doped withTitanine glider dope. The tail plane is made in two parts, which fit into suitableattachments inside the rear end of the fuselage, the two hah'es of the tail being fastened together so as to form a continuous mounted just under the deck of the "fuselage, immediatelyahead of the front spar, and a specially long induction pipe has been fitted so as to give direct gravity feed to the car-burettor. The undercarriage is of very simple form, and consists oftwo light wooden wheels mounted on a steel tube axlo. This axle is supported from the fuselage by two struts on each side.These struts are placed some considerable distance apart, so as to provide space for the rubber shock absorbers, which,with the rest of the struts, are streamlined by covering the space between the struts with metal over the lower portion The Avro light mono-plane : End view of a wing, showing bi-convexsection used. The air- speed indicator ismounted inside the wing so that the pipes need notbe broken when dismant- ling the machine. member, and no external bracing is required. It is quiteevident that considerable care has been taken in designing the tail unit so as to make it offer as little resistance as possible.The elevators are of the unbalanced type, hinged to the rear spar of the fixed tail plane. The rudder is of the balancedtype, with a strong box-section main spar and spruce ribs. The ailerons and elevators are operated bj' a walnut joy-stickmounted on a universal joint at its lower end. The aileron control is by means of cables, but the elevators are operatedby a long push-and-pull rod. As in the biplane, the rudder is operated by means of pedals. The 700 c.c. Blackburne engine is mounted on an engineplate of the simplest possible form, i.e., a flat plate of 8 gauge Duralumin, to which the engine is bolted direct by thehorizontal bolts through the lugs on the crank-case Direct drive is employed, a ball thrust bearing being housed in a cageon the front end of the crank-case. The petrol tank is and three-ply over the upper. The struts are braced laterallyby short tubes running diagonally to the centre of the fuselage. The pilot's cockpit is arranged between the front and rearspars of the wing, and an interesting feature is that the air- speed indicator is mounted in the root of the wing, so thatwhen the machine is dismantled for transport the instrument is removed with the wing without the necessity for breakingthe connections. The tail skid is in the form of a bent steel tube mounted in vertical bearings, and the landing shocksare taken by a coil spring. The main characteristics of the Avro monoplane type 560are as follows : Length, o.a., 21 ft. ; span, 36 ft. ; maximum chord, 5 ft. 4£ ins. ; minimum chord, 3 ft. ; wing area,138 sq. ft. The weight of machine empty is 285 lbs., and it will carry a load of 180 to 200 lbs. The wing loading is3-4 lbs. per sq. ft., and the power loading 23-5 lbs, per h.p., with the engine developing 20 h.p. at 3,200 r.p.m. THE GLOUCESTERSHIRE " GANNST " LIGHT 'PLANE. 750 c.c. Two-Cylinder Twa-Stroks Engin?. THE light 'plane designed by Mr. H. P. Folland, chief engineerand designer to the Gloucestershire Aircraft Company, Ltd., for the competitions at Lympne, is a very neat little biplanewith folding wings and two-cylinder two-stroke air-cooled engine, specially designed and built for this machine. Themachine is well shown in the accompanying scale drawings and photographs, from which it will be seen that the designfollows along orthodox lines. The fuselage is of the ply-wood covered type, with fiat sides,but a fairly deep deck fairing, consisting of spruce stringers on light formers and covered with fabric, is employed, as well asa shallower fairing underneath the bottom of the fuselage. Attached to the lower longerons of the fuselage is a bottomcentre section, which remains in place when the wings are folded. A top centre section is carried on four streamlinetubular struts, of which the rear pair is vertical in side view, although raked outward, as seen from in front. The wings are of standard construction, and of fairly thicksection. -The spars are I-section, spruce beams, and the ribs have spruce flanges and struts, with cut-out three-ply webs'The drag bracing is in the form of solid, circular-section wire and the bays are kept very short, so that, although the distancebetween the spars is not great, the angle of the wires is very good. Streamline steel tube struts separate the upper andlower wings, and the bracing, which is arranged in the usual way, is in the form of streamline wires. As already mentioned, the wings are designed to fold back,the rear spars being hinged to the rear spars of the top and bottom centre sections, with quick release locking-pin arrange-ments on the front spars. In order to fold the wings, the trailing edge of the top centre section is folded upwards andthat of the bottom centre section downwards, when the wings are free to fold back along the fuselage, as shown in one of theillustrations. The whole operation can be performed very quickly. The tail is of usual form, consisting of a wire-bracedfixed tail plane with divided elevator, and of a triangular fin, to which is hinged the rudder. Both rudder and elevatorsare of the unbalanced type. The Gloucester-shire " Gannet ": Front view. Agood idea of the size of the ma-chine may be formed by com-parison with the man standing infront. m 609
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