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Aviation History
1923
1923 - 0702.PDF
NOVEMBER 15, 1923 LIGHT 'PLANE AND GLIDER NOTES THE demonstration at Croydon on Saturday last providedan excellent opportunity of showing to Dominion representa- tives some of the light aeroplanes that took part in the recentcompetitions at Lympne. It seems fairly evident that when a little further developed the light 'plane should be capable ofdoing excellent work in the Colonies, where distances are larger than at home, and where roads and railways have not attainedthe stage of development which they have reached in this country. It was therefore very appropriate that the light'plane should be represented at Croydon, and all the visitors evinced the greatest interest in the five monoplanes and onebiplane which took the. air there on Saturday. * * * READERS of FLIGHT are already familiar with all the sixlight 'planes that took part in the " fly-past," but a few Temarks concerning certain alterations which have been madeto some of the machines may be of interest. The Avro monoplane was flown by Bert Hinkler, and was remarkablywell handled. She had had the smaller set of wings fitted, and this seems to have resulted in an all-round improvement.She is faster, seems to climb just as well, and is, if anything, more manoeuvrable. In coming in to land Hinkler madesome very pretty sharp S-turns, showing how a pilot has ample time, when making a forced landing, for carrying outany evolution that may be necessary in order to get into a small field. Hinkler flew the monoplane up from Hamble on Friday-November 9, the journey being accomplished, in spite of a slight detour over Bookham, Surrey, where the Blackburneworks are situated, in 1 hour 15 mins. The return journey was made on Sunday, when the fog kept many other machineson the ground. Flying over Epsom, Hinkler could only faintly distinguish the race course buildings, and immediatelyafterwards he ran into very thick fog, which covered the ground entirely. It was not until he reached the South Coastthat he again got a glimpse of the ground, and then the weather cleared and the last bit of the trip was made in goodvisibility. The return journey was made in 1 hour 10 mins. The total petrol consumption for the double journey and forthe flight at Croydon worked out at only a little over 2 gallons of petrol. * * * THE Vickers '' Viget'' seemed to fly much better on Saturdaythan she did recently at Hendon, and Capt. Cockerell handled her very well. On coming in to land he, like Hinkler, made aseries of S-turns, and although apparently equally controllable the machine seemed less inclined to " flick " than she was atHendon. The explanation was later learned to be that the wings, which originally had a very pronounced dihedral, havebeen somewhat flattened out, so "that side gusts do not now tend to roll the machine as much as they did previously.The change seems to be altogether beneficial. * * * THE English Electric Company's " Wren " flew very strongly indeed, and Flight-Lieut. Longton managed to give short exhibitions of slow-flying, stalling, and " crazy flying." * • * THE A.N.E.C. monoplane was flown by " Jimmy " Jamesin his usual style, but the very limited time available did not allow of anything more than a short circuit of the aerodrome.As usual the machine flew well, and did not seem at all worried by the high wind. THE D.H.53 (which was " Sylvia II " and not the No. 8usually flown by him), piloted by Capt. Broad, flew splendidly as usual, and the Blackburne engine, mounted in the invertedposition, as in the A.N.E.C., seemed to run very smoothly. Broad did not have an opportunity of giving an exhibition oflooping and rolling, manoeuvres which readers of FLIGHTknow the machine to have performed repeatedly. * • * THE Parnall " Pixie " was prevented by a sulky engine fromreally showing her paces, Capt. Macmillan only just being able to get round the aerodrome and to land from a very lowheight. It seems that he made most of his circuit on one cylinder only. Incidentally this is a rather remarkableperformance, considering that the wing loading is very high, and the power loading, with but one cylinder working, mustbe extremely high also. Nevertheless " Mac " managed to get around without incident, although at times the perform-ance looked somewhat alarming. * * * ELSEWHERE in this issue of FLIGHT will be found an abstractof a very interesting paper read by Dr. Hankin before the Institution of Aeronautical Engineers last week. Considerationsof space do not allow of publishing the discussion that followed the reading of the paper, but those interested should obtain acopy of the Society's Minutes of Proceedings, in which the paper and discussion will be published. Capt. Sayers ex-pressed the view that there was nothing in the paper which did not tally with our accepted ideas on the subject. * * * THE first Dutch light 'plane was tested in flight recently,when it made a " flip " of 16 minutes' duration, covering in that time the distance between the Waalhaven aerodrome, atRotterdam, and Scheveningen. The machine is designed by Mr. Carley, technical director of a limited company withoffices at Fluweelen Burgwal 1, 's-Gravenshage, Holland. The commercial director of the firm is Mijnheer H. v. d.Kwast, and the works are situated at Voorburg, den Haag. The title of the firm is Carley's Aeroplanes. * * * THE Carley light 'plane is a cantilever monoplane fittedwith a three-cylinder 20-22 h.p. Anzani engine. The fuselage is of triangular section, with one corner forming the " keel."The wheel axle is hinged to this keel, and braced by rubber cords carried on two V's from the top longerons. In generalarrangement the michine is not unlike the R.A.E. Aero Club's " Hurricane." A gravity petrol tank is mounted ontop of the fuselage, just aft of the top cylinder, and partly serves to streamline the latter. The pilot is placed between thewing spars, and is seated fairly high so as to give a better view. In this respect the machine somewhat resembles Raynham'sHandasyde light monoplane. * * * IT is not yet possible to give illustrations of the Carleylight monoplane, but the following particulars may be of interest : The overall length is 5 m. (16 ft. 5 ins.) ; the spanis 7 m. (23 ft.) and the total wing area 10-5sq. m. (113 sq. ft.) ; the weight empty, with the three-cylinder Anzani, whickweighs 57 kgs. (125 lbs.), is given as 135 kgs. (300 lbs.), and the petrol capacity is 18 litres, stated to be sufficient for aflight of 3J hours' duration. The landing speed is in the neighbourhood of 30 m.p.h.,andthe maximum speed 130 kaa.(80 m.p.h.). . THE SOARING FLIGHT QUESTION ONB reason for the neglect of the question of soaring flight by•contemporary scientists is psychological. Discoveries that show that existing beliefs are wrong, or that long cherishedbeliefs need revising, are usually accorded a very hostile Teception. The facts of the case of soaring flight are of thisnature. There is another reason by which my own contribution tothe subject is handicapped. My very slight acquaintance with physics, with meteorology and other sciences that may beconcerned has made it difficult for me to know which facts were most worth observing or most deserving of publication.My r. le has been merely that of an animated photographic camera recording facts of whose meaning and importance I wasand am ignorant. Hitherto the subject has been treated by me as if mainten- • Abstract of Paper read by Dr. E. H. Hankin, M.A., before the Institutionof Aeronautical Engineers on November 9. ance in the air of the soaring animal was the only thing to beexplained. It is possible, however, that some of the pheno- mena that accompany soaring flight may turn out to bescientifically more important. The following examples are worth our attention. The humming sound made by flying-fishes when in glidingflight has been noted by others. The musical whirring sound made by vultures is well known. A few instances have comeunder my observation in which gliding of vultures and cheek was silent in unsoarable air, but was accompanied by whirringwhen, a few minutes later, the air had become soarable. When diving in soarable air vultures make a loud crackling,roaring sound similar to that made by a large rocket. It is so loud that, even in the presence of wind, it may be heard froma distance of at least 300 metres. Another peculiar phenemenon seen in soaring flight may bedescribed as " distortion." The Bengal vulture has part of 702
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