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Aviation History
1924
1924 - 0540.PDF
Those wishing to get in touch with others interested in matters relating to gliding and the construction of gliders are invited to write to the Editor of FLIGHT, who will be pleased to publish such communications on this page, in order to bring together those who would like to co-operate, either in forming gliding clubs or in private collaboration. As announced under the Official Notices of the Royal Aero Club in last week's issue of FLIGHT, this year's race for the Grosvenor Challenge Cup and ^150 in prizes will be flown on October 4 at the Lympne aerodrome, and will be confined to light "planes with an engine capacity not exceed ing 1,100 c.c. Thus the general public will have an oppor tunity to see the latest types of British light 'planes com peting in a handicap race, and it is to be hoped that many will avail themselves of this opportunity. Unfortunately, Lympne is not very centrally situated, and it seems doubtful whether large numbers will take the trouble to journey down to Lympne in order to see a handicap race for small machines, and in one way it might have been better to have arranged for this race to be flown somewhere nearer London. There is, however, much to be said for holding it at Lympne : The machines will already be there, and so competitors will not have to bear any expense beyond the entry fee of £2 to pilots and machines. These tests are, it will be remem bered, to be flown over a straight-line course of not less than S00 yards in length and 25 yards wide. The machines are to fly at a constant height of not more than 20 ft. Quite apart from the fact that it will be impossible for pilots to fly at a " constant " height with their machines near the stalling angle, it would appear that 100 ft. should have been chosen for the height. If a machine stalls at 20 ft.—and flying very close to the angle of maximum lift and with the engine throttled down a small gust will easily cause a machine to stall—it is almost sure to dive straight into the ground. On the other hand, the drop of a light 'plane after stalling is usually very short, and if the height stipulated had been 100 ft., or even 50 ft., most machines would doubtless pull out of the stall before hitting the ground. It may be argued, of course, that from 20 ft. a pilot is not likely to get seriously injured, but the impact of landing will certainly be likely to damage the machine seriously. * * * PERSONALLY we do not envy the pilots who have to fly in the slow-speed tests. If they play for safety and keep reasonably far away from the stalling angle their employers are apt to consider that by " sailing a bit closer to the wind " From the Rhon Meeting: Launch ing No. 70, the Ksoll : biplane glider " Bres- lau." Note that a passenger is carried. and the small amount of fuel and oil consumed in the actual race. * * * THE reason for making it a handicap race is probably that the Air Ministry trials during the week will have shown fairly exactly the speed of which each machine is capable, and consequently it should be possible so to handicap the competitors as to ensure a very close finish. Also such a race will place on a fairly equal footing the machines designed to gain their marks in the Air Ministry Competitions at the upper end of the scale and those designed with a view to obtaining large speed range by having a very low landing speed. The only uncertain feature then becomes the weather on the day of the race, but if the handicapping is done the day before the race, with full use being made of the weather forecast from the Air Ministry, it should be possible to give the slower machines a fairly equal chance. The number of machines entered will naturally depend upon the number of crashes during the week, as it seems very unlikely that all the machines will get through the low-speed tests of the A.M. competitions intact. * * « IT would appear that the arrangement decided upon for the low-speed tests is open to criticism on the score of safety the speed might have been kept a mile or two lower, with consequent considerable gain in marks awarded, while the pilots who like to run the risk will be very likely to crash and so put the machine out of the competition. Any way one looks at it, the pilots will, we are afraid, have a rather thankless job. * * * INCIDENTALLY, a series of crashes will not be likely to in spire the general public, or even the young sportsmen to whom presently the trade hopes to sell light 'planes, with confidence in low-power machines, but presumably the Air Ministry regards the competitions more bv way of being a scientific experiment, and trusts that the public will realise the difference between this and ordinary straightforward flying. * * * THE official entry list for the Lympne competitions now totals 18 entries. The last three to be entered are : No. 16, Vickers, Ltd., and Nos. 17 and 18, George Parnall and Co. There is a possibility that one or two more may be entered later at double entry fee, but this is not considered probable, so that it may be taken that 18 is likely to represent the total number of machines that will take part. This is scarcely as many as one might have wished for, but the fact that some 540
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