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Aviation History
1925
1925 - 0053.PDF
-•.".•*' .;. JANUARY 29, 1925 A NEW GYROSCOPIC TURN INDICATOR 'YAs soon as I went into the clouds the compass got quite silly." This was a statement which one very frequently heard expressed in the earlier days of flying, and it was no unheard-of occurrence for a machine to emerge from a cloud in all sorts of unseemly attitudes. The explanation usually ^^^H «l«l MAX HHL. SCHtLOVSKY ORTHOSCOPE H fvST JPPUlI) iCR ,^H m S3 H R. W. MUNRO & H LONDON. 1C VOLTS H 1 •1 1I II Front view of the Schilovsky Gyro Turn Indicator. given was that, for some reason, the clouds acted on the compass, which began to swing, and ultimately might even spin right round. In our modern " enlightened " times we know, of course, that what happened was that the pilot, deprived of any landmarks on the earth, let his machine deviate slightly from its course, then over-corrected the turn and swung a little farther off on the opposite tack, coming back and again overshooting the mark, until the compass could no longer be relied upon to tell him what he was doing. Since those days many attempts have been made to solve the problem of designing an instrument capable of indicating to the pilot that his machine is deviating from a straight course. The instrument here shown has been designed by Dr. Schilovsky, a Russian scientist who has specialised in the application of the gyroscope to a variety of engineering problems. Dr. Schilovsky calls his turn indicator an " Ortho- scope," and its principle is very simply that of a two-framed gyroscope, the " ring " being fixed to the body of the aeroplane and the axis being at right angles to the line of flight. It is, of course, a well-known fact that when such a gyroscope is running and an effort made to swing it in the plane of its axis of rotation, it will tend to tilt at right angles to that plane. This principle has been very simply employed in the Schilovsky Orthoscope to actuate a pointer which indicates to the pilot whether or not he is maintaining a straight course. As a matter of fact, the Schilovsky turn indicator does more than this, for it actually indicates the rate, of turn of the machine—in other words, the angular velocity. Moreover, the instrument is so designed that the pilot can adjust its sensitivity to suit his own requirements, the Orthoscope being adjustable within wide limits. The orthoscope consists, fundamentally, of a small electro- motor, which also forms the gyroscope, rotating on a trans- verse axis, the ring being mounted on knife-edges pointing fore and aft. The motor is run off a 12-volt accumulator, and the consumption is but 0-7 ampere, or about the same as that of a wireless valve. An adjustable pendulum brings the gyroscope back to the neutral position, the adjustment of the pendulum length being effected by means of a small knob on the face of the instrument. Damping is introduced in the form of a small dashpot, visible in one of our photo- graphs, and here again adjustment is provided in the form of a screw-down needle valve which increases or decreases the effective area of a small vent-hole. What with the two adjustments, the upper pointer can be made extra sensitive or less so at will. The lower pointer is a lateral inclinometer, in the form of a pendulum, also swinging on knife-edges, and is a circular disc eccentrically pivoted. If the machine makes a flat turn the upper pointer indicates the fact of the machine turning, while the lower shows that the bank is incorrect by swinging out. On a correctly banked turn the bottom pointer remains central. The central knob actuates the switch which starts the motor, a pressure on it closing the circuit and at the same time dropping the gyroscope on to its knife-edges, off which it is lifted when the knob is pulled out. On switching on, the gyroscope is up to its running speed (about 1,000 r.p.m.) in something like five seconds. The instrument has a height of but 6$ ins. and weighs a few pounds only. For further information and demonstrations application should be made to Messrs. Bucknall and Riches, 8, Southampton Row, London, W.C. 1. THE SCHILOVSKY GYROSCOPIC TURN INDICATOR : The small electric motor, running at about 1,000 to 1,200 r.p.m. only, is also the gyroscope. I 53 c 2
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