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Aviation History
1925
1925 - 0197.PDF
tmtm APRIL 2, 1925 THE LOENING METAL AMPHIBIAN A NEW type of metal amphibian, according to our American contemporary Aviation, the Loening Amphibian, which has been secretly under development for over a year, made its first public appearance on January 18, at Boiling Field, Washington, D.C. This ship, the first of an order of ten being built for the U.S. Army Air Service, was delivered by air, piloted by Lieut. Wendell H. Brookley, who flew the machine from the Loening factory on the East River, New York City, to Mitchel Field. From there he made the cross- country trip to Boiling Field. It was the first cross-country flight ever made by an amphibian flying boat in America. Lieut. Brookley's trip was without incident, and he reported that the new craft handled well in every way. The following day Lieut. Brookley demonstrated the capa- bilities of the Loening Amphibian to the Lampert Aircraft Investigating Committee with a masterful exhibition of flying. Taking off from the field with Fred Heckert, aeronautical engineer of McCook Field, as a passenger, Urookley landed at a moment's notice. No extra floats or other devices are used, as the new design obtains its amphibious character- istics by the shape of the main fuselage body itself, the bottom of which is shaped like a flying boat hull, while the upper portion follows the lines of the usual tractor fuselage. To this is attached a folding landing gear, an ingenious device which is operated by an electric motor—the pilot merely throwing a switch in order to raise the wheels for water landing, or to lower them for alighting on the land. As already demonstrated in flight, the new Loening Amphi- bian, in performance of speed and manoeuvrability, com- pares favourably with other aeroplanes of the same weight equipped with Liberty motors, such as the D.H. But the deeper metal body and the unit construction give it a strength and rigidity which should greatly increase the safety of the crew in case of accident. In the sand test, conducted by the Air Service at Dayton, this body stood up without failure to a load of three or four times what is customarily applied. THE LOENING AMPHIBIAN BIPLANE : A recent American machine of somewhat unusual design, which might be described as being midway between the orthodox tractor-fuselage biplane and the flying-boat. It is fitted with a 400 h.p. Inverted " Liberty " engine. shortly after to show the committee the adaptability of the craft as a land plane. Taking oft again, the pilot folded up the landing wheels, and sideslipped down to the Naval Air Station at Anacostia which adjoins Boiling Field. Four landings in the water were made altogether, and then, seeing Capt. Robert Oldys of the office of the chief of Air Service idling about in the air in a De Havilland, Brookley climbed and came alongside. Both pilots then threw the throttles wide open, and came down the field wing to wing. Soon Capt. Oldys was far outdistanced and the huge amphi- bian had beaten the D.H., the inverted Liberty motor in the amphibian turning up 1,700 r.p.m. for a speed of 127 miles per hour. Considerable interest is attached to this machine in avia- tion circles, as it represents a somewhat daring and novel design. For about the first time in the development of aero- plane design, the ordinary tractor type of biplane has been modified, so that the machine is capable of landing on either land or water, with ability to start from or alight on either, Air Minister's Tour SIR SAMUEL HOARE, Air Minister, who with Mr. Amery arrived at Port Said on March 25, left Abu Scien for Baghdad by aeroplane early in the afternoon and arrived after a pleasant and uneventful journey. Alan Cobham to Lecture ON Tuesday, April 7, Alan J. Cobham will personally describe his flight to India and back on a D.H.50. It will be a graphic, account, illustrated with lantern slides from photographs, of Sir Sefton Brancker's pioneer flight of survey for the inauguration of the Great Empire air routes 197 In addition to the metal covering of the entire hull and body, the interior construction of the wings is largely metal, duralumin being the chief material used. One of the most interesting features of the machine is the use of the Inverted Liberty Motor. This development places the bulk of the engine cylinders, etc., below the line of thrust of the propeller, so that clearance for the propeller is more readily obtained, and at the same time, the centre of gravity of the weight is lowered several feet. The Loening Amphibian weighs 3,300 1b. empty and 4,000 lb. loaded. It has seats for a crew of three and a gas capacity of 140 gallons, sufficient for a non-stop flight of 700 miles. Another interesting feature of the machine is that the forward projection of the boat-shaped body protects the pro- peller if landings have to be made in thick wheat fields or bushes, and prevents the machine from turning over on its nose, when hitting obstacles. The new machine was designed and built by the Loening Aeronautical Engineering Corporation of New York. <s> •$> of the near future. The lecture will take place at the Aeolian Hall, New Bond Street, London, W., commencing at 8.30 p.m. Air Vice-Marshal Sir Sefton Brancker will preside. Tickets, price 85. 6rf., 5s. 9d., and 35., may be obtained from the usual agencies. French Air Fatality WHILE two French military aeroplanes were carrying out aerial combat practice over Chateauroux one of the machines caught fire. The pilot, N. C. O. Trubu, jumped from the machine from a height of 1,000 ft., and was killed instantly.
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