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Aviation History
1926
1926 - 0773.PDF
OCTOBER 21, 1926 open ocean, often for hundreds of miles at a time. The visitsof steamers to any one of the islands must always be rare events. Yet, from the defence point of view, the two greatBritish Dominions of the southern Pacific must be very much interested in these islands. And, as Australia knows thather defence system must be based on marine aircraft, it is particularly important that the R.A.A.F. should have asmuch knowledge of the islands as possible from the aerial point of view. There is yet another consideration. It isonly by means of the air that these islands can ever hope for anything like adequate communications with the outsideworld. Archipelagoes are in a peculiar position in that they never can obtain all the communications which they reallyneed so long as they depend on sea-going ships. Shipping is too expensive. Aircraft alone offers a solution of the difficulty,because it is cheaper—although, here in Europe we have come to think of air transport as unreasonably costly. In Australiathey know better. Consequently, this pioneer flight of Group- Capt. Williams may have far-reaching consequences. He isshowing the flag, and we know that trade often follows the flag. Full details of the route have not yet been received inLondon, but the following itinerary is probably pretty correct. The miles given are nautical miles, and one-eighth should beadded to translate them into land miles. It is possible also that a visit may be paid to Nukualofa,in the Tonga or Friendly Islands before starting back from Samoa. On the return journey, most probably there would not be a second diversion from Erromango to visit the Frenchislands of New Caledonia. Therefore, we may provisionally put the whole route down as about 11,600 sea miles. It is agreat and adventurous undertaking, and we wish the best of hick to the gallant Australian airmen who are engaged uponit. NauticalMiles. Melbourne . . . . . . . . . . . . —Sydney 560 Brisbane 400 Gladstone 270Townsville . . . . . . . . . . . . 425 Cooktown .. .. .. .. .. .. 270 Thursday Is. 352Port Moresby (Papua) . . . . . . . . 304 Rabaul (Bismarck Arch.) 420 Down the Solomon Isles . . . . . . . . 570 Santa Cruz .. .. .. .. .. 300 Esperito Santo (New Hebrides) 270Erromango . . . . . . . . . . 270 Noumea, New Caledonia (French) . . . . 260 Erromango . . . . . . . . . . 260Lautoka, Fiji . . . . . . . . . • 500 Apia, in Opolu Is., Samoa (via Keppel Island) 600 6,031 H AIRCRAFT ALIGHTING AND ARRESTING MECHANISMS SINCE the earlv days of flying, when a length of rubbercord wrapped around skid and axle of an aeroplane under- carriage formed the accepted means of absorbing the shocksof landing, a great deal of progress has been made in the design of undercarriages. The type which has come to bealmost universally used is the oleo " leg " in one form or another, and this type has the advantage of being relativelysimple both to design and construct. Nevertheless, there are still problems to be solved andimprovements to be made, and the paper entitled " Aircraft Alighting and Arresting Mechanisms," which is to be readbefore the Institution of Aeronautical Engineers on October 26, by Mr. G. H. Dowty, A.F.R.Ae.S., M.I.Ae.E., should proveof considerable interest to practical engineers, the more so as Mr. Dowty will deal not only with the design of aircraftundercarriages, but also with the rather more difficult pro- blems of " arrester gears." It may be recollected that in the June 24, 1926, issue ofThe Aircraft Engineer Mr. Dowty gave an illustrated article on compression rubbers, in which he gave summarised resultsof tests of various rubbers. Some four years ago Mr. Dowty read a paper before the Inst. Ae. E. on oleo undercarriages,so that his subject on October 26 is one of which he has had very considerable experience. In his paper Mr. Dowty will deal mainly with the type ofoleo undercarriage, in which the " legs " have been designed to give uniform resistance throughout, and more particularlythe type employing a tapered needle valve for controlling the resistance to compression. The lecturer will show illustra-tions of such a leg, and will give formulae, tables and charts for the rapid determination of the proportions of the variousmembers in order to give uniform resistance, assuming only that the weight of the aircraft and the vertical velocity permitted are given. The lecturer has managed to evolvea very simple method for making these calculations for a leg of the needle valve controlled type. If the first part of Mr. Dowty's paper is of great interestto all whose work lies in aircraft drawing offices, the second part of the paper should have a much wider appeal, since itdeals with the problems of aircraft "arrester gears," i.e., a mechanism for pulling up a landing aircraft in a shortdistance. Mr. Dowty points out that at present no such arrester gear is used for deck landing, and that consequently-only machines of relatively low landing speed can be xised. He then proceeds to call attention to the advantages, not onlyfor deck landing, but for army aeroplanes and commercial aircraft, of being able to alight in fairly confined spaces.Mr. Dowty, basing his design upon the familiar hydraulic buffers used on railway platforms, evolves a mechanismdoing the same for aircraft, but in which the travel is relatively long and the resistance small. It is not proposed to rob Mr. Dowty's lecture of its interestby giving too much detail in advance, but we may say that the paper refers to an arrester gear claimed to be capable ofbringing to rest in a distance of 300 ft., a machine landing at 90 m.p.h. As the distance available for lauding on decksis 600 ft., aircraft with landing speeds as'high as those of modern racing aircraft could be landed on a deck. Thisclaim is sufficiently bold to make one " sit up and take notice," and Mr. Dowty's lecture deserves to be extremely wellattended. The meeting will commence at 6.30 p.m., on Tuesday,October 26, and will be held in the lecture room of the Junior Institution of Engineers, 39, Victoria Street, London, S.W. 1.We understand that non-members of the Institution will be welcomed. Changes on Royal Aero Club Committee IN view of the increasing work of the Aircraft OperatingCo., Ltd., Maj. H. Hemming, A.F.C., has been obliged to retire from the Committees of the Royal Aero Club. Forseveral months Maj. Hemming has devoted considerable time to the Club Committee and the Racing Committee. SirAlan J. Cobham has accepted the invitation of the Royal Aero Club to fill the vacancy on the Committee. Royal Aeronautical Society The Council of the Royal Aeronautical Society havedecided to hold a reception on Monday, October 25, at 8.30 p.m. in the King Edward VII Rooms, Hotel Victoria,Northumberland Avenue, W.C.2, at which Sir Alan Cobham, K.B.E., will give an, address, illustrated by lantern slides,on his recent flight. The Dominion Premiers and other delegates to the ImperialConference will be present. The R.A.F. String Band will play, and a buffet will be provided. Ladies may be invited,and tickets, price 5s. each, may be obtained by members for themselves and their guests from the Secretary, RoyalAeronautical Society, 7, Albemarle Street, W.I. Aero Golfing SocietyTHE autumn meeting was held at Wentworth Park Golf Club, Virginia Water, on October 14. Challenge Cup (presented by the proprietors of FLIGHT) :—(1) H. E. Perrin, 90 less 14 = 76 ; (2) P. Barry, 84 less 7 = 77. Challenge Cup (presented by Cellon, Ltd., Richmond) :—(1) E. J. B. How, 1 up. C. Ruault and W. A. Bristow tied for second place—allsquare. 689
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