FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1926
1926 - 1021.PDF
DECEMBER 30, 1926 THE ALBATROS L68A SCHOOL MACHINE 100 H.P. Siemens Radial Air-Cooled Engine THE Albatros L.68A illustrated in the accompanying photo- and particularly the cantilever monoplane, is really asgraphs has been designed and constructed by the Albatros efficient as its apparently " clean " lines might lead one to Aircraft Works, Ltd., of Johannisthal, Berlin, as a resultof their experience with an earlier type of similar lines, the L.68. The new machine, whose series number is L.68A,is intended for school work and for sporting and demonstra- suppose. In the Albatros L.68A Herr Schubert, the Albatros chief designer, has been content to follow orthodox lines, and the machine presents no unusual features aerodynamically if we THE ALBATROS L.68a : Three-quarter rear view. The wings are mainly planked with three-ply, although trailing edge and flaps are fabric covered. The ailerons incorporate the Handley Page -Lachmann slot. tion flying. In order to fit it for the latter, it has been designedwith rather higher factors of safety than usual. The L.68a is, it will be seen, characterized by a fairly heavystagger of its biplane cellule, and as regards its lines looks singularly " un-German," resembling much more a Britishmachine in its general layout. It is a rather curious fact that of recent years there appears to have been in Germany except the fitting of slot-ailerons. In connection with theseit should be noted that the ailerons do not extend right out to the rounded wing tips, but stop short approximatelywhere the wing tip curve merges into the straight trailing edge. At the inner end also, the ailerons do not run rightup to the fuselage (in the case of the bottom wing), nor to the top centre-section, but are altogether of relatively THE ALBATROS L.68a : Side View. The engine is a 100 h.p. Siemens radial. a reversal to the biplane type, which once upon a time wasfar less popular than the monoplane, but which again seems to be coming into its own for smaller machines. LargeGerman aircraft is still almost entirely of the monoplane type. There can probably be no gainsaying the fact thatweight for weight the biplane structure is superior to the monoplane from a strength point of view, and even aero-dynamically it is very doubtful whether the monoplane, short length, and, it would seem, to some extent inefficientlyplaced in that their already short span may be rendered less effective by so placing them that they work on a relativelyshort lever arm. However, so far as we know the machine has very good lateral control, so that presumably the extraeffectiveness of the slots makes up for the short distance of the lateral centre of pressure from the centre line of themachine. 869
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
