FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1927
1927 - 0080.PDF
FEBRUARY 10, 1927 NEW LAMPS FOR OLD New Vickers-Davis Navigation Equipment Represents Great Saving in Weight IT would not, at first sight, appear that the navigation lamps and generating equipment of an aircraft offered any par- ticular scope for the exercise of the aeronautical designer's pet hobb ' (or is it a pet aversion ?) : that of saving weight. It might have been thought that one has to have a certain number of lamps, with their generator, accumulator, switches and other accessories, and that no matter what one did, the result could only amount, figuratively speaking, to ounces saved. Probably that is why hitherto we have been perfectly content to accept as a necessary evil the equipment which has become standardized, and have never troubled to wonder whether something worth while could be done by re-designing this part of the equipment of a modern aircraft. Yet when one by Vickers, among which may be mentioned the fact that, with the exception of the " upward identification lamp," all the lamps are interchangeable, i.e., any one lamp can be used as a head lamp, port or starboard lamp, or tail lamp, the only alteration necessary being a change, rapidly carried out, of the glass dome. The accompanying photographs show a set of the new Vickers-Davis lamps, while other parts of the equipment are also illustrated by photographs, while details of the lamps themselves, and their switches, are shown .by sketches. In the main the sketches are self-explanatory. It might, however, be pointed out that the body F and tail fairing G [" FLIGHT " Copyright Sketches DETAILS OF NEW VICKERS NAVIGATION LAMPS : On the left a complete lamp with front glassdome removed. The manner of securing and locking this is indicated, the reference letters corresponding to those of the sectional view on the right. Details of the special switch are shown in the inset. comes to think of the matter it is obvious that, at the present rate of increase in the number of " gadgets " which almost any type of aeroplane is called upon to carry, some drastic measures will have to be adopted. With their usual foresight, Vickers, Ltd., realised this some time ago, and got busy on the problem of producing a set of navigation lamps and generating equipment which should represent a considerable saving in weight while possessing other advantages perhaps at least as important. The result has been a completely new equipment, in which careful design and a great deal of commonsense have succeeded in perfecting a set of lamps in which the weight saving amounts to no less than 57 • 5 per cent. Moreover, owing to the different shape of the lamps, a reduction in frontal area of 9 per cent, accompanies the saving in weight. Even so, there are other advantages of the new equipment marketed are made of aluminium, while the dome housing C and locking ring B are of Vickers Duralumin. The glass dome E is located and prevented from turning in the housing C by a grub screw, the dome being slotted for this. The rubber band D protects the dome in its housing, while the edge of the dome has another rubber ring interposed between it and the locking ring B. Screwing up the locking ring forces the glass dome against the sloping face of the housing and holds it i:i position. The housing ring itself, C, is screwed home on the base or body F, and is then drilled and locked by the circlip. One of the clever features of the Vickers-Davis lamp is the new type of glass dome. Not only has a good deal of weigl c been saved on the dome itself, but by the method of pain - ing the dome, with just the right angle of visibility, colou , etc., the one type of lamp serves for at least four position , 68
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
