FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1927
1927 - 0466.PDF
JUNE 30, 1927 on it and fly away. With the flights paths converging at one point, the machines coming from all directions, it will be realised that nothing but perfect judgment and skill can avoid collisions. As a spectacle this event is very " emotioning." In actual warfare, its value is that it is well nigh impossible to defend oneself against this form of attack. Every other item in the programme will be found to present something of interest, but we do not propose to publish too many details, as every visitor to the Display should make a point of obtaining a copy of the official programme. Remember that the proceeds of the Display, and consequently of the sale of programmes, will be devoted to various Royal Air Force charities. This point has been kept in mind by us throughout in the compilation of the special Display section of this week's issue of FLIGHT, and although we have attempted to do our best to make that section of interest and assistance to our readers, we have deliberately refrained from including anything which might possibly tend to reduce the sale of official programmes. Our tinted pages are not claimed to be, nor indeed do they attempt to supplant, the official programme. Rather do we hope that they will be found to supplement the official publica- tion, in which naturally the information given must be somewhat limited. This applies especially to illustrations, and we trust that the photographs of aircraft types which we give this week will be useful, in thus supplementing the official'' book of the words.'' Of very particular interest at the R.A.F. Displays is always the Fly-past, or " Parade," as it is officially termed this year. In this event machines of more or less novel type take part, and this year the number of types that may legitimately be described as " new " is rather larger than we have been accustomed to in previous years. This applies more particularly to the new " General Purpose" types, which are a result of a competition held recently. It should be realised that several types were produced for this competition which will not take part, but the four machines which are in the " Parade " may be regarded as fairly representative of the type in general. Apart from the " General Purpose " machines, special interest will probably attach to two types, the Boulton and Paul " Sidestrand " and the Bristol " Bulldog," both of which will make their first public appearance at the Display, and both of which are representative of a serious attempt to tackle what is, probably, nowadays the most serious phase of aircraft design—namely, the phenomenon known as " interference." As the name implies, this means the effecLavhich the presence of one part of an aero- plane has upon another part. Thus, it has hitherto been customary, in order to obtain performance estimates, to measure the resistance, or drag, of individual parts such as wings, fuselage, undercarriage and tail, and hope that the resultant resistance would be equal to the sum of the resistances of the separate items. Sometimes this has, fortunately, been found to be the case fairly accurately ; at other times great differences have been found. No general law has yet been formulated, and one of the greatest diffi- culties of modern design is to reduce this interference. In the " Sidestrand " the streamline fuselage, and more particularly the design of the engine mountings on the wings, have been responsible for a great reduction in " interference," with consequent gain in performance, while in the " Bulldog " it is, perhaps, mainly the carefully planned streamlining of the engine, which has resulted in a considerable gain in performance. Both machines are well worth watching very closely. THE ROYAL VISIT TO AUSTRALIA : Our photograph shows Group-Captain H.R.H. the Duke of York inspectingi Supermarine-Napier "Seagulls" at Point Cook 424 ,--. -•••..._ ,_., . . . - ' >, •;"•:. ^.^-•^^ .
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
