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Aviation History
1928
1928 - 0015.PDF
Flight, January 12, 1928 AIRCRAFTENGINEER^ First Aeronautical Weekly in the World. Founded January, 1909 Founder and Editor : STANLEY SPOONER A Journal devoted to the Interests, Practice, and Progress of Aerial Locomotion and Transport OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE ROYAL AERO CLUB OF THE UNITED KINGDOM No. 994. (No. 2. Vol. XX.) JANUARY 12, 1928 rWeekly, Price 6d.L Post free, 7d. EDITORIAL COMMENT The Aircraft Engineer and Airships Editorial Offices: 36, GREAT QUEEN STREET, KINGSWAV, W.C.2 Telephone : Gerrard 1828. Telegrams : Truditur, Westcent, London. Annual Subscription Rates, Post Free.United Kingdom .. 30s. id. Abroad .. ..33s Od.* 'Foreign subscriptions must be remitted in British currency. CONTENTS Editorial Comment : PAGE Formula Racing .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 15 Hard Luck . . . . . . . .. IIS Blackburn Ripon II .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 17 Dornier " Super -Wai " 18 New Koolhoven L;ght Plane .. .. .. .. .. .. 19 Empire Airship Mission .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 211 New Light 'Plane Records by Czechoslovakia .. .. .. 21 Private Flying : Flying Club Progress in 1927 22 Light 'Plane Clubs 24 Central States " Monocoupe " .. .. .. .. .. .. 25 Pratts'Ethyl Fuel 6 New Wireless Station at Croydon ..' .. .. .. .. 26 Airisms from the Four Winds .. .. .. .. .. .. 27 Reviews of Books 28 Royal Air Force .. ., 29 R.A.F. Development 9 Personals 3d 14 FLIGHT " PHOTOGRAPHS. To those desirous of obtaining copies of "Flight" Photographs, these can be supplied, enlarged or otherwise, upon application to Photo. Department, 36, Great Queen Street, W.C.2 For Sizes and Prices, see Advert, on page xx. DIARY OF CURRENT AND FORTHCOMING EVENTS Club Secretaries and others desirous of announcing the dates of important fixtures are invited to send particulars for inclusion in this list :— 1928 Feb. i Aug. 6 Sept. — Oct. 7-28 1929 Oct. 31 " Aircraft in Small Wars." Wing-Comdr. R. H. Peck, before Royal United Services Inst. Air League Challenge Cup Schneider Trophy Race. International Aircraft Exhibition, Berlin. Guggenheim Safe-Aircraft Competition Closes. V Formula Racing K IENEFITING from the lesson of last year, when the handicap formula used for estimating the racing speeds of machines proved to rule out nearly all the fast types, we understand that the subject of this year's formula is now being discussed by the authorities concerned, and that the formula sug- gested is, with very minor alterations, that designed by Mr. C. C. Walker, and described by him in the September 22, 1927, issue of the AIR- CRAFT ENGINEER (Technical Supplement to FLIGHT). The value of the constant and the biplane span allowance have been slightly modified, but the change is so small that for all practical purposes the suggested formula is Mr. Walker's original one. It may be recollected that Mr. Walker chose span rather than area (i.e., "span power" rather than " wing power ") as his basis mainly because, as he put it, " span is the dimension for which there is no substitute." In other words, so long as formula racing is used there will be efforts to " cheat " the formula (we use the expression, of course, without any intention of inferring any dishonourable action, and merely as it is used in yacht racing, to imply " beating " the formula), and it is therefore essential that the formula chosen should be such that in trying to " cheat " it the qualities developed by the "' cheating " should be desirable ones. Mr. Walker claimed, it may be remembered, that if wing area were used, the tendency would probably be to increase chord so as to get a low figure for " wing power " (horse-power per square foot) without thereby sacri- ficing very much actual speed, thus obtaining a lower handicap speed. Now, adding chord can be done as a piece of " faking," and does not entail any great structural alterations ; but an increase in chord is not particularly desirable. Mr. W'alker chose span because, as he said, " increase of chord is no cure for an overloaded machine, but increase of span is." In other words, span is a desirable feature in any machine, although it is not, perhaps, very important in a pure racing craft. But, coming back to the formula, if a formula tends to produce some " freakish " feature, B 2
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