FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1929
1929 - 0008.PDF
JANUARY 3, 1929 THE NEW HAWKER "TOMTIT" TRAINING MACHINE Armstrong-Siddeley "Mongoose" Engine DESIGNED for a competition held by the Air Ministry for atraining machine for use in the Royal Air Force, the new Hawker low-power biplane which we illustrate this week isof interest in that it incorporates a number of features and equipment not usually found on such low-powered aircraft.In addition, the machine is of all-metal construction through- out, except for the fabric covering. A normal biplane in aerodynamic design, the Hawkermachine is characterised by a very pronounced stagger, the chief object of which is to provide good view from bothcockpits, as well as to make it possible for the occupant of the front seat to make effective use of his parachute. Theforward placing of the top plane and the cut-out in its trailing edge leave the space free above the front cockpit. To makeup for the heavy stagger, the wings are given a slight sweep- back. A complete set of instruments is fitted in each cockpit,so that both instructor and pupil is well equipped, and include Reid turn indicators of special type so as to make the machinesuitable for teaching pupils to fly in darkness or cloud. A special hood is also provided which shuts out all view from the cockpit, the object being to teach a pupil to fly byinstruments entirely. Handley Page automatic slots are fitted, and it is reported that the machine cannot be made tospin when these are in operation. (The first test flights were made with the slots locked in the closed position.) The Hawker training machine has a steel tube fuselage, thelongerons being of the typical Hawker type in which flats are formed on the round tubes at the points of the strut attach-ments in order to allow simple plate fittings to be used. The wings have steel tube spars of a type evolved by theHawker company, formed from a large-diameter circular- section tube, the section of which has been changed intoone that may be described as resembling a double figure-of- eight.The engine fitted in the Hawker training machine is an Armstrong-Siddeley " Mongoose " of 120 h.p. This, as ourreaders will probably know, is a 5-cylinder radial air-cooled engine, with cylinders and pistons similar to those of the" Jaguar " and " Lynx " engines. The petrol feed is by gravity from a tank in the deck fairing ahead of the frontcockpit. [" FLIGHT " Photographs THE HAWKER "TOMTIT " IN FLIGHT : Mr. Bulman shows various aspects of the new training machine 4
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
