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Aviation History
1929
1929 - 0393.PDF
FEBRUARY 28, 1929 THE WESTLAND IV COMMERCIAL MONOPLANE Three "Cirrus III" Engines IT is now several years ago that FLIGHT suggested theadvisability of producing three-engined commercial aircraft of low or medium power for use on air routes on which thevolume of traffic is not such as to warrant the operation of three-engined machines as powerful as those now carryingout the work on the London-Paris and the Cairo-Baghdad air routes. That, power for power, or pay load for pay load,the three-engined type is not as efficient as the single-engined machine has to be admitted. But there are circumstancesunder which forced landings have to be avoided, and the three-engined machine capable of flying on any two of itsengines provides a fairly short cut to this goal. Whether, by sacrificing a certain amount of weight in the engine itselfand in its installation, etc., a single-engined machine could not be produced with as great a freedom from forced landingsas the present popular three-engined type is another story, into which this is not the place to enter. There are stillthose who remain unconvinced that the three-engined type has necessarily come to stay. In the meantime. ImperialAirways, who possess more operational data than any other body in this country, are, practically speaking, concentratingon this type, and that being so, it is to be expected that the three-engined machine will have a long run of popularityeven if it should not be found to be the ultimate type. To the Westland Aircraft Works of Yeovil has fallen thehonour of being the first British firm to produce a three- engined commercial aircraft of relatively low power. Infact, the Westland IV is probably the first machine of its power to incorporate the three-engined arrangement. TheHandley Page " Hamlet," brought out some years ago, had three Bristol " Lucifer" engines of 120 h.p. each. TheWe.stland IV has three " Cirrus III " engines of about 95 h.ji. each (maximum). General DesignThe Westland IV is a high-wing monoplane with strut bracing, two outboard engines, a fairly large fuselage givingcomfortable cabin accommodation, and an undercarriage of very wide track to give good stability on the ground. Featuresof the design are the neat engine cowlings and the " clean tapering nose of the fuselage. The three-engined type mustnecessarily have a higher drag than the single-engined, but in the Westland IV it would appear that very great care hasbeen taken to reduce the extra drag as far as possible. The <:entra! engine is carefully mounted and cowled, and the * T" FLIGHT " Photographs The Westland IV monoplane (3 " Cirrus III " engines) in flight. Above, on the right, Mr. Davenport,Westland's Chief Designer, and on the left Capt. Nevill Stack, of A.D.C. Aircraft, Ltd. 157 - °
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