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Aviation History
1931
1931 - 0004.PDF
FLIGHT. JANUARY 2, 1931 COMING OR GOING? : The " Ente " in flight. Note the plan form of the front plane. THE FOCKE-WULF "ENTE By EDWIN P. A. HEINZE THE history of " canard "aeroplanes extendsback to 1907, when Santos Dumont was the first pilot to carry out one or two short " hops " with this type of machine. About the same time Hinrich Focke, the pre- sent chief of the German Focke-Wulf Works, and his brother experimented with canard models and set up a theory of their working, lead- ing to their applying for a patent, which was granted them in 1908. A machine was then constructed in the works of Dr. Rumpler, and equipped with a 40-h.p. en- gine. This machine carried out several short flights on a field near Berlin, in Sept- ember, 1909, with Dr. Alberti at the controls. In the following year the French- man Voisin executed short flights with a similar plane, which was by him named canard," meaning duck, this being derived from the peculiar aspect of the machine in the air looking FOCKE-WULF " ENTE " F.19a 2 Siemens Sh-14 Engines Dimensions Length o.a. Wing span (main) Wing span (forward) A rcas Main wing surface Forward wing surface Total lifting surface Weights Tare weight (equipped) Disposable load Gross weight Wing loading . . . . 46-5 Power loading . . 7-5 " Wing Power " .. 6-2 m. 10-53 10-00 500 sq. m. 29-5 6-0 35-5 kg1,175 475 1,650 kg./m.2 kg./P.S. P.S./m.2 C Performance Maximum speed Cruising speed Landing speed Climb to 1,000 m. (3,280 ft.)Take-off run to 20 m. height 142 km 128 km 83 km Alighting run, from 20 m. to standstill Everling " high-speed figure • • 9-77 16-5 1-577 'h. ,'h. 'h. ft. in. 34 6 1 32 10 16 5 sq. ft. 317 64-6 381-6 t lb 1 2,585 l 1,045 3,630 lb./sq. ft. lb./h.p. h.p./sq.ft. 88 m.p.h. 80 m.p.h. 52 m.p.h. 8-3 min.440 vds. 450 vds. 8 , t like a flying duck. In 1911 the German Professor Reiss- ner also carried through some promising attempts with a canard plane. Notwithstand- ing all these and many more less well-known attempts be- ing relatively successful, none of these men succeeded in procuring the necessary financial support to enable them to continue work, for the now normal type of plane was quicker to mature to good performances. There is always a prejudice against taking up for de- velopment old ideas that already once had to be dropped for apparent im- practicability. This is no less so in Germany than elsewhere, and the fact that in 1925 the German Aero- nautical Research Institute (Deutsche Versuchsanstalt fur Luftfahrt), after very carefully considering pro- posals brought before it by Focke-Wulf, gave the latter makers an order for a can- ard plane was, therefore, THE FOCKE-WULF " ENTE " : Three-quarter front view.
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