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Aviation History
1931
1931 - 0332.PDF
FLIGHT, APRIL 10, \v3l THE CIVILIAN COUPE An interesting little cabin aircraft which provides all the comfort of a saloon car without in any way sacrificing the view, so essential to safe flying ""HE Civilian Coupe, which werecently had the pleasure of trying in flight, is now inproduction in the works of the Civilian Aircraft Co., Ltd., whichare situated on the south side of Hedon, the municipal airport of Hull. The machine has been altered quitea considerable amount since it was first shown in public at Heston in 1929.At that date the machine was definitely rather narrow and was fitted withthe A.B.C. "Hornet" engine. It flew, however, quite well and embodiedseveral novel features, which suggested that subsequent models might havemany very definite advantages over existing light aircraft. This recent one,which is the first of the production type, is fitted with the Armstrong-Siddeley " Genet Major" engine and many details of the machine have been re-designed. Thecabin has accommodation for two passengers sitting side by side, with the pilot on the left-hand side, while his passenger'sseat is slightly staggered so that there is ample room for the A MODERN TAIL : The tail wheel shows the thoroughly practicalway in which the Civilian Coupe has been designed as regards such details. This fitting makes the Coupe very comfortable when taxying. (FLIGHT Photo.) are the Bendix Perrott type in Dunlop wheels and areactuated in a particularly easy and useful manner. On the left-hand side of the pilot there is a hand lever which,when pulled half-way back on a ratchet, allows either brake shoulders of both of them, although the overall width of the to be, put on by the action of the rudder bar, thereby greatlyfuselage has been kept small. As will be seen from the photographs, the wing is mounted at some height above thetop longerons and the whole of the space between the wing and the fairing of the fuselage behind the pilot is filled inwith cellon. There is also a large cellon panel in the roof of the cabin with the result that the pilot obtains a perfectlyclear view both in front and bshind him, on both sides, and above. The wings and the fuselage are both covered in plywoodas are the tail units, which makes the machine an exceptionally strong proposition for the private owner whose machine mayhave to stand a large amount of knocking about. Another improvement is the fitting of wheel brakes. These facilitating taxying. If, however, it is required to put boththe brakes on at once the lever is simply pulled further back and can be locked there, so that chocks are unnecessarywhen the engine is being run up or when the machine is standing in a wind. To even further enhance the valueof the brakes, a particularly simple tail wheel has been incor- porated instead of the more usual tail skid. This is actuallya castor wheel from a trolley and is sprung by a large vertical spring. The advantage of a tail wheel over a skid wasimmediately apparent both when taxying over rough and stony ground and also when turning the machine sharplyby means of the brakes. The wings are designed to fold and are locked positivelyby spring operated locking pins which obviate the necessity for having toknock in the pin as is so often the case. Behind the two seats there is a fairlylarge luggage locker which can be increased in length by opening a smalldoor at its after end should it be desired to carry golf clubs. The top speed would seem to besomewhere about 109 m.p.h., while the landing speed is fairly low. At thepresent moment there still remains a little work to be done upon the controls,since the ailerons are somewhat sluggish in their action and the rudder appearsto be rather on the small side. These points are, however, being rectified andeven apart from them the Civilian Coupe is nice to handle and shouldhave a great appeal to those who do not wish to pay several hundred A COMFORTABLE ARRANGE-MENT : No one can complain of the comfort provided in the cabinof this machine. It will be seen that the seats are slightly staggeredthereby giving ample shoulder room. (FLIGHT Photo.) 308
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