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Aviation History
1931
1931 - 0382.PDF
FLIGHT, APRIL 24, 1931 Capt. Frank Hawks arriving at Croydon. (FLIGHT Photo.) THE TRAVEL AIR MODEL "R An American Commercial Aircraft with a Phenomenal Performance and the holder of Many Spectacular Records •""l|j—'HE Travel Air " Mystery Ship " with its pheno-^0 III menal performance has been the subject of much III conjecture and wild report since it has performedmany astonishing flights in the hands of Capt. Frank Hawks, Lt. James H. Dolittle and Mrs. Florence L.Barnes. It first made its appearance at the National Air Races of America in 1929 at Cleveland, piloted by DouglasDavis, and created a sensation by doing one lap of the closed course at 228 m.p.h. A large number of recordflights have since been made with this aircraft, notably those of the coast to coast record by Capt. Hawks whichwas made from the Glendale Air Port, Los Angeles, to Valley Stream, New York,•on August 13, 1930, in 12 hr. 25 min. 3 sec, ofwhich only 11 hr. 40 min. were flying time. Capt.Hawks also flew from Detroit to New York onSeptember 30, in 2 hr. 41 min., and on October 7he flew from Boston to New York in 54 min. 15in 54 mm. sec. and from Philadelphiato New York on October 9 in 20 min.The Travel Air low wing •model R., which is the cor-rect name of this machine, makes use of the Wright9 cylinder 450 h.p. engine, which, by the use of 6:1compression ratio, high re- volutions and a verylow weight, gives this machine a low powerloading. The engine is en- closed in a form of thewidely advertised N.A.C.A. cowling, now called theVenturi cowl, which cer- tainly decreases the drag toan enormous extent. In this case, preceding as itdoes the circular sectioned fuselage, the exit from thecowl would appear to have a very definite slot-likeeffect, and probably main- tains a smooth flow for a SPECIFICATION OF THE TRAVEL AIRMODEL "R." .. 20//. 2 in. (6-2 m.)7 ft. 9 in. (2-4 m.) .. R.A.F. 34 . . 30//. 0 in. (9-1 m.) .. 5 ft. Oin. (1-5 in.) Length overall Height overall Wing section Chord .. A rea of wings, total A rea of ailerons Area of tail plane A rea of elevators Area of fin A rea of rudder Weight empty .. Gross weight loaded Power Plant Wing loading Power loading .. High speed (full load, sea level) 250 m.p.h. (402-3 km.)Cruising speed 200 m.p.h. at 1,950 r.p.m. (321 • 9 km long way back down> the fuselage. Incidentally, thescale drawings, for which we have to thank our American contemporary The Scientific American, show thatthis fuselage is definitely swept inwards in the region of the pilot's cockpit, and this may possibly have some addi-tional effect in reducing the drag much on the lines advo- cated by M. Poncelet in his little Monoplane. The enginemounting is of steel tubular construction, and is detach- able, while the main fuel tank, of 86 gallon capacity, isconstructed of aluminium, and is carried on the bottom longerons in the fuselage bay, directly behind the engine.A five gallon reserve tank is carried behind the main tank, and connected to it bymeans of a wobble pump. The engine feed is said tobe by gravity through J in. pipe lines, but, judgingfrom the drawings, the head achieved by this canhardly be up to British requirements. The engine cowling, madeof about 20 gauge alumi- nium, also has baffles be-tween the cylinders, and the inner cowling, whichextends back to the cockpit, is made of the samematerial. The oil coolers aremounted on the stub wings, and the cooling fins areunder the cat-walks. Between the enginemounting and the tank there is, of course, theusual aluminium and 125 sq.ft. (ll-6sq. m.) .. 12-3 sq.ft. (l-14sq. m.). . 14-1 sq.ft. (1-3 sq. m.) 9-4 sq.ft. (0-87 sq. m.)4-1 sq.ft. (0-38 sq. m.) 5-7 sq.ft. (0-53 sq. m.) .. 2,000 Ib. (907-2 kg.).. 3,300 Ib. (1496-9 kg.) .. 450 h.p. at 2,400 r.p.m.26-2 Ib./sq.ft. (127-9kg./sq.m.) .. 7-Zib.jh.p. (3-3kg./h.p.) Landing speed Take off run (still air) Climb at sea level Service ceiling Absolute ceiling Fuel consumption at cruising speed Fuel capacity (normal) Range at cruising speed Endurance at cruising speed . 60 m.p.h. (96-6 km.;. 300//. (91-4 m.) 3,200ft.Imin. (16-2 m./sec.;. 30,000//. (iU44m.) . 31,000//. (9,450 m.) . 18gal./hr. (81-81itres/hr.). 96 gal. (436-4 litres) . 1,000 miles. (1609-3 km.) , 5 hours (approx.) asbestos fireproof bulk-head. The propeller used is an 8 ft. diameter standardsteel one, set at a pitch of 22°. The landing gear isreminiscent of the De Havilland Tiger Moth, ex-cept that the springing from each wheel is carriedexternally on a framework built round it, and is acombination of two oleo 3581
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