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Aviation History
1931
1931 - 0739.PDF
FLIGHT, JULY 17, 1931 MONOSPAR WING FOR FOKKER F.VII-3M For an Aircraft Gross Weight of 8,000 lb., a Wing Area of 630 sq. ft., an Aspect Ratio of 6.4:1, and a Wing Loading of 12-8 lb./sq. ft., this Wing weighs 820 lb., or 1-3 lb./sq. ft., which is 10-2 Per Cent, of the Gross Weight EVOLUTIONARY" and "epoch-making"are terms which have frequently been applied to new discoveries or ideas in avia-tion. Usually it has been found that they were not. At best, they have marked a small step for-ward in the general and gradual—very gradual—improve- ment of aircraft. The Mono-Spar Co., Ltd., has never,to the best of our knowledge, made any such extravagant claims for the type of wing construction invented by Mr.Stieger. And yet the monospar construction promises definitely to go a very long way towards real commercialaviation. No form of construction, nor any suggestion for improvement that we have heard of, has achieved asaving in weight which would increase the pay load of an 8,000-lb. gross weight machine from 17.65 per cent, ofthe gross weight to 24.2 per cent. In actual figures, the saving in weight amounts to 530 lb., which is the equiva-lent of three passengers. In other words, a machine which needs a subsidy to make both ends meet is brought withinmeasurable distance of being able to "fly by itself." And all this not by complicated and super-refined construc-tion, but merely by what most engineers will agree is a simple, straightforward common-sense piece of structuralengineering. In our issue of June 19, 1931, we published a briefarticle, illustrated by photographs of the spar of the new wing which has been designed by the Mono-Spar Companyand built by the Gloster Aircraft Company, to be fitted on a Fokker F.VII-3M. (Lynx), which belongs to the AirMinistry. Last week we had an opportunity of visiting the Gloster works at Hucclecote to inspect the wing inskeleton, just as it was being mounted on the fuselage of the Fokker machine. This wing has been built in orderto obtain a comparison between the standard Fokker wooden wing and the new all-metal monospar wing. The Lynx-engined Fokker F.VII-3M. monoplane has agross weight of 8,000 lb., with a pay load of 1,405 lb. The new wing has been designed for the same gross load,but is 530 lb. lighter than the Fokker wing, thus increas- ing the pay load by that amount. The monospar wing isnot an exact copy of the Fokker wing in its proportions, i.e., it has a much more pronounced taper in plan viewthan the standard Fokker wing. The span and area are, however, the same. The wing section used is also dif- THE PYRAMID BRACING: THE TUBES OF THE TORSION BRACING ARE LIGHTLY LOCATED AT THEIR CENTRES, WHERE THEY PASS THROUGH .THE SPAR. THIS PHOTOGRAPH ALSO SHOWS SOMETHING OF THE SPAR CONSTRUCTION. (FLIGHT Photo.) 693
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