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Aviation History
1931
1931 - 0813.PDF
FLIGHT, JULY 31, 1931 The Parnall Peto flying past H.M. Submarine M.2. (FLIGHT Photo.) A SUBMARINE AIRCRAFT CARRIER "PER MARE PER COELUM" is the motto of this unique aircraf carrier, in which we were recently privileged to make a trip. Although frankly an experiment, she has proved satisfactory and the lessons learnt should very materially help future developments "OST people are aware that aircraft are operatedfrom ships called aircraft carriers, but very few know that one of our aircraft carriers is a sub-marine. This is the M.2, and is one of our largest submarines, which was first commissioned onNovember 5, 1919. At that time, however, she had a 12-in. gun in a turret forward of the conning tower, witha 3-in. gun aft, which, together with her four 18-in. bow torpedo tubes, formed her offensive armament. She wasone of three such boats with which it was hoped to do considerable damage in the latter stages of the worldwar, 1914-18. They were all of some 1,600 tons surface displacement and 1,950 tons submerged displacement, witha length of 305 ft. Their engines were two sets of 12-cylinder Diesel engines, giving a total h.p. of 2,400 anda surface speed of 15£ knots ; their electric motors total 1,600 h.p., with an under-water speed of approximately9J knots. None of them, however, were commissioned early enough to do very much, although the first of theclass, M.I, was sent out to the Dardanelles. Later on, when it was decided that the operation of air-craft from a submarine should be tried out, M.2 was taken in hand and altered for this purpose. The gun turret wascompletely dismantled and a hangar built in its place in frgnt of this She was then commissioned as a carrier in1927, the aircraft being slung out with a derrick and taking-off from the sea. In October, 1928, it was decided to advance a stepfurther, and on the top of the bow portion of the boat was built up a catapult similar to that used for launchingaircraft from other ships, but in this case worked by com- pressed air instead of a cordite charge.Parnall & Co., of Bristol, were the company who pro- duced an aircraft suitable for the purpose, and this wasnaturally no mean task, the limitations of size imposed by the dimensions of the hangar being a very seriousobstacle. Eventually, however, the Peto, as the aircraft was called, was finished, and this was described in FLIGHTfor July 11, 1929. In the first place, this machine was fitted with the Bristol Lucifer engine ; now, however, anArmstrong-Siddeley Mongoose is used instead, giving a considerably increased performance. The aircraft, of course,differs somewhat widely from the usual idea of a service craft inasmuch as it does not carry offensive armament.It is a two-seater folding-wing biplane with the top plane of greater span and cord than the lower. The interplanestruts are of the rigid steel tube type, and everything has been made as compact as possible. Similar to smallprivately-owned light aircraft, the pilot is placed in the rear position, with his observer in front of him, and theonly equipment carried apart from that used for ordinary navigational purposes is the wireless set, which is placedin the observer's cockpit, and in front of him. When in the hangar, this little twin-float biplane is locked upon acarriage resting on two rails, and when the large door in front of the hangar is raised and shut mechanically,there is not a great deal of room to get round the machine, as may be well imagined. The hangar crew, however, of 759
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