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Aviation History
1931
1931 - 1312.PDF
FLIGHT, DECEMBER 18, 1931 The Monospar Wing Flies The first Test Flights of the Monospar Wing designed by Mr. Stieger and built by the Gloster Aircraft Co., Ltd., for the Air Ministry made its first flights at Brockworth recently. Tests are proceeding but so far the wing seems to come up to expectations HE wing designed by theMonospar Wing Com- pany and built by theGloster Aircraft Co., Ltd., for the Air Ministry, has now passed its first flight tests, which, as far as they went, were entirely successful. Piloted byMr. Schofield, the machine took off very well indeed from Brock-worth, its climb and speed both seemed good, and Schofield, in the words of an onlooker, " banged the machine about "considerably once he had convinced himself that the controls were working satisfactorily. Extensive tests are,of course, to be made, and until the results of them are available it would be idle to speculate on the " goodness "or otherwise of the new wing. What is quite definite already is that the wing hasflown, it has been weighed, and it has been approved for strength by Farnborough. The area of the wing is630 sq. ft., the span 64 ft., and the weight, complete with doped covering, static aileron balances, fittings for enginemountings, wing-tip wireless masts, pitot head and tubing, navigation light brackets, electric wiring and bonding, and-wing-tip flare brackets, is 770 lb., or 1.143 lb./sq. ft. Petrol-tank mountings add another 20 lb., bringing the.total weight up to 790 lb. It is interesting to learn that, apart from the saving inwing weight as compared with the standard Fokker wing, no less than 40 lb. was saved on wing engine mountings.This was not due to any deliberate attempt to cut down engine mounting weight. The mountings were, in fact,copies of the original Fokker engine mountings, but by attaching them to one spar and avoiding the picking upof fastenings on a rear spar this weight was saved. Inci- dentally, the saving in weight on the mountings corre-sponds to approximately 30 per cent. The Monospar Company holds the view that still furtherweight reductions will be possible in subsequent wings of this type. It will be realised that in designing a wingfor the Fokker machine, the same points of attachment on the fuselage had to be used. To do this a special wing-to-fuselage adaptor bracket had to be designed. This weighed 44 lb. If the fuselage were designed for the monosparwing, there would still be four points of attachment, but TAPER t The Monospar wing on the Fokker F.VII-3M has its tips more pointedthan the standard Fokker wing. The engines are Armstrong-Siddeley " Lynx." the second two would be the apices of the pyramid bracing. It may, perhaps, be recollected that the original esti-mated weight of the wing was 820 lb., so that the wing has actually turned out 30 lb. lighter than estimated, asomewhat unusual happening for a first attempt. The designers have achieved this weight reduction purely bythe merits of the monospar system, and not by the use of any special freak materials such as very light alloys.The wing is in fact constructed entirely of ordinary duralumin for the spar and ribs and steel for the fittings.It is thought quite probable that by using high-tensile steel strip for the spar a further saving could be made. The Fokker F.VII-3M., which is the property of theAir Ministry and has been used extensively for wireless experimental work, will now be thoroughly tested inflight, the tests to include such items as measured per- formance tests, high-velocity diving tests, etc. It seemsto have been already established, thanks largely to the accuracy with which the strength of a monospar wing canbe calculated, that the wing is strong enough in all ordi- nary flying. The effects of heavy momentary loadingduring manoeuvres, the degree of deflection, and the effects (if any) which such deflections may have on control, havestill to be determined. Not until then is it possible to express any considered opinion of the value of Mr. Stieger'sinvention, but at any rate the first step has been very promising. It is sometimes said that as light a wing could be builtwith a different form of construction. We think that quite possibly this is true. But the few and relatively robustparts in a monospar wing seem to promise simplicity and cheap construction. We understand that Mr. Fokker iswatching developments with considerable interest. MONOSPAR WING ON FOKKER F.VII-3M: Front view. Note the great wing ^thickness in the centre (18 per cent of chord). . , ... .. . . .:. ...: , 1234 V - .. -. '
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