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Aviation History
1932
1932 - 1259.PDF
FLIGHT, DECEMBER 8, 1932 The combination of the cylinder head design, together with the manner in which the charge is introduced into the cylinder, probably accounts for another very desirable feature of this engine, and that is its capability of running very slowly while still two-stroking perfectly regularly. Of particular interest is the information that negotia tions are at present in hand for the construction of an aircraft engine. This is most likely to be a horizontally opposed four-cylinder engine, water cooled and giving in the region of 240 h.p. This power should be obtained from four cylinders of little over 500 c.c. each, which means that the engine will be one of the most compact yet seen. It ought to be laid fiat in the wings of a twin-engined aircraft. A graphical representation of the piston and piston valve movements showing the inlet and exhaust port openings. J ] ^5 u ! PISTO N STROK E | I .1 , INLET PORT OPtN INLET POUT | | „-- " — EXHAUST OORT OPEN EXHAUST PORT !^* t i i ~""»^_ >^ ^-*" 135 160 225 CflANKSHAfT ANGLE >IS 360 S S3 S S S3 S Strangling Private Flying IMMEDIATE ACTION NEEDED In March, 1930, FLIGHT had prepared a campaign against the irksome and largely unnecessary restrictions with which the private flying of aircraft was surrounded. From many sides we received requests to stay our hand. A special committee was, it was argued, just then looking into the subject, and it was hoped that quite important concessions would be granted by the Air Ministry Departments concerned. An outcry against the then existing conditions might, it was thought, undo all the good that had been or was about to be done. With the future welfare of private flying at heart, FLIGHT resolved to " wait and see." We have now waited two-and-a-half years, and what is the position to-day ? Private flying and the construction and marketing of private aircraft are hampered by more and worse regulations than ever before. If steps are not taken at once, the future development of private flying is in grave danger of being throttled. w 1 HEN, some weeks ago, FLIGHT called attention to the publication of yet another Air Ministry regulation, which had for its subject the pro hibition of all experimental flying except that which had received official sanction by the Secretary of State for Air, A.N.D.ll to wit, our postbag showed how generally were shared the views which FLIGHT expressed. It was not that A.N.D.ll in itself was so very much worse than many previous Government regulations re stricting the activities of all who fly, but rather was A.N.D.ll regarded as being in the nature of a " last straw." The poor old camel's back is sagging ominously, and unless quite a large number of straws can be removed without delay, this particular ship of the desert is in danger of foundering. A.N.D.ll is the culminating ignominy of a long series, and in order to show the seriousness of the situation it will be necessary to look back a little, and to examine how it came about that civil flying (as distinct from com mercial flying) to-day finds itself in a position which can only be described as intolerable. A.N.D.ll is only one out of very many regulations which the unfortunate builder and user of a private aeroplane have to study, translate into plain English, and then act upon to the best of their ability. But it has at any rate served a useful purpose in bringing matters to a head. When the war 1914-18 ended, there was no such thing as private flying, at least in the sense we use the expres sion to-day. Commercial flying also was an unknown quantity. The country, like most other countries, was left with a lot of superfluous and rather useless military aeroplanes, none of which was particularly serviceable for peaceful pursuits. A few were converted into passenger carriers of sorts, and for a few years they did good work, not because they were suitable for the task set them, but entirely because of the heroic determination of the pilots who flew them. The debt we owe to those early commer cial pilots is too great to be overlooked nowadays, but it should be realised that what good was done by the early air lines was due to the pilots, who had to fly aircraft unsuited to the work, fitted with engines of far lower reliability than that to which we have now become accustomed. When this amateurish " commercial " flying had been going on for some time, it was inevitable that the govern ments in the different countries should begin to sit up and take notice. A wave of optimism swept the world, and commercial aviation was going to revolutionise transport. Conferences and congresses were called, and rules and regulations were drawn up—mostly by people without prac tical experience of flying—to define the procedure to be followed by aircraft flying from one country to another. Designers in many countries then set to work to produce aircraft specificallv planned for commercial aviation, and in Great Britain at any rate the Air Ministry departments which had dealt with stresses, load factors, materials, etc., were given the task of doing the same for civil air craft. Thus, it will be seen that civil aviation as it has developed in Great Britain since the war has never been able to get entirely away from military influence. We established a " Controllerate " of Civil Aviation, which was changed later into the present less pretentious Direc torate of Civil Aviation, but on the technical side the people who dealt with stress calculations, inspection of materials, equipment and the thousand and one things which now have to be officially " approved " before a new aircraft may make a straight hop of 10 ft., were the same as those who did the work on military types. Super ficially it may not appear that this would matter very much, and it might be argued that a man who is stress ing a wing, for example, does not care whether that wing is for a civil or a military machine, other than that it must have the appropriate load factors. On the face of it this seems plausible. But the attitude of mind among the Government Departments which deal with civil air craft is actually of very great importance. The Air Ministry insists, and very rightly so, upon " nothing but the best," where military aircraft are concerned. Nothing but the best is therefore good enough, and as the Govern ment is, in this case, the purchaser, it has a perfect right to formulate its own demands. It pays the piper and is entitled to call the tune. Now let us turn to civil aircraft. The officials steeped in the atmosphere of military aircraft, where cost is not of such importance, are called upon to deal with a type of machine in which first cost is a vital consideration. 1173
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