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Aviation History
1934
1934 - 0100.PDF
FLIGHT, FEBRUARY 1, 1934 THE "EMERAUDE" ACCIDENT "HAT the accident which caused the loss of anumber of lives of prominent people in France recently was not due to the machine striking high-tension cables, nor, apparently, to ice formation on the wings, but was due to the breakage of the wings in••" : the air, seems to be the conclusion reached during the '•'- official inquiry. As a result of this the French Air Minis-'(•r has issued certain important modifications in the regu- * lations governing civil flying, some of which will not betoo readily accepted in this country. The main conclu- sion reached seems to be that, although the ill-fatedEmeraude was well up to C.I.N.A. standards, it was too weak for the weather conditions encountered. At the time- of the accident it is estimated that the gross weight of the machine was approximately 9 metric tons, and the maxi-mum permissible weight of the machine was 11 tons. The factor of safety was the prescribed 5 on full grossweight, and must, therefore, have been greater than that on a weight of 9 tons, all of which is taken, in certainFrench circles, to indicate that a revision of the C.I.N.A. load factors is urgently required. The sequence of events which led to, and ultimatelycaused, the accident was as follows: The Emeraude had started from Lyon at 6.15 p.m. to fly to Le Bourget,where the machine was expected. The weather report was bad, but Launay, xhe pilot, had often flown in worseweather, and a start was made. Soon after leaving Lyon the machine met very bad weather, with violent squallswhich changed direction frequently. The machine got off its course, and was heard circling over a -point some 25miles south of Corbigny (near the River Yonne). The pilot was evidently endeavouring to ascertain his where-abouts. Somewhere there he lost the weight of the wire- less aerial, and from then onwards there was no morewireless communication with the machine. The region around the Morvan Mountains is well known for itsatrocious weather, and without radio to guide him the pilot evidently decided that the only thing to do was tomake a landing, the buffeting which the machine was getting being such that to fly " blind " by instrumentsonly was out of the question. Some idea of the force of the wind can be gathered from the fact that on the knowntimes of starting and of the ultimate crash, the average speed of the machine was only about 90 m.p.h. S3 §J 5S The Armthorpe flying accident THE Air Ministry announces: —On September 15 lastat Armthorpe temporary aerodrome, near Doncaster, a Dragon " aeroplane, flying for hire, was involved in anaccident which resulted in the death of the pilot and minor injuries to two of the six passengers. The aircraft, a twin-engined machine, failed to take off in a normal manner and ran nearly the full length of the aerodrome beforeit became airborne. It finally collided with the boundary hedge and crashed nose first into the ground. As a resultof his investigation, the Inspector of Accidents came to the conclusion that the accident was due to the pilot omittingfully to open the engine throttles when taking off, and failing to realise his mistake in time to avert theaccident. England—Australia Race THE Royal Aero Club of the United Kingdom has nowissued the regulations governing the MacRobertson Race which is scheduled to start from England on or aboutOctober 20, 1934. The official regulations do not differ in any essential from those given in the summary publishedin FLIGHT on August 3, 1933, and the formula to be usedin the handicap race remains unaltered as published in FLIGHT on November 2, 1933. The regulations were finallyapproved by representatives of the Royal Aero Club and the Australian Commonwealth at a meeting at the RoyalAero Club on January 25, 1934. At this meeting the Royal Aero Club was represented by Mr. W. Lindsay Everard,M.P., Capt. W. Dancy, Lt. Col. M. O. Darby, Maj. R. H. Mayo, and Mr. H. E. Perrin. The Australian Common-wealth representatives were: Air Commodore R. Williams and Fit. Lt. T. A. Swinbourne. The final regulations de-fine a little more clearly the horse-power designated P in the handicap formula. For engines rated at sea level Pis the maximum horse-power of the prototype engine at normal r.p.m. at sea level. For engines rated at an alti- The rest of the story is pieced together from the eviflenceafforded by the wreckage and by the finding of pieces of wing about a mile or more from the scene of the crash.It is thought quite possible that the machine got into a very violent up-gust and that, as a result of the pronouncedflexing of the wings, the aileron hinges broke while the leading edge of the starboard wing (which gave the wingits torsional strength) sheared through, letting air into the wing and blowing away the whole trailing edge, leav-ing only the spar itself on that side. The result would naturally be a violent swerve to the right, the machinecrashing with engines running and probably at a speed at somewhere in the neighbourhood of 250 m.p.h. Launaywas a pilot of very long experience (8,000 hours' flyingj, and no one imagines that he was in any way to blame.It is not even considered probable that the accident was caused by a sudden flattening out after a dive, but simplyby flying at high speed into an up-gust of high velocity. M. Dewoitine himself is reported to have admittedfrankly that without doubt the wing broke in the air. He does not even make any attempt to explain away theaccident by taking refuge behind some obscure theory of flutter, a fact which, as our excellent French contem-porary Les Ailes, from which this information is taken, puts it, shows the moral honesty of the famous designer.We in Britain can also admire this moral honesty. As a result of the accident, M. Pierre Cot, the FrenchAir Minister, has decided to take all possible precaution- ary measures, from which we mention the following: Anew meteorological post, equipped with wireless, is to be established in the Morvan district ; the start of everyaeroplane carrying passengers is only to be made with the authorisation of the chief of the aerodrome i.e., the de-cision not to rest with the pilot), and night flying by civil aircraft is to be reduced to a minimum in bad weather,mail planes carrying no passengers, and strong enough for bad-weather flying, being the only types permitted to starton a night flight in really bad weather. Special studies are to be made of the frequency and intensity of air cur-rents in certain districts. The load factor of aeroplanes is to be calculated more in accordance with the speed andgeneral performance than hitherto. The production of a suitable automatic pilot is to be regarded as an urgentproblem requiring immediate solution. Si 51 S3 tude above sea level P is taken as the maximum horse-power of the prototype engine at normal r.p.m. at the rated altitude divided by the corresponding height-powerfactor. Normal r.p.m. is defined as the maximum r.p.m. authorised for continuous running, as established duringthe approval tests of the engine. For the benefit of those of our readers who have not access to the numbers of FLIGHT mentioned above, it may be recalled that the con-trol points (at which landing and checking-in is compul- sory) are:—Baghdad, Calcutta, Singapore, Darwin, andCharleville. Refuelling facilities, wireless telegraphy and weather reports are. available at all these controls. Entriesin duplicate must reach the Royal Aero Club not later than 12 noon on June 1, 1934. The entrance fee is £50for the speed race and £10 for the handicap race. If a machine is entered in both the fee is £50. ILS» naval aircraft THE Naval Committee of the House of Representativesunanimously voted, on January 29, in favour of an amend- ment to the Vinson Bill to authorise the construction of1,184 naval aircraft. Reorganising the Greek Air Force THE Greek Government, it is reported, is consideringthe appointment of someone from this country to re- organise the Greek Air Force. French aircraft production THE following figures relating to the production ofFrench aircraft are given by M. Louis Hirschauer, Senior Engineer of the Civil Aviation Department of the FrenchAir Ministry. From August, 1914, to the Armistice, France built 50,000 aeroplanes and 90,000 engines. Her monthlyoutput in 1913 was 110 machines and 190 engines, but by 1918 these figures had increased to 30.000 machines and ,4,300 engines. France's total expenditure on aircraft material is about twenty-three million gold francs(£920,000,000). 100
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