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Aviation History
1934
1934 - 0738.PDF
FLIGHT. JULY 19, 1934. FEATURES OF KING'S CUP MACHINES Other Sketches will be found on p. 733 This is bow a metal sheet is arranged to act as an air brake on the Percival "Gull.'" On theright is shown the sharp leading edge to the wing and fairing cuffs on the wing struts of the Blackburn "B.2 Trainer." AN inspection of the entries before the race revealedsome interesting points which accounted for varia-tions in the handicap, as compared with last year,of aeroplanes which were again racing this year. Other variations of handicap between machines which were, on paper at any rate, the same, were also accounted for. Starting round in order of racing numbers we came first to Mr. Aga's "Moth." This was a standard "Moth Major '' with open cockpits, a passenger and a '' Gipsy Major." The D.H. Technical School " T.K.I." had a fuselage of smaller cross-section than a "Moth," and the wing roots and strut ends were nicely faired in. There had, however, been some misunderstanding about these latter details in the entry form and the handicappers had ordered their removal. This was unfortunate, because it was generally understood that this machine had been clocked to do a speed of nearly 130 m.p.h. in its cleaned-up state, so it would have had something like 8 or 9 m.p.h. in hand over its handicap, and was therefore greatly fancied by the students. The three Hawker "Tomtits" with their Wolseley engines caused some comment, as they ap- peared to be handicapped at an even lower speed than last year, although they had, in that race, made faster speeds than expected. This was accounted for by the fact that this year they were flying with open cockpits in the front containing extra fuel tanks. Mr. H. R. A. Edward's Southern "Martlet," originally built for the late Miss Winifred Spooner to race in the King's Cup Race some years ago, was well streamlined with fabric insets at wing roots and strut ends, but the fabric sides of the fuselage looked rather slack. Sir Derwent Hall Caine's "Leopard Moth" had the wing roots faired in so that it was non-folding, and the wing strut ends were also " cuffed " ; these small attentions resulted in an extra few m.p.h. over the speed of the standard "Leopard Moths." Fit. Lt. Pope's Comper "Swift" had all the obvious points well faired in, particularly the tail. Perhaps this latter, which our artist has sketched, served to retain the air flow over the rudder so as to give good control at all speeds, much in the same way as has been done on the new Fairey General Purpose aircraft built for the Air Ministry. The Miles '' Hawk M2 '' with the '' Gipsy Six '' engine was one of the best-looking machines in the race. The engine cowling merged into the fuselage line perfectly, and the hood over the pilot's cockpit tailed off aft in a pleasing manner. The cantilever undercarriage, as our sketch shows, was most clean, and should prove to have a very low drag. The mass balances on the ailerons were arranged to go up into the wing on the underside when the aileron was in the normal position, and a hinged fairing served to main- tain the air flow over it when the aileron was raised. The Percival "Mew Gull," of which great things were expected, looked very racy indeed with the new heavily tapered wing. The landing speed did not seem unduly high nor the run exceptionally long, in view of the general design and wing loading, despite the fact that the wing flaps were not being used. It is said to be particularly pleasant on the flying controls. The '' Tiger Moth '' flown by Peter de Havilland had large fillets at the wing roots, and the fuel tank was faired in. These alterations gave the machine several more m.p.h. than was expected. Mr. Lipton's "Moth" was faired in to the wth degree and attractively finished in two shades of green. His lead- ing edge and wings generally were considerably torn by the rain and hail on Friday, but this damage was repaired during the night, so that it came out looking perhaps one of the prettiest machines on Saturday. Mr, Gandar Dower's British Klemm "Eagle" had had some slight trouble during practice before the race with the fairings which close the holes in the bottom surface of the wings into which the wheels retract, and was therefore flown without these fairings. The consequent holes must have detracted from the performance. On the whole, there was not so much special streamlining for the race as there has been in previous years, which looks as if pilots are agreed that it does not pay unless everything is completely streamlined so that the handicappers under- estimate the performance. A standard machine with a thoroughly tuned engine seems likely to get the better handicap.
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