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Aviation History
1934
1934 - 0786.PDF
788 FLIGHT. AUGUST 2, 1934. ROTATING-WINGED FLIGHT The Autogiro: Its Construction and Manufacture _™ ^» TO TAKE LANDING SHOCKS. Autogiros can land vertically, hence this wide under-carriage with compression legs having a long travel to take up the shock. The engine is a 140 h.p. 7-cyl. Siddeley "Genet Major." (Flight Photo.) NOW that the C.30 type Autogiro has reached theproduction stage we are able to publish the .firstauthoritative description of its construction. Eor many years the name of Senor de la Gierva and his " Autogiro " have been associated in people's minds with a form of flight wliich was not only radically different from accepted principles, but was also generally understood to be safer because the Autogiro was able to descend almost vertically. , " Until recently, however, the flying machines produced by the Cierva Autogiro Company were rather in the nature of experimental developments of the principle and not, therefore, suitable for quantity production. With the advent of the C.30 type this policy is changed, and A. V. Roe & Co., Ltd., have laid down nearly a hundred machines in their Manchester, workshops. As was to be expected, features in conformity with their standard practice have been incorporated by A." V. Roe & Co. so that production could begin with a minimum of delay. Like all Avro machines the fuselage is built up of welded steel tubes. The front and rear halves are made up separately, the division being at the bulkhead behind the rear, or pilot's cockpit. In both cases the sides of the fuselage are welded up on flat, table-like jigs, and subse- quently the two'sides are placed in their correct relation to one another in a vertical jig and the cross struts welded in. In the rear half the diagonal bracing between the two longerons in a horizontal plane is by the Avro method of forming a continuous loop of piano wire by passing it through small curved pieces of steel tube welded into each corner, and joining the ends with a wire strainer. The diagonal bracing in the vertical plane is rigidly built up with tubes. The front half is entirely tube braced. Where- ever possible, jigs are used both in order to ensure accuracy and to cheapen production. Consequently there are not only jigs for welding, but also for drilling, as, for example, at the four attachment points where the legs of the rotor pylon join the top longerons. After the main part of the fuselage has been erected, the stern post and fins are welded on and the whole is stove-enamelled. The fins, although in reality continuous, may be considered as three in number. The fin on top of the fuselage ; the tail fin, which, like the others, is fixed and occupies the same position as the rudder in a normal aeroplane; and the fin underneath the fuselage. All are built up of small-diameter steel tubes welded together. The fuselage, from the front of the front cockpit to the tail, is encircled with plywood formers carrying numer- ous thin spruce stringers running fore and aft and form- ing a framework over which a doped fabric covering is secured. This fabric is only carried up to the top longerons in the front half of the fuselage, as the decking over the two cockpits is a separate structure of plywood. The engine bay, and the sides and top of the fuselage in the bay behind the fireproof bulkhead, are covered with detachable aluminium panels secured with Avro cowling clips. • The engine mounting consists of steel tubes bolted to fittings at the ends of the four longerons, carrying at the front a ring which registers with the back plate of the engine. The seven-cylinder Armstrong-Siddeley "Genet Major" engine of 140 h.p. is thereby mounted outside ths line of the cowling in a v«ry accessible position, but tin* drag is kept low by the smooth curve of the cowling behind
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