FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1935
1935 - 0867.PDF
APRIL 18, 1935. FLIGHT. 4i7 A "G.P." HANDLEY PAGE Latest Ideas Applied to a Military Aeroplane : Very Wide Speed Range Achieved : Extensive Equipment OF all the different classes of aircraft Used by the fighting services none places greater demands on the aircraft de signer and constructor than dees that known as the "General Purpose" class. Having to be applicable to a very wide range of duties, and being required to carry very extensive equip ment, the type must still pessess good performance, high fighting qualities such as view, field of fire, and manoeuvrability, and ability to oper ate from all manner of aerodromes, good, bad and indifferent. Long range is required of some of the duties for which the " G.P." machine is used, so that aerodynamic efficiency is an important consideration if the fuel consumed on a long flight is not to reduce the military load unduly. In the H.P.47 General Purpose aeroplane the Handley Page designers have incorporated everything which modern science can suggest as an aid to aerodynamic, structural and military efficiency. The machine is a low-wing mono plane of all-metal construction, and, in spite of the heavy loads to be carried and the extensive equipment to be in stalled, the size is remarkably small. Readers of Flight will probably recollect that several years ago Handley Page, Ltd., designed and built a machine for a safety aircraft competition held in the United States. A wealthy American, Mr. Guggenheim, offered the prizes, and the Handley Page machine became known facetiously as the "Gugnunc." The competition rules were such as to place a premium on low rather than on high speed, and The slotted trailing edge flap and the wing root fillet o! the starboard wing. The S^P leading to »he top of the wing folds up under the lower wing surface wn?n not in ure. (F'ighl photograph.) Slots and spats of the new G.P. Handley Page. Note the slightly curved rails on which the slots move. The leading edge slots are automatic in action. Photographs of the complete machine will be found on pages 408 and 411. (Flight photograph.) it was the low rather than the high end cf the speed scale which was encouraged, a wide speed range being, as in all aircraft performances, regarded as a measure of efficiency. In the H.P.47 no attempt has been made to obtain ex tremely low minimum speed. Rather can it be said that, by reducing the wing area to that which will give the highest landing speed that can be tolerated for the par ticular functions for which the machine has been designed, a high maximum speed has been achieved. As the machine is a military type, no performance figures may be pub lished, but it can be said that a very high maximum speed has been combined with a very wide speed range. The aerodynamic features of the design which have made the wide speed range possible include the use of leading edge slots along the whole wing span, and slotted trailing edge flaps extend ing from the wing root fillets to the ailerons. The leading edge slots are automatic in action, opening when a certain angle of incidence is reached and closing again as soon as an angle corresponding to high speed has been attained. The slotted trailing edge flaps, on the other hand, are hydraulically operated by the pilot. To improve the lateral control at or beyond the stall, Handley Page " Interceptors " are used. These con sist in small surfaces placed just behind the automatic wing tip slots. Nor mally the interceptors lie flat against the upper wing surface, but when brought into action by a large move ment of the aileron control the inter, ceptor on the wing which is rising is brought into an approximately vertical position. The effect is to spoil the air flow over the wing tip, thereby reducing the lift and thus bringing the wing down. Lateral control by the aid of inter ceptors has the advantage that adverse
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
