FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1935
1935 - 1396.PDF
b26 FLIGHT. JUNE 13, 1935. The blame for that must rest with the Cabinet as a whole, although possibly a stronger personality might have succeeded in impressing the risks on the other members of the Cabinet. By his great personal interest in aviation and by the fact that he became a pilot while he was Air Minister, Lord Londonderry did at any rate set an example which future Secretaries of State for Air will do well to emulate. A Landmark FOR the first time, in this week's issue of Flight, a detailed illustrated description of the Short " Sara-fand " military flying-boat is published. Although this machine is several years old, its first test flight having been made in 1932, it has been the subject of extensive experiment, and for this reason the Air Ministry has been unwilling to let data be published until now. That the machine was not, after all, found to be exactly what was wanted, and that orders for a consider able number of smaller flying-boats have now been placed, does not detract from the interest in the machine. It has been flown extensively, it has been moored out in all sorts of weather for long periods, including gales of 50 m.p.h., and it has had an Alclad planing bottom substituted for the stainless-steel bottom originally fitted. The accumulated experience has taught both the R.A.F. and the manufacturers a great deal, and has shown that a flying-boat of more than thirty-one tons is quite a practical proposition, even without departing far from normal practice. The ratio of gross weight to tare weight is 1.56, so that the machine carries as disposable load 56 per cent, of its own weight. Bearing in mind that it had to be designed for military requirements, and that it was the first flying-boat of this size to be designed and built by Short Brothers, that is a very creditable achievement. It is not to be doubted that with the experience gained since the production of the '' Sarafand'' a good dea! better results could be obtained in the future. The fact that the Air Ministry authorities and the R.A.F. flying- boat squadrons have come to the conclusion that smaller flying-boats are of greater use tends to make one contem plate the application of the lessons learned with the "Sarafand" to civil rather than to Service boats. We believe we are right in saying that if Short Brothers were asked to design a civil flying-boat for long-range work they would now turn to the monoplane type. Every pound of drag saved means a considerable in crease in cruising range, and as it is, perhaps, unlikely that civil flying-boats of more than 5,000 h.p. will be wanted in the near future, the problem of installing six engines in a monoplane would not be at all likely to arise. Thus it may, perhaps, be said that the "Sarafand" represents the maximum size of a practical biplane fly ing-boat, and that if and when the Empire air routes come to be operated by really large flying-boats, they will probably be monoplanes. A LOW-WING CONVENTION. This striking photograph, taken at Tempelhof, shows some of the 154 machines which took part in the recent Deutschlandflug (Circuit of Germany). In the foreground are a number of Klemms, a squadron of which, as reported last week, carried off the principal award.
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
