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Aviation History
1936
1936 - 0993.PDF
412 FLIGHT. APRIL 23, 1935. fice this to some extent for the sake of the better view- to both sides obtained in a machine with tandem seat ing. The man who can afford it, and who does not mind the extra trouble and expense, likes to have two engines because of the extra freedom from hurried forced landings which a duplication of power plants bestows, but in the main private owners are content to make do with a single engine, giving that, perhaps, rather more care and attention than they would give two engines of a twin. Performance no Fetish One fact which emerges from the views which we publish this week is that, generally speaking, private owners appear to place far less importance on perform ance than might have been expected. How often has one heard, when a new machine is produced, the statement that it is a very nice machine, but that its performance is disappointing, that its top speed is only 130 m.p.h., whereas Mr. Brown's machine, of another make, does at least 140 m.p.h. with the same engine. Yet if the private owners quoted in this week's issue of Flight are accepted as representing typical views—and they have very varied experiences—performance is not the be-all and end-all of the private owner-pilot's ideal. This is a view which Flight has shared for a very long time, and we think the words of Lord Willoughby de Broke, for example, deserve to be studied carefully. " I feel very strongly," he states, " that the modern ten dency of design is getting away from the ' safe and easy ' type, that aeroplanes are becoming too much ' aero drome ' machines, instead of being able to use small fields, and they are becoming too much the ' expert's' instead of 'anyone's' aeroplane." After all, not every private owner wishes to use his machine for long-range touring abroad, There are many who do, but probably not the majority. Mr. Lindsay Everard is one of those who do and he has drawn up a very excellent outline of the sort of aeroplane which meets the needs of the private owner whose inclination is towards foreign tourin^ and whose .purse is long enough to stand the strain of em ploying a professional pilot and of using a twin- engined type, very completely equipped and furnished. The fact of the matter is, of course, that private flyim> has not yet reached a stage when the accumulated ex- perience is sufficient to form a basis for very definite future planning; and-ut may well be that very mam- years will elapse before constructors settle down to cut and dried ideas and ideals. It is even quite possible that they never will, and that private flying will con tinue to resemble yachting in the individualistic out look of its adherents. In the meantime, it is interesting to reflect that Flight's review of aircraft types at present available to the private owner discloses the fact that a rather surprising variety is on the market. If some private owners hold that the "ideal" has not yet been evolved, even within the particular class which they select, there is at least good evidence of a serious striving after the combination of features which will meet the requirements of the greatest number of potential pur chasers. The whole field is very well covered and the types available range from the small low-priced single- seater of some 20 b.h.p. to the expensive twin-engined aircraft fully equipped with navigation and landing lights and blind-flying instruments. Reverting to the yachting simile, it would seem that the range from the half-decked sailing boat to the large, seaworthy schooner is rather better catered for than the small craft. The flying equivalent,of the sailing dinghy can, perhaps, hardly be said to-have-arrived yet. CAPITAL: " London" is the type-name of the Saunders-Ros general purpose flying boat now in production for the R.A.F. Thjs P us shows the first mac'iine "off the line " on the new Saro slipway at Cowes. The engines of the " London " are 690 h.p. Bristol t]^neSS III moderately supercharged radials : the top speed is 136 m.p.h. Extreme performance was not aimed at, but rather sef-wor'aph,! coupled with versatility. It is understood that this particular machine is likely to visit the Stockholm Show. (Flight photoi
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