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Aviation History
1937
1937 - 0558.PDF
FLIGHT. MARCH 4, Lyj/. The flaps are operated by a hydraulic hand pump. An interesting wing detail is the use of strut-root cuffs made of Plastilume-moulded Celastoid. . The Bristol Mercury engine drives a wooden two-bladed airscrew in the standard production Gladiator, although one batch has been fitted experimentally with Fairey three- A plan view of the Gladiator is shown in this steeply bank A turn above the clouds. Manoeuvrability is one of th attributes of the compact biplane and is combined with soeerf in this particular day-and-night fighter. [Flight photograph ) bladed metal airscrews. The main petrol tank is housed in the fuselage, just ahead of the pilot's feet, and has a capacity of 84 gallons. Normally, however, it contains only 70, which quantity gives the machine its range at normal load. As the Gladiator is stressed for an all-no weight of 4,750 lb. and the normal gross weight is only 4,640 lb., the extra fuel does not represent an overload The oil tank is carried in the deck lairing, and a corru gated oil cooler forms a curved '' mat'' outside it. Military equipment is, needless to say, very complete indeed, and includes full day-and-night-fighter gear, such as navigation lights, two-way wireless, oxygen bottle and cockpit heating. The armament consists of four machine guns (Vickers or Browning), two of which are carried in the side fairings of the fuselage and provided with inter rupter gear, while the other two are carried in "blisters" in the lower wings. The wing guns are, of course, outside the airscrew disc, and so no interrupter gear is necessary. Some of the performance figures of the Gladiator have already been quoted. It may be added that the maximum speed of 253 m.p.h. is attained at 14,500 ft. The climb to 15,000 ft. occupies but 6.25 minutes, and a height of 20,000 ft. is reached in 9 minutes. The Gloster Aircraft Co., Ltd., guarantees the weight and performance figures within narrow limits, viz., +3 per cent, on speed and climb, and +2 per cent, on weight. The tare weight, by the way, is 3,476 lb. The load factors built into the Gladiator are such as to permit the machine to be used for aerobatics and T.V. dives at full gross weight. About Small Power Units Small Four-Stroke Aero Engines, by C. F. Gaunter. (Aero nautical engineering series.) Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons, Ltd., London, W.C.2. 6s. net. PHOSE who are interested in light aircraft will find Small •*• Four-Stroke Aero Engines a most useful little book. It is a companion to the author's Small Two-Stroke Aero Engines, published last July. These two books are arranged roughly in three sections: (a) A brief review of light aircraft, (b) Details of construction and servicing of the various types of small engines. (c) Des criptions and photographs of all such engines produced at the present time. A New Aluminium Solder THE words "aluminium solder" are apt to revive un pleasant memories in the minds of many engineers on account of the number of attempts that have been made to produce a satisfactory alloy for jointing aluminium. Fre quently exaggerated claims have been made with disappoint ing results, so that until recently the problem has remained virtually unsolved commercially. Quite recently, however, we have been able to witness tests of a new jointing material named " Alunize," which gives every indication of being suit able to making joints of high tensile strength as well as for filling blowholes or building up defects in castings of alu minium alloys. The actual tensile strength is 26 tons/sq. in., or roughly equal to that of duralumin, Hiduminium, etc., in the best heat-treated condition. A variety of joints made with this material, some of, which have been tested to destruction, are shown in the accom panying illustration, where it may be seen that butt joints between test-pieces of iin. diameter aluminium bar stock have been fractured by bending at the points B, leaving the joints A intact. The illustration also shows a tube-and- socket joint made with a clearance of 0.005m. between the components, and under test similar joints show a fracture of the tube away from the joint when submitted either to tensile or bending stresses. Originally this material was produced with a melting point of 220 deg. C, but it was found in practice that this tem perature tended to weaken the metal adjacent to the joint, and new alloys have therefore been developed with melting points as low as 160 deg. C, which is well below the heat- treatment temperatures for duralumin and similar high-tensile materials. Since the properties of the alloy depend, however, on the preparation and heat-treatment of the metals rather than upon the constituents and analysis, it is desirable for reliable series production work to hold the working tempera tures within reasonable limits, and it is recommended that a pyrometer be employed for this purpose. With attention to such details it is possible not only to join all alloys of the aluminium group, but also to deal with Elektron and other magnesium alloys. In application, "Alunize" is comparatively simple to use, since no flux is required. It is also claimed to be possible to make joints between aluminium and other non-ferrous metals, or even steel, by tinning the other parts with ordinary solder. When this has been effected any trace of flux is carefully removed and there after the joint is completed with "Alunize" without the use of any further fluxing medium. The material is handled in this country by Alunize, Ltd., 34, North Street, Rugby. The test-pieces referred to in the accompanying note "Alunize" aluminium solder.
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