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Aviation History
1937
1937 - 0840.PDF
320 FLIGHT. APRIL I, 1937. One of the wings of tie Ensign, in which corrugated metal sheeting fjrms th; upper and bwer sides of the single box spar. J. he covering is partly of metal and partly of fabric. Only the leading-edge formers are in place in this view. (Flight photograph.) be made in a matter of a quarter of an hour. Twenty-seven seats are removed and are replaced by twenty bunks, with partitions, curtains, and all the necessary equipment for sleeper comfort. On through services, when a machine is flying by day and night, the change-over would probably be made while the passengers were eating their dinner at the aerodrome hotel or rest-house. The bunks are arranged in tiers of two ; those using the lower ones will have the normal cabin windows at their level, while those in the upper berths have small auxiliary windows which normally serve to increase the amount of light in the upper parts of the exceptionally deep cabins. An interesting aspect of the method of making the day-to-night change-over is the fact that the seats and backs of the daytime chairs are transferred to the bunks and form part of the mattresses; this somewhat peculiar transfer is necessary because these parts of the chair are designed to act as the life-savers which are a legal necessity for any sea-crossing service. The chairs are entirely similar to those developed for the Empire beats, which are the result of some two years of test and experi ment and are made at Imperial Airways' own furniture factory at Wandsworth. There are three passenger compartments in the Ensign, and each of these has its own emergency exit in the form of a sliding panel in the roof. The drawing on the two previous pages clearly shows the general layout. The first compartment lie? directly behind the control cabin while the other two are towards th< rear of the fuselage. All of them, of course, are well away from the plane of the air screws and from the vicinity of the main spar, which carries This sketch shows the principle of the wing and tailplane con struction, the heart of which is a rectangular box structure stabilised internally by tubes. The after end : the fin skeleton. (Flight photograph) the power units. Furthermore, the corrugations in the bulkheads and so forth should prevent any sign of drum ming. The cabins should, consequently, be very quiet even without the addition of the soundproofing equipment which one might expect to see. Behind the forward passenger compartment is a large freight hold (which can be loaded from the outside through two wide doors), a pantry, a mail department and a lavatory. Beside these compartments, on the port side, is a feature which appears to be very popular with passengers on the Empire boats—the promenade deck. Both here and in the front compartment smoking will be permitted. In the upper part of the fuselage, above the promenade deck area, is a space for normal luggage. The main entrance for the passengers is on the promenade deck and there is another at the rear of the cabin—where, also, there is a lavatory and a second freight compartment
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