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Aviation History
1937
1937 - 1160.PDF
430 FLIGHT. MAY 6, 1937. of 100 h.p. was regarded as a tremendous power plant, only to be entrusted to pilots of exceptional skill. The Rolls-Royce " R " engine fitted in the Supermarine S.6B seaplanes of the last Schneider contest developed 2,300 h.p.! Moreover, the reliability of the early engines was very questionable, and periods between overhauls were measured in hours instead of in hundreds of hours. Structural materials have improved very greatly, but even to-day there is no reason to doubt that a perfectly good single-seater fighter could be built of wood. Although aerodynamics was an art rather than a science in 1911, there is no very obvious reason why it should not have been quite evident that the sup pression of all excrescences would reduce drag. In fact, except for the retractable undercarriage, all such protuberances were suppressed in a very early French Antoinette monoplane with cantilever wings; and that machine had a "trousered" undercarriage! On the aircraft side, therefore, it would seem that, as Mr. Mitchell said, we could "have done all this many years ago." But we could not possibly have had the engines. Neither the materials nor the machine tools were available. A Battleship Bombed T HE controversy about bombs and battleships may, unfortunately, be renewed now that the old Spanish ship Espana is alleged to have been sunk by an air bomb. One theory says that she struck a mine while the bombs were missing her, but that is still uncertain. The most circumstantial account so far to hand says that three bombers, escorted by fighters, attacked in line astern from a low altitude, and that of seven heavy bombs aimed at the stern of the ship two scored hits. One witness from the shore asserted that a bomb fell astern of the ship, and presumably holed her from the outside. Until accurate details are received— if they ever are received—definite conclusions cannot be drawn. There is also doubt as to whether the Espana had on board modern German anti-aircraft guns manned by trained German crews. Certain reflections, however, do occur to the mind. A heavy bomb dropped from a low altitude can hardly attain its terminal velocity, and its penetrative power should not be great. Even if it fell on an unarmoured deck (and the Espana had a steel deck of only i|in. of steel over her engine-room and magazines) it would be unlikely to hole the hull below the water-line so as to cause the ship to sink, unless it actually exploded the magazine. The external armour of the ship consisted of 8rn. of steel amidships, but only 4m. at the stern. It would therefore seem probable that the fatal bomb (if bomb it was) was a near miss which holed the ship from outside. The eye-witness mentioned above says that the ship made a swift turn to avoid the bombs, but, if so, the manoeuvre certainly came too late. Whether it is true or not that the majority of the officers on board were Italians and the crew mostly Spanish landsmen who showed themselves very unhandy in launching the boats, it would seem a fair conclusion that the ship did not take all the protective action when attacked from the air which would be expected from a ship of the British Navy. On the whole it appears certain that air bombers could hardly have desired an easier target, and it will be sur prising if a capital ship (if, indeed, the Espana could fairly be called a capital ship in the modern sense of the word) not caught in harbour but under steam and cleared for action ever again allows air bombers to score such an easy success. The circumstances of this sinking were exceptional, and it would be most illogical to draw general conclusions from an exceptional case. But if a mine caused the sinking, then nothing has been proved. A WHIFF OF CORDITE : An Audax pilot at front-gun practice on the range at Hell's Mouth, an inlet on the Carnarvonshire coast. The drogue target is towed on a i,ooo-ft. wire.
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