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Aviation History
1937
1937 - 1476.PDF
556 FLIGHT. JUNE 3, 1937. AT THE BRUSSELS SHOW Half a dozen British Exhibitors : Some New Continental Types Worthy of Note H IS MAJESTY THE KING OF THE BELGIANS, like his father, is an enthusiastic pilot. Almost every day he flies his private Fairey Fox (Kestrel IIS) from Evere Aerodrome, Brussels, to his villa at Le Zoute. A large proportion of his subjects seem to share this enthusiasm, and, to judge by the crowds and their manner at the Brussels Aero Show, their interest is of a knowledgeable kind. The Salon opened on Wednesday of last week, and it continues until next Sunday evening. It is being held in one of the halls of the magnificent concrete buildings erected for last year's Brussels Exhibition. Technically there is little novelty in the exhibition, which is definitely of the smaller variety and hardly representative. One thing that does strike the casual observer is the number of air raid civil defence exhibits—everything from surgical bandages and gas masks to an elaborate cellar-ventilating system with a fan intended to be operated by some unfortunate wight pedalling hard on a pseudo-bicycle. Such means of repairing and preventing suffering, exhibited in contiguity to the most efficient means of causing it, strike a grimly ironical note. British Contributions Apart from a Battle on the Belgian Fairey stand, of which more hereafter, Britain is represented by only one complete aeroplane—a D.H. Hornet Moth on the stand of Stampe and Vertongen, the well-known importers and manufacturers. There also we found a Gipsy Six and Gipsy Major, and Mr. Peter de Havilland ungrudgingly dispensing catalogues to small boys, apparently on the principle that you cannot start sowing seeds too soon. As befits a firm responsible for providing a great deal of motive power for Belgium's military aircraft, Rolls-Royce is there with an unadorned and dignified display of a Merlin and a Kestrel: Mr. Golovine and Mr. Jackson, Rolls-Royce Conti nental representatives, presiding. Not far away one finds Mr. Holt in charge of the Bristol stand, with its beautifully sectioned and working Pegasus X, surrounded by a crowd studying (with typical Continental appreciation and understanding of such things) the electric-light ignition and exhaust flashes in the engine. Looking oddly out of its element, but the more striking for that reason, stands one of the British Power Boat Company's 37ft. 6in. aircraft rescue and general service launches, which, is Flight reader? know, have been supplied in large numbers to the Royal Air Force. Of British component and accessory manufacturers we find Dunlops, with a prodigious display of aero tyres of every imaginable size, including the Ecta electrically conducting tail wheel, together with the Dunlop pneumatic braking system; Standard Telephones and Cables, showing -examples of trans mitters and receivers, their automatic radio compass, and the Standard-Adcock- D/F equipment; Lodge plugs, with types approved for practically all the well-known Continental makes of engine, special emphasis being placed on the latest radio screening terminal equipment; the Airscrew Company, show ing adjustable wooden three-bladed airscrews (including an lift. 6in. example for a Vildebeest) made under Schwartz patents, and a six-blade propeller for wind tunnels; the British Timken Company, displaying the application of their roller A general view of part of the Show with the new Gotha Go. 146 in the foreground. In the distance, on the French stand, is the military version of the Caudron Typhon. (Flight photograph.) bearings to such aircraft parts as wheels and rocker gear; Williamson "Eagle" aerial cameras, and their cine camera guns for pilots and observers, shown on the stand of Wilson- Clyma, of Brussels ; and an Irvin parachute on the Stampe et Vertongen stand. Imperial Airways stage a communal exhibit with Sabena and D.L.H. One may fittingly make the Belgian Fairey Company's stand the link between British and Continental exhibits. Bearing military markings and camouflage is a Battle (Rolls- Royce Merlin), and a placard alongside contains two items of information not hitherto disclosed—useful load, 1,800 kg. (3,968 lb.) and range 1,600 km. (990 miles). The rest of the Fairey exhibit is in striking contrast, for it consists of three gaily painted little Tipsy monoplanes. One is a single-seater with 50 h.p. Walter Mikron engine, another the new side-by-side two-seater, shown with a 40 h.p. Train engine, and the third, with a 30 h.p. flat-twin Sarolea, is a single-seater with an enclosed cockpit; it is also distinguished, for informative purposes, by having a float on the port side and a wheel to starboard, which brought the comment from an English visitor, "obviously for coastal reconnaissance clock wise." Mr. Tips feels that there should be a demand for an ultra-light seaplane, especially from the Scandinavian countries. A Qerman Selection Of the grouped "National" exhibits the German effort is by far the best organised. Hoisted into a flying attitude and approached by a dizzy staircase, a Junkers Ju.8f> overshadows the stand—the biggest aeroplane in the show (and, except for the Fairey Battle, the only big one). Beneath is a sectioned working example of one of its Jumo 205 diesels. Likewise in its shadaw stands a fine model of the forthcoming Ju.90, a four-engined (3,200 h.p. total) forty- seater. In external appearance it is slightly suggestive of a cross between a Douglas and the D.H. Albatross, and the division of the interior accommodation is rather similar to that of the A.W. Ensigns. Completely new among the full-size aircraft is a Gotha, the Go. 146, designed as a fast four-seater private-owner or charter type. A low-wing monoplane with retractable undercarriage, it has two inverted air-cooled vee-eight Hirths of 200 h.p. each, and a cruising speed of 290 krn./hr. (180 m.p.h.) is claimed, with a maximum of 315 km./hr. (195 m.p.h.) and range of 950 km. (590 miles). Rather on the same lines, but seating six, is the new Kurier, made by the Ago Company. It is shown only as a model. Engines from 240 to 330 h.p. can be installed (Argus As.10,
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