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Aviation History
1937
1937 - 2060.PDF
Three distinct systems are worthy of consideration when it comes to examining the possibilities of assisted take-offs. The catapult has the advantage that it is already in use, the problems connected with it are well understood, and its limitations are fairly clear. The other two can really be said to be variations of the same fundamental idea: The lifting into the air of the aircraft to be assisted, by another aircraft, which can be either of the lighter-than-air or of the heavier-than-air type. Many years ago Great Britain took the lead in experi menting with dropping aeroplanes from rigid airships. The airship used for the experiments was the old R33, and the first machine to be dropped was a tiny De Havilland D.H.53 single-seater light plane. The pilot was the late Sqn. Ldr. Rollo de Haga Haig, and the first experiment was quite successful. Later, as depicted on this page, equally successful experiments were made with two Gloster Grebe single-seater fighters. The object of these experiments was, of course, quite different from the modern conception of assisted take-off, and aimed at the airship carrying the two military aeroplanes about with her so that if she should be attacked she could release them so that they might chase the attackers. 'It is scarcely conceivable that very large aircraft could Heavier-than-air starting : A sectioned model of the Short-Mayo composite aircraft. JULY 22, 1937 FLIGHT. Lighter-than-air starting : Two Gloster Grebes sus pended under the keel of R33 preparatory to being dropped from the airship in flight. [Flight photograph.) be dropped from an airship or from a very large kite balloon. Apart from such obvious objections as the size of lighter-than-air craft needed, there is the diffi culty arising from the fact that the speed at the moment of launching is low or nil, so that the dropped aircraft would fall a Ion? way before gathering enough speed to become air-borne and under full control. More promising is the so called '' Composite '' air craft invented by Major R. H. Mayo and jointly designed by him and Short Brothers, who have the two components of the first experimental machine nearing completion at the works at Rochester. Fundamentally, the Short-Mayo composite aircraft consists of a large and fairly lightly loaded lower component, which carries on its back a much smaller and much more heavily loaded upper component. The combined wing loading and power loading of the two aircraft regarded as one unit are fairly moderate, so that, theoretically, there should be no diffi culty in taking the double unit off and climbing with it to the height at which it is desired to release the upper component. The Crucial Moment From a practical point of view, however, there are obviously a great many problems to be solved. The most difficult of these, because at present the least known, is the behaviour of the composite aircraft at the moment of separating. Fundamentally, the idea is that the angles of incidence of upper and lower component should be different, that of the upper component being, of course, the greater. If the wing sections are suitably chosen it is theoretically possible so to arrange matters that at a given speed (which is, of course, the same for the two components at that moment) the incidence of the upper component is sufficient to give its wing a lift slightly in excess of the weight, while the lower component is only
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