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Aviation History
1938
1938 - 0032.PDF
FLIGHT. types. On the contrary—and here is the big news—the Glenn L. Martin Company, now one of America's largest exporters of aircraft—is reported to be spending some time in the development of 6o-ton patrol flying boats for the Navy, as are, reportedly, Boeing and Sikorsky. The Navy recently announced to the public-that Martin was sole bidder on fourteen patrol boats at a cost of approximately 150,000 dollars (^30,000) each. However, Martin's biggest venture seems to be the new flying boat for trans-oceanic service. The design of the plane has been completed and construction begun! It will top Boeing's ships by many feet, having a span of 188ft. A hundred passengers will be carried by day and sixty-six by night. It will be the largest airplane built in the United States. The cruising range will be such that the plane will be able to span the Pacific ocean non-stop if the necessity arises. " Seaudngs " Abandoned Four engines will be mounted in the leading edge of the full cantilever wing. It is expected that wing floats will be installed instead of the sponsons used on former Martins and the forthcoming Boeings. The wing is faired into the top of the hull, and the tail is of the twin-rudder type. Most interesting in design, however, is the hull, which is of what might be called "tear drop" design. Lacking the so-called bow, it has a very blunt nose like that of the new Boeing 307 transport. As the hull tapers aft, a vee- bottom gradually takes shape. The pilots are stationed -in the extreme nose of the hull. A Consolidated PBY patrol bomber (two 850 h.p. Pratt and Whitney Twin Wasps) of the U.S. Navy. This machine is one of the most successful of its type ever built. It is not a secret that Sikorsky has tor some time been working on a commercial flying boat in the 50-ton class. Mr. Sikorsky's idea of next year's flying boat is that there will be two decks and a control "bridge," 12 by 15ft., with seats for pilot and co-pilot, and a large desk, 4ft. by 6ft., for navigation charts. To the rear will be the radio compartment, and below decks the automatic pilot. It may be necessary to use mechanical power to move the controls, because of the huge proportions of the surfaces. Under trans-Atlantic conditions about thirty-six passengers will be carried, with fuel for a 4,500-mile range. It will have a 16ft. by 16ft. dining-room, to be used also as a lounge and for dancing. Mechanics may walk through the wing and inspect the engines while in flight. The Consolidated Aircraft Corps has constructed a four- engined flying boat for the Navy. It resembles the Sikorsky XPBS-i, but has retractable wing-tip floats. In the land transport field Douglas and Boeing almost literally " hold the bag," and we are not apt to find much activity elsewhere. There is one big item, though that has gone almost entirely unnoticed, and that is the machine being built in secret at Curtiss-Wright's St. Louis plant. We mentioned earlier in this article that Curtiss- Wright had been at work on a four-engined transport. It is the writer's belief that this aircraft, now well under way, is the "mystery" one, "' probably with improvements in design intended to surpass the features of the Boeing and Douglas developments. The new machine will have four engines and a nose-wheel, and is designed for the sub-strato- sphere for altitudes even higher than the Boeings will go- The Army Air Corps and T.W.A. have experimented extensively at high altitudes, and more recently Pan- American have equipped Douglas D.C.3 transports for such flights. The Army has used, among other aircraft, a specially built Lockheed, while Glenn L. Martin has explored the field more from the theo retical side. While these tests have been run up to 45,000ft., the forthcoming Boeing 307-S will probably not go any higher than 25,000ft., where a cruis- Air Corps officials inspecting the Fowler flaps on the Lockheed 14 (or Sky Zephyr) transport.
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