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Aviation History
1938
1938 - 1673.PDF
JUNE 9, I938- FLIGHT. PRIVATE FLY 1 lopics of the Day ! False ValuesN OWADAYS it seems that when- ever a new machine is produced its sponsors invariably point with especial pride to its good behaviour at the stall. We are all rather inclined to overlook the fact [that one or two of the very earliest ;light aeroplanes were at least as safe in this respect. In those days it was token for granted that a machine, .when stalled with the controls more or 'less in the central position, would sink on a level keel or, at the worst, drop jits nose as the stall developed. *" A few weeks ago 1 was flying a trainer which may be considered as the direct descendant of the first com- mercially successful light aeroplane, and this machine is certainly as safe, stable and controllable in the stalled or semi-stalled position as any machine of more modern design about which safety has been made a great .talking point. • Admittedly, the old Cirrus or Gipsy Moths spun with considerable eclat when forced to do so, but with the rudder central these machines would sit almost indefin- itely at the stall at least without showing much sign of wing-dropping. Given a suitable undercarriage and reason- ably calm conditions it would almost be possible to sink the old Moth in this attitude right into the ground, using, perhaps, a burst of engine over the last ten feet to reduce the sinking speed. And that is what we all claim for some modern types. My only objection to the Moth tribe is concerned with the use of a spring for fore and aft trim adjustment. In the old days we were quite accustomed to the principle, but after flying various machines with proper screwjacks or tabs it seems to be rather barbarous to have to do battle with spring tension during the landing process. With tab adjustment the whole feel of the elevator while landing is, so to speak, the feel of the air itself, while a spring-loaded landing must necessarily be made almost entirely by ocular judgment. •=-•••- - Regrets : " " : M EVER, it appears, shall we ever return to the ease of1>( control of the old type of aeroplane. Designers can flap these modern aeroplanes to their hearts' content, but the pilot still cannot be given that perfect range of forced- landing adjustment which is possible with a good conven- tional biplane with strong sideslipping characteristics, and it is a particular pleasure to get back into a machine in which one feels that height can be lost immediately and which can be put down in any space large enough to per- mit a hundred yards or so of landing run. Probably the pilot who is trained on the new formula feels the very opposite. Initial bias is a bad thing. Incidentally, there are always big variations in the hand iing qualities of braced biplanes, while cantilever mono- planes appear, at least to me, to be quite consistent in their characteristics. I know at least one club where there are five identical training types, but not one of them feels exactly the same in the ait. Two of them are almost cumbersome in aerobatics, "while the other three are as light as one could wish. Curiously enough, at least one of the two "heavies" tries to make up for it by being most unwilling to start " Flight " photograph QUICK CHANGE : Mr. A. R. Ward replaces the airscrew on the Chilton monoplane (see pp. 562—564) at the Speke control during the Isle of Man air race. Meanwhile, Mr. Green of Stanavo tops up the tanks with four gallons—after the Chilton's 160 miles at full throttle. The other personalities are no doubt helping or hindering spinning and will complete almost a whole stalled turn before starting into a spin. At the same time this machine also continues to spin for at least a quarter of a turn aftei the more normal examples has recovered. That, however, may be my imagination. Relativity W HILE on the subject of aerobatics (for what they'reworth) it always seems to me that people have got hold of the wrong end of the stick when they say, for instance, that, with modern fighters, there can be no dog- fighting in the ordinary sense. This is surely quite a rela- tive matter. A dog-fight does not necessarily involve a number of machines manoeuvring, slowly in a small space ; it can equally well involve a number of machines manoeuv- ring quickly in a very large space. If eighteen pilots are all flying 300 m.p.h. machines the relative efiect to them is exactly as if they were flying 100 m.p.h. machines, and the air will appear to be jus1 as crowded. The battle, however, will cover a consider- able space in cubic miles and there will obviously be limitations in the kind of aerobatics which may safely be indulged in between ground level and 20,000ft. Unfor- tunately, useful space in a vertical plane is not unlimited and sheer speed will undoubtedly mean hew methods. Not "long ago I was carrying out mild aerobatics on a trainer which was fast in comparison with those which I had previously handled. There wag, i*j,rformal circum- stances, no obviously greater tendency to black out. My loops involved thousands instead of hundreds.of feet and my steep turns had a radius of thousands rather thar hundreds of yards. The point seems to me to be that, with so much reserve speed and stronger aeroplanes with more powerful con- trols, it is possible but not by any means essential tc suffer personal discomfort. With plenty of space a loop at 300 m.p.h. needs to be no more " geeful" than one made at 100 m.p.h. Presumably, however, the winners in any future air battle will be those who can stand the greatest supply of this " g " while flying aeroplanes which are strong enough to take whatever the pilot himself can stand. You could black yourself out quite satisfactorily in a Cirrus I Moth, but the necessary manoeuvre was rathei hard on the machine. INDICATOR.
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