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Aviation History
1938
1938 - 1968.PDF
22 FLIGHT. JULY 7, 1938. PRIVATE FIGHTER A Morning with Major Alford Williams and his Pet Grumman SINCE his aerobatic exhi bition at Gatwick Jast Saturday week Major Alford J. Williams is remembered by 150,000-odd people as a pleasantly lazy drawl from a noisy, dumpy little Grumman. In Pitts burg, Pa., and, for that matter, throughout the United States, he is known not only for his aerobatic ability but as aviation manager of the Gulf Refin ing Co., and as newspaper columnist and radio com mentator. Moreover, when we kept an appointment with him and his Gulfhawk at Gatwick last week we found him a tremendously keen observer of international developments in all aeronautical fields, particularly military ones. He is decidedly pro-biplane, though he has to admit that we must have machines like the Spitfire and Hurricane as chasers. For a long time now he has been agitating in the States for the development of high- powered liquid-cooled engines. His expression of delight at the sound of a Kestrel in a Hart Trainer was quite ecstatic. So were his references to the Gulfhawk. He explained that its designer resigned himself to the large diameter of the Cyclone engifie and decided to build the best fuselage which was practically possible. The lines may he studied in the accompanying photographs, secured from a Brian Allen Stinson flown by Mr. Wesson. The small span (28|ft.) and the peculiar fuselage shape per mitted the installation of a retractable undercarriage, which was welcome not only on aerodynamic grounds but because the machine was planned as a fighter for the U.S. Navy, and struts and wheels do not improve the "ditch ing " qualities of an aeroplane. Though the Gulfhawk may look heavy, due to its cor pulence, its structure is actually quite light (the all-up weight is only 4,195 lb.) though tremendously strong. It was a similar machine which reached an acceleration of 14G before its wings came off and the test pilot, Jimmie Collins, was killed. A good deal of special equipment has been installed, including a Pioneer accelerometer, two-way radio, flotation gear (giving a buoyancy about 40 per cent, above the normal aerobatic weight), Coffman cartridge-type engine starter with its breech in the cockpit, and a Cambridge exhaust-gas analyser. The fuel and oil systems are so planned that the Gulfhawk could stay on its back for half an hour. The finish, by the Perry-Austin Com pany, is certainly among the finest we have seen. All strut ends are very care fully faired, highly polished duralumin being used for the struts themselves. Maximum speed is quoted by the manufacturers as 290 m.p.h. at 12,000ft., this figure having been arrived at from data recorded by Major Williams on rest flights. The ceiling, at 26,000ft., is nearly 10,oooft. lower than that of the " Flight " photograph. Features of both Major Williams and his Grumman G-22 are visible b*"*
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