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Aviation History
1939
1939 - 0601.PDF
MARCH 2, 1939 FLIGHT. 213 agreement with the French Zodiac company for building machines of that design in this country. At the very outset the firm met with a setback. The machine was not very satisfactory, and was soon dropped. Sir George White was not, how ever, discouraged. He im mediately made the neces sary arrangements for estab lishing a design staff at Filton, and before long biplanes of Bristol design began to make their appear ance. Flying schools were established at Lark Hill (Salisbury Plain) and later at Brooklands. The first aero plane of Bristol design appeared in June, 1910. It was frankly based upon the Henry F a r m a n of that period, and became known as the Bristol "Box Kite." The biplane wings had single - surface covering. That is to say, each wing rib was housed in a sort of pocket in the fabric, but in between the ribs there was but a single surface. The biplane tail was carried on an outrigger consisting of four tail booms braced by struts and piano wire, and in addition there was a front elevator, which was probably not very efficient as a control surface when the machine was flying slowly, but it was useful as a guide to the pilot, in that he could keep it on the horizon and so know whether he was flying level, diving or climbing. One of the peculiarities of the '' Box Kite"—and not merely of the Bristol version, but of all of that general type —was that the pilot had to be fairly smart in getting the nose down if the engine stopped (as it frequently did). The biplane, tail was deeply cambered, and therefore carried a good deal of load. Normally, it worked in the slipstream from the pusher airscrew placed but a few feet ahead of it. When the engine stopped the slipstream dis appeared, and the tail lost a good deal of its lift. A simple cradle on top of the lower wing carried the 50 h.p. Gnome rotary engine at the back and the pilot's seat at the front. The petrel and oil tanks (the Gnome used nearly as much oil as petrol) were carried athwart the cradle, just in front of the engine. The pilot sat slightly ahead of the leading edge, with only his feet on the rudder bar to keep him from slipping forward, and nothing to pro tect him from the draught. And what a draught! Although the machine probably did no more than about 40 m.p.h., the air would blow up one's trouser legs and out at the back of one's neck. Ailerons were fitted to all four wing tips, but they were not interconnected, so that when the machine was standing still they drooped, and as it gathered speed they flapped merrily up and down. There was no engine throttle, and the Gnome either ran full out or stopped. The only control was the switch. By switching on and off, the pilot could get a sort of intermittent throttling effect in this way. The engine ex haust came on and died away, came on and died away. ft was from this peculiar sound that the switch became known as the " blip-switch." (Left) Early avia tion in India ; a Bristol "Box Kite" was demonstrated in 1911 by Henri Jullerot. Below, early streamlining : a "Box Kite" with a cowling over the pilot's legs. Before leaving the subject of the Bristol '' Box Kite '' it is of interest to record that in 1910 one of these machines gained second prize at the Lanark meeting. It was for the slowest lap—just over 30 m.p.h.! Early one morning in September of the same year a Bristol " Box Kite " was the first and only machine to fly over the Army manoeuvres on Salisbury Plain. It was piloted by Capt. Bertram Dickson, and the flight was witnessed by Sir John French, Lord Kitchener, Lord Roberts and Mr. Winston Churchill. A few days later the first wireless signals were transmitted from a Bristol " Box Kite " to the ground. After less than a year's existence, the Bristol works at Filton had been found inadequate, and extensions had been built. Nearly thirty machines were constructed at Filton that year ; six pilots had been trained on Bristol machines, and many more were receiving instmction. Towards the end of 1910 the British and Colonial Aero plane Co., Ltd., sent a mission to India, Australia and
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