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Aviation History
1939
1939 - 0605.PDF
MARCH 2, 1939 FLIGHT. A Bristol monoplane with Lucifer engine (right) was a low- power version of the military monoplane. During the year ninety-eight pilots were trained at the Bristol schools, sixty-three of them at Brooklands. So great had become the demand for Bristol aeroplanes that early the following year the capital of the company was increased to £250,000. So far as the Bristol company was concerned, 1913 was chiefly a year of school work. A considerable export trade was carried on, but of new types there was only the Coanda military biplane exhibited at the Olympia Aero Show in February of that year. This machine had a 70 h.p. Renault eight-cylinder Vee engine. For a wing span of 38ft. it had a wing area of 440 sq. ft. The weight empty was 946 lb. and the disposable load 880 lb. The speed was about 60 m.p.h. A modified version was shown at the Paris Salon in December of 1913. This had a neat bomb-dropping arrangement, devised by Mr. Coanda, by which a dozen small bombs could be carried in the belly of the fuselage. They could be released by a lever at any desired interval, and sights were provided for the observer. That the Bristol schools were busy in 1913 is shown from the fact that they trained 117 pilots, 70 at the Brooklands school. The ban on monoplanes caused the British and Colonial Aeroplane Company to concentrate, for a time, on the biplane type. At the Olympia Aero Show, held in March of 1914, the firm ex hibited two biplanes. One of these was a two- seater in which Coanda influence could still be traced, notably in the four-wheeled undercarriage. An attempt had, however, been made to reduce, air drag by adding to the rectangular main structure of the fuselage cambered fairings on top and.bottom. A large spinner over the airscrew hub completed the streamlining. The First Bristol Scout It was, however, in the little single-seater scout, exhibited for the first time, that the greatest promise of speed was evident. This machine had been designed jointly by Mr. (now Group Captain) Harry Busteed and Mr. Frank Barnwell, who had in the meantime joined the Bristol company. The machine was very tiny indeed, with a wing span of only 22ft., an overall length of 19ft. gin., and a wing area of r56 sq. ft. The engine was Gnome rotary of 80 h.p. The empty weight was 617 lb., and the disposable load 340 lb., giving a loaded weight of 957 lb. Thus, although the machine was destined ultimately to become a military scout type, it would nowadays be regarded as being in the light plane class. The speed was just under 100 m.p.h. with the 80 h.p. Gnome engine. Actually, the type which went into large pro duction on the outbreak of war was a slightly larger and heavier machine, with a span of 24ft. 7m. and a loaded weight of 1,250 lb. During the war the type became known as the Bullet, and nearly 400 were built, some with Gnome, some with Le Rhone and some with Clerget rotary engines. The machine climbed to 5,000ft. in 6| min. and to 10,000ft. in i&J min. It was one of the first machines to be fitted with a machine- gun on a specially designed mounting. Up to August 4, 1914, the Bristol company had built in all some 260 aeroplanes, and the Bristol flying schools had trained more than 300 pilots. It has been made clear in the preceding paragraphs that the Bristol company always believed in the monoplane and The M.R.i was the first all-metal machine produced by the Bristol Company. The " Braemar " was a bomber of 18,000 lb. gross weight. It was fitted with four Siddeley Puma engines. ban. In 1915 Mr. Barnwell began to occupy himself with the design of an entirely new type, and during that and the following years it was produced in large numbers. The Bristol monoplane of 1915-16 would not look out of date at the present time, except possibly for its wire-braced wings. In those days cantilever construction was not gener ally favoured, although monoplanes with this type of wing had been built in France and Germany. The Bristol military machine was a high-wing wire-braced monoplane, fitted with a Le Rhone rotary engine of no h.p. The wing span was 30ft. gin. and the weight empty 850 lb., while the loaded weight was 1,300 lb. With one Vickers gun firing through only dropped building the''type' because of "the Government the airscrew the machine became a very useful fighter, and was ^tLti&k On the left, the Bristol Babe with A.B.C. engine, and below, the Bullet, type 32. This machine was fitted with the first Jupiter engine built by the Bristol company. It was raced in the King's Cup and Aerial Derby. « ^% VJIu
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