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Aviation History
1940
1940 - 0472.PDF
148 FEBRUARY 15, 1940 (CONTINUED The projectile load may be made up as follows: one torpedo or two bombs of 1,100 lb. each, or four bombs of 550 lb. each. For a machine of the type, the bomb load is heavy, but, nevertheless, can probably be delivered in steep dives The pilot has a fixed machine-gun, and there is a free gun in the rear cockpit. Dimensions are: Span, 44.3ft.; length, 37.4m.; wing area, 489.8 sq. ft. The torpedo version weighs 6,170 lb. empty, carries a load of 3,750 lb., and has a gross weight of 9,920 lb., giving a wing-loading of 20.3 lb./sq. ft. The stated performance is: Top speed,"202 m.p.h. at 12,100ft. (denoting that the engine is fully supercharged); landing speed, 62 m.p.h.; service ceiling, 26,900ft.; and range. 930 miles. Improved Ha 140 References have already been made in Flight to the Blohm and Voss Ha 140 twin-engined floatplane, believed to have been built to the same specification as the Heinkel He 115, which has been used extensively in attacks on the North Sea. An improved version of the Ha 140, as shown in our photograph, has large leading-edge slats, and the cupola for a free gun in the nose has been omitted. Apparently there is a fixed gun instead. The tail is similar in design to that of the Ha (or Bv) 142 long-range four- engined landplane developed from the Ha 139 trans- Atlantic floatplane. This latter type, incidentally, has been reported by shipping in the North Sea during recent weeks. A modified version of the Junkers Ju 86K bomber has a cleaned-up nose in comparison with the older type shown above. Improved Ju 86k One recalls a picture of the Junkers works showing Ju 86K bombers in production with a modified type of nose. The original design, as shown in Flight of October 12, 1939, embodied a spherical-type gun-mount- ing, but the revised version is much cleaner and shapelier, and the gun-mounting appears to resemble that on the Heinkel He 111, though it is, if anything, smaller. Fitted with two B.M.W. 132 medium-supercharged radial engines, the performance is given as follows: Top speed, 233 m.p.h. at 8,530ft.; cruising speed, 211 m.p.h. at 12,470ft.; landing speed, 64 m.p.h.; ceiling, 23,300ft.; range, 885 miles. The gross weight is 18,100 lb., and racks are provided for a total bomb load of 2,750 lb. The Messerschmitt's Gun Sight According to a French report the gun sight fitted on the Messerschmitt Me 109 single-seater fighter uses an electric current. In front of the pilot's right eye, that is to say the eye with which he aims, there is a small rectangular patch, grey in colour, let into the windscreen. When the sight is required the pilot turns a switch and a luminous circle appears on the grey rectangle, indicating the field of fire of the armament with which the machine is equipped. In this connection it may be recalled that the Me 109 may have four machine guns or one shell-gun and two machine guns. THE DAIMLER-BENZ DB-601 THE Daimler-Benz DB-601 engine as installed in alarger percentage of German first-line military air-craft is basically similar to the DB-600, but is im- proved in a number of respects. One notable advance is the hydraulic supercharger drive with automatic and continuous variation of the blower speed. On the driving shaft of the supercharger impeller is a hydraulic coupling into which oil is fed by a metering pump. The metering pump consists of two identical gear pumps; one of these continuously feeds engine oil into the coupling, while the oil flow of the other is regulated by a sleeve valve con- trolled by barometric cells, so that with increasing altitude a progressively greater portion of this oil is added to the flow acting on the coupling instead Of draining through a by-pass. At an altitude of about 13,000ft. both pumps act fully upon the coupling, so that the highest supercharger drive ratio is attained (about 10; 1), giving a supercharger speed of about 25,000 r.p.m. Several airscrew reduction gear ratios are employed; for example, the DB-6oiAa is geared 1:1.55, and A direct-injection DB-601 in a Messerschmitt Me 109. It is not difficult to guess where the squadron artist had his training. the DB-6oiBa 1:1.88. A shell-gun can be fitted. The volume is 2,080 cubic inches 33.9 litres); rated power, 1,000 h.p. at 2,500 r.p.m.; take-off power, 1,175 nP- (the engine has a two-speed supercharger), and the dry weight, 1,268 lb.
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