FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1940
1940 - 1502.PDF
'47° MAY 23, 1940 argument. On the purely mechanical side, the twin- engined type may have an advantage in speed, due to the extra power. But it cannot be made as "clean" as the single-engined. Its moments of inertia must of neces- sity be greater, so that it cannot be as manoeuvrable as the smaller machine. Whether it can be given armament which will make up by effective range and fire-power what it lacks in manoeuvrability is open to debate. From a production point of view, the single-engined type is far to be preferred, owing to its greater simplicity. Moreover, for every machine lost, one loses only one engine and one airscrew. At a time when our output may well be strained almost to breaking point, that is a consideration which cannot be altogether disregarded. Hangar DoorsT HE jamming of the door of the K.L.M. hangar at Schiphol aerodrome as the result of German bomb- ing gives hangar designers one more requirement to bear in mind. It seems that one of the early bombs put the electrically operated mechanism of the doors out of action, and they could not be shifted. As a result of this, the Allies are deprived of the use of several very good aeroplanes. To guard against such another happening and to provide, for peacetime condi- tions, a means of getting aircraft out of a burning hangar quickly, it is essential that an emergency means exists for opening the doors. The answer which immedi- ately comes to mind, and perhaps the only answer, is to release the top of the doors so that they are free to fall outward. Over them the aircraft could then be towed to safety. An essential condition that would have to be fulfilled in such a design would be that the door should in no circumstances fall inward, for obvious reasons, and the release mechanism must also be guarded against failing to function under bombing or fire conditions;; The answer will call for some mechanical ingenuity on the part of the designers of hangar doors, and it may perhaps be found that such a device is easier to incorporate in one or other of the two main types, the sideways sliding or the type which rises into the roof. Good=bye to AH ThatR EADERS will find on our Correspondence page this week a letter which they may consider some- what out-of-date. So in fact it is, as it was written several weeks ago. But we have decided to publish it now because it is so absolutely typical of the hundreds of letters which we have received during the last few months. Young men who volunteered for the R.A.F. in the early days of the war, full of enthuf siasm and burning with desire to serve their country- were beginning to wonder whether they had cons^ pletely wasted their time. .4 To them it seemed, not unnaturally, that "jerks'* and "maths" had little enough to do with winning the war. We explained as best we could that the war had not developed as originally expected, and that when it did they would find that their time was not wasted after, all. Now the Air Ministry is once more asking for volunteers, and the young men at the I.T.W.s will soon find themselves " doing the real thing." Flight" Copyright Drawing JAGDEINSITZER : The latest fighter to be issued to squadrons of the Luftwaffe is the Heinkel He 113. Some commentson this machine, which must have considerably less fire power and be less manoeuvrable than our Spitfire and Hurricane, appear on the next page.
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
