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Aviation History
1941
1941 - 0202.PDF
JANUARY 23RD, 1941. A CAPTIVE COMPOSITE (Continued) reversed the Mayo arrangement, although it may be taken for granted that Major Mayo looked into the possi- bilities of the "mother bird carrying the long-range machine in its claws instead of on its back," so to speak. We believe that he came to the conclusion that one could not afford to add the necessary undercarriage weight to the long-range machine. Yet another variation was the scheme proposed by Mr. King, in which an aircraft with a fuselage inter- mediate between the normal fuselage and a flying boat hull was to be launched from a twin-float cradle, the idea being that the aerodynamic efficiency of the long- range aircraft would be equal to that of a landplane, while the weight of the undercarriage was saved, and the long-range machine would be able to alight on water at the end of its flight. In this brief review of the different schemes that have been proposed or actually tried-out, mention should also be made of that suggested by Capt. Frank Courtney. He designed a rail track with a trolley, and to reduce the power required, and shorten the take-off run required, the idea was that a downward slope should be given to the track. Rocket Assistance And finally there is the use of rockets to assist the take-off. Dr. Lanchester looked into this subject from a theoretical point of view in articles published in Flight some time ago. Since then it is believed that the Ger- mans have actually adopted the rocket-assisted take- off. It is, of course, well known that jet propulsion is relatively inefficient at low translational speeds, but can provide high efficiency when the forward speed is high. As, however, the rocket is comparatively light for the power it can develop, and the installation on an aircraft need not be unduly heavy, or particularly com- plicated, it may be expected that rocket-assisted take-off can be made effective if not very efficient. To the variety of assisted take-off schemes outlined above has now been added yet another. This is the invention of Mr. B. B. Shead, and may be termed a captive composite. Our photographs show a working model which Mr. Shead erected in his garden. These pictures indicate the general idea, although many detail variations are, of course, possible. One may, perhaps, regard the Shead composite as the "whirling arm " used by the N.P.L. and Farnborough for airscrew and other research, but with the "arm" encased in an aerofoil section and turned into a lifting wing. At first sight the idea seems, quite frankly, to be fan- tastic. "What," one immediately asks, "will happen to the aircraft when flung off the merry-go-round tan- gentially ? " The inventor argues that as the long captive wing is revolving comparatively slowly, centrifugal force will not be excessive, and anyway, the aircraft is banked to approximately the correct angle for the speed and radius of turn. The intention is that a large wind indi- cator should be mounted on the top of the tower so that the pilot can pull his release just before the aircraft is turning into wind. It may be, of course, that an outward skid is desirable at the instant of release. One would imagine that, since the aeroplane is mounted at the tip of the captive wing, the latter would tend to rise sharply when relieved of the weight of the aircraft, so that there might well be risi of collision. As Mr. Shead has made provision for tail- surfaces for the captive wing, and has mounted it on the tower by a universal joint, arrangements could pre- sumably be made for decreasing the angle of incidence of the captive wing at the moment when the separation occurred. As for the mechanical details, the intention is that the engines of the captive wing should be aero engines (in the working model they are represented by an electric motor). They could be mounted in tandem and this is actually represented in the model. Pipe lines would lead from the tower to the engines, and there is an auto- matic device which throttles down the engines at the instant of separation. The captive wing then "glides" to the ground along its spiral path, and when the wheels touch, the engines are automatically switched off. Mr. Shead points out that as the cradle on the captive wing is close to the ground, a ramp can be provided which will make it possible to get the next aircraft loaded-on very quickly, so that the possible frequency of launch should be fairly high. This would be impor- tant if bombers were being launched. Another advan- tage claimed is that different types could be launched. America's Use of Motor Industry FOR her aircraft production programme America is to makeextensive use of her motor car industry. Exactly how it is to be done is a matter to be decided by a survey now takingplace. According to our New York contemporary, Aviation, planning has gone farthest in the matter of bombers, and itis likely that a four-engined heavy bomber will be included. It is thought that its design will probably be based on theConsolidated B-24, and there are to be 4,000 of these. Some 8,000 twin-engined bombers resembling the Martin B-27 areto be built in addition. It is believed that 8,000 fighters will be included in the programme, but the type to be adopted isstill in doubt. Of these 20,000 aeroplanes Great Britain is, according to Aviation, to receive approximately 12,000.equally divided between bombers and fighters. The intention is that the American automobile industry isto produce parts for these aircraft, and sub-assemblies up to tail and wing portion size. The general idea is that theAmerican automobile industry can make available a number of general-purpose machine tools by working thiee shifts onits remaining tools. It is not thought that production of dies will present a serious difficulty, as the tool and die shops inDetroit, with some 10,000 workers, arc at a low level of activity at the moment. Final assembly cannot be done at the automobile factories,50 that special factories are to be built for assembly. These will be paid for by British and Atnerican funds. The assembly plants will have to be managed by experts drawn fromaircraft industry, and our contemporary points out that "the industry's executive and supervisory forces are already spreadout so thin as to have an adverse effect on production. If the programme is treated as an emergency programme, forimmediate production, the methods in use in the aircraft fac- tories will be duplicated. On the other hand, if a long-termpolicy is decided upon, special tools would have to be pro- duced, and it would take longer to get going, althoughultimately a greater production might be achieved. Canadian Production in 1939"~"'""•••^n*>, ' PRODUCTION of the 13 aircraft factories in Canada during™1939 increased in value by $5,711,365 over the figure for 1938, the Dominion Bureau of Statistics reports. Productionin 1939 was valued at $12,638,470,/compared with nearly /*, $7,000,000 the previous year. The figures include the value of / '\252 completed aircraft ($4,177,555) isftanufactured in that year t'Imports of aircraft and parts, witM the exception of engines' were vsalued at ?>5,55<5,32o during' 1-939, and exports were at$439.35^v~-«J*t*iPorts °i aero engines and engine parts were worth $2,192,767. The airgffaft factories employed 3,596persons during 1939, paying ^4,651,615 in salaries and wages. Of the 13 factories mentioned, seven were in Ontario, three in.'Quebec, two in Manitoba, a6d one in British Columbia. Three Y of the factories were en^diged only in making parts or doingrepairs.
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