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Aviation History
1941
1941 - 0608.PDF
202 MARCH 13TH, 1941. aircraft of equal size and weight the air-cooled can accommodate the more powerful engine, plus the extra fuel which the extra power requires. Mr. Lee does not fail to point out that an important corollary is that the air-cooled aircraft, with its greater power, will have a shorter take-off and a better rate of climb than the liquid-cooled, and asserts that these pro- perties are often of equal military importance with speed. Off on the Wrong LegM R. HUNSAKER expresses—or rather infers that he feels—mild annoyance with the side-track- ing into which early .British liquid-cooled research has led the American authorities. "We now have the interesting situation,'' he says, " of a very large production programme for 1,200 h.p. fighter airplanes based.on European-type liquid-cooled engines, which is getting well under way at about the time our own engi- neers present us with two 2,000 h.p. engines, and our scientists show us how to streamline them in an airplane installation to secure extremely high speed." We would suggest that Mr. Hunsaker take comfort from the fact that the history of flying has been full of such "false scents." There are even those who hold that if Wilbur and Orville Wright had not produced their biplane until a few years later, the helicopter would have come in for the intensive development that was later bestowed upon the aeroplane in such rich measure. And, anyway, it is not too late to apply this new knowledge to aircraft using the latest form of cooling and cowling. Whatever mass production America and England may achieve between them, it will still be necessary to plan and work for the longer policy which will give America the chance, as Mr. Hunsaker puts it, to use that "potential ability to make obsolete all fighter- airplanes in the world to-day, including our own." The war will not be over just yet, and if American aircraft designers cannot make use of the N.A.C.A. engine streamlining, British designers can and will. America, as the arsenal of democracy, must produce the quan- tities. England could well undertake experimental and divelopment work. In the meantime, we still have to be convinced that the liquid-cooled engine has been made obsolete by the recent American developments. We in this country are not limited to 1,200 "liquid-cooled horses." " ... So Many to so Few"M R. HUNSAKER will understand that we cannot give "chapter and verse" for the statement, but we can assure him that he is not correct when he states, after mentioning the two American air* cooled engines of 2,000 h.p., that "nowhere else in the world are engines of such power available." For obvious reasons we must refrain from being more explicit than that. But apart from Mr. Hunsaker's very natural pride in the achievements of his country, one does feel that he is a little unfair to the liquid-cooled engine when says : " The case for the liquid-cooled engine seemed to be very convincing. Yet it.was based on a false con- ception of the aerodynamics of the matter. There was also an element of propaganda in it." We would like to point out to him that the liquid- cooled engine, whether by false conception or pro- paganda or both, did enable Great Britain to stave off what looked at one time like inevitable defeat. If it had not been for the Hurricanes and Spitfires, the "Blitz" on London last year might well have suc- ceeded. As it was, the Rolls-Royce Merlin gave those fighters the power to sail into the Germans and scatter their huge formations. We wish Mr. Hunsaker could have seen a squadron of them, as we saw it, wade into the Germans head-on. Jerry could not take it, and his formation broke up precipitately. It is not too much to say that England was saved in those days by the Merlin, and Mr. Hunsaker might remember that the N.A.C.A. had not evolved its new ducting and cowling at the time that little liquid-cooled engine went into production. So we would couple with Mr. Churchill's historic phrase our indebtedness to one liquid-cooled British engine. CLIPPED CLIPPER. The firstof a fleet of six new Boeing 314 Clippers (of which Britain willget three) being moved out of the factory to the dock forthe attachment of wings and sponsons. The four WrightCyclones have had their take-off power increased to1,600 h.p.
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