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Aviation History
1941
1941 - 1595.PDF
JULY iyra, 1941. FLIGHT g FRIEND OR FOE? slight taper on the leading-edge and the tips are very small and rounded. The pilot's cockpit is well back in the nacelle, between the wings, and has a small transparent "glasshouse" cover. Each fuselage, which is really a streamlined continuation of the engine cases, provides for complete retraction of the undercarriage and has air-scroops on both flanks aft of the trailing-edge of the wings. The nose-wheel retracts into the nacelle. The high aspect-ratio tailplane joins the rear extremities of the double fuselage which terminate in oval fins and rudders. Performance figures quoted in America for the Lightning give a top speed in excess of 400 m.p.h., which would seem to justify its name. Next week : The Maryland and the Baltimore. US. DIVE BOMBERS OF RAF. SUPPLEMENTING the data and illustrations oiAmerican fighters for the R.A.F. and Fleet Air Armpublished in last week's issue, we give herewith corresponding particulars of four American dive bombers. The names given to these four types as used by this country are given first, and are followed by the corresponding American names or type numbers in parentheses. A fifth American dive bomber type has now been added: the •••' Vultee Vengeance, which may be said to be a development of the Vanguard fighter described last week. It has a Wright Cyclone engine, and it is believed that it has been designed not only for high level speed but also for excep- tionally high diving speed, a fact which should make it a very difficult target to hit when diving on its objective. The drawings of the four dive bombers, and those of the fighters published last week, are included on the new Flight identification chart of American aircraft now on * sale. So, too, are six heavy bombers and two flying boats, - which we shall publish next week. Curtiss Cleveland (Helldiver-77).—Two-seater single-bay biplane of all-metal construction, semi-monocoque fuse- '.- lage. Upper wing has backswept leading-edge and is metal covered ; lower has metal leading-edge, the rest fabric ••-.; covered ; single inter-plane struts; fixed tail surfaces metal covered, movable ones fabric. Manually operated metal, "•split trailing-edge flaps on lower panels. Wright Cyclone .-, R-1820-G5 engine, 850 h.p. normal, 1,000 h.p. for take-off. Hamilton constant-speed airscrew. Undercarriage and tail- wheel retractable. Top speed, 235 m.p.h. at 15,000ft. " Cruising speed, 176 m.p.h. Service ceiling, 24,500ft. liange --'at cruising speed, 855 miles. Dimensions: Span, 34ft. Length, 27ft. 6in. Wing area, 317 sq. ft Wing loading, ';'• 19.7 lb. /sq. ft. Vought - Sikorsky Chesapeake (VS -156) .—Low-wing, /.outer panels taper, rounded tips. Two-seater fuselage of welded chrome molybdenum steel tubing, aluminium fair- ing and fabric covering aft of cockpits. All-metal mono- spar wings, fabric covered aft of spar. All-metal trailing- edge flaps and tail group. Pratt and Whitney Twin- Wasp Jr.. 750 h.p. at 9,000ft. Hamilton constant-speed airscrew. Undercarriage retracts backwards. Top speed, ;.• 257 m.p.h. Cruising speed, 227 m.p.h. Service ceiling, 28,200ft. Cruising ranee, 700 miles. Dimensions: Span, 142ft. Length, 34ft. Wing are;i, 305.3 sq. ft. Wing load- ing, 21.3 lb. /sq. ft. Brewster Bermuda (Model 138). — Mid-wing with moderate taper to rounded tips. Two-seater all-metal monocoque fuselage. Riveted aluminium alloy box-spar wing with integral fuel tank in centre-section. Metal- covered leading-edge, the rest fabric ; manually operated split trailing-edge flaps. All-metal cantilever tail ; fixed surfaces metal covered, movable fabric. Hydraulically operated retractable undercarriage. Wright Cyclone G-5 engine, 750 h.p. at 15,200ft., and 1,000 h.p. for take-off. Hamilton controllable pitch airscrew. Top speed, 302 m.p.h. at 17,000ft. Cruising speed, 226.5 m.p.h. Service ceiling, 30,000ft. Range at cruising speed, 776 miles. Dimensions: Span, 39ft. Length, 27ft. 9.5m. Wing area, 259 sq ft. Wing loading, 20.8 1b./sq.ft. Northrop A17-A.—Low-wing with moderate taper and pronounced dihedral to outer panels. Two-seater fuselage of light alloy monocoque construction and flush-riveted stressed skin. Wings are all-metal stressed skin except for fabric-covered ailerons. Cantilever tail group has fixed surfaces metal covered, but movable ones fabric. Split trailing-edge flaps. Pratt and Whitney Twin Wasp Jr. 825 h.p. engine. Top speed, 225 m.p.h. at 9,000ft. Cruis- ing speed, 185 m.p.h. Ceiling, 20,700ft. Dimensions: Span, 47ft.-8in. Length, 31ft. 9m. Wing area, 363 sq. ft. Wing loading not stated. Ford to Build Liberators '"PHE Ford Motor Company will build complete Consolidated -L B-24 Liberators at a new plant now being constructed at Ypsilanti, Michigan. The factory was designed originally as a parts factory, but provision was made for tht: easy addition of a very long assembly line, nearly a mile. Parts and perhaps complete engines will be turned out by the end of the year, it is reported. C. E. Sorensen, Ford manager, said that the plant is being designed to produce 270 bombers per month, but even though this is but a minute fraction of Mr. Henry Ford's figure of " 1,000 aeroplanes a day," it is still a huge number and cannot be expected to be realised for a long time. Wright Field Wind Tunnel REQUIRING a 40,000 h.p. electric motor to drive it, the newU.S. Army Air Corps wind tunnel at Wright Field, Dayton, Ohio, is neanng completion It is an open-jet closed- circuit type with a throat diameter of 20 ft. capable of taking models up to 15 ft. span or full size fuselages and engine nacelles. Two 40 ft. diameter airscrews circulate the air, and the tunnel at one point has a maximum diameter of 45 ft. Distance round the tunnel circuit is 616 ft. Maximum speed is reported as 400 m.p.h. and cost as £600,000,
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