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Aviation History
1942
1942 - 0251.PDF
JANUARY 29TH, 1942 V FLIGHT il THE SHORT STIRLING same tubular torm as that of the spars themselves, whereas in the boats it took the form of tie-rod tension members. Plug Connections An interesting feature of the Short type of wing truss, and one which facilitates assembly, is the type of plug end used. Instead of the usual plug with plain or forked lug, the Short plug is rather in the form of a piston, with the lug coming down from the crown. The "skirt," to continue the simile, makes very easy the operation of riveting the plug to the tube end. Wing covering is of aluminium-alloy sheet, riveted to spars and rib mem bers, and the leading-edge is a separate structure, portion of which contains tanks. As in the Short boats, the reai portion of the wing, from rear spar to *£rai]iiig-edge, is a light tubular girder structure. The wings of the Stirling are, sur prisingly enough, designed to be assembled in one piece ; that is to say, on each side, port and starboard, the wing is in one piece from fuselage side to wing tip. The T-section spat flanges are, of course, in shorter sec tions, as they taper from root to tip, and machining down from the root size would waste a lot of material and time. Inside the fuselage the main wing structure, so far as the spars are con cerned, runs through from side to side. More unusual is the fact that the top wing covering is also con tinued across the fuselage. Presum ably this was done for purposes of strength, but the top of this centre section also makes a useful storage space for small articles. In the centre of it is cut a large circular hole, so that a member of the crew may stand up here and be within reacii of any of the stored articles. A feature which the Stirling also shares with the Short flying boats is the single fin and rudder. Their shape is different, and the area is smaller, owing to the fact that there is not, as in the fore body of the flying boat hull, a large vertical area for ward, and therefore the rudder volume needed is not so great. The control surfaces are of the type familiar from the Short boats. The same type of Gouge flap is used. This resembles somewhat the Ameri can Fowler flap, but there is no gap between it and the main wing, and the flap works solely by the increase in area and angle of incidence. That this increase in area is substantial will be gathered when we point out that the chord of the flap is 48 per cent, of the main wing chord. Unusual Undercarriage Reference has been made to the lengthening of the undercarriage caused by placing the wing midway up the fuselage sides. In addition to the extra weight which this entailed, the design of the undercarriage struc ture itself was rendered more difficult, as the long struts and bracing members as well as the wheel had to be accom modated between the wing spars. The design evolved makes use of a sort of double-jointed arrangement which looks somewhat complicated, but which is actually about the Twin tail wheels, linked together by chain and sprockets, are used on the Stirling in order to avoid too large a diameter, which would encroacb-on the space in the tail turret. w Three stages in the lowering of the undercarriage of the Stirling, showing how struts as well as bracing members are "broken" in the folding process. simplest that could function fault lessly. It must be remembered that the loads to be supported are very great. When retracted the undercarriage is housed in the inboard engine nacelle ; all, that is, except a small portion of the wheel, which projects but is quite well faired by the doors and- the fair ing, which is of plastic material. Landings can be made with the wheels retracted, and the very sturdy bomb bay in the floor of the fuselage has been found to prevent serious damage to the main fuselage structure. The wheels are Dunlops, with a tyre dia meter of about 6ft. and a'tyre width of 28m. Each wheel weighs 764 lb. com plete, a figure which will give some idea of the weight of the aircraft. Operation of the undercarriage is electric. In order to avoid encroaching on the space for the gunner's cockpit in the stern, a very unusual expedient has been adopted: two tail wheels are fitted to keep down the diameter. They retract into the fuselage. The four Bristol Hercules engines
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