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Aviation History
1943
1943 - 0638.PDF
FLIGHT Thirty-ninth of the New Recognition Series Aircraft Types DE HAVILLAND ALBATROSS and DESIGNED as a passenger air-liner or a long-rangemail-carrier, the <ie Havilland Albatross is one of .several successful commercial British types which have been taken over by the R.A.F. as military trans- ports. When in service with Imperial Airways before the war, the type was known as the Frobisher class, that being the name bestowed upon the first one to be operated by them. In the makers' list it was the D.H.91 and had a maximum cruising speed of 210 m.p.h., a service ceiling of 17,900ft., and a range of 1,040 miles. Constructionally, the Albatross was a most courageous adventure on the part of the de Havilland Company, for it .embodied an unusually high degree of experimentalism. Not only were fuselage and wings built on what were, at that time, entirely new principles in aircraft structures, but the Gipsy-Twelve engines were also a new type and incor- porated a novel system of controlled air-cooling in which the air was admitted through apertures in the leading edge of the wings, flanking the engines, and directed forwards into the cowlings. Most engineering concerns have too wary an eye on critical shareholders to risk more than one experiment at a time, but de Havilland's faith in their design staff was well founded and they went the whole hog on the Albatross with a courage which earned its deserved reward. Briefly, the fuselage is composed of a circular monocoque structure comprising an outer and inner layer of double- camber cedar plywood with a sandwich of Balsa wood between. The tapered, high aspect*ratio wings are built up on a central girder comprising two box-spars intercon- nected with spruce ribs. Spruce longitudinal stringers sup- port the stressed skin which is composed of two layers of spruce slatting laid diagonally to the spar and bound with casein glue and with a final covering of cemented cedar three-ply ; the detachable wing-tips are metal as are the fabric-covered " Frise " ailerons. Split trailing-edge flaps were fitted to the first two machines to be built, but these were replaced by slotted flaps on the rest. The four Gipsy-Twelve engines are 12-cylinder, inverted " V " air-cooled geared and supercharged units each giving 535 h.p. foi take-off and rated at 375 h.p. at 2,250 r.p.m. at 7,500ft. Cruising Speed 210 m.p.h. MODERATE TAPER SLIGHT DIHEDRAL CIRCULAR, FUSELACE SMALL ENCINES WHEELS RETRACT INTO, BELLY DIMENSIONS OF ALBATROSS Span .. /05ft. Length 71ft. 6in. Height 22ft. Jin. Wing Area .. .. 1,078 sq.ft. SMALL ECC SHAPED HIGH ASPECT-RATIO FIXED TAIL WHER
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