FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1943
1943 - 1802.PDF
FLIGHT JULY 15TH, 1943 American War Cargo Types Office of War Information Reports on Air Transport A LTHOUGH it must be freely admitted that America's A\ development of civil aircraft types was, and still •*• -*• is, considerably in advance of Great Britain's, it is clear from a report on air transport just released by their Office of War Information, that their position in this respect does not place them in such a favourable light in regaid to war cargo as it does to passenger services. The report plainly states, in fact,, that "no planes originally conceived solely for the carrying of air cargo are yet in regular service in the Western Hemisphere," and it gives a list of the chief models of transport aircraft now in service, which indicates the extent to which America is making use of available aircraft, in the form of adapted passenger and bomber types, for the purpose of wartime air trails port; the first of her aircraft specific- ally designed for the carriage of freight are, the report says, "still in the experimental stage at the present time,'' but it adds that in spite of this, impressive air cargo records are being made by the Army and Navy. This means, however, that present-day cargo transporta- tion is being accomplished with a degree of efficiency considerably below that which would conceivably charac- terise aircraft specifically built for cargo purposes, and the report cites the cargo version of the B-24 Liberator, the C-87. to illustrate the point. This aircraft, though it is doing excellent service as an air freighter, is so constructed that it requires its load to be carried in a concentrated location. Its capacity as a cargo aircraft is greatly limited by the lack of available space for loading within the fore and aft balance limits of its centre of gravity, and " balance officers " have to exercise great care in distribut- ing the weight, particularly towards the tail, when super- vising the loading. Compromise Conversions Aircraft originally designed for passenger work, too, have been found to be far from ideal for the cargo-carrying duties they are now faithfully performing; their loading facilities, doors, and cargo hold-down facilities are described as afterthoughts, and they are often too high for txuck-loading platforms. The C-54 and C-46 (Skymaster and Commando respectively), which are modifications cf the DC-4 and CW-20 passenger airliners, have greater capacity than the converted bombers, but are quoted as examples which suffer from some or all of the handicaps mentioned. Present models of flying boats are even more ill suited to the carrying of bulky cargo, due to the small size of their hatches and the division of their hulls into compart- ments by bulkheads which for structural reasons cannot be removed. Furthermore, engine choice, fuel capacity, landing speed, and other features of these adapted aircraft are aimed at general all-round utility rather than designed for the greatest economical efficiency in the specific jobs they are now being called upon to perform as war cargo carriers. In general it seems that an aircraft designed primarily to carry cargo could be converted to passenger work with . less loss of efficiency than vice versa; or it could easily be converted to a bomber by the installation of guns and armour. At present, therefore, "American air transport needs are being filled by operations that show considerable ingenuity, but which cannot be called efficient from any modern requirement of cargo-carrying economics." Mixed Company Other converted civil types in use, besides those already mentioned, include the C-47 Skytrain and C-53 Skytrooper, which are military variations of the DC-3 ; the C-59, C-60 and C-66, which' are variants of the Lockheed 18 Lodestar; the Boeing 307 Stratoliner, which is the Army's C-75 ; and the Boeing 314 Clipper and Vought-Sikorsky VS-44A Fly- " ing Ace flying boats. Older models also in use to a more limited extent are a tew DC-2 airliners used by the Air Transport Command under designations C-32A, C-33, and j C-34 for training purposes, and a few Lockheed ioE's which are the Army's C-36; the C-73 which is *he Army version of the Boeing 247D and used for transport training; the Sikorsky S-42B and S-43 Clippers, and the Martin 130 China Clipper. Other adapted bomber types in addition to the C-87 Liberator Express are the Consolidated Coronado, now being converted in quantity for Navy transport duties and known as the PB2Y-3R ; the Martin Mariner, which as a transport is the PMB-3R; the Consolidated Catalina, a number of which have been modified for transport work with the Rubber Development Corporation in the Amazon Valley ; and finally the Martin Mars, which has been fitted with a loading track and large hatches, and is now under develop- ment. V The first aircraft designed primarily as a cargo plane and now undergoing tests is the C-76 Curtiss-Wright Cara- van. The Lockheed Constellation (C-69) is at present being tested as a troop-carrier. Finally, there are three types which have not yet reached the flight-test stage. These are the Waco C-62, a twin- engined wooden cargo aircraft of 33,500 lb. gross weight, the Fairchild C-82, a part-metal 50,000 lb. air freighter with a rear door that can be lowered as a ramp and with an interior hoist; and the enormous Kaiser-Hughes HK-i flying boat with eight engines and 120,000 1b. cargo capa- city which has a wing span of no less than 320ft. and a length of 218ft. It is of all-plywood construction, and has a gross weight of 400,000 lb. DEATH OF COL. BARRINGTON WE regret to learn of the death at Detroit, U.S.A., ofLt. Col. Thomas Barwell Barrington, aged 58. Col. Barrington was for many years on the Rolls-Royce Company'sdesign stall, and during the last war was in the Technical Section of the Air Ministry. When the Packard Company weregiven an order by the British Government two or three years ago to manufacture Rolls-Royce Merlin engines, Col. Barring-ton went to Detroit as liaison engineer. He was well known in automobile and aeronautical engineering circles. POST-WAR PRODUCTION THAI the established aircraft industry will, after the war,and after the probable cessation of work in shadow factories and the normal recession of labour to pre-war occupa-tions, be on a stable basis was emphasised by Mr. T. O. M. Sopwith, chairman of the Hawker Siddeley Aircraft Co., Ltd.,in his statement at the annual general meeting of the company. Mr. Sopwith did not accept the view expressed recently that the industry would be reduced to a fraction of its size. "Wecan," he said, "feel confident of our ability to fulfil such requirements as may be necessary, and I cannot contemplateany authority acting otherwise than to ensure a strong air ' arm." NEW U.S. MARKINGS BECAUSE the present markings of U.S. aircraft can be con-fused at a distance with those of the Germans and Japanese, a new design is to be adopted by the U.S.A.A.F. This will consist of " a five-pointed star on a circular fieldol blue, with a white rectangle attached right and left of the circle, the whole surrounded by a red border." The above description does not permit one to form a veryaccurate idea of what the new American aircraft markings will look like, since the term " rectangle " is a loose one and givesno indication of the proportions, nor whether these white rectangles will be attached with their long or their short sidesadjacent to the circular field of blue.
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
