FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1944
1944 - 0180.PDF
-go FLIGHT JANUARY 27™, 1944 ARMSTRONC-WHITWORTH ALBEMARLE ARMSTRONG-WHITWORTH ALBEMARLE : Span Length Height (to tip of airscrew) ... Tail plane span Main plane area, ailerons Tail plane area, : elevators ... i Fuel Oil All-up weight (glid Maximum speed Normal range including including sr tug) ... 77ft. Oin. 59ft. 1 lln. ISft.7in. 26ft. 41n. 803.5 sq. ft. 164.43 sq. ft. Over 750 gallons. Over 60 gallons. 22,6001b. In excess of 250 m.p.h. at 10,500ft. Over 1,300 miles. • Two Bristol Hercules XI 1,5*0 h.p. engines with De Havilland fully feathering hydro- matic airscrews. cover a side or top section of the fuse lage. The fuselage as a whole is divided into front, centre and rear portions, each of which is attached to its neighbouring section with single pin joints at each of the four longerons. The main wing spar is continuous through the fuselage, the front and centre fuselage sections being attached respec tively to the front and rear pick-up points on the spar. To lessen compass interfer ence, the front fuselage section is con structed of stainless steel tubing while the centre and rear sections are made up in high tensile steel tubing; both have gusset plate joints. The floor is of wood supported on a wooden structure except over the bomb bay; in the front fuselage section, the bomt> bay floor is a stainless steel structure covered with light-alloy sheet which acts as armour deflector sheeting. An armour plate bulkhead is fitted before the front face of the main spar, with a folding door giving access to the centre fuselage section. The hydraulically operated bomb doors are constructed of spruce and plywood formers, covered with plywood skin and attached to a steel tubular spar. The wing centre section extends through the fuselage and outwards to immediately outboard of each nacelle, and consists of the main spar, leading edge, and power unit and undercarriage mountings. The spar is a girder made up of four high-tensile steel, square-section tubular booms, with tubulai shear and torsional bracing. Two massive ribs of steel tubular structure are fitted at each end of the centre section and extend forward to carry the pick-up points for the power eggs; at the rear of each rib are carried four pick-ups for the undercarriage legs. The centre section is covered on top with thick non-stressed plywood between the spar booms, has light alloy nose panels and carries a ply wood skin on the underside, although most of the latter area is given to large removable panels for access to the petrol tanks. Use of Improved Wood The outer portions of the wings are bolted to the centre section by special expanding' pins, and consists of two spars having spruce booms reinforced with light-alloy inserts and plywood webs. Steel tube torsional bracing is fitted and this is assisted by the ply covering between the spars. The steel bracing is ronnected to the front and rear spars through channel gussets, which are high-tensile steel forg- ings machined with a serrated base. These serrations " bite " into the outer grain of the plywood webs and take about half the shear load between the channels and the spars. Special ribs which carry the aileron hinge loads are built up of square-section steel tube aft of the rear spar and have spruce booms and plywood webs reinforced with steel channels between the spars. use of compressed and impregnated hard Interesting The nosewheel fairing doors close in sequence controlled by the guard ring around the front of the nosewheel strut. The bomb-aimer's hinged panel, immediately above the nosewheel, is the main entrance for the aircraft. wood—called by an unlovely hybrid word " compregnated " —is made at the inner end of the spars, where it assists in taking the high loads from the metal gusset attachment points to the spruce booms. The leading and trailing edges are covered with thin plywood with the outer grain run ning parallel to the ribs. The slotted-type flaps are operated and synchronised hydraulically, there being three control selection positions: "up," "take-off" and "dive and land." This latter appears to suggest that it has been found advisable to utilise a fairly large degree of flap when diving, presumably to prevent the build-up to dangerous speed which in a " clean " aircraft such as this, should be fairly rapid. Single Aileron Trim The ailerons are of full Frise type, having metal tubular spars forward of the hinge; the ribs have plywood webs and spruce booms, and the whole is covered with plywood skin. Another interesting point is that a pilot-operated trimming tab is fitted to the port aileron only, transmission of trim load being taken through the aileron balance cable. The tailplane, which has a slight dihedral angle, is flush with the upper surface of the fuselage and is of conventional wooden construction. It is bolted to the rear fuselage struc ture with two single pin joints on the front tailplane spar and two adjustable links on the rear spar to facilitate ground adjustment of incidence. The two fins and rudders •are normal to the tailplane and are fitted about i8in. in board from the tips, extending above and below the tail- plane. The rudders have aerodynamic horn balances at top and bottom, with automatic balance tabs in the upper half of their trailing edges and pilot-operated trimming tabs immediately beneath. Construction is of spruce and ply wood ribs mounted on steel tubular spars with plywood outer skin. The fins have two spruce-and-ply spars with similar ribs and plywood covering. The elevators are made up of plywood and spruce ribs on a tubular metal spar with plywood covering, Each elevator has a large horn balance outboard of the fins and rudders, with a trimming tab on the port elevator and a balance tab on the starboard. ~$f The fuel supply is normally from four tanks, three of
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
