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Aviation History
1944
1944 - 1114.PDF
58o FLIGHT JUNE IST, 1944 POWER PLANT- PAST AND FUTURE fully realised, and considerable progress was made in the drawing-up of material specifica tions and standards; in fact, aircraft-engine manufacture grew up from being the specialised province oi the experimenter into a national precision industry. When reviewing the many experimental designs produced later between the two wars it is interesting to recall the project work of the engine design staff at Farnborough, during the years 19^4-16, when this Group laid out many new types which eventually saw the light of day in practical form. The student of history who is interested in the narrative of British power plant should not fail to read Volume VI of "The Official His tory of the War in the Air," in which the author so frankly discusses the problems of' the Air Board in obtaining the requisite number of aircraft engines to meet our needs in various theatres of war; interesting com parisons between the two wars come to light, particularly in regard to putting engines into series pro duction before they are ready. The end of the last war saw all the major belligerents with firmly established aircraft-engine industries, well set up development facilities, and a large production potential due to the fact that the output in engines had increased more than three times over the period of the war. At the end of the war the unfavourable commercial cut- look resulting from a general desire for disarmament led the majority of the large industrial undertakings which had entered the wartime production field to revert to their pre-war activities and abandon aircraft-engine work altogether during the period 1019-25. Even so, the few survivors had a hard struggle to keep going in this country. This was unfortunate for the advancement of technical progress. For instance, the British industry was in a virile state, and a number of interesting large engines of high power were under development during the first few years following the war but were later abandoned. We must take a lesson from this and make sure that the tech nical development which is in hand to-day, and which is so important to the future of British aviation, does not meet with a similar fate. The position in France was rather less acute than in this This engine, the 400 h.p. Liberty, was developed by a group of American motor manufacturers, but was not ready in quantity until the Armistice in 1918. country, for she had not yet fallen on evil days and had a considerable engine production. Italy continued develop ing engines, while in accordance with the terms of the Peace Treaty, Germany was debarred from making aircraft engines. On the other side of the Atlantic United States manufacturers dropped engine production almost en- A The immortal Rolls-Royce " R " engine developed for the Schneider Trophy contests which it won outright. It developed 2,300 h.p. for a specific weight of 0.71 lb./b.h.p. This figure has never yet been equalled. tirely, with the notable exception of the Curtiss Group. The hardest years for the aircraft-engine industry in all countries were between 1919 and 1925, for military require ments were small, and despite a great deal of enthusiastic pioneer work, civil aviation had not assumed sufficiently large proportions to produce any business for the aircraft- engine constructor. By 1926, however, there were signs of a revival of in terest 'in aviation throughout the world, and this helped engine de velopment. This beautifully clean unit is the 2,800 h.p. Fiat dou ble engine of 1931. It drove contra-rotating airscrews and obtained the world's speed recds4 at that date.
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