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Aviation History
1944
1944 - 1697.PDF
AUGUST I7TH, 1944 FLIGHT 179 against the wall, are ship-type cabinets and crockery racks which hold their contents secure even during violent motion. Running athwartships against the rear wall is the stainless steel sink and draining board, the sink being served by press-down-lever type taps. Over the draining board is a flap serving a refuse chute to a bin on the rear side of the wall, and above the chute is an extractor fan. Above the sink is mounted an urn for boiling water, and to port of it is a "Metafilter" filter for producing drinking water. To port, forward, is the refrigerator, aft of which is a folding and very com fortable rest chair for the steward.. Access between kitchen and the luggage compartment aft is by a doorway, on the starboard side of which is a general-purpose folding ladder (which can give access to the after ditching hatch in the roof of the rear cabin) and also the main entry ladder. Each of these ladders is made of light alloy tube, the main entry ladder having a hand-rail and flat, folding treads for greater ease of use. Oxygen System A loading hatch about three feet square is in the port (^iviselage wall, and baggage is disposed to starboard on racks fitted with lashing straps. On each side, aft, are racks for three valise-pack dinghies which supplement the dinghy carried in the wing. Dip-sticks for fuel tanks are stowed in clips on the starboard wall. In the rear wall of the baggage compartment a doorway gives access to space aft in which are disposed the de-icing fluid reservoir, on the starboard wall, and beneath it the electric pump for wing and tail unit de-icing. Against the rear bulkhead is a box rack for general maintenance equipment, viz., engine covers, wheel covers, etc., and above this is sus pended the D.R. master compass. On each side of the doorway in the forward wall is mounted a crate, each crate .containing 15 oxygen bottles. These are standard fittings and, with a further crate of 15 bottles housed beneath the navigator's floor in the crew compartment, provide the main supply of oxygen for every person aboard. The supply of oxygen is made avail able to each cabin through the standard type of reducing and metering device that is used throughout the R.A.F., but the crew have their own control which is quite separate from the passengers'. In addition to the main oxygen system, which serves each passenger through individual plug-in points at each seat station, a series of portable bottles is carried to enable the steward and flight crew to move about, or, if required, is available for passengers also. Oxygen plugs are fitted in each toilet room, but not in the wardrobe. Oxygen masks and Mae Wests are carried in small bags fitted beneath each passenger chair. 1 Interior Finish The interior of the passenger cabins is lined in leather, behind which is a cellular sound-proofing composition, rather like a soft spongy cardboard, stuck with Bostick to the metal fuselage skin in the interstices of stringers and formers. The floors are covered with linoleum which in turn is covered by fitted carpets. Despite the fact that it could, sometimes, look cold, the interior decoration of the York is very pleasing in its dual shades of grey and a smoky blue. Heavy curtains can be drawn across the circular windows effectively to black them out, and the "night" effect, with curtains drawn and lights softly glowing, is very restful, providing an atmosphere of genuine luxury and ease of travel. The passenger accom modation is a result of close co-operation between Avro's and Rumbold. Structurally the .York fuselage is a simple, straight forward piece of work. As mentioned previously, con struction is largely pre-fabricated, the skin being broken down into small panels, riveted in fixtures to the top-hat- w section stringers which are in turn attached, also in fix tures, to the formers. Normal formers are of lipped- channel section, but members known as " transport" formers are placed where major fuselage sections are joined. The transport formers are L-section extruded components. and section is joined to section with high-tensile steel bolts. Ordinary lipped-channel formers run down to beams of similar but deeper section which, fitted with capping strips, support the fuselage floor. To provide increased torsional stiffness, four spine members of I-beam section run fore-and-aft beneath the floor. The floor proper is of multi-ply-wood and is secured to the transverse beams (at former stations) with screws and floating anchor nuts. Wing Structure The 102ft. span wing of the York (and Lancaster) has a rectangular centre-section plan with almost uniformly tapered outer panels, there being the most taper on the leading edge. The aerofoil is the standard N.A.C.A. 23000, the plan taper giving an 18 per cent, thickness/ chord root ratio and a 9 per cent, thickness/chord tip ratio. Wing incidence is 4 deg., and outer panel dihedral 7 deg. The centfe-section structure is simple and sturdy, the front and rear spars of sheet web and channel flange con struction being tied by Warren-girder type ribs. Both spars are similar, the solid sheet web having extruded channels bolted along top and bottom edges on the inside These channels are attached to the spar web through their base so that the spar section proper would appear as a shallow channel with double sides. Spar construction is identical in the outer wing panels to that in the centre section, although naturally the spars taper towards the tip. Ribs in the outer panels have pressed-sheet webs and L-section flanges, with vertical channel strips for stiffen ing, and between these stiffeners are flanged lightening holes. The centre-section leading edges are separate units, hinged along the top flange of the front spar in order to give access to the leads and equipment which are carried on the front face of the spar. For the rest of the wing, skinning is of the normal stressed type construction on stringers which are riveted to the ribs. Control Balance and Response Each aileron is fitted with a servo-trim tab and an adjustable balance tab, the range and response to trim being excellent; whilst the stick forces can be dismissed as purely nominal throughout full aileron travel even when operated to the full extent at high speed. Apart from the addition of a central fin, the York tail unit is virtually the same as the Lancaster's. The central fin was found desirable on the York as a means of providing increased vertical area at the tail to compensate the large keel surface forward of the e.g. and so retain the same directional stability which is characteristic of the Lan caster. Actually, the central fin is slightly shorter than the outward fins and ruaders, although the discrepancy is not readily apparent. Rudder control is beautifully balanced and responsive, the proportioning of servo tabs and aerodynamic horn balances in relation to rudder area producing a hinge moment which is nearly constant over the whole range ol movement. Rudder servo-tabs are at elevator level and are fitted with small mass balances on 6in. arms on each side. The aerodynamic horn balance on each rudder is at the bottom, but fair-sized mass balances are carried on 15m. arms about 2ft. below the top of the rudder on each side. Elevators each have servo and balance tabs, and here again the control response and stick forces are all one could wish. Construction of the tailplane, fins and rudders is quite conventional, being the normal stressed-skin on stringers attached to pressed sheet ribs. The tailplane is similar in some respects to the wing, in that it is a two- spar structure with similar rib arrangement; but the fin is built up with three spars or posts of channel section to which the ribs and skin are attached. The elevator struc ture, however, is unlike the other control surfaces in that it is built up almost entirely from welded steel tube. The ribs are of jin. O/D 26 s.w.g. tube made up as a modi fied Warren-girder bracing inside the aerofoil contour, and
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