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Aviation History
1944
1944 - 2138.PDF
4i8 FLIGHT OCTOBER IQTH, 1944 " Indicator " Discusses Topics of the Day To-morrow's Light Aircraft—1 How Not to Spoil a Ship for a Ha'p'orth of Tar ; Points for the Designer to Watch : Catering for a More Critical Market : Details More Important Than Qeneral Design : The Dangers of "Building In" a Sense of False Security The First of Two Articles of Interest to Those Who are Considering the Light Aircraft Market of the Future) WHETHER or not I am right in my assumption that there can be no very marked increase in the num bers of aircraft which are privately owned after this war, there will certainly be quite a worthwhUg^HSarifeT" among hire firms and others for the various ty$f*> an<3 somej of the less busy manufacturers and tamg^-designers mighjl usefully devote a few minutes of thehf^aaily working tir to a consideration of what is likelyyto^be wanted. Manyj the pre-catastrophic types left a jlpreat deal to be desired and sometimes left a good de^f more to the imagina We must do better; and jfot,, please, in an Amej " aircraft for - the - million - make -J/t - as - much - a - private - cat - as - possible" m^ner. ...They rrw^stil be handleable aircraft inXvhich son^corr)fort^rn^st jj>tj|acri- ficed for more practica/considetjjRions. In my view, too rm/rh comfort and too gnat an atten tion to trivial furnishmgs in psychologically imsojmd. pilot, least of all IheJhalf-trained ama\eur, must be g^en a sense of false security behind his pretty bakelite/Qash- board, his flower vases and his ashtrays, or by season of the superlative comfo\t of his scientifically chjerfgned and upholstered seat. Nor Kjust aircraft be ma^in which the works are un-get-at-able"Xpr hiddeiu-fur ever beneath shining, cellulosed fairings. By all means let the air transport people disguise the somewhat cellophanic structure of the ordinary airship, and do everything in their power to give the passenger an idea of universal solidarity and safety in his air liner, but the amateur should be tactfully reminded at all times of the tenuousness of the structure which is fighting the spirit of Isaac Newton, and of the lethal speed at which he is travelling. Even in the world of cars, the more com fortable, quiet, and luxuriously solid a vehicle, the more it is potentially a source of danger both to the driver and to the other people on the road—unless, of course, the driver has put in many thousands of hours on or in less comfortable and speedy cars or motor cycles, and has a built-in sense of the insecurity of all things mobile. True Private Owners In a previous article I tried to explain why ownership is likely to be just as difficult and expensive as before (if it' is properly controlled—and controlled it must be), but the number of true private owners is, nevertheless, likely to increase slowly; the number of firms and others, who will at least try the experiment of owning a medium-sized air craft and employing a tame driver, must be greater than before (they can afford it!) ; and an infinitely larger num ber of male and female pilots will be ready and willing to hire any sort of flying machine by the hour, day or week from responsible and properly equipped aircraft-hire firms —or even from the manufacturers themselves if no such firms come to life So the market is there, and it only remain- to be decided what kind of machines will be wanted. Maybe the S.B.A C. will see to it, that, while healthy rivalry between firms is allowed to continue, there shall be no unnecessary and wasteful repetition of identical designs by different firms. I am not suggesting any dictatorial measures by the Big Three (or is it Four or Five?), who have never taken much of an interest in the amateur market anyway, but a friendly get-together among the smaller fry jiff-that there shall be enough and to spare for all, and irevent the anomaly of a dozen firms all making the Tme sort of type in small, uneconomical numbers, [here should be an ample number of types to keep every one nusy and happy—from the open single-seater to the twin-engined "commuting ship"—and I am not going to maketmuch of an attempt to grade them while the future- is still s(J much in doubt. Aviation fuel may be impossibly "^expensitfe, thus encouraging the development of the low- powerep, lightly-loaded, mujji'seater, or the equally low^" powerwl but heavily-loadedsporting device for the people who Are happy to travel around with a tooth-brush as Iug8&ge m an aircraft into which they must be fitted with aymoe-hom. Again, inter-Continental travel may be prac- ifcally barred, for political reasons, to anyone not" travelling by public transport, and the short-range aircraft may be the only worthwhile proposition until all the inter-party and inter-tribal bumpings-ofi have died down in Europe. At this stage in the proceedings it is obviously impossible to know anything much about the more immediate future. Design Latitude At the moment, the medium-range, medium-perform ance, two-three-seater seems to be the safest bet for imme diate design and eventual production as soon as supply and other considerations permit. Heaven knows there is ample latitude here even for the enthusiastic designer. He can fit it with two tiny engines—to give a doubtful sense of added safety—or with one larger engine ; he can make it a conventional tractor, or a not-so-conventional, but very pleasant pusher type; he can stick on a tricycle undercarriage and make it retractable at great cost and—- weight, or, he can put on a conventional undercarriage and fair it ingeniously. In fact, he can proceed along a number of equally interesting and ingenious lines. But I suggest that he will stick to the more or less ordinary layout while his test pilots play with other <* arrangements for possible future production. My personal preference is for a tricycle pusher, but, as a potential pur chaser, I should undoubtedly wait until the layout had been proved. Not that I have any qualms about tricycles, or about the idea of having a heavy engine poised at the— back of my neck; uncomfortable experiences in this war have proved to my personal satisfaction that an apparently fragile front wheel will take the most enormous punish ment, and that the sort of deceleration which will dislodge an engine and fling it on the back of one's neck is likely to be lethal anyway, with or without the coup de grdce administered by a hot and oily mass of metal. While in this ghoulish mood, it must be admitted that, even when the engine is originally in front, it very rarely remains in that position after a bad crash. After all, we are dealing—-'" with the sort of aircraft in which a forced landing, due to bad weather or.engine failure, is likely to be pulled off with reasonable success and, at the worst, with a low bump-force. t From time to time during the last five years I have driven most of the light aircraft over which I was inclined to be enthusiastic in the days of peace, and almost without exception they have proved to be a grievous disappoint ment in different ways. Not, of course, in the matter of performance generally, despite the effect on one's system
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