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Aviation History
1945
1945 - 0037.PDF
JANUARY 4TH, 1945 FLIGHT ABOUT AMPHIBIANS a perfect choice of alternative terminals in bad weather; and, most important of all, a marine aircraft probably requires more skill and experience than a landplane for its safe pilotage. • .- • The operation of flying-boats. was, and is a psycho- logically good thing where passengers are concerned. For some reason which I appreciate but cannot explain, a passenger feels more at home in an aircraft which operates from water and which will normally be flying over or near water in the course of its travels. Perhaps it is the commonly-held belief that water is less hard as a tumbling medium than land, and a boat hull is very solid in appearance and can be made very comfortable. We are, too, as a nation, boat-minded. Maybe the really immense flying-boat has a big future on the world's airlines, in this still somewhat rule-of- thumb and trial-aad-error world of aerodynamics I would be quite prepared to find that, when we reach the hundred- ton sizes, some very special advantages will be found. Perhaps the structure weight will, all in all, be lower; the large hull may be altogether more seaworthy and the shape conducive to drag-less progress ; perhaps even it will be found that undercarriages and tyres for these giants will be such a troublesome, expensive and weighty problem that it will be more sensible to try to do without these items. • * Knowing how the designers even .irfow grope darkly in the brave new world of great weights and very high speeds, anything is possible. I, for one, would like to see the boat come into its own. " INDICATOR!" From Fighter to Amphibian Republic Aviation Corporation's Postwar Four-seater ENGINEERS of the Republic Aviation Corporationhave found time from their work on military air-craft to get out a project for a small four-seater am- phibian for the post-war years. Their solution is interest- ing in view of what " Indicator " has to say about amphi- ,¥• Jbians in his "Topics" on this and the previous page. The machine is fairly orthodox so far as general layout is concerned, the pusher engine installation being one of the features. While there is no disputing the obvious advantages of the clear forward view thiis provided, there are two drawbacks which might prove fairly serious. The passengers in the back seats will have the engine rather deafeningly close to their heads, and the small-diameter airscrew might make unsticking a little difficult, especially with a power loading of some 15 lb. /h.p. It is stated that with slotted flaps the alighting speed is to be 50 m.p.h., and at the "hump speed" (usually somewhere around half of the take-off speed) airscrew efficiency is apt to be rather low, even if a four-blader is employed. The Republic amphibian will be of all-metal construc- tion, with the exception of the movable control surfaces, and vacuum-operated flaps are to be employed. The esti- mated figures are: Maximum speed, 120 m.p.h.; cruising, ^1105 m.p.h. Wing span, 36ft.; length, 26ft. 6in.; engine, 175 h.p. (probably Ranger); duration, 5 hours; gross weight, 2,600 lb. ; price, under 4,000 dollars. It appears open to doubt whether the gross weight of 2,6oo4i><. can be achieved with 5 hours' duration. Four passengers with luggage would weigh 800 lb., and 5 hours' fuel at erirising power another 300 lb., giving a disposable load of 1,100 lb. It seems unlikely that an all-metal The cabin of the Republic amphibian.Transparent plast.es give an excellent view. The sliding tube through the dash forelevator and aileron controls makes fortidiness in the cockpit. When retracted, the wheels tuck into wells in the sides of the hull. The smalldiameter of the pusher airscrew indicates need for a four-blader. amphibian tour-seater couid be Duutfor a tare weight (equipped) of 1,500 lb. One result of the pusher arrange-ment is that the cross-section of the hull just aft of the airscrew mustnecessarily be of small area. This will presumably mean extra weight inthe hull to ensure that the tail does not twist too much under the batter-ing it will receive from the slipstream from an airscrew placed only a fewfeet in front of it. The nearest equi- valent we have had in this countrywas the Shackleton-Lee Murray S.M.i, although that was not an am-phibian but a strut-braced parasol landplane. We believe some troublewas experienced in connection with that arrangement.
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