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Aviation History
1945
1945 - 1605.PDF
170 FLIGHT AUGUST IOTH, I945 tion arrangements. Of the Griffon-engined marks, the first to appear was the XII—a low-level fighter with clipped wings It has a four-bladed airscrew. Then there is the XIV, chaiacterised by a five-blader and a long nose to accommodate the two-stage, two-speed blower and inter- cooler of the Griffon 65 So much for the history and development lesson One's first impiession on lowering oneself into the cock- pit of a Fourteen is that the layout, though still similar to that on earlier marks, has been more seriously '' organised '' to deal with all the extras which have been piled on to the Spit- fire during the war. For in- FLYING THE (CONTI SPITFIRE NUED) XIV j]timei-cstance, the radiator flap and automatic bltwer-change test buttons, with the oil dilution button, lie alongside the fuel booster pump, navigation light and other switches in a neat row on the left, but, in such a comparatively small space, the impression of " busy-ness " must still necessarily remain with the installation of such items as gyro gun-sights and large-capacity priming pumps. It is only remarkable that everything can be found, and even seen with-the naked eye, when so much must be confined in such a small space. Throttle Control ' The next impression follows the reflex movement of one's left hand to grasp the throttle. This is of large pro- portions and with a relatively lengthy travel^ the reason for this apparently disproportionate size is cle^fT enough dur- ing the running up process and, even more so, during the take-off. With the earlier type of throttle, and particularly with cropped-blower Fives, the throttle movement to take- off boost was on the short side. This would never do in an aircraft with a critical run-up maximum and with such powerful torque effects during the later stages of the take- off. But a small fortune in Koffman cartridges must have been wasted by newcomers who did not realise that the throttle should be set lor starting some two inches along the quadrant. Starting, as a matter of interest, is a first- time affair, hot and cold, to the pilot who knows his Four- teen and is prepared to be really generous with his throttle, both before and after releasing the eut-qtft. Few aircraft are blessed with such a simple take-off "drill" as the Spitfire. " Trim, flaps, fuel and air- screw '' cover the essen- tials, and, with auto- matic inter-corihected c.s. controls, even the last can be safely for- gotten, while no one could be so blind as to leave the flaps down after ground-test since, from the very early days, there have been mechanical flap indica- tors to make a virtue of a mechanical necessity The mixture, of course, is fully automatic with the Bendix-Stromberg carburettor, the radia- tor gills are automatic- ally operated, and there is no real need of the fuel booster pump's ; assistance in normal/* -onditions. "T for The closely cowled Rolls - Royce Griffon engine on the Spitfire XIV and its five-bladed Rotol airscrew. Trim" is, however, of moderate importance, particularly as, in contrast to the Merlins, the Griffon swings the air- craft to starboard somewhat smartly during the earlier stages of take-off. So the order of the day is fulj port bias and", to remove all possibility of touching the airscrew tips, neutral or very slightly nose-heavy elevators. And this is where the big throttle movement is thoroughly appreciated. Provided that the throttle is opened with reasonable circumspection and that the left foot is ready to exert plenty of initial pressure —assisted by a servo tab on the rudder—there is no reason at all why the Fourteen should deviate in the slightest from its take-oft course, and, once the boost is well up and the outfit: under full sail, the tendency to swing is unnoticeable In fact, after a smooth opening up to, say, zero boost, almost any further- supply of power can be fed to the Griffon without personal hardship. The only reason for limiting the boost before becoming airborne is to save • precious tyre rubber. Since, by virtue of torque reaction, the Fourteen, while taking off, is certainly not going where it is pointing and something, therefore, must be giving way when one can be looking over the starboard side down a clear runway while the beautifully cowled nose may be heading quite u few degrees to port. Obviously the tyres are balancing the difference, and it behoves one to use as little boost as is necessary so that this difference may be small. Boost and Climb' I have no available figures (even if these could be pub lished), but 1 would say that the Fourteen, in spite of its greater all-up weight, clambers skywards at its rated boost of 9 lb. as fast as the Nine does at its rated 12 lb.—and there is always a further 9 lb. in reserve for reasonably short periods. Fighter climbing rates have become so preposter ous nowadays that the figures are beginning to look like those for national debts. It will be sufficient, to say that, at the' recommendgd»-«illnT)llig->iiposts and speeds of modern fighters, mps4r*bf one's weight ap^grs to be taken on the back o£s"tfie seat! While weaving tbstuously through the dangerous maze ot unpublishabkTfigures^Sye might endea
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