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Aviation History
1945
1945 - 2061.PDF
420 FLIGHT OCTOBER I5TH, 1945 The Bristol Buckma§ter First High-powered Twin-engined Advanced Trainer in the World i Five Thousand H.P., 33,7001b. Qross Weight A TRAINER with 5,000 h.p. available from its twoengines, and with a speed of more than 350 m.p.h.,sounds at first somewhat fantastic. Yet that is the basis of the Bristol Buckmaster, a picture of which we published recently. The machine is, it goes without say- ing, an advanced trainer, and the reason for its existence is that it was found during the war that lives and aircraft were lost because of the large gap between the standard elementary trainers and the operational types of aircraft. In the case of the Beaufighter, for example, the instructor has had to stand behind the pupil, a position which gave him little opportunity to correct mistakes in an emergency. In preparation for newer and even more powerful opera- tional types ,(Beaufighter replacements, for instance), it became necessary to have an advanced trainer with the flying and handling characteristics of the replacement air- craft, and the Buckmaster is the result. With its two Bristol Centaurus engines, each developing more than 2,500 h.p., the Buckmaster has a top speed of 352 m.p.h. at 12,000ft., a maximum weak-mixture cruising speed of 325 m.p.h. at 18,oooft., an initial rate of climb of 2,245 ft. /min., and a service ceiling of 30,000ft. These figures give some idea of degree to which this trainer simulates the characteristics of opera- tional types of aircraft. Its size is also such as to represent adequately any high-performance machine, and even the gap between it and the '' heavies '' is relatively smaller than that which existed between the orig- inal trainers and the contemporary operational types. With a span of 71ft. ioin., a length of 46ft. 5in., and a height over the rudder of 17ft. 5m., the all-up weight is 33,7001b. In its general design, the Buck- master is a mid-wing all-metal mono- plane of quite orthodox layout. The Centaurus engines are fitted with Townend rings to reduce drag, and an interesting fact is that cooling is assisted by a fan behind the airscrew spinner, the degree of cooling being, of course, controlled in the usual way by electrically operated gills at the rear end of the cowling. The engines drive four- bladed Rotol airscrews. Dual Controls The Buckmaster is equipped for training purposes as a three-seater. The cockpit, forward of the wings, has the pupil's seat on the port side, the instructor's to starboard. The latter has, in •addition to the flying controls, a dual set of controls for the operation of undercarriage, flaps, brakes, airscrew speeds and feathering, and engine throttles. The flying controls are of the Saunders type, with tubes operating in push-pull and torsion. The wireless operator's station is between the wing-root spars, his equipment being grouped mainly on the port side of the fuselage. Other equipment includes blind-flying instruments, sea markers, G.45 camera gun, signal pistol and cartridges, signalling lamp and dinghy. With a view to making the Buckmaster suitable for, among other things, navigational train- ing, a very ample fuel tankage giving long range has been provided with a total of six tanks, two in each inner and one in each outer wing. A cross- feed pipe enables fuel to be supplied io either engine from any pre-selected tank. An electrically driven booster (pulsometer) pressure pump is fitted on the underside of each tank and en^' sures the supply to the carburettor via the engine-driven pumps The tanks are of the non-metallic, self-sealing type. ' The undercarriage is of the Dowty levered suspension type, with Dunlop wheels, brakes and tyres. The tail wheel, also of the levered suspension type, has a self-centring device to en- sure that it lies fore-and-aft when
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