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Aviation History
1946
1946 - 0620.PDF
FLIGHT MARCH 28TH, 1946 DESIGN FOR COMFORT the British cause in the international aviation lists justifies the observations. As an aircraft the Tudor II is a first- class effort. The structure is just about as simple as it is possible to make it, and production will 'probably be easier than that of any previous Avro machine With so great a keel surface area forward of' the wings, something rather rnastodonic in the way of fin and rudder area has to be provided to cope with directional stability and control, especially for the asymmetric case, which is causing so much hair-tearing despondency among designers generally. Briefly, thi% is an internationally agreed requirement which stipulates that, at take-off, the aircraft should be capable of full . directional control when an outboard engine fails under the most adversely critical conditions. Obviously, when some 2,000-odd h.p., belting away well out along the wing, suddenly cuts out, the out-of-balance moment result- ing is pretty powerful, and it is a stiff qualification to be able, by rudder alone, to hold the machine from swinging wildly whilst coping with the throttles, feathering the dead airscrew, retrimming and doing the other too numerous things necessary in such unhappy circumstances. Large fin and rudder areas give a high degree of directional stability, but consonantly increase the difficulty of attaining full rudder control by manual means alone. In fact, with really large rudder areas, manual means are insufficient, and some form of TUDOR II DATA GENERAL PARTICULARS Four Rolls-Royce Merlin I02A engines of 1,770 b.h.p. driving de Havilland Hydromatic four-blade airscrews of 12ft 6in diameter. Wing area... 1,421 sq. ft. Aspect ratio ... 10.13 Dihedral (outer panels) 4 deg. Incidence .. . ... ... ... ... ... . 4 deg. Aerofoil N.A.C.A. 23,000 modified. T/C Ratio' Root chord Tailplane span Tail surfaces aerofoil Max. all-up weight Max. landing weight Wing loading /root '(.tip /"At 77,000 Ib W 18 per cent. .. 9 per cent. 16ft. 43ft. R.A.F. 27 77.000 1b. .. 70,0001b. 54.2 Ib/ sq. ft. Span loadings Max. power ... ... Max. W.M. cruising power Power loading at 77,000 Ib at 67,000 Ib Max. speed... Max. W.M. cruising speed Take-off at 77,000 Ib (ground run) Distance to clear 50ft from rest Landing run at 70,000 Ib ... Normal tankage Max. installed tankage .. Max. normal range Max. possible range Payload for max. normal range ..." Max. useful length of fuselage ... Max. fuselage diameter ... Max. internal bc»m Useful fuselagejloor area Useful volume At 67 000 Ib ~ - 5.35 Ib/sq. «t. —- = 642 Ib/ft.b ~n - 4.65 Ib/sq. ft. W b1,770 b.h.p. engine 558 Ib/ft. 1,130 b.h p./engine 7,080 b.h.p. 4,520 b.h.p. 10.87 Ib/b.h.p. 9.46 Ib/b.h.p. 325 m.p.h. at 20,500ft. 287 m.p.h. at 22,500ft. 860 yd. 1,480yd. 850 yd. 2,420 Imp. ga!. 3,300 Imp. gal. 2,950 miles.4,100 miles. 7,l5aib. 86ft lOin. llftOin. IOft4in. 574 sq.ft. 4,020 cu. ft. *G-Passenger Version— 1,850 miles rang? at 233 m.p.h. at 20,000ft Id-Seat 20 Berth Version— 2,450 miles range at 230 m.p.h. at 20,000ft. This illustrates the type of interior withwhich the author is at variance. The serried ranks of seats, small windows andlengthy curved roof all contribute to the repellent " packed - in - a - tube '' feeling. servo assistance must be provided; spring servo tabs— good as some of them are—must be regarded as something of an interim measure, and there is no doubt whatever that power servo systems, electric or hydraulic, will eventually become accepted practice for large and high-speed aircraft. The fuselage of the Tudor II is pressurized for a differ- ential of 5Jib. /sq. in., and the basic layout of the system is very similar to that given a detailed description in the January 31st, 1946, issue of Flight. The smaller Tudor has an almost identical system, the chief difference being that, in the Tudor II, the main air supply to the cabin is carried in a central trunk in the roof enclosing two ducts. Each of these has branch pipes feeding to the cavities formed by inner and outer skins and the fuselage frames. One duct is supplied with fresh air and the other with clean recircu- lated air, alternate cavities being supplied by each. Grilles at floor and upper-berth level admit the air to the cabin, this having an out-flow to toilets, galley, etc., whence it is ducted overboard; the major part of the cabin atmosphere —about two-thirds—is, however, recirculated. When dealing previously in Flight with pressurization and cabin atmosphere conditioning, the point has always been stressed that humidifying equipment must be incor- porated. Flying at altitudes of the order of 25,000ft., even in temperate climes, the moisture content of the atmo- sphere is very low, and air entrained and heated for supply to the cabin will have a further reduction of relative humi- dity, bringing it down to a maximum of somewhere about 5 per cent. The acceptable humidity range for comfort is 30 to 70 per cent., with 50 per cent, as ideal, so it is readily appreciable that passengers flying at 20,000 to 25,000ft. without humidifying equipment will find themselves suffer- ing from sore throats and experiencing a discomforting dry- ness of skin. Drinks carried on board will give partial alleviation, but liquids are heavy and, as such, are un- economic. Humidifying equipment is being developed by at least two concerns in this country, and it is to be hoped that a suitable installation will be available when the air- craft requiring it are put into service. To sum up, one can say without reservation that with the Tudor II A. V. Roe and Co. have given us an aircraft which undoubtedly will be a worthy upholder, in the civil field, of the magnificent operational precedent established by the Lancaster in the military sphere. But the present position and future outlook of British civil aviation is not so hopeful that there can be the slightest justification for operators not giving to interior arrangement something of the design quality put into the aircraft as aircraft. 105" <f -
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