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Aviation History
1946
1946 - 0893.PDF
MAY 9TH, 1946 FLIGHT 459 Percival Merganser New FeederAine Project : Qenerous Interior Dimen- sions : AlUmetal Construction WHEN designing small andmedium-sized transport air-craft there is usually a ten- dency merely to scale down the aircraft size as a whole, so that it becomes, virtually, a nicely proportioned replica of larger types. Often this has resulted in a certain lack of roominess for the passengers, who may be comfortable enough when installed in their seats, but who may find some difficulty in moving about. Fortunately, the feeder-line type of aircraft is not usually in the air continuously for more than an hour or two, and the lack of space should not be noticed ; in any case, really ample fuselage size must usually be paid for in performance. Consequently a designer can hardly be blamed for attempting to give only bare necessi- ties in internal volume. A reversal of this scaling-down policy can be seen in the design of the Percival Merganser, on the prototype of which work has recently started. In this machine every effort has been made to give both passengers and crew the degree of headroom which is common only in much larger air- craft. One's first impression on entering the mock-up of the Merganser is that this spaciousness is almost excessive, but after a few moments one realizes that it is excessive only in comparison with other types of the same class. Lengths and breadths, given in figures, are not usually very expressive, and it is perhaps better to say that the interior permits a six-foot passen- ger to stand upright and to move about comfortably. Furthermore, it will not be necessary for the crew to contort themselves in reaching their stations, since, even in the cockpit, there is more than ample vertical space. This depth in the control cabin also permits the use of comfortably deep screens and of useful transparencies in the roof. For the benefit of those interested, the dimensions of the passenger cabin are 6ft by 5ft 6in, with 55 cu ft of space for each person. Unlike previous Percival machines, the Merganser will be of straightforward all-metal stressed- skin construction. The layout is high-wing, with a tricycle under- carriage in which considerable in- genuity has been shown in the method of retracting the necessarily long main legs. The engines— which will be removable, with oil tanks and coolers, as units—are D.H. Gipsy Queen 51s of 296 b.h.p., and these will be mounted on simple alloy beams, each with only one radius support. The fuel 7 (105 gallons) will be carried in four crash-proof tanks arranged inboard and outboard of the engine mountings. There will be no centre-section as such, the two-spar wings being attached directly to the fuselage, each spar root having lugs which provide a four-point attachment. Leading and trailing edge portions and the wings tips are separate units. The fuselage is conventionally con- structed of frames and stringers, with a light alloy skin. It is made in three sections, with joints at the rear of the pilots' cabin and of the passengers' cabin respectively. Since the floor has been designed .to take concentrated freight loads, this should also be amply strong to deal with any possible belly landing incident. Split flaps are used and both these and the undercarriage will be operated , by pneumatic rams from the air supply. In normal form the Merganser will carry a pilot, five fengers and 300 lb of luggage. This luggage or freight allowance is high, and the cubic capacity of the standard baggage compartment, which is immedi- ately behind the cockpit, is of a shape and size which will permit the loading and stowing of bulky packages. The capacity of this compartment is 110 cu ft, and there is 22 sq ft of floor space. There is a large outside door, opening up- wards and outwards on the port side of this freight compartment, and the passengers' door, on the same side of the aircraft, opens in halves to provide additional entry area for freighter and ambulance work. When being flown as a pas- senger aircraft the rear portion of this door will remain locked, but the door space is still 5ft long by 2ft 3in. Stressing the fuselage to deal with t"he very considerable entry area must have presented an interesting problem. The bulkhead between the pas- senger and freight compartments may, when necessary and between trips, be repositioned farther aft so that, after two of the five seats have been removed, the aircraft becomes a passenger-freighter. The windows are large, and the fact that the Merganser is a high-wing type should be appreciated, par- ticularly by passengers travelling on Some idea of the amount of headroom to beprovided for the passengers in the Merganser can be obtained from this sketch of the interior of the mock-up.
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