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Aviation History
1946
1946 - 0904.PDF
re». j-a«-i type ot movie-camera recording apparatus was developed by the Hawker Branch of the combine and a description was given inFlight of May 18th, 1944. In addition to the recorders A controller or eleven showing the balance plate, rubberisedfabric sealing material, and part of the spring unit. a battery of manometers is mounted in the observer's cock- pit, together with the usual flight instruments. Photo graphs of the glider show the position of the pitot comb carried well inboard behind the port trailing edge. The tricycle undercarriage of the glider is fixed and brakes are provided. The nose wheel is non-steerable and carries a non-shimmying Marstrand tyre. Armstrong Whitworth's chief designer, Mr. John Lloyd, had a number of good reasons for the choice of a glider as the small-scale experi- mental prototype of his various projected designs for jet-propelled flying-wing aircraft. Not only would the time taken to design and build a powered scale model have been greater, but the fitting of an engine or engines intro- duces extra weight and complication, and might be a probable cause of frequent un- The wood construc- serviceability. It also tion of ribs and.places a limit on the auxiliary centre- .,. T- ,. section nose spar are ceibng. From the aero- revea,ed ^ ^ dynamic point of view, photograph taken the slipstream from the during construction. airscrew 01 <* UCILLUI installation would upset the .airflowover the aerofoil surfaces, while a pusher installation would normally entail the use of an extension shaft for the air-screw and, what is perhaps more important, would make the pilot's chance of baling out successfully a very slenderone. Relatively little was, or even now is, known about the behaviour of flying-wing types at and near the stall, or in unusual attitudes, and in view of their sensitivity to trim and e.g. position, no test pilot can be blamed for a reluct- ance to experiment with extreme conditions when his chances in an emergency are so small. Because of this difficulty explosive blade-shedding airscrew hubs have been the subject of experiment in Germany. In construction the glider is quite conventional and with the exception of its Plymax skin is all of wood. A single box spar of spruce and ply supports the wing structure and in the central nose section a short auxiliary front spar is provided. The ribs are also of spruce and ply and the whole framework is covered with Plymax ply-light-alloy bonded sheet. Rigidity and an excellent finish have been achieved with the use of this product. The surface of the laminar-flow wing (basic N.A.C.A. 65, 3, o, 18) is smooth, and the profile variation with changes of humidity is only just appreciable. On conventional aircraft the large leverage of the tail-
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