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Aviation History
1946
1946 - 1671.PDF
AUGUST 29TH, 1946 FLIGHT Model-Makers9 Meeea Aircraft Prominent in 21st Exhibition : Wide Range of Design at the New Royal Horticultural Hall THE Model Engineer Exhibition which opened on August22nd in the New Royal Horticultural Hall at West-minster, London, S.W.i, is notable for two things. Itis the coming-of-age show, and its organization was shared for the first time by the Society of Model Aeronautical Engineersand the Society of Model and Experimental Engineers in addi- to the chief promoters, the proprietors of The Model ngineer. The exhibition closes next Saturday evening,August 31st. So far as Flight is concerned, the main interest naturally liesin the model aircraft exhibits which are prominent both for their numerical strength and for the general excellence of theirdesign and craftsmanship. Nevertheless, even the most ardent devotee of model aircraft could not walk round thespacious hall without having his attention constantly drawn from the winged exhibits by the astonishing variety of othermodels to be seen—models which range from minute electric motors no bigger than a thimble, via racing cars, speed-boats,sailing ships, traction engines, agricultural machinery, marine and stationary engines, and so on, to railway models varying insize from the natty little " oo " gauge to hefty scale jobs that could pull (and in one case actually was pulling) a trainload ofsome half-dozen adult passengers with ease. Altogether there were some 270 models entered in the variouscompetitions by enthusiasts aged from eight to seventy-three, BOBBED BOMBER: A iuturistic design for a taillessbomber with four engines, five gun-turrets, and fixed verti- cal fins beneath the outer wing panels. This bat-likeexhibit is not a flying model. SUBMERGED ENGINE : With a three-cylinder radial enginedriven by compressed air and housed within the nose, this flying model has retractable airscrew and single-wheel under-carriage. It is exhibited without its skin to show construc- tional details. besides those in the " loan " section, the collective exhibits by clubs and societies, and the trade section. „ The model aircraft in this (or any other) show can be dividedinto a number of different categories, namely, solid scale models such as are commonly used for identification instruction by theServices, flying models which are designed for performance without regard to very much else, flying scale models of full-sized aircraft, and, finally, purely experimental designs. In the first-mentioned category the most interesting examples arethose made entirely from match sticks. These are, of course, small enough to stand on the palm of a child's hand, but theyare perfect copies of well-known types, and nobody would know they were made from such unpromising material unless told|so; as demonstration* of their makers' patience and dexterity ey would be difficult to beat. Two Unusual Designs The flying models are almost all high-wing or shoulder-wingtypes, and include some particularly fine examples of the Wake- field Trophy type employing rubber-power, but most of theflying scale models are powered by miniature two-stroke engines of various capacities up to about 20 c.c. Experimentalistsamong model aircraft engineers are to-day chiefly interested in flying-wing and tailless designs, of which a number were ex-hibited, and one of the most outstanding from the point of view of originality is an ultra-modern tailless bomber, illustrated onthis page, with four engines and five power-operated gun- turrets. This suggested design embodies control surfaces on the upturned wing tips and at the roots of the trailing edge,plus small additional keel surfaces beneath the wings. Another original model shown here is ashoulder-wing type with twin fins and rudders, and powered by a three-cylinder radial, com-pressed-air engine housed within the streamlined nose and fed from a cylindrical air bottle in thefuselage. The airscrew blades are hinged at the trailing edge of the roots so that when the enginestops they automatically fold back along the nose to reduce drag and prolong the glide. The single-wheel undercarriage is also mechanically retracted after take-off by means of a small cylinder andplunger actuated by an air valve. Among the miniature i.e. engines intended formodel aircraft (practically all of which are single- cylinder two-strokes) is one exceptionally fascinat-ing seven-cylinder radial two-stroke in which the mixture is fed direct to the combustion chamberfrom a rotary blower mounted concentrically on the back of the crankcase and driven from themainshaft. This realistic-looking power-unit is so much larger than the largest of the conven-tional units that an airframe to suit it would surely be an outside in models. Finally there are some very well-finished model sailplaneswhich show that increasing attention is being paid by amateurs to this highly specialized branch of model aircraft engineering.No exhibition would be complete, of course, without its quota of working models, and the aircraft section in this excel-lent display competes very ably in this respect with the several railway systems seen in active operation. Almost in the centreof the hall is an arena where, in addition to a tethered " scale " Miles Magister flying round a pole by electrical power, ex-amples of the delicate microfilm indoor models are demon- strated in free flight. These fragile aircraft weigh but ^oz andtheir gossamer wings are so lightly loaded that, with their air- screws merely ticking over, they float at almost zero m.p.h. THE "OCEAN TIMES" REAPPEARS WITH the sailing of the R.M.S. Queen Elizabeth, theworld's largest liner, on her maiden voyage on October 16th, the publication of the Ocean Times will be resumed asthe official daily newspaper for Cunard White Star passengers. As in pre-war days, it will contain the latest news received byradio telegraphy each night throughout the voyage. The Ocean Times is the first to reappear of the newspapers which beforethe war were published at sea on a number of the larger vessels. It is published by Wireless Press Ltd., one of the AssociatedIlifTe Group, who also published the Anchor Line News, Canadian Pacific Gazette, Wireless News and Wireless Press,and it is fitting that the first post-war ocean newspaper should be on the finest achievement of British shipyards.
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