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Aviation History
1947
1947 - 1415.PDF
and AIRCRAFT ENGINEER Editorial Director G. GEOFFREY SMITH, M.B.E. Editor • -CM. POULSEN Assistant Editor • MAURICE A. SMITH, D.F.C (W/NG COR., R.A.F.V.R.) Aft Editor - - JOHN YOXALL FIRST AERONAUTICAL WEEKLY IN THE WORLD .• FOUNDED WOO Editorial, Advertising and Publishing Offices: DORSET HOUSE, STAMFORD STREET, LONDON, S.E. Telegram: : Flightprel, Sedist, London. Telephone : Waterloo 3333 (50 lines.) COVENTRY: 6-10, CORPORATION ST. BIRMINGHAM, 2: MANCHESTER, 3 : GLASGOW. C.2 : *' N G^ E D WAR D^ HO^USE, 260. DEANSGATE. 26B, RENFIELD ST. Telegrams: Autocar, Coventry. Telegrams: Autopress, Birmingham! Telegrams: Htffe, Manchester. Telegrams : Miffe, Glasgow. Telephone: Coventry 5210. Telephone: Midland 7191 (7 lines). Telephone: Blackfriars +412. Telephone: Central 4857 No. 2018. Vol. Lll. SUBSCRIPTION RATES : Home and Abroad : Year, £3 10 6 months, £1 10 6. Registered at the G.P.O. as a Newspaper - August 28th, 1947 ^Ihe Outlook Thursdays, One Shilling. To Start You ThinkingD ELIBERATELY provocative is the article which we publish this week on new layouts for what Sir Roy Fedden calls an executive aircraft. Sir Roy, as is but natural in the circumstances, approaches the problems from the engine designer's rather than from the aircraft designer's point of view, and we have no doubt that some of the latter will disagree with him. Nevertheless, the article gives much food for thought, and even if the schemes outlined may appear somewhat ambitious, especially in the matter of elapsed time before they could be brought to fruition, there is no denying the fact that there would be many advantages in the tail- propeller layout, not least among which the clean aero- dynamic form and the excellent view from the cabin. The schemes recommended are not, of course, new, nor does Sir Roy claim them to be. The very first air- craft incorporating this feature was the Paulhan-Tatin "Torpille" of about 1911, exhibited at the Paris Aero Show. That was quite a small single-seater machine with a wing span of 30ft and an empty weight of 770 lb. The engine was a 50 h.p. Gnome rotary, housed inside ^f fuselage on the centre of gravity and cooled by a: Rmewhat primitive arrangement of louvres. The pilot sat in front of the wing. The "Torpedo" was not a success, but that may well have been due to causes other than the tail propeller. That it was 1'clean" aero- dynamically was obvious to the eye ; it was also con- firmed by M. Eiffel's wind-tunnel model tests. In more recent times we have had the Douglas Mix- master and its smaller version, the Cloudster, incorporat- ing more modern ideas, but otherwise basically similar to the 1911 design, which, as a matter of fact, would not look particularly "dated" at the present time except for its curved wire-braced wing and its two-wheeled undercarriage. Quite recently we have in this country the little Planet Satellite, to which a reference is made in this issue. That machine incorporates other unusual features, notably magnesium construction. That the aerodynamic gain to be expected from fuse- lage-housed twin engines would have to be paid for in other ways is to be assumed. For instance, the fact that all the weight v concentrated in the fuselage would pre- sumably increase the specific weight of the wings. With wing-mounted engines, the weight of the power plants is a relieving load. The transmission shafts and gears would add a certain amount of weight. The passengers might find the close proximity to the engines rather noisy, and there might be a good deal of vibration. A certain amount of lift would be lost by the absence of slipstreams over the wings. There are many interesting aspects deserving of study, and we hope Sir Roy's article will start our readers thinking—and writing. Home OrdersW HILE work proceeds on certain modifications ot the first prototype Ambassador, and on the building of the second, there is naturally a good deal of speculation concerning the fate of.this very in- teresting and promising type. Being a private venture, the design and construction ot the Ambassador have not shared the benefits which accrue from Government- sponsored orders, and in these difficult times no firm can be expected indefinitely to finance a long-term policy entirely out of its own resources. In an Airspeed progress report, a summary of which we publish this week, the position is made quite clear. Although potential foreign and overseas purchasers have shown much interest in this machine, its produc- tion in quantities may be doubtful unless home orders are forthcoming. Should that happen, a very valuable export market would be lost, and that at a time when, we are told, either we export or we go under. A perusal of the data for subsequent machines shows
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