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Aviation History
1948
1948 - 0662.PDF
FLIGHT MAY 13TH, 1943 Beneficent Bigness Some Views on British and American Transport Trends By " COMPARATOR " RECE.NT polemics on the comparative merits of Britishand American airliners in the Correspondencecolumns of this journal arc teasing enough to war- rant further airing from the design viewpoint. If, occa- sionally, we ask our American friends to pass us the salt in order to swallow some of their purple publicity patches, it is equally in order that we face squarely the invigorating cold shower administered to British designers and the home aircraft industry by "Fact-Facer" in the issue of March 25th. In so doing we need not subscribe to such threadbare catchwords as "anti-British" or "British is best'—both of which rustic attitudes can have no objective interest what- ever to the scientifically trained en- gineer in search of fact and not patriotic fancy. Anyway, it is a well-known fact that the combination of salt and water is cleansing to the system, so we might as well take our medicine—after which we can talk back to the doctor with a clear (and maybe quizzical) twinkle in our eye. Elizabethan Tradition We will cheerfully, even enthusias- tically, join with "Fact-Facer" in his strictures of the Elizabethan mentality that still prevails in certain quarters of the home industry. The really hard nut to crack in this connection is that you cannot cure such ills—or, better still, prevent them in the future—unless the patient is in a mood to co-operate with the doctor (or priest) by freely confessing his manifold sins and wickedness. One of the fashion-plate examples that occurs to us off-hand is the long time it has taken to con- vince some of our diehard colleagues at home that the tail wheel is a pre-war -anachronism whose continued employment accurately reflects the state (and date) of the designer's mind. And the odd thing about this sort of illness is not the malady itself (which is easily cured), but the stubborn last-ditch insistence of the patient that his health is grand—if only everybody would leave him alone. In engineering, as in life, it's all a question of relativity, of course; in a world of the halt, sick and the blind, even the palsied may shimmy in blissful palpitation. Moreover—if we have thus far escaped the editorial blue- pencil—we will still further infuriate the "British is best" school by agreeing that the Lockheed Constellation is a very good aircraft, a handsome looker as well as a handsome performer. (The two qualities always go hand in hand, BRITISH constructors of civiltransport aircraft have had their share of criticism duringthe last year or so, some more than a fair share. While destructive criticism servesno useful purpose, and can do a lot of harm, there is much to be said forconstructive comparisons. In this article our contributor,while agreeing with some of the views expressed in recent Corres-pondence, takes up the cudgels on behalf of British designers in certaincategories. He certainly does not agree that the British positionis markedly inferior. On the contrary, in some directions it isthe reverse. for theyare obviously cause and effect.) But having cheer- fully admitted all these established facts, we must now part company with '' Fact-Facer,'' much as we admire his courage and long-view patriotism in voicing an unpopular viewpoint. It may well turn out that the proponents of American design supremacy "in respect of large landplane airliners'' may be wrong in a few conspicuous cases after all. Perhaps it hinges a great deal upon what we mean by the term "large" as understood at the moment. The interesting thing is that, whereas Britain has com- pletely '' missed the ship '' in the current four-engined class, it may (crossing our fingers) turn in a couple of winners at the top and bottom ends of the size-weight bracket. We refer, of course, to the Airspeed Ambassador and the Bristol Brabazon. (It is too early yet to prognosticate on the D.H. (106) Comet, still presumably on the draw- ing-board and last reported to have grown some tail feathers since its first tailless conception.) Now the Ambassador is already a fait accompli and will almost certainly sell itself in the 40-seater twin-engined class. And when we say that, we mean on a performance, price and operational basis against any other world competitor as known at this time. Its only two U.S. rivals are the Glenn Martin 2-0-2 and the Convair-liner, both of which are clearly inferior according to post-war engineering standards. Compare, for example, the fuselage and engine-cowl lines, and tht> skinning technique of the British job vis-a-vis the American. Apropos which, one of the aforesaid American aircraft designers is reported to have rubbed his hands over the Ambassadorial velvet, with the remark that '' he was glad his firm didn't have to compete with it on home terri- tory! " There are many other features, external and beneath the skin, that exhibit the more advanced thinking of at least one British design team. Furthermore, if the reported current price of the Ambassador is still around the £100,000 ($400,000) mark, it should have no difficulty in meeting its American contemporaries on a straight cost basis, since we understand that the latter are roughly in the sarne prj^e bracket. Happily, both "Fact-Facer" and this facUaft reporter apparently agree on this particular " !D let's have a look at the heavyweights at the other the field. table opposite shows the American side of the score-board—as" seen by the engineer. At first sight it looks quite an im- pressive score, with six . eggs already in the basket (or, rather, hatched and flown), as PRE-WAR AERODYNAMICS: Pullman-car fuselage lines, barnacled engine cowls and external flap-hinge brockets of the Martin 2-0-2 are retro- grade features for 1948. Nose- wheel leg geometry also looks doubtful. Ruilt-in hydraulic- ally-operated loading step at rear end and under-wing fuelling system are good features.
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