FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1948
1948 - 0994.PDF
16 FLIGHT July ist, 1948 BALLIOL . . . . into three sections, viz., front fuselage, rear fuselage and tailcone. The front fuselage is built up around four box- cum-top hat section longerons, spaced approximately at 90, 120, 150 and 180 deg. and complemented by semi- longeron members at 60 and 300 deg. in the shape of heavy extrusions which also form the rails for the sliding canopy. Between these rail / longerons and the side longerons at floor level are sub-frames, and also acting as major ties in the structure are the very robust built-up box-section arches forming the front-screen trailing-edge member and the crash-arch between the front and rear seats. A third major structural member in the upper portion of the front fuselage takes the form of a " horseshoe '' frame canted back at about 40 deg. to the horizontal and running up from floor level to the top of the turtle-deck at the rear of the after canopy. This frame is built up with angle booms and a plate web. The whole of the canopy is con- structed as separate sub-assemblies fabricated in relatively heavy gauge light-alloy sections. In his article published in our last week's issue, Wing Cdr. Maurice Smith paid tribute to the roominess and comfort of the cockpit, and, without dilating too much on this aspect of the aircraft, the neatness which charac- terizes the general arrangement and the manner in which everything comes readily to hand is most commendable. Artificial blind-flying conditions by the use of amber-tinted detail of starboard-wing split-flap show- ing the simplt and robust construction. screens (with the pupil wearing blue-tinted goggles) is the modern equivalent of the stuffy, uncomfortable canvas hood we knew in past years, and to Boulton Paul must be given the credit for devising a further refinement to this already refined system. The amber filter screens slide in rails formed in the ordinary front screen framework and are raised into position by actuation of a pneumatic jack fitted behind the central glazing bar. A push button controls the delivery of com-1' pressed air to the jack, ex- tension of which raises the niters via a system of cables and pulleys against the ten- sion of an elastic cord. At its limit of travel, the jack rod is locked by a spring- loaded latch, and, when it is desired to lower the filters, a release lever withdraws the latch via a Bowden cable and allows the elastic cord to con- tract and so lower the screens. The upper glazing of the front screens is per- manently amber stained, this (Left) Port side engine root mount- ing showing centralised pneumatics and top fuel tank. (Right) Star- board view of forward mounting showing jet pipe shroud and gear- box-mounted auxiliaries beneath. A roomy and well-designed cockpit is a prime feature of the Balliol. also applying to the roof-glazing of the sliding hood: the side windows of the sliding hood are fitted with amber I screens which, when required, can be drawn forward from their normal rearward position. No centre section in the accepted sense is used in the Balliol; the wing spars attach direct to fuselage spanning members, and these, together with two box-section fore- and-aft beams, which carry the seat loads, form the heart of the grid framework on which the cockpit floor is built up. The flank skinning below floor level down to the lower longerons is carried on I*sub frames with Z-section stringers. The belly skinning between the lower longerons is largely made up of access panels which meet at a crash- skid keel. This crash skid is a built-up box member run- ning aft from the base of the firewall and carried on three rubber shock-buffers, one at the base of the cockpit bulk- head and one at the base of each of the spar bridge- members : an effective buckler against too much damage in the case of belly landings. Those members which, span- ning the fuselage, bridge the wing spars, are made up with I-section forged booms and diaphragm webs, the latter being pierced and the booms bowed to afford central clearance for the jet pipe shroud. (The jet pipe, incident- ally, in its run throughout the fuselage, is shrouded' with an enclosing casing, the cavity between pipe and casing being filled with aluminium foil and, in addition, forced- draught cooled.) An unusual feature of the wing/fuselage attachment in the Balliol is that the pin joints which' unite the spar bridge booms to the spar booms proper are bushed in the lug-and-fork fashioned ends of the booms themselves:- no separate end fittings are used. On the starboard side of the rear seat, the cockpit floor is cut away, a foot platform forming the base of the well thus made giving access to the various radio and r4dax sets stowed behind and to port of the rear seat,.and to
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
