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Aviation History
1949
1949 - 0358.PDF
234 FLIGHT FEBRUARY 24TH, 1949 Records and Trail*port* Some Interesting Facts and Views Disclosed in Bruncker Memorial Lecture *T HIS year's Brancker Memorial Lecture was delivered by Major R. H. Mayo, O.B.E., to the Institute of Transport on February 14th. The lecturer had chosen the title '' Oft the Record,'' and attempted to show the effect which world's records have on the development of air transport. Before turning to his main subject Major Mayo recounted an amusing happening which was typical of the late Sir Sefton Brancker. In 1914 the Royal Aircraft Factory (as it then was) at Farnborough had with great trouble designed and built an inherently stable biplane, the B.E.2C. Major Brancker (as he then was) descended on Farn- borough from the War Office and insisted on trying the precious B.E.2C. "Rumour had it," Major Mayo said, '' that his piloting skill was not quite up to the high standard of his courage." After a relatively successful flight (during which the claim for inherent stability was obviously fully tested!), Brancker was seen to be approach- ing the airfield too high and too fast, but evidently deter- mined to land. He did so, the first contact with the ground being made 100 yards from the limit of the airfield. There were no wheel brakes in those days, and the nose of the machine hit the trunk of a tree. The machine was smashed, but Brancker stepped out of the wreckage, wiped the oil off his monocle and said: "Yes, she's splendid; we will have some more like her." Major Mayo then outlined the growth of aircraft per- formance in world-record attempts covering speed, over a straight course, distance in a straight line, distance in a closed circuit, and altitude. The growth is illustrated graphically in three charts. In Fig. 1 it is seen that the curve "A," which includes the jet engine period, holds remarkably close to the straight line "B." This did not imply that the sonic barrier is a myth, but it looked as if the record has been gathering momentum to leap the barrier. The curve relates to the low-altitude speed record. If and when it became possible to time the machines at heights, a record speed of 1,000 m.p.h. or more might become a justifiable forecast instead of a mere sensational guess. The curve of Fig. 1 clearly showed the stimulus of the Schneider Trophy Contests in the late 1920s and early ig3os. Fig. 2, progress of the straight-line distance record, does not follow the straight line as closely as does the speed- record curve, but the line "B" gives the general trend, and the latest rise is the steepest of the whole period. In the altitude record the free balloon has so far remained unchallenged. It holds the present record by a comfort- able margin, but Major Mayo thought it would be beaten by heavier-than-air 7 aircraft. Curve "A" in Fig. 3 indicates that there is a practical limit ahead. As to how the speed record, and particularly the Schneider Trophy Contests, influenced the general progress of design, Major Mayo recalled that clean aerodynamic design of the Supermarine seaplanes, progressively im- proved in the S.5, S.6 and S.6B, led to increased per- ., formance and to a better understanding of the importance of streamlining. The power of the Rolls-Royce "R" engine was gradually increased by greater boost and by certain improvements. That engine was not suitable for general service, but it led to the series of Merlin engines. It was doufctful that we should have had the Spitfires and the Hurricanes but for the Schneider Trophy Contests. A very different type of contest was the England- Australia race of 1934. It was won by a de Havilland Comet specially designed for the race, and the influence of the Comet was still plainly discernible in the latest D.H. post-war military and commercial designs. The Douglas DC-2 was second, and led to the DC-3, which for 12 or 13 years has been more widely used than any other EjOOOp 10.000 aooo - 4,000- aooo Closed-circuit Speed * . i Speed over a closed circuit provides a severe test of general airworthiness, and John Derry's record in a D.H.^ 108 had advanced the general theory and practice of swept- back wings and gave great hopes for the D.H. 106 airliner, of which the 108 was the forerunner. In the field of helicopters, too, the speed record was of value. In the case of the Fairey Gyrodyne, a new location of the counter-torque airscrew had effected a great im- provement in speed, and the record demonstrated the success of this breakaway from accepted practice. This would lead to further attempts and to fresh advances. The altitude record provided a particularly good test of all-round performance. The qualities which enabled Cunningham to set up a new record last year in a Vampire had been inherited by the D.H. 108 and would no doubt reappear in due course in the D.H. 106 airliner. And in reaching_the 60,000 ft. level Cunningham also explored the more practical levels of 30,000 to 40,000ft at which the turbojet airliners now under development will soon have to operate. Major Mayo drew attention to the way in which the speed record had swung from landplanes to seaplanes and back to landplanes again, and explained the reasons. For a time the flying boat appeared to be almost dead, but a re- vival was already taking place, and as size increased there" must be a rever- sion to flying boats. The SR/45 140-ton3O 35 4O 45 5O YEAR 600 500 4OO ia. 2OO too y -f / 19O5 tO Fig. 2 (above). The distance record varies more than the speed record from the straight soooo line. Fig. I left). The speed record, from the first by Santos Dumont in 1906 to the present time. 2O 25 JO 35 4O 45 YEAR Fig. 3 (right). The altitude so record (heavier - than - air aircraft). 191O 15 B 2O
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