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Aviation History
1949
1949 - 1394.PDF
15* FLIGHT AUGUST IITH, 1949 (Left) One of the neatly and closely cowled 105 h.p. Walter Minor 4-111 engines of the Aero 45; note the solid mounting and flexible bearers. . Right) Nose door opened to give access to battery, controls and instruments. Aero 45 in the Air . . . m.p.h. With the fixed-pitch metal airscrews fitted I was able to climb a little when Hying at 2,000ft, and with full normal load it is said to be possible to climb to 4,900ft on one engine if v.p. airscrews are fitted. Two-engine ceiling is quoted at 18,700ft. Having satisfied myself regarding normal handling and single-engined performance, I tried stalls with and without engine and flaps. The speeds vary, of course, and by A.S.I, are approximately : — km/hr Engine on with flaps and wheels down 80 Engine on with flaps and wheels up 90 Gliding with flaps up 100 Some aileron control remains up to and after the stall, and the sink is usually-straight and gentle. More warning would be an advantage. The wing loading at 3,085 lb weight is 16.7 lb/sq ft as compared with the Gemini's 15.7 lb/sq ft at 3,000 lb a.u.w. Spinning presents little difficulty, starting shallow and steepening rapidly so that after the third turn the aircraft dives out of the spin unaided, at high speed. A strong backward pull is needed to raise the nose at high speed (over 185 m.p.h.). Mr. Anderle, the makers' chief test pilot, told me that while on test he had dived the Aero 45 to 380 km/hr (238 m.p.h.) and also made a 6^ pull out without any signs of damage to the aircraft structure. After hearing this reassuring news as to the strength, I tried some aerobatics" and found that a nice wide loop from 280-300 km/hr (174-186 m.p.h.) was as pleasant and simply executed a manoeuvre as one could wish. It re- quires a good, big pull to go round, but as soon as the throttles were opened two hands were available for the wheel and there was no trouble at all in easing the machine up and over. It is advisable to throttle well back in the ensuing dive or speed increases very rapidly and some tiioe and effort are wasted on the pull out. j Barrel (or rather " barrelly" slow) rolls are another manoeuvre which the Aero 45 does very nicely—a com- fortable speed being much the same as for loops. Perhaps it should be added that although the strength seems to be there the machine is licensed only for solo aerobatics. This may be due to the single emergency exit on the port side. And so, having tried most of the usual manoeuvres and a few extra, I glided down and prepared to land. There is n© limiting speed for lowering of wheels, but flaps have a 150 km/hr (93 m.p.h.) maximum-speed limitation. The wheels can be seen when locked down and when flaps are lowered as well the need to trim is felt quite strongly. Initial approach speed is around 150 km/hr (93 m.p.h.) and the angle of approach is such as to give an excellent view of the runway. There was a certain amount of dis- , ' ~ tortion when watching the ground '' ap- proach '' through the large, curved plas- tic wind-shield. The round-out requires (concluded at foot of p- 160.) ' DATA FOR THE 4/5 SEATER AERO 45Two 105 h.p. Walter Minor 4— III Engines. Span 40.35ft Length 24.7ft Height .:..• ... ... ... 7.54ft Wing area ... ... ... ... ... 184 sq ft Weight empty (full equrpt.) Useful load Max. A.U.W. Wing loading Max. speed Cruising speed Stalling speed (full flap) Climb to 1,000 m (3,280ft) Initial rate of climb Ceiling, 2 engines Ceiling, I engine Range (four tanks, 68 gal) ... Fuel consumption (2,250 r.p.m.) 1,896 I b 1,410 Ib 3,306 Ib 18 Ib/sq ft 174 m.p.h. 145 m.p.h. 50 m.p.h. 3.8 min 980ft/min 18.700ft 4,900ft 930 miles 11 gal/nr PROOF OF PERFORMANCE : Jan Anderle crossing the finishing-line at Elmdon in the machine which forms the subject of this article. He won the Norton Griffiths Challenge Trophy at an average speed of 163 n! m.p.h. B 12
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