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Aviation History
1950
1950 - 0622.PDF
4o6 FLIGHT With the underslung bombing compartment obscured by the wing, and the nosewheel undercarriage retracted, the Vickers-Armstrongs Varsity in this view differs little from the Valetta, except in nacelle and nose design. The windows are seen to be of generous area. AIRCREW TRAINER Layout and Equipment of the Vickers-Armstrongs Varsity T.Mk.l, Ordered in Quantity for the Royal Air Force A COMPANION type to the Valetta transport, alreadyin production for the R.A.F., the Vickers-Arm-strongs Varsity aircrew trainer is similarly hall- marked in having been adopted for Service use. Though the two machines have much in common, and benefit jointly from civil and military experience with the Viking, of which both are linear descendants, the Varsity embodies substantial structural alterations, mainly arising from the new (nosewheel) undercarriage. As for flying qualities, it is only necessary to instance the spirited performance of the first prototype Varsity at last year's S.B.A.C. display. It will be evident from the following description and sectional drawing that the Varsity is an aircraft of excep- tional versatility, and that its potential field of application extends far beyond the officially prescribed duties of the R.A.F. T.Mk.i variant, with which this study is concerned. Briefly, the Varsity T.Mk.i is intended for instruction in air navigation and bomb aiming, pilot training and signals training by day or night. It is interesting to observe that R.A.F. requirements do not include facilities for gunnery instruction. The cantilever, stressed-skin wing has a single built-up spar, at 30 per cent chord, and chordwise formers. A point which is, perhaps, not generally appreciated is that the span is slightly greater than the Valetta's, being 95ft 6in against 89ft 5m. The hydraulically operated flaps (of conventional split-type) are of rather larger chord than is usual and are correspondingly of greater area (101 sq ft total); they have increased angular movement (47 deg to 70 deg), and extend from the wing roots outboard to the Fr'.sc ailerons. Some modification to the basic Frise form
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