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Aviation History
1951
1951 - 2381.PDF
678 FLIGHT FIGHTING BREED... He quickly became the first man to fly over Philadelphia and thefirst in America to fly for more than an hour with two passengers. At the Chicago meeting alone he netted 15,000 dollars prizemoney and at Boston a further 6,000, on the strength of which successes he ordered a Burgess-Wright biplane and shipped ithome with him in October. In 1912, with that prescience which has richly rewarded him—and this nation—over so many years, he founded the Sopwith Flying School, at Brooklands, and the Sopwith Aviation Company,acquiring as premises for the latter enterprise a roller-skating rink near Kingston-on-Thames station and installing FredSigrist as manager. The venerable rink, having twice changed hands, remains to this day as the tool room of Hawker Aircraft,Ltd. The year 1912 was not one solely of new business departuresbut of good sport as well, for June was the month of the first Aerial Derby, flown over an 81-mile course round London,starting and finishing at Hendon. Not unexpectedly, Sopwith was first over the line in his two-seater Bleriot, his victory,incidentally, being due in some measure to one of the earliest instances of "cleaning-up" for racing in that he had covered-inthe openwork fuselage of his machine with fabric, thus gaining a few miles an hour over Hamel, who was similarly mounted. There now arrived on the scene the slender figure of youngHarry Hawker, whose achievements will have a prominent place in our story. Hawker had come over from Australia with hisfriends Busteed, Harrison and Kauper, and after working at Kingston as a mechanic (fifteen hours a day, seven days a week,with £2 at the end of it) was enabled to take his certificate on September 17th, 1912, at the Sopwith School. Inexperience notwithstanding, Hawker displayed such qualitiesof airmanship that within a few weeks he had been appointed test pilot to the Sopwith Aviation Company. Such was hiscalibre, indeed, that on October 24th, 1912, he broke the British duration record by remaining airborne for 8 hr 23 min, thussimultaneously securing the Michelin Trophy for that year and a cash award of £500. His machine was a rebuilt version of Mr.Sopwith's Burgess-Wright, powered with an A.B.C. engine in place of the original Gnome. It had twin, chain-driven, pusherpropellers and was known as the Sopwith-Wright or Sopwith- Farman, for it embodied Farman-type controls. Notwithstanding Mr. Sopwith's past successes with monoplanes,the energies of the new design-and-construction team (for truly a team it was, like its Hawker counterpart of today) were nowfirmly committed to the development of biplanes, and the first of these was a tractor machine having a 70 h.p. Gnome engine andembodying Wright wings and a Farman undercarriage. Though itself of Franco-American parentage, it was, nevertheless, the truesire of the pure-blooded Sopwkh strain. At the Olympia Aero Show in February, 1913, two veryadvanced Kingston-built biplanes were exhibited and both were bought by the Admiralty. On these Flight pronounced: "They areno freak machines, these two biplanes of Sopwith's: a rough glance over them will soon convey to the observer that they are designedby practical men. Of the two, the hydro is the more interesting since it is the more original." The Bat Boat (as the "hydro" was to become known) reflectedMr. Sopwith's interest in high-speed marine craft and, in all justness, the influence of the American Glenn Curtiss. The cedar-wood hull was constructed by that artist in wood Sam Saunders, of Cowes, and the tail was carried on outriggers; the engine was a90 h.p. Austro-Dahnler. The second type, commonly known as The improved Bat Boat of 1914, with 200 h.p. Canton-Unne engine. Below: 1i-Strutter two-seater fighter, with 110 h.p. Clerget engine. the Three-seater Tractor, was a kndpiane of notably cleandesign and carried a useful load of 450 lb at 70 m.p.h. on 80 h,p The pilot sat in the rear cockpit, with the two passengers side byside ahead of him. Flown by Hawker, this excellent machine proceeded to clean up a number of prizes and records. First itwon the Whit Monday cross-country race from Brooklands- then, at Hendon, the altitude prize, and next—flown solo it established a new height record (formerly held by Mr. Geoffrey deHavilland, in a B.E.) by attaining 11,450ft, at which level the carburettor froze. Later, with one passenger, Hawker took it upto 12,900ft (thus beating his own solo record) and, soon afterwards with two passengers, to 10,600ft. Characteristically, the youngAustralian and his chief were even now unsatisfied, and on July 27th, 1913, the Three-seater ascended to 8,400ft whilecarrying Hawker and three passengers. The Bat Boat was likewise to distinguish itself in competitionflying. On July 8th, 1913* in an amphibian version, powered with a Green engine, Hawker carried off the £500 Mortimer SingerPrize for the first all-British aircraft to make six consecutive flights between two points five miles apart, one of which (markedby a buoy in the Solent) was on water and one (at Cowes) on land. A developed version of the Bat Boat, built entirety atKingston and powered with a 200 h.p. Canton-Unne 14-cylinder water-cooled engine, was acquired by the German Government,and a third variant, with a 200 h.p. Sunbeam, was developed for the 1914 Daily Mail Round-Britain Contest, though this racenever took place due to the outbreak of war. During the previous year (1913) a Sopwith three-seater, twin-float seaplane, with 100 h.p. Green engine, had put up an epic performance in a similar contest. On this occasion, with a £5,000prize in prospect, Hawker and his friend Kauper were left alone in the field, mishap or disaster having overtaken their rivals.After a chapter of accidents and adversities the Sopwith itself came to grief when Hawker's foot slipped from the greasy rudderbar, dipping a wing-tip into the sea. But the young Australian had put up such a plucky show, and the Sopwith had demonstratedsuch an excellent flying performance (having covered over a thousand miles in about twenty hours) that the Daily Mailsportingly awarded Hawker a special prize of £1,000. The Tabloid The year 1913 was, indeed, one of transcendent Sopwithachievement, reaching its zenith in November with the intro- duction of the sensational little Tabloid, to which the reader wasintroduced at the outset of our story. Designed, in considerable secrecy, for demonstration flying,the Tabloid was truly of revolutionary design in having single-bay wings (of only 25Jft span) and in displaying an exceptional degreeof aerodynamic cleanness. Lateral control was achieved by wing- warping, though in subsequent single-seater military models,this system gave way to ailerons. With a Tabloid among his luggage, Hawker sailed for Australiaearly in 1914 for a propaganda and demonstration tour on which he improved the shining hour by giving joy-rides at £20 a time.During his absence many of his duties were taken over by Howard Pixton, a fine pilot who was to bring new honours to Britain andto the name of Sopwith. But that the company's name was already one to reckon with is shown by the following effusion by"Will o' the Wisp" in Flight of January 10th, 1914 : " 'Sopwith Aviation Company, Ltd. December 15th, 1913. £26,000 (£1)(6,000 six per eent cum. pref. and 20,000 ord.); To take over,' etc. Um—sounds all right. Fast little beggar that new Baby-plane.Good Hydro, too, that one that nearly got round the circuit Clever chap T.O.M., elever men with him, too: what are wegokig to see in 1914?" This puckish inquirer had not long to wait for an answer, forduring April, in face of formidable French opposition, Pixton secured the Schneider Trophy for Britain by averaging 86.8 ra.p.h.over the Monaco course. His machine was sometimes known as the Schneider, but was merely a floatplane development of theTabloid fitted with a 100 h.p. Mono-Gnome. Pixton's victory sent our national prestige soaring to newheights: after his flight at Monaco, there had still been time for his rivals t» improve on his performance, but they had not venturedoff the water, in the realization that the little Sopwith was unbeatable. Harry Hawker came home on June 6th, 1914, and was at worknext day, with Pixton and Victor Mahl to assist him. It will be gathered that even at this early date the company was aware thattest pilots could make a major contribution to technical develop- ment, and it is no mere coincidence that Bulman, Lucas, Humble,Wade, Duke and the rest should hare been men of exceptional qualities. Though far removed from the stunt-merchants, eachhas made some individual contribution to the twin arts of exhibi- tion and demonstration flying, and Hawker himself was certainlyno exception. It is told, incidentally, how, in Pixton's Schneider machine (by this time converted to a landplane), he essayed a loopwithout power. Failing to pull it tight enough, he stalled on top
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