FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1951
1951 - 2396.PDF
FLIGHT, 30 November 1951 FIGHTING BREED ... sighted the Danish steamer, which proved to be the tramp Mary. We at once sent up our Very light distress signals. These were answered promptly, and then we flew on about two miles and landed in the water ahead of the steamer. "The sea was exceedingly rough, and, despite the utmost efforts of the Danish crew, it was an hour and a half before they succeeded in taking us on. It was only at great risk to themselves, in fact, that they eventually succeeded in launching a small boat, owing to the heavy gale from the north-east which was raging . . ." The rescue was made 14! hours after the Atlantic left New- foundland, but the Mary carried no wireless, and it was not until she arrived off the Butt of Lewis a week later that the world was told. Profiting from experience with the Atlantic machine, the company got to work on a further development, intended for a flight to Australia by Capt. Matthews and Sgt. Tom Kay. But even the name Wallaby brought this fine-looking biplane no luck, for Capt. Matthews' arrest in Yugoslavia (where he was mistaken for a Bolshevik), a cracked cylinder, a crash-landing at the entrance to the Persian Gulf, a damaged undercarriage, a broken airscrew, and—only 1,100 miles short of Australia—a final write-off, intervened. There were many features of interest in the Wallaby, notably the retractable seats, which allowed the crew to be completely enclosed except when clear forward vision was necessary. The Wallaby, incidentally, was probably the only aircraft with two rudder bars for the pilot—the second corresponding to the high position of the seat. Resolved to repeat the historic Schneider success of Howard Pixton, the company turned out a very fast and handsome racing seaplane for the 1919 contest. The cylinders of the 450 h.p. Cosmos Jupiter were carefully faired, and the fuselage was of excellent aerodynamic form. A slight backward stagger charac- terized the 24ft single-bay wings and the lower part of the rudder was made very thick to serve as a tail float. For various deplorable reasons the race was declared void. A landplane version, called the Rainbow, was flown by Hawker in the Aerial Derby of 1920. No Jupiter being available, a 320 h.p. Dragonfly was installed and the saving in weight allowed a slight reduction in wing span. Misunderstanding the rules, Hawker did not cross the finishing line in the manner laid down and was disqualified. The last machine to bear the name Sopwith was a commercial type—the Antelope—which seated two passengers in a cabin, with side-entry door, in addition to the pilot. Among other appealing features it boasted a self-starter for the Wolseley Viper engine. In the Air Ministry Competition at Martlesham in 1920 the Antelope carried off the second prize of £3,000 after a neck- and-neck contest with the Westland Limousine. Unhappily, the enterprise of the company in developing the fine civil machines described availed it little, and production of A.B.C. motor cycles, toys and domestic utensils failed to justify deferment of voluntary liquidation, which was notified in Septem- ber, 1920. But the company was not long in limbo and was resurrected in November under the title H. G. Hawker Engineer- ing Co., Ltd. Flight expressed its sentiments as follows: "In hailing the arrival of the Hawker Engineering Co., Ltd., into the ranks of British Aircraft we feel that we are really welcoming the re-entry The Duiker reconnaissance monoplane, above, was the first truly Hawker design. It was powered by a Bristol Jupiter. Below, at Lympne in 1926, are the Cygnet (British Anzani) and (left to right) Sydney Camm, H. K. Jones and that great Hawker test pilot, FlL (now GC.) P. W. S. ("George") Bulman. 689 of one of the pioneer British firms, and that the new companyhas stepped in to take up the threads where the now defunct Sopwith Aviation Co. left off. With Fred Sigrist as managingdirector, and Mr. Sopwith, Maj. Eyre, Mr. Bennett and Capt. Peaty on the board of directors, the firm should worthily upholdthe tradition of the old Sopwith Co." In July, 1921, Harry Hawker—by this time still only 31 yearsold—met his death in a Nieuport Goshawk which he was testing prior to racing it in the Aerial Derby. Of him somebody wrote,"He began where others left off," and from His Majesty King George V came the message : "The nation has lost one of itsmost distinguished airmen, who by his skill and daring has contributed so much to the success of British aviation." Production by the new company was initially concentrated onthe two-stroke Hawker motor cycle and on special aluminium bodywork; but the old hands were already hankering after theair and were not content until 1923, when the company turned once more to aircraft construction. The Hawker company's first aeronautical venture (1923) was a"corps reconnaissance" machine rejoicing in the name of Duiker (a high-speed antelope, pronounced, we aver in our wisdom—having had recourse to sundry works of reference—"Diker"). It was, remarkably enough, a swept-back parasol-wing monoplaneand it was built to the designs of Major Thompson. Though it did not achieve fame for itself, it was notable in that exacting armyco-operation requirements were met. Though contemporary documents and publications oftendescribed the early Hawker machines as "Sopwith/Hawker," the only design to which this appellation could strictly be applied wasthe rebuilt 1919 Jupiter-engined Schneider racer which, with land undercarriage, was flown into second place in the 1923 AerialDerby by F/L. Longton, at 165 m.p.h. Mr Carter's Woodcock The first truly Hawker fighter was the Woodcock, to the designsof Mr. W. G. Carter (now technical director, Gloster Aircraft), who had joined Sopwiths in 1916 as chief draughtsman.The first Woodcock was a two-bay biplane, Jaguar-powered, and having variable-camber flaps, but in the "new and experimental"park at the R.A.F. Pageant of 1924 appeared the Mk 2, much cleaned up, with single-bay wings, repositioned guns and some-thing quite new in the form of "helmets" over the cylinders of its Jupiter engine. A feature of both Woodcock prototypes was thewide-track undercarriage, and this feature was to be especially appreciated by R.A.F. pilots when the type—with uncowledJupiter—was adopted as the standard R.A.F. night fighter. Without disparagement it may be remarked that the characterof this fighter was discernible to a marked extent in a machine for vastly different duties, namely, the three-seater Fleet-reconnais-sance Hedgehog, first flown with land undercarriage and later fitted with combined wheel-and-float gear. Folding wings withcamber-changing flaps, three separate cockpits (the third with Scarff gun ring), and axle-mounted arrester hooks characterizedthis deck-landing biplane. It was during the period of Woodcock and Hedgehog develop-ment that Sydney Camm joined the Hawker design staff. Through the medium of flying models, Camm had been anassiduous student of aerodynamics and aircraft construction, and this had led to his founding the Windsor Model Aeroplane Cluband constructing a man-carrying glider. Shortly before the First World War he had started his professional career in the Martinsydeshops, where his diligence and imaginative approach to structural problems earned him promotion to the design office. The first Hawker project with which Mr. Camm was associated(in conjunction with Mr. Carter, who was still chief designer, and Mr. George Cornwall) was the little Cygnet two-seater light biplane,and in this exquisitely built machine his constructional skill had full scope. Empty the Cygnet weighed 373 lb; laden, 950 lb—figures which, as Major (later Sir John) Buchanan pointed out before the Royal Aeronautical Society at the time, were strikinglyindicative of what could be done by close attention to detail. Two Cygnets, piloted by F/L. Longton and F. P. Raynham(the company's chief test pilot before the arrival of F/L. P. W. S. Bulman, M.C., A.F.C.) were entered for the Light AeroplaneCompetitions in 1924. In the Duke of Sutherland's contest for the best take-off and pull-up Raynham carried off the £100 prize,while Longton put up the best performance in the landing trials. The Heron (Jupiter) of 1926. Speed: 160 m.p.h. at 10,000ft.
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
