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Aviation History
1953
1953 - 0957.PDF
The Landseaires, incidentally, bring to mind the Supermarine Solent of 1928. This three-engined flying boat was originally developed as a torpedo carrier for the Danish Navy, but it was realized that it was much too big for this class of work and it was converted into a luxurious air yacht—probably the first of its kind in the world. Following Pemb'erton-Billing's motto that all his (Left) For aerial rubbernecking: The 7 ft x 4ft 6in observation and photography blister. (Above) Precedent: The Supermarine Solent con verted into an "air yacht" in 1928. About two years later Supermarines designed and built another luxury flying boat to a private order. flying boats would be: "Not aeroplanes which float, but boats which fly," a particularly fine job was made of the Solent. Carry ing three passengers, pilot, radio operator and mechanic, it was chartered by the Hon. A. E. Guinness and used for a tour of the West Coast of Ireland. There is, unfortunately, no record of it being used for any other lengthy trip. THE NATIONAL GLIDING CHAMPIONSHIPS Next Week's Meeting in Derbyshire: Pilots and Their Chances SOME thirty-five gliders will be towed in trailers to the Derbyshire hills this weekend for the 1953 National Gliding Championships, which begin on Sunday, July 26th, at Camphill Farm, Great Hucklow, the head quarters of the Derbyshire and Lancashire Gliding Club. This site, which was the scene of the last three contests— in 1949, 1950 and 1951—has also been chosen for the World Gliding Championships (in July 1954); so, for both the contestants and for the organizers, this year's contest will resemble a dress rehearsal. The flying field is on a plateau 1,300 ft above sea level and is bounded by steep escarpments to the west (Bradwell Edge) and south. The valley fields below and within fifteen miles of the site are, in the main, small and store-walled. The gliders will spend each night in their trailers and the crews will live in caravans and tents around the club-house, or in local hotels. Flying will begin each day at 10 a.m. if the weather allows and, since most gliders may have left the site by noon, spectators will be well advised to come in time to see the launches. The Sailplanes.—The only new type of sailplane is the prototype Slingsby Skylark which is to be flown by Tony Deane- Drummond. It is in the high-performance category, having an aspect ratio of over 17, and was described in Flight of June 19th, 1953. It will be seen from the accompanying table that it is considerably smaller and lighter than the other gliders in its class, although its performance suffers Uttle in comparison. (The performances quoted are approximate, and are in several cases based on estimates; no measured performance figures for the Skylark or for the Sky have been released.) A novel constructional feature is the three-piece wing, the surfaces of which are largely ply-covered in an attempt to retain more laminar flow than the customary 20 per cent or so on the top surface. In view of the hope that the Skylark may be sold for £700 its performance will be watched with interest. Championship appearances of the Sky have been outstandingly successful. In the last National Championships, in 1951, the two entered finished first and second, while in the Madrid World Championship, last year, three places in the first four were won by the Sky. Two Weihes complete the high-performance entries: DATA ON THE COMPETING GLIDERS Category and name (Sky 1 Skylark I Weihe t Olympia , I Gull IV Z Kite II \ Petrel 3, Sedbergh T.21B Aspect ratio 18.7 17.9 18.0 15.1 15.5 16 14 11.2 Span (ft) 59 45 59 49 50 50 57 54 Mag. a.u.w. (lb) 800 620 760 670 675 540 560 1.080 Min. sink, speed (ft'sec) 2.1 2.4 2.0 2.6 2.6 2.4 1.9 2.8 Best gliding ratio 29 27 29 25 25 23 25 20 No. compet ing 3 1 2 16 1 2 1 8 T HIS preview of one of th e outstanding fixtures in the gliding calendar is by A. H. Yates, who, flying an Eon Olympia, will be among the competitors. In further articles he will describe the progress of the contests and analyse the results. these are of German design and construction. One is the sole specimen remaining in Britain (at the Surrey Gliding Club) and the other has been brought from Germany by an R.A.F. team for the occasion. The medium-performance class is dominated by the Olympia, 16 of which are entered. One is an original, German-built Meise which has been purchased and renovated by Frank Foster, but the others are the Elliott-built British version. The other gliders in this class are all Slings by-built: two strutted Kite lis (one of which has been considerably modified by Frank Irving and part ners) and one specimen each of the Petrel and GuU IV. Finally, in the low-aspect-ratio class, there are no fewer than eight Sedbergh (T.21 B) two seaters. This well-proved glider has a good performance at low speeds, in spite of its open cockpit and slab-sided fuselage, because of its cambered wing and moderate wing-loading. It cannot be expected, however, to perform well at the high airspeeds needed for races and upwind flights. Of the nine types entered, two are of pre-war German design (although the Olympia was much improved by Elliotts) and the others all came from the Slingsby stable. It is not surprising, therefore, that there is a remarkable sameness in layout and methods of construction. The novelties seen in Spain (all-wing gliders, all-metal gliders, butterfly tails, wing flaps, etc.) will not be found at Bradwell Edge. The retort to any accusation of undue conservatism is, presumably, that the Sky won in Spain against all the fancv designs. The Pilots.—Eight of the gliders are entered for the Individual Championship: that is, they will each be flown by one pilot only. In view of the forthcoming World Championships it is disappoint ing to find that so few of our leading pilots are competing. Only Wills, Stephenson and Foster of the last international team will be at Great Hucklow. Missing will be Jock Forbes, Lome Welch, Dawd Ince and the team captain, Ann Douglas. Pete Mallet, Bill Bedford and the Goodhart brothers are other notable absentees. Nick Goodhart is in America; Tony had entered with the Navy's Mui3 sailplane but has been forced to withdraw because of appendix trouble (Tony's). In view of Philip Wills' run of successes (he has won three of the last four National Championships and is now World Cham pion) he must be regarded as favourite; but Geoffrey Stephenson, who in 1951 failed by only four points to win, and Frank Foster, who is said to keep in practice by "thermalling" B.E.A.'s Elizabethans, should run him close. In the team class most of the pilots are new to championship flying and luck, always a powerful factor in gliding successes, may well be decisive. It is noteworthy that of the 68 pilots entered this year only four competed in the first post-war Championships at Bramcote in 1947. The youngest competitor is John Cotton of the Midland Gliding Club, who is aged 18. It is a sobering thought that Philip
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