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Aviation History
1953
1953 - 1604.PDF
37 (Top ieft) Short 184 tor- pedoplane. 1915. 38 (Above) Sopwith H-Strutter, 1915. 39 Left) Handley Page 0/100 (1915) with Bristol Scout. 40 (Lower left) Junkers J 1, 1915. 41 (Be/ow) Morane Bullet, 1915. THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS . (1915 Cont.) New wars, new weapons—and in the Short 184 seaplane (popularly known as the "225" by reason of its 225 h.p. Sunbeam engine) we have the first practical torpedoplane, and one which succeeded in sinking a Turkish transport as early as August 1915. In those days each successive Short type- number was the service number of the prototype; so there is no question that the actual machine depicted at 37 was the very first of its series. Observe how the 14in torpedo was slung low between the flat-bottomed floats. Dating from 1915, the Sopwith l^-Strutter (38) was in active service by May 1916. This trim two-seater has several "firsts" to its credit: it was the first two-seat fighter built to the familiar front-fixed-gun/rear-swivelling-gun formula; it was, too, the first British aircraft to have interrupter gear for its fixed gun; and the first to be fitted with the famous Scarff ring mounting. Moreover, the "Strutter" had air brakes on the lower wings. Though single-engined machines had been adapted for bomb ing in the early months of the war, it was not until a December night in 1915 that the prototype of Britain's first big, multi engined bomber—the "bloody paralyser" demanded of Mr. Frederick Handley Page by the Admiralty—was smuggled darkly from Cricklewood to Hendon. It flew before the New Year. Known at that time as the 0/100, it did, in fact, pass into service under that designation, though it was more familiar in its developed version, the 0/400. Flown by the Independent Air Force, 0/400s became the nocturnal bane of Rhineland towns and U-boat lairs. The production type, with Rolls-Royce Eagle VIII engines, weighed 14,000 lb, had a top speed of 971 m.p.h., and took 45 minutes to climb to its absolute ceiling of 10,000ft. It could carry sixteen 112 lb bombs. A machine of this type was the first to fly from the United Kingdom to a destination outside Europe—namely Egypt—and our picture (39), wherein an 0/100 is seen with a Bristol Scout, explains why Arabs behold ing it parked with Bristol Fighters and D.H.9As, exclaimed, "At last they have sent us the aeroplane of which these things were foals." By 1915 the skill and resourcefulness of the Germans as aero nautical engineers was clearly apparent, and to the Junkers concern we must now give credit for producing, in the autumn of 1915, the world's first all-metal aircraft (40). Known simply as the J 1, it was made from welded sheet steel, and of its war time inception Professor Junkers—arch-advocate of the metal cantilever monoplane—has said: "No one would believe that it could fly. ... A famous war pilot once asked a friend who 42 (Top left) Caudron G.IV twin-engined bomber of 1915. 43 (Left) Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5 prototype of 1916. 44 (Below) D.H.4 high-speed day bomber of 1916.
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