FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1955
1955 - 1792.PDF
Si FLIGHT, 16 December 1955 915 MILES M.100 STUDENT A Promising New Jet Trainer Under Construction at Shoreham A WELCOME return to the field of aircraft design andmanufacture by the well-known designers F. G. Miles andG. H. Miles has resulted in the development of a versatile and simple basic/intermediate jet trainer, the Miles M.100Student. This aircraft, which should fly next year, has been de- signed for simplicity and economy, yet with the aim of providinga realistic, representative and flexible training machine. It should form a worthy successor to the Magister and the Master. Following their successful series of pre-war racing aircraft (in-cluding the Hawk Speed Six of 1935 flown—20 years after its first appearance—by Ron Paine in this year's National Air Races), theMiles brothers were responsible for the design and manufacture of over 7,000 elementary and advanced trainers—notably theMagister and Master—between 1938 and 1946. After Miles Air- craft had been taken over by financiers in 1947, the design andmanufacture of aircraft was ended by the new Board. At this time the company had some £5 million worth of business in hand,including substantial orders for the Messenger and the Gemini. It was in 1950 that F. G. Miles decided to start again, andformed a new company based at Redhill. He was subsequently joined by his brother George, who had been chief designer to Air-speed, Ltd., where he was responsible for the production-design and development of the Ambassador and the Vampire Trainer. The new company, F. G. Miles, Ltd., expanded and in 1952moved to Shoreham Airport. It has specialized in prototype work, tool design and manufacture, aircraft design, and developmentwork on structural plastics. Over 400 people are now employed by the company. It will not surprise those who know the Miles brothers that thenew company never lost interest in the design of its own aircraft. Projects have included the conversion of the Gemini into the Aries;design studies for civil and military freighter aircraft; work on the Durestos-winged Crabpot sailplane; and the rebuilding of theSparrowhawk into the Sparrowjet light twin-jet racer. Having kept in touch with military needs, the company decidedin 1953 to build a prototype jet trainer—in accordance with Minis- try of Supply requirements—as a private venture. This is theM.100 Student, a novel aircraft which at the present time is some 70 per cent complete. The Miles brothers claim it to be a com-pletely new approach to economical and efficient training for operational jet aircraft; and the design leaves room for consider-able development, in view of the long service life of training aircraft. The first assumption, of course, was a belief in the philosophy ofall-through jet training. For pilots who were eventually to fly jet- powered aircraft with tricycle undercarriages, basic flying trainingon tail-wheeled piston-engined machines, it was said, was time- wasting and could be dangerous. The ideal basic trainer, in otherwords, must be representative of operational types. In its basic form the M.100 is a single-turbojet, dual-controltrainer having flying characteristics designed to be docile yet repre- sentative of operational aircraft. The wings are swept, yet thelanding speed is only 60 kts. A pilot's first impression will almost certainly be a favourable one of the well-designed cockpit. "Cabin"is a better word here, for the large car-type doors and the low sit of the machine on the ground (the cabin floor is only 18in aboveground-level) make its pilot-access the best we have seen in a long time. The doors are jettisonable, giving excellent emergency exitwithout the need for heavy and costly ejector seats. The position and mounting of the power unit is another noveland noteworthy feature. The standard installation consists of one Blackburn-Turbomeca Marbore II mounted behind the cabin atthe top of the fuselage, isolated from the cabin and structure by a steel bulkhead and plan bracing. This plan bracing forms a usefulplatform for powerplant maintenance; a reduction in fire-risk in addition to improved accessibility are also claimed. Structuraldamage in the event of an accident or wheel-up landing is mini- mized by the robust central keel, which is designed to absorb heavyloads and, in combination with the extremely low centre of gravity of the aircraft, should virtually eliminate overturning risks. An-other major design feature is that, with wings and rear fuselage detached, the powerplant and other main items requiring main-tenance can be readily moved as a single wheeled main-fuselage unit. A more detailed description of the M.100 design is given below, and is followed by a survey of the present production position and future prospects of the aircraft. . Fuselage. The most notable feature of the fuselage design ot the Student is the box keel member which runs longitudinally Head-on view of the Student fuselage un- der construction at Shoreham, showing the large size of the main doors, which are jettisonable. At pre- sent the machine is approximately 70 per cent complete. "Flight" photograph from the nose to the rear undercarriage frame, and around whichthe front fuselage structure is assembled. This keel is designed to take the main bending loads from the nosewheel, torsion loads andside loads being taken also in the floor structure. The top boom of the keel acts as a compression member, heavy angles at thebottom of the side sections picking up on the under-surface of the fuselage skin, which completes the box. The main structural advantage of using such a keel member isto carry the nosewheel loads along the fuselage past the large door cut-outs. In addition the keel gives the aircraft an increasedrobustness in case of emergency landing, providing maximum strength at the bottom of the fuselage. The rear fuselage, which is detachable, is of conventional semi-monocoque construction. From the transport joint between rear and main fuselage sections, the two top longerons of the lattersection run forward continuously to the main-spar frame. The two lower longerons are interrupted at the main undercarriagebay, an inboard subsidiary longeron traversing this section. Main undercarriage loads are taken on two pairs of sloping frames, eachtied back to the main frames, which are connected through the keel. A shear diaphragm is mounted vertically from the top of thekeel to the plan bracing forming the horizontal steel firewall. The outer structure of the main fuselage is conventional, theD.T.D. 610 skin being riveted to the frame/stringer framework. The lower skinning, below floor level, is of 24-gauge material(stressed); while the upper 26-gauge skinning is unstressed. The main-spar frame is a double unit, except for the portion above thetop of the wing spar; and a continuation of the spar itself is taken across the fuselage between the vertical-pinned spar fittings.The rear-spar frame is single. The Marbore powerplant is installed in the upper main fuselageon three mounting feet, carried on two bulkhead-type frames. The firewalls consist of a main horizontal platform beneath theengine, and the vertical front panel; there is in addition a sub- Looking into the Student's cabin, with door fully open. The control pedestal is built-up on the central box keel.
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
