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Aviation History
1956
1956 - 0333.PDF
23 March 1956 331 The Beardmore W.B.IV single-seat shipboard fighter had its 200 h.p. Hispano-Suiza engine mounted amid- ships, driving the airscrew by a long extension shaft which passed between the pilot's legs. The fuselage incorporated a built-in buoyancy chamber, and the wings could be folded. (Below) An Eagle-powered D.H.4 with unusual camou- flage. The observer's armament consists of two Lewis 'guns on individual pillar mountings, an arrangement v which was used on some R.N.A.S. D.HAs. SINCE Flight began publication of theHistoric Military Aircraft series ofarticles by J. M. Bruce (the next, in- cidentally, will concern the D.H.9) interest in the great, or otherwise extraordinary, machines of the First World War has been stimulated to a degree which has been plainly registered in our Correspondence columns. Many a half-forgotten fact or faded photograph has once again seen the light of day under the new stimulus, and occasional rarities—such as to surprise and delight even the deepest-dyed collector or specialist—have been saved for posterity. Now, from a private collection, come the choice items in these pages. Mostly taken at the Isle of Grain experimental station in the later years of the First World War and shortly thereafter, they have never (with one or two possible exceptions) been pre- viously published. More than one, indeed, came as a revelation even to Mr. Bruce, author of the informative captions. COLLECTORS' ITEMS (Left) Installation of Coventry Ordnance Works VA-pounder quick-tiring gun in the rear cockpit of a D.H.4. Two machines were armed in this way for service as anti-Zeppelin aircraft. (See "Flight," October 77, 1952.) A D.H.6, presumably one of those used for anti-submarine patrol duties, powered by a 90 h.p. Curtiss OX-5 engine. It has negative stagger and the modified aerofoils which were introduced in March 1918 in an attempt to improve performance. (Left) A D.H.9A fitted with Wight flotation gear. The undercarriage has been modified to enable it to be swuag backwards to permit full air-bag development.
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