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Aviation History
1956
1956 - 0423.PDF
13 April 1956 of H hr, and the D.H.9s were fitted with "home-made" tankswhich gave an endurance of 5j hr. The reserve of fuel was so small that several pilots were forced down on the sea just short oftheir island base. On October 2nd, 1918, British and Italian warships attacked theAlbanian port of Durazzo and, as part of the operation, the D.H.9s of No. 226 Sqn. bombed the town, having flown across the Adriaticfrom Taranto. The D.H.9 was to have been used by the R.N.A.S. fromstations in the United Kingdom, and the initial allotment, made in March 1918, was a total of 56 machines. Of these, 24 wereto have been supplied by Westlands, 12 by Mann, Egerton and Co., and 20 by Short Brothers. A few D.H.9s were in fact issuedto coastal stations in the United Kingdom in the summer of 1918; they were used for oversea patrols and, occasionally, as escortsfor the F.2A and F.3 flying-boats. One such D.H.9 from Great Yarmouth, manned by Capt. B. G. Jardine and Lt. E. R. Munday,is believed to have damaged the Zeppelin L.65 on August 5th, 1918. The D.H.9 never returned to its base: Lt. Munday's bodywas picked up at sea by a minesweeper a few days later, but no trace of Capt. Jardine or the aircraft was ever found. It has beensurmised that Jardine may have mistaken burning petrol from the L.70 (which had been shot down by Cadbury and Leckie)for landing flares and come down on the water. It seems equally probable that Jardine and Munday may have been but two morevictims of the Siddeley Puma's chronic unreliability. One of the unexplained mysteries of the First World War iswhy more D.H.9s were not fitted with the 250 h.p. Fiat A-12 engine. At the end of August 1917, just when the Puma's faultshad begun to manifest diemselves, 2,000 Fiat engines were ordered in Paris on the initiative of Sir William Weir. The terms of thecontract required delivery between January and June of 1918; half of the engines were to go to America, and the other 1,000were expressly intended for installation in D.H.9s. Official statis- tics show that 253 Fiats were delivered in the last quarter of 1917,58 in the first quarter of 1918, none in the second quarter, and 299 in the third quarter; a total of only 610. (It must also be remem-bered that that total may include the Fiat engines intended for the 50 D.H.4s ordered by Russia in 1917 but diverted to theR.F.C.) The precise number of D.H.9s which had the Fiat is uncertain.Installations of the engine were made in C.6052 and D.5748; and Contract No. A.S.34886, dated November 19th, 1917, was the onlyD.H.9 contract to specify the Fiat. It was for only 100 aircraft (D.2776-D.2875) which were ordered from Short Brothers. Offi-cial test reports on a Fiat-powered D.H.9 are dated January and February 1918. Like the B.H.P. and Puma, the 250 h.p. Fiat was a six-cylinder,in-line water-cooled engine. Its installation in the D.H.9 was therefore very similar to that of the standard power unit: its chiefdistinguishing feature was its exhaust manifold's location on the starboard side; that of the B.H.P. and Puma was on the port.On D.5748 at least, the radiator appeared to be non-retractable, for it was furnished with shutters. Writing of die Fiat-powered D.H.9 in The Clouds Remember,Oliver Stewart said that the Italian engine ". . . emphasized still further the comfort characteristics of the D.H.9, for it was asweet-running engine." Development of the Siddeley Puma continued, and by the latesummer of 1918 a few modified engines were available which had a higher compression-ratio and delivered 290 h.p. A D.H.9 fittedwith a high-compression Puma was tested in October 1918, but the more powerful engine made no appreciable difference to theaircraft's performance. In 1918 the D.H.9 numbered C.6078 became the first aeroplaneto be fitted with a new British engine which was to give years of excellent service in many types of aircraft. Design of this powerunit had begun in the summer of 1917: it was designed by Mr. A. J. Rowledge and was built by D. Napier and Son, Ltd., whowere contractors for the R.A.F.3A engine, a liquid-cooled vee- twelve with a nominal output of 200 h.p., and for the Sunbeam Arab. The new Napier engine was also a liquid-cooled twelve-cylinderunit, but its cylinders were disposed in three groups of four, the groups being arranged in a broad-arrow configuration. The Napierengine combined the individual cylinders and sheet-metal water jackets of the old school of design with the monobloc cylinder headof the up-to-date engines. To its makers the new engine was known as the Napier Triple-Four, and in September 1917 it wasexpected to deliver 300 h.p. at 10,000ft. It was later designated Napier Lion. Early in 1918 one of the prototype Lions was installed inC.6078 and trials were begun at Farnborough. After early diffi- culties, particularly with the heating of the induction system, hadbeen overcome, the engine proved itself to be a sound power unit of considerable promise. It was placed in production, and byOctober 31st, 1918, the R.A.F. had 22 Lions on charge. The effect of the Lion on the performance of the D.H.9 wasremarkable. In die summer of 1918 the first production Lion, The uppermost picture shows a D.H.9 with a production Napier Lion engine. The second and third views are of two versions of the Mpala (a South African D.H.9 development) the first with Jupiter VI engine (direct drive), and the second with Jupiter VIII (geared). rated at 430 h.p., was fitted to C.6078. With it the aircraft provedto be 30 m.p.h. faster than the standard Puma-Nine, and its rate of climb was trebled. The D.H.9's airframe was strengthenedby fitting additional diree-ply webs to the forward portion of the fuselage and steel plates to cross-members; ash strips reinforcedthe lower longerons at the tail, the forward spar of the tailplane was strengthened and steel-tube bracing struts were fitted. Alarger radiator was used. In October 1918 the Lion-Nine went to Martlesham Heath forService trials. Its excellent performance commended it to the pilots diere, and one of them, Capt. Andrew Lang, decided to findout the aircraft's full capabilities. On January 2nd, 1919, accom- panied by Lt. Blowes as his observer, Capt. Lang flew the Lion-Nine to an altitude of 30,500ft. The climb took 66 minutes 15 seconds and constituted a new world's altitude record atthe time. Belgium was the only one of our Allies to use the D.H.9operationally: 18 machines were supplied in 1918. Had the war lasted longer than it did, however, great numbers of American-built D.H.9s would have been used by the American Expedi- tionary Force, for production on an enormous scale in Americawas planned. When the Armistice was signed, eight contracts for a total of 14,000 aircraft were cancelled. Two British-built D.H.9s had been bought without engines bythe American Expeditionary Force in July 1918. One was sent to America, and it was apparently fitted with a 400 h.p. Liberty12-A engine. It was not the first D.H.9 in America, however, for there are indications that two were there in early June 1918.An official American report records that "The test of the De
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