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Aviation History
1958
1958 - 0555.PDF
F.D.2 Fairey s Delta 2—Over 1,000 m.p.h. on Rolls-Royce Power FEW of our readers can still be unaware of the fact that theF.D.2 supersonic research aeroplane by the Fairey AviationCompany was the first man-carrying vehicle ever to prove to the world, in an officially calibrated exercise, its ability to travel at a speed greater than 1,000 m.p.h. In fact, except for American air-launched rocket machines, it was probably the first aircraft ever to reach such a speed. Nevertheless, to appreciate the true advance in performance which this shapely aeroplane demonstrated one has to plot offi- cially timed "world records for absolute speed" against time in graphical form (Flight, March 23, 1956). Until Peter Twiss, now Fairey's chief test pilot, established his remarkable F.D.2 figure of 1,132.2 m.p.h. on March 10, 1956, this record had never been broken by more than 219 km/hr (the metric system is used by the Federation Aeronautique Internationale, who homologate such records). Twiss, however, surpassed the previous record by 499 km/hr, representing an increase of almost 38 per cent— a startling proportion. It is worth mentioning that the 219 km/hr advance was that which occurred at the end of World War 2, when G/C. H. J. "Willie" Wilson set up the first such record by a jet aeroplane. This increase in performance over the earlier piston-engined figure was, however, much less than that which was established by the Fairey aeroplane; for the latter was the first truly super- sonic (as distinct from transonic) machine to make a record attempt with sufficient tankage to fly the required pattern, and flying controls of sufficient fidelity to enable it to be flown with the necessary precision to comply with the F.A.I, regulations. But the F.D.2 was not built just to set records. The reasons for its design, and an authoritative history of the aircraft and its test programme, are to be found in the paper entitled The Fairey Delta 2, read before the Royal Aeronautical Society on February 14 last year by Mr. R. L. Lickley, the Fairey Aviation Company's technical director, and Peter Twiss. This paper was published in the Society's Journal for July last and was summarized in our issues of February 22 and March 1, 1957. It is now possible to say more about the design of the aeroplane itself, and this we propose to do with the added advantage of the cutaway drawing which is found overleaf. As an introduction it is appropriate to quote Mr. Lickley's own opening paragraphs for the paper previously mentioned. "The development of manned supersonic aircraft in this country suffered a setback at the end of the 1939-45 war, when it was decided that the use of manned aircraft would be too dangerous; however, more realistic views soon prevailed and, as a result, the ordering of such manned aircraft was considered in 1947 by the Ministry of Supply and in our submissions to M.o.S. in 1949 we described the aircraft as having as its primary function 'Research Flying at Transonic and Supersonic speeds up to M=1.5.' "The background which led up to this submission is of interest, as it shows a logical line of development within the Company. "In 1947 the Company was developing the F.D.1 at Stockport and scale models of it at Heston, in order to conduct vertical take- off experiments. The models were of advanced design, powered by a rocket motor with twin combustion chambers controlled in pitch and yaw respectively by an automatic pilot. Information of behaviour in flight was telemetered to the ground. "In September 1947, the Company was asked if it could further develop the vertical take-off models to fly transonically after ground launching as part of the experimental programme. After consideration it became clear that, although the technique and experience of the V.T.O. models would be of great value, the experiments themselves would be of little use unless they were aimed at obtaining specific information on a layout representative of a typical possible piloted supersonic aeroplane. We therefore began a design study of such a piloted aircraft as a preliminary to the design of the pilotless models. Our first efforts resulted in a design of high sweepback on both leading and trailing edges, all-moving tip ailerons, conventional tailplane and twin engines in the fuselage fed from a nose intake (P.l-type layout). "This design was not proceeded with, but in February 1949, we were approached by P.D.S.R.(A)—then Sir Harry Garner— and asked to consider an alternative design for a further super- sonic research aircraft, preferably based on a single engine. We had, of course, by this time considerable background in the problems of designing such an aeroplane. We had developed the necessary new techniques of drag and performance estimation and had col- lected together what slender information there was on the stability and control characteristics of various configurations. We decided to begin our considerations afresh and, by the end of the year (December 1949) had come to a firm proposal which differed very little from the aeroplane as it is flying at present, although pressure from various sources to make changes was at times very strong. "The design which evolved was a delta-wing plan form of aspect ratio 2, having a Rolls-Royce RA.5 engine in the body, with wing root intakes with frontal areas cut to a minimum and all possible excrescences removed. The major target and guiding principle in the whole design period was to get an aeroplane of minimum weight, with the smallest frontal and surface areas, while still remaining a straightforward aeroplane to handle in the air and on the ground, and yet at the same time, large enough to house the RA.5 engine and sufficient fuel to enable worthwhile flights to be made. As an indication of the design problems raised by this approach, the maximum clearance between engine and fuselage skin is less than 6in and, within this space, room had to be found for the main frames to which the wing is bolted. "Although the aerodynamic form was decided at an early period, the contract to build two aircraft was not placed until October 1950; lack of money, priorities and other problems, caused this hold-up and, almost immediately after the placing of the con- tract, 'super-priority' intervened and the need at Fairey's to con-
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