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Aviation History
1961
1961 - 0159.PDF
I'JGHT, 3 February 1961 159 THF IH'M.OI> AF.ROPLANK TVRH. Blackburn Mercury, 1911-12. Right, page from the 1911 Dunlop catalogue Dunlop's Aviation Jubilee FIFTY YEARS' WORK—ON TYRES AND MANY OTHER PRODUCTS WIREO-OS* TVPE ONLY THIS year the Dunlop Rubber Co Ltd is celebrating thegolden jubilee of its association with aviation. Strictlyspeaking, perhaps, the fifty-year period has already been exceeded, for aeroplane tyres and wheels were advertised in theDunlop Pneumatic Tyre Company's catalogue of 1910 (rims appearing at the modest price of 2s 8d each). In the followingyear the company was advertising wired tyres on well-based rims, which provided a greater measure of safety, especially in cross-wind landings, than did the ordinary beaded-edge cover. Few records seem to exist of the names of aircraft to which theseearly Dunlop tyres were fitted. It is known, however, that at least one of the series of Blackburn Mercury monoplanes built in1911-12 was thus equipped. The Mercury, as can be seen in the heading picture, had what was commonly known as the Farmantype of undercarriage, with paired wheels. Another early type which is believed to have had Dunlop tyres was the CoventryOrdnance Works biplane designed by W. O. Manning and Howard Wright for the 1912 Military Trials. The name Dunlop in early aviation was not associated withtyres alone. In Flight for May 27, 1911, is a reference to "samples of two new fabrics, intended for use in surfacing aeroplanes,which have reached us from the Dunlop Rubber Co Ltd." "Single- faced cotton" was priced at Is lOd a square yard and "double-faced cotton" 2s Id. That Dunlop were well aware of the value of aviation as a publicity medium was proved by a photographin another 1911 Flight issue of two balloons carrying the name and made for the company by Short Bros of Battersea. During the 1914-18 war most of the Dunlop tyre effort wastowards land transport, but in the later stages of the conflict their general engineering side was producing starters for Rolls-Royce Eagle engines and cylinders for the Gnome. In 1919 the company moved its wheel manufacturing activities to the present site a: Foleshill, Coventry, and a much closer connection withthe aircraft industry began. In the 1920s Dunlop tyres began to appear on many famoustypes such as the de Havilland Moth and they were used on the Siddeley Siskin on which F. T. Courtney won the 1923 King's CupRace. By 1925 the company considered it well worth while to form a special aviation division to operate in close collaborationwith aircraft constructors, as is still the case today. From the largest to the smallest, aircraft were beginning to be equippedwith Dunlop tyres. One of many famous examples was the D.H. Hercules City of Delhi which at the close of 1926 inauguratedthe Imperial route from England to India, with the then Air Minister, Sir Samuel Hoare, as one of the passengers. The ever-increasing size and weight of aircraft were nowcreating plenty of problems for the Dunlop designers, and they probably faced their highest hurdle in the Beardmore Inflexible,an experimental aircraft which first flew in 1928 and which had a loaded weight of some 20 tons. "The large Dunlop [main]wheels must have presented a pretty problem in design, having to carry a load of something like 7j tons each," commented Flightat the time. These wheels consisted of steel rims riveted to light- alloy discs; the tyres, although nearly 8ft in diameter, still followedthe narrow section commonly used on road vehicles. By 1929 wire wheels were being replaced by disc wheels andin the early 1930s Dunlop equipment of this type was seen on such famous civil transports as the Handley Page H.P.42 and theFokker monoplanes. Meanwhile, the Dunlop engineers were busy on brake develop-ment, and in 1930 their first differential brake was demonstrated on an Avro Avian. The segmented friction pads of this brakewere applied by means of an air-pressurized radial rubber tube. In 1934 a similar system was developed, but with hydraulic fluid Left, Dunlop tyres on the wire wheels of the D.H. Hercules "City of Delhi." Centre, one of the enormous wheels of the Beardmore Inflexible. Right, the Avro Avian on which Dunlop differential braking was introduced
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