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Aviation History
1963
1963 - 0770.PDF
FLIGHT International, 23 May 1963 741 UP TO DATE ON THE ARGOSY TOWARDS the end of this year the first Argosy Series 200 being built by Hawker Siddeley's Avro-Whitworth division will make its first flight. The major difference between it and the ten Series 100 Argosies that have now flown more than 40,000hr on all-freight operations in America and Europe is in the structural design of the wing. The original two-spar mass-boom wing, which is also fitted to the RAF's 56 Argosy 660s, was developed from that fitted to the Shackleton and had a limited safe fatigue life of about 30,000hr—depending on the average stage length and cruising altitude. In contrast, the new box-spar wing is fail-safe, and has an infinite fatigue life as well as being designed to a more difficult flight plan from the repeated gust-loading point of view. The Series 100 wing was designed for a 500 n.m. sector flown at 21,000ft with a flight time of 2.5hr at a mean weight of 80,5001b, whilst the Series 200 wing is designed for a 330 n.m. sector flown at 14,000ft with a flight time of 1.5hr at a mean weight of 82,5001b. A useful bonus conferred by the new wing is a reduction of the total air frame weight by 3801b. This has been achieved principally through eliminating the bag-type fuel tanks by sealing the intermediate portions of the wing to make integral tanks, and by removing two of the fuselage frames made redundant by the new method of wing attachment. Apart from the advantage to the operator of the fail-safe wing in terms of lower maintenance costs, the new design has permitted an all-round increase in permissible weights, and made it possible to take advantage of almost any foreseeable increase in power from the Roll-Royce Dart engine. At the moment there are no plans to fit more powerful Darts, such as the RDa.10/1, but this would be quite feasible and the extra power could be used either to increase gross weight or improve take-off performance. The new box spar, which occupies roughly 50 per cent of the wing chord, has attached to it the existing leading and trailing edges, outer portions, and tips of the Series 100. The box spar is a semi- monocoque structure with three webs having small T-section extruded booms, and ribs at approximately 20in pitch. The top and bottom skins are divided into six planks reinforced by Z-section stringers. On the bottom skin the stringers are Reduxed to the 2024ST naturally aged aluminium/copper-alloy skin, whereas those at the top are squeeze-riveted to the DTD.746 skins. Access for visual inspection of the fail-safe structure is provided by manholes in the upper surface. With the better use of wing volume by the integral tanks, only the intermediate portion of the wing is needed to give the same total fuel capacity as the eight bag tanks distributed through the centre and intermediate portions of the Series 100 wing. If extra range is required, a lOOgal bag tank can be fitted in each outer panel. The parallel-chord centre portion between the booms is assembled from three sections, the centre piece being attached to the fuselage through multi-bolt joints at ten points. Although there are not yet any confirmed orders for the ten Series 200 Argosies that Hawker Siddeley are building for possible delivery starting in September 1964, it will be surprising if there are no further orders from areas where the Argosy 100 is already in operation and arousing growing interest. After more than two years of successful operation on the Logair network, most branches of the USAF are still discovering the full potentialities offered by the Argosy's unique features, and there is growing appreciation of the aircraft in many parts of North America. With its truck-bed height double-end loading and turbine power, the Argosy might have been designed specifically for the Logair operation. Nevertheless, at a first price of £680,000 fully equipped but without Rolamat, most operators view the investment with some trepidation because the USAF contracts are signed only for three-year periods with a renegotiation of rates each year. By using the Argosy's quick turnround features to best advantage, some airlines tendering for Logair contracts may be able to fit in some common-carriage operations as another way of underwriting their investment. With BEA's rumoured interest in part of the first batch of Series 200 Argosies, Hawker Siddeley can be fairly confident that these aircraft will never gather dust on the shelf, ARGOSY SERIES 200 Powerplant Four Rolls-Royce Dart 526 turboprop: of 2,100 e.h.p. each driving Dowty-Rotol type 186/4-30 I Ift 6in propellers. Weight! Max take-off, 90,0001b; max landing, 84,0001b: zero fuel, 80,0001b: capacity payload, 31,0001b; weight less fuel and payload, 49,0001b. Payload accommodation Cabin volume, 3,680 cu ft; cabin length, 46ft lOin; max width, lift 8in; max height, 8ft 9in; usable floor area, 426 sq ft; rear door, 6ft 8in X 8ft 8in; front door, 6ft Sin X 8ft 4in; seating capacity, 84 at 32in pitch; max number of 463L pallets (88in wide x I08in), 12. Fuel capacity 3,400 Imp gal. Performance Typical cruising speed, 240kt; balanced field length at max take off weight, ISA, SL, 5,300ft; unfactored landing distance at ISA, SL, max landing weight, 3,280ft; range with max payload, 650 n.m.; range with I3,800lb payload, 2,080 n.m. This drawing shows the major differences in struc tural layout between the safe-life Argosy Series 100 wing and the fail-safe wing of the Series 200. Instead of being pin-jointed to the fuselage, the Series 200 wing is attached through ten multi-bolt double forg- ings to form a more inte grated part of the top fuselage structure © lliffe Transport Publications Ltd 1963
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