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Aviation History
1925
1925 - 0702.PDF
OCTOBER 29, 1925 SPAN 29-6 LENGTH.. 2O-O" WING AREA...I56-0SQ.FT. ALBATROS L.69 IOOHP BRISTOL "LUCIFER" ENGINE THE ALBATROS L.69 : General arrangement drawings, to scale. machines was brought to England in 1914, and was demon- strated at Hendon and Farnborough by the German pioneer pilot, Robert Thelen. More recently, various Albatros single-seater fighters will be remembered from the war period, several being on view once upon a time at the exhibition of captured enemy aircraft at the Agricultural Hall, Islington. In the L.69 the Albatros designer, Herr Schubert, has applied his long experience of ply-wood construction to a somewhat more refined design, and the L.69 fuselage and wing are very fine examples of ply-wood construction. The L.69 is a two-seater, with the pilot placed under the trailing edge of the wing, which has been cut away at this point to give access to the cockpit and also to improve the view. The passenger's cockpit is immediately under the wing, and is entered through a trap door in the wing itself. Thus the passenger is rather closely shut in, and, in case of a crash, his chances of getting out of the wreck would probably not be as good as might be desired. As the machine was designed mainly for racing, this feature of the design can perhaps be regarded as one of those compromises which are permissible in a racing machine. The monoplane wing is, as already stated, mainly covered with three-ply, although the hinged trailing edge and ailerons are steel tube structures covered with fabric. The whole trailing edge is hinged, and a variable camber gear is incor- porated in the design. The ailerons are operated by torque rods and cranks, no cables being employed. An unusual feature in the design is the mounting of the wing on the fuselage, which might be described as " three-point suspen- sion " in that the front spar is supported at one point only by a form of fin built integral with and growing out of the fuselage, while the rear spar has two supports in the form of a steel bracket on each side, raked outwards from the top of the fuselage. The wing can be dismantled by undoing the connections at these three points. The Bristol " Lucifer " engine is mounted on a structure of steel tubes attached to the main fuselage at four points, the supports being so designed that the whole engine mounting can be swung out so as t<~> give access to the back of the engine. All controls, petrol, leads, etc., pass through the fire-proof bulkhead near the starboard side, so that there are no joints to break when the engine mounting is swung out for inspection. Considerable care has been taken to streamline the engine, and a large spinner is placed over the airscrew boss. The petrol tank is mounted in the centre section of the monoplane wing, which position gives sufficient height for direct gravity feed to be employed. The tail of the L.69 is of normal type, except that owing to the fact that the fuselage is provided with a fairing terminating in a point at the rear, the rudder is wholly above the tail 'plane. The rudder is balanced with the conventional form of horn balance, although this should scarcely be necessary in such a small machine. The tail skid moves with the rudder for steering on the ground. The undercarriage is of conventional type, and is in the form of steel tubes with streamline fairings. The main dimensions of the Albatros L.69 are shown on the accompanying scale drawings. The only information relating to weights is that the useful load is 201 kgs. (445 lbs.). The top speed of 170 kms./hr. (105-6 m.p.h.) is mentioned, but we believe that this refers to the machine fitted with the Siemens engine. With the Bristol " Lucifer " it seems probable that a somewhat higher speed is attained, and a rough estimate indicates that the top speed may be in the neighbourhood of 110 m.p.h. The machine is fairly heavily loaded, and it was noticed at the Rundflug that it took rather a long run to get off. The following figures for climb probably also refer to the Siemens-engined type, and may be slightly better in the case of the machine fitted with Bristol "Lucifer": 500 metres in two minutes, 1,000 metres in four minutes. The landing speed is given as 105 kms./hr. (65 m.p.h.). Cairo-Kano R.A.F. Flight Starts rTHE R.A.F. flight from Cairo to Kano (Nigeria) started at 7 a.m. on October 27, when Squadron Leader ArthurConningham, Flight-Lieuts. H. W. Baggs and H. V. Rowley, Flight-Sergeant Evans and Sergts. Kennedy and Grant leftHelwan aerodrome in three D.H.9a biplanes (400 h.p. '' Liberty " engines.) The latter are standard machinesexcept for additional petrol tanks and special under-carriages. All three machines arrived at Wady Haifa at 1.45 p.m.Among the large gathering which saw them off were Lieu tenant- General Sir Richard Haking, G.O.C. the British troops inEgypt, and Air Vice-Marshal Sir Oliver Swann, Air Officer Commanding Royal Air Force, Middle East, Sir GeorgeLloyd, the High Commissioner, sent a message of good wishes. Croydon Aerodrome ImprovementsA START has now been made on the improvements toCroydon aerodrome. The existing war-time buildings will be replaced by new up-to-date buildings. Plough Lane will be diverted, thus considerably enlarging the space available for taking off and landing. A special anti-fog and night- landing installation is also being laid down. This consists of a series of parallel trenches across the aerodrome in which are sunk Neon-light tubes, protected by thick plate-glass covers flush with the ground. The light from these tubes has remarkable fog-penetrating properties. In between the light trenches, "Leader cables" will be laid, so that in the event of fog, or at night, the pilot of an in-coming aeroplane after having been guided to Croydon by the usual wireless direction-finding system, will be able to locate his exact position—directionally as well as to altitude—above the aerodrome by means of the "Leader cable," and then land through the agency of the Neon lights. Zeppelin Raid MemorialON October 31 the Mayor of Camberwell will unveil a tablet at the corner of Clamington Road and Albany Road,in memory of 22 persons killed by a Zeppelin bomb in an air raid in 1917. 702
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