A photograph of the general maintenance shops, one of many devoted to different items of equipment. The machine on the left of the picture will be recognised as one of the D.C.3s used by K.L.M. on their Batavia service
FLEET FIGHTER PROTOTYPE: The new experimental Grumman mid-wing single-seater fleet fighter for the U.S. Navy. A Pratt and Whitney Twin Wasp engine is fitted and the undercarriage retracts into the bottom of the fuselage, as with the Grumman biplanes now in service.
Chinese Curtiss Hawks with Wright Cyclone engines and retractable undercarriages. It may be significant that the cockpit enclosures have been removed.
DEFENCE OF ENGLAND. The Hawker Hurricane with Rolls-Royce Merlin Engine is now in large-scale production for the Air Ministry.
THE HURRYCANE: The production-model Hawker Hurricane.
The Italian Royal Air Force crews of the three Savoias. Lt. Bruno Mussolini is third from the left, back row. In the centre of the row is Col. Biseo, and Capt. Moscatelli is standing at his left.
BATTLE ARRAY: This flight of Fairey Battles has that grimly purposeful air which always seems to distinguish the modern medium bomber dressed in camouflage. In large-scale production, and now forming the equipment of several R.A.F. squadrons, the Battle has the Rolls-Royce Merlin II engine. Top speed is 257 m.p.h. at 15,000ft.
Picking up moorings after a flight. Mr. Lankester Parker is seen in the cabin of Maia, while Mr. Piper, who has had to scurry down from his perch in Mercury, is in the bow compartment making fast to one of the rubber buoys which are used exclusively at Rochester, and which were the invention of the late Mr. Eustace Short.
Getting ready for the great event. Mr. Piper goes on board Mercury, which is resting on the special supports on the Maia.
UP WITH THE COMPOSITE: Though the first separation of the Short-Mayo composite combination, Mercury and Maia, is said to have been witnessed only by bargees in the Medway estuary, the art of the aerial photographer brings us an intimate glimpse of this strangest of all aircraft not long before the “great event.”
After the successful separation Mr. Piper gave a fine demonstration of high-speed flying before alighting off the Short works at Rochester.
Maia as separate seaplane.
Mr. Lankester Parker, who piloted Maia, inspects his “clocks” in the inset picture.
Mr. Piper is seen mooring Mercury.
Maia and Mercury as a composite, or eight-engined, biplane.
The composite aircraft taxying into position for a take-off with all eight engines running.
A view inside Mercury, looking forward.
The indicating lights which show the trim and pull of the upper component at any given moment.
How it is done: the interiors of the Short-Mayo units
Structural details of Mercury are revealed by these Flight sketches. The central drawing shows the complete machine, with covering partly removed, and the lettered arrows give a clue to the locations of the structural features which are shown in greater detail in the other sketches.
Spar and rib construction is shown in A as well as in the large drawing at the top of the page. Extruded sections form the corners of the spar box, and the leading edge is built up as shown in B. Details of the tubular bracing of the spar box are illustrated in C, and the construction of the region where the wing joins the fuselage is revealed in D.
The large sketch also shows main constructional features of the fuselage of Mercury. It is built rather like a boat hull, and has a stout central keel, on which the weight of the machine is taken when it rests on the trestle on top of Maia’s wing.
Military-type He.111 medium bombers which must do nearer 300 than 250 m.p.h.
A "shot" through the nose turret of a He.111 bomber.
A German artist’s impression: Mounting a Daimler-Benz DB 600 inverted vee in a He.111. The original version of this machine had vee-twelve B.M.W.s.
Proportion: The first A.W. Ensign, now at Coventry, with a few attendants from the A.S.T. school fleet at Hamble.
The unorthodox French Delanne now under construction. A top speed of 370 m.p.h. is calculated, with an Hispano Suiza Series Y engine. The excrescences are a shell-gun and a radio mast.
HELICOPTER CONTROLLABILITY: Fraulein Hanna Reitsch making her remarkable indoor flight with the Focke-Wulf helicopter in the Deutschlandhalle, Berlin. Horizontal motion is obtained from the rotors, and not from the airscrew, which acts mainly as a cooling fan.
The protoype Wellington, Mk 1 L4212, was first flown on December 23, 1937 from Brooklands and is seen landing there in January 1938.
“This desirable Tudor residence” is suggested by the geodetic window-panes of the Vickers Wellington I medium bomber (two Bristol Pegasus with two-speed superchargers), but the performance is anything but medieval. This, the production job - photographed by Flight Brooklands last week - has been very considerably cleaned-up as compared with the prototype which, it may be remembered, had an oddly insect-like bulge at the tip of the tail. The unfamiliar fittings within the collector rings are Vickers crankcase cowlings.
Two Mark I Londons in the air.
A London has just alighted and is taxying up to its moorings.
The moorings at Calshot. A Saro London of No. 201 Sqn. has just landed, while two more Londons and three Supermarine Scapas are moored out. The Scapas belong to the training squadron.
Going down the slipway - a picture which gives a good idea of the rear gunner’s cockpit and of the clear field of fire which is obtained from it between the twin rudders and fins.
A snap of Swissair’s Rapide taken while the two machines were flying in photographic formation over St. Moritz.
COMFORTABLY TO KENYA: Capt. G. de Havilland and Mr. F. T. Hearle (left) have delivered a Wilson Airways Dragon Rapide by easy stages to Kenya. Mr. Hearle has been a colleague of "D.H." since 1908, when he helped him build his first machine.
Two views of the interior of the survey Dragon. The first of them shows the cabin arrangements with the drift sight, linking unit and D/F receiver on the left; the two axis control unit and short-wave receiver in the centre; and the transmitter and the camera cradle stabiliser on the right. Through the door beyond the transmitter may be seen the automatic pilot control panel. The picture on the right shows the installation in the pilot’s cockpit, with the loop control, direction-finding receiver and charging switchboard. The lateral automatic unit is below the pilot’s seat.
ST. MORITZ STUDY. A fine impression of a Swissair Douglas D.C.2 taking off from the new “fine-weather” airport at Samaden {5,500 ft. above sea level), which is proving so useful to winter sports visitors to St. Moritz.
Past and Future: A striking impression of the Stearman Hammond and one of K.L.M.’s D.C.2s on the tarmac at Croydon. The Hammond is, of course, being used to accustom the company’s pilots to the tricycle technique in preparation for possible operation of Douglas D.C.4s in due course. The Hammond is, however, primarily interesting as a private type - or as the basis of future private types.
The photograph of the Oberland south of Glarus gives a good impression of the type of scenery which is enjoyed by the Alpine air traveller.
The enclosed cockpits of one of the Canadian-built Tiger Moths. The protective rubber covering for the instrument panel, and the "jacket" for the oil tank, are among the noticeable features.
The D.H. Albatross takes the air with her new cantilever tailplane. She now has an automatic pilot and leading-edge anti-icing equipment. Mr. Geoffrey de Havilland was the pilot when Flight's photographer secured this picture.
TAIL-PIECE: A close-up of the full cantilever tail of the D.H. Albatross. The rudders have been placed at the extreme tips, and the tailplane has a sharp dihedral. The modification is intended to ensure positive stability under all conditions of flight - this is particularly important for blind take-offs over a wide range of loadings and load dispositions.
A flight of R.A.A.F. Hawker Demons (R.R. Kestrel II) over Australia’s new “streamlined” train.
A Hawker Demon with Nash and Thompson gun turret. The Demon has been the standard R.A.F. two-seater fighter for seven years.
The Miles Kestrel Trainer which would make a very good first-line two-seater fighter, having a speed of 295 m.p.h.
SURVEY FLIGHT: A striking study from the Empire boat, Centaurus, passing Mount Egmont, New Zealand, during her recent survey trip to the Dominion.
ATTRACTIVE HIGH-WING: The latest Wicko, with Gipsy Major engine. It carries two at a cruising speed of 120 m.p.h. (136 m.p.h. maximum), and has a range of 500 miles. The makers are the Foster, Wikner Aircraft Co., Ltd., Southampton Airport.
SANTA CLAUS’ WORKSHOP: German Bucker Jungmanns, popular for ab initio and aerobatic training, stood on their noses to save hangar space.
For dual, not duels: “Student” is the type-name of this new monoplane from the German Bucker works, which have achieved unusual success in a comparatively short time with their biplane trainers. Intended for private - owner and primary school use, it is said to cruise at 100 m.p.h. on the 55 h.p. of the Czecho-Slovakian Walter Mikron four-in-line. A range of 400 miles and fuel consumption of 2.4 galls./hr. are claimed.
A new Heinkel dive-bomber attack monoplane, surely one of the shapeliest aeroplanes ever built.
Accent on manoeuvrability: the Koolhoven F.K.52 (Bristol Mercury) a two-seater fighter with four guns.
DECEPTIVE APPEARANCE: The new American Barkley-Grow light transport with two 400 h.p. Wasp Juniors. Although this machine looks like a Lockheed 12 with a fixed undercarriage, its structure is really unique, the wing having no ribs or bulkheads. A top speed of 225 m.p.h. is claimed and the payload (six passengers, freight and baggage) is 1,450 lb.
D.C.4 TAKES SHAPE: Reminiscent of a power station with its dynamos, a section of the Douglas works is devoted to the construction of the four-engined D.C.4 transport. Fuselage and wings can be seen in separate erection cradles. Weighing 65,000 lb. the machine will carry 42 passengers, a crew of five, several tons of baggage and fuel for a range of 2,200 miles. Production models will have “supercharged” cabins.
The first application of the tricycle undercarriage to a big commercial aeroplane - the forthcoming 40-passenger Douglas D.C.4 The photograph appears to have been made with the aid of a model.
Flying view of the Hammond taken during the machine’s short visit to this country last year. The one-piece flap extends between the tail booms, which must, incidentally, have given the designers food for thought while working on the layout of the elevator controls. The rudders are fixed.
If the position of undercarriage legs in this ground view of the Hammond is compared with that in the flying pictures, the amount of movement will be appreciated; the tricycle type of undercarriage permits an almost unlimited travel since the ground angle need not be considered. Ease of entry into the cabin is an obviously good feature of a machine on pusher-tricycle lines.
SOMETHING DIFFERENT FROM THE STATES: First views of the new Timm light transport (two 400 h.p. Wasp Juniors) which has Handley Page slots and a tricycle undercarriage. Spats and other fairings had not been installed when these snapshots were secured. This machine is one of several new American types to be built largely of wood. The top speed is about 200 m.p.h.
Like most unorthodox pieces of machinery, the Everel airscrew looks a little uncouth until one becomes used to its appearance. In the picture is seen the take-off demonstration, with the Everel-fitted Cub nearest the camera; both had left the same mark simultaneously.
Hts Majesty arrives in the Royal Airspeed Envoy and salutes as the Royal Standard is broken.
JAPANESE “HEAVY”: A heavy bomber of the Japanese Navy believed to te of the Navy 96 type. The engines are B.M.W.s of old vintage built under licence.
Pupils and instructor, with trophy, in front of a Koolhoven - one of those used for training and charter work.
Ground instruction: A group of future K.L.M. pilots with one of the Panders used by the National Flying School.
SPECIALISED LUGGAGE: One way of overcoming the luggage accommodation difficulty. Specially built and fitted suitcases are designed for the production model of the C.W. Cygnet
The flying picture gives a good idea of its smooth lines with the new cabin top and production finish.
The Cygnet’s two-piece flap gear in the “down” position
The wide doors of the Cygnet may be fixed in any position by means of the adjustable stops, and this photograph also shows the neat instrument panel layout, with the easily seen and reached fuel tap immediately below it. The amount of transparent area is noteworthy.
Two typical ground views, showing in each case the tidy cantilever undercarriage, which certainly gives an impression of ground stability
