Air Pictorial 1957-08
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Photos by request
JUST AN ILLUSION. This is not a case demanding a Court of Inquiry but simply a between-the-wars trick of the R.A.F. in the Middle East to give some welcome shade to single-seaters by manoeuvring the smaller aircraft as close as possible to the bigger 'planes. This excellent example of the manoeuvre shows a first-contract (E8249), all-silver Sopwith Snipe 7F.1 (230-h.p. Bentley B.R.2 rotary radial) of No. I (Iraq) Fighter Squadron photographed at Hinaidi, Baghdad, in 1926, sheltering under the 87-ft. 4-in. span of the second production (J7922) Vickers Victoria Mk. I (two 570-h.p. Napier Lion " broad arrow" twelve-cylinder inlines) of No. 70 (Middle East) Transport Squadron, based at Hinaidi. Note the early type of Vee-fronted rudders. Victorias could carry twenty-two troops, plus two crew, and took part in many pioneer military air lifts and long-range "showing-the-Flag" exercises. The 121-m.p.h. Snipe of 1918 remained in service until the late 1920s, and was the last R.A.F. fighter to be powered by a rotary aero engine.
Also hitherto unpublished is the U.S.A.F. Research and Development Command's Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress fitted out as a piiton-engine flying test-bed - shown here with a 3,500-h.p. Wright R-3350 radial in the nose.
Artistically serialled B2402 is a 1917, Hainault Farm-based Sopwith Camel F.1/3 night fighter (note "blacked-out" markings), with twin Foster gun mountings. Production N.F. Camel F.1/3 built by Royston Proctor.
Hitherto unpublicised is the fact that at least one German Focke-Wulf Fw 190A-3 (1,100-h.p. B.M.W.801 Dg radial) was tested in Japan, circa 1942/43. Note the Nippon (red "meatball") roundel under the port wing. Further information would be
welcomed.
In 1916 the Royal Naval Air Service took first delivery of one hundred U.S.-built Curtiss R-2 (160-h.p. Curtiss VX water-cooled eight-cylinder Vee) two-seat reconnaissance biplanes with a maximum speed of 86 m.p.h. for a.u.w. of 2,800 lb. Span
47 ft. II in.; length 28 ft . II in.
Looking more like an amphibian than a landplane this Canadian Curtiss Twin (two 100-h.p. Sturtevant watercooled eight-cylinder Vees), sometimes called the "Twin Canada" - was tested at Farnborough in 1916 (serial 3700). The three-seater was given an adverse report and the contract for one hundred (R.N.A.S.) was cancelled (serials 9500-9599). Maximum speed 78 m.p.h.; span 42 ft. 8 in.; length 28 ft.