Peyret Alerion Tandem
Страна: Франция
Год: 1922
Планер
Единственный экземпляр
Описание:
M.Simons The World's Vintage Sailplanes 1908-45
Flight, October 1922
THE PEYRET TANDEM MONOPLANE
Фотографии

M.Simons The World's Vintage Sailplanes 1908-45

THE PEYRET TANDEM

  Louis Peyret, born in 1881, met the future aviator Paulhan when both were in the army. From then on, Peyret’s life was one of aeronautical experiments. Peyret joined Bleriot and they built a tandem-winged aeroplane. In 1922 his friend Alexis Maneyrol ordered a glider for a meeting to be held at Combegrasse.
  Peyret built him a tandem. The angles of incidence of the two flying surfaces required careful adjustment but when properly trimmed with the centre of gravity in the right place, the combination was very stable. Peyret also ensured good lateral stability by giving both sets of wings a generous dihedral angle of ten degrees and sweeping them back, which also has a slight lateral stabilising effect.
  Each wing panel had two tubular spars of duralumin, a very advanced material at that time. The spars were braced diagonally against torsion and supported at their mid points by ‘N’ struts of generous size. Wooden ribs were threaded over the spars and full-span control surfaces, ailerons (or elevons) were used. Forward stick movement lowered both the rear elevons and raised both the front ones, giving the desired strong nose-down pitch, and back stick gave the reverse effect. A leftward stick movement raised both elevons on that side and depressed both those on the right, so giving a left bank, and right stick, vice versa.
  The fuselage was a light wooden frame covered with thin plywood. The cockpit was of the most elementary kind, the pilot’s head emerging just behind the front wing, with the top longeron of the framework above. The decking was curved concavely to form a long, narrow pylon to which the wings were attached. Gaps at the wing centre sections were not sealed. A couple of aeroplane wheels, complete with axle and springing, were mounted ahead of the centre of gravity. A simple rudder was provided. All the flying surfaces were covered with rubberised fabric. The general impression, even in 1922, was not beautiful.
  At the Combegrasse glider meeting Maneyrol managed only a short glide of less than a minute’s duration. The Tandem then went to England for the glider contest at Itford Hill, arriving on the last day. At lunch when Maneyrol declared himself ready, no great development was expected. Raynham, earlier in the week, had soared for 1 hour 53 minutes in the Handasyde glider and everyone believed the prize was his. The Peyret went off into the rising wind and quickly soared up to a height of several hundred feet. The crowd, still quite large, gazed upward in surprise. The peculiar contraption showed no sign of ever coming down again. About three hours remained before sunset. Raynham took another launch, but made an error and landed after a few minutes. As Maneyrol’s time in the air increased, yet another strange latecomer arrived; the so-called Brokker, a Bristol Fighter fuselage married to a Fokker D VIII wing. Flown by Alec Gray, this craft, which had cost eighteen shillings and sixpence, quickly joined the Peyret and the two shared the hill between them until Gray landed after an hour. Maneyrol floated on. At last, in gathering gloom, he came down to land by the light of car headlights, and carried off the great prize of £1000 as well as the world gliding duration record. 3 hours 21 minutes and 7 seconds.
  At Vauville on the Atlantic coast of France. Maneyrol in January 1923 soared for 8 hours 5 minutes and showed how, by soaring along the cliffs, quite large distances and even predeclared out-and-return flights could be done. Peyret built a second tandem, almost identical to the original, which was taken by Lieutenant Le Petit to the soaring meeting held at Biskra in Algeria in January and February. Maneyrol flew his Tandem again at the Vauville meeting in the summer of 1923. At this meeting was another Peyret Tandem but this time with a motor of 12 horsepower. From Vauville Maneyrol hastened once more to England, this time to take part in the light aeroplane trials at Lympne in October. On one of his flights, in turbulent air, the Peyret motorplane’s wing collapsed and Maneyrol was killed.
  With this accident, development of tandem aircraft practically ceased, though Peyret remained active in aviation for many years and again built a tandem, the Taupin, a powered aircraft, which he flew himself in 1931. This aircraft was restored and flew again in 1979.

  Technical data:
  Peyret Tandem: Span, 6.60 m. Wing area, both pairs, 14.0 sq m. Aspect ratio (each wing), 6.22. Flying weight, 135 kg. Wing loading, 9.65 kg/sq m.

Flight, October 1922

THE PEYRET TANDEM MONOPLANE
Details of the Winning Machine

   UNUSUAL as is the aerodynamic design of the Peyret tandem monoplane, its construction appealed to all experts at the first glance, and even before the machine took the air it was conceded that, whatever peculiar views M. Peyret might have on the subject of disposition of wing surfaces, side areas, etc., he knew how to build a glider. The three-ply mahogany fuselage was evidently the work of an expert, and the wing bracing with one set of "N" struts on each side gave great rigidity in spite of evidently slender spars. Also, the differential control arrangement certainly looked extremely unlike what one would expect from an amateur enthusiast. Yet the fact remains that no one, ourselves included, really took the machine seriously until it had left the ground. It is useless to pretend that it was otherwise. Everybody was "taken in” and before the start most of us expected to see the machine crash on the hill-side. No sooner was it in the air, however, than it became evident that here was a machine which had something that most of the others lacked, i.e., controllability to an amazing extent. That it was as efficient, regarded purely as a glider in still air, as some of the others might be open to doubt, but that the pilot did have abundant control could not be doubted for one moment. The short, sharp turns bore testimony to that, as did the fact that even the most vigilant observation of the machine failed to reveal more than the slightest movement of the ailerons, indicating that at no time were the controls used to anything approaching their fullest extent. The rudder could be seen moving slightly from side to side, but otherwise only a minimum of control appeared to be required. Having thus frankly admitted our failure to appreciate at first sight the merits of the Peyret monoplane, we may proceed to give a detailed description of the machine.
   The Peyret monoplane glider is of a type which has for many years been considered rather inefficient. Wind tunnel experiments on tandem surfaces have shown the rear plane to be far less efficient than the front one, and consequently, when large area was required combined with small span, designers got into the habit of choosing the biplane or triplane arrangement. Nor should we like to assert that they were wrong where power-driven machines are concerned. To employ the large rear plane means carrying about a considerable amount of rather superfluous structure weight which can ill be afforded. In a glider, however, this is but a small price to pay for the amazing controllability which the tandem arrangement gives, and to M. Peyret is due the credit for having realised this. Not only so, but having failed to find a French constructor willing to build the machine, M. Peyret set to work and built it himself. The whole of the work, therefore, is his own, from the first conception to the finished machine.
   The tandem arrangement of the lifting surfaces necessitates a very strong fuselage; especially is this so when one considers the torsional stresses to which the fuselage may be subjected owing to a gust striking one wing before the other. Now the ply-wood covered type of fuselage is exceptionally good in torsion, hence this form of construction was chosen. The internal framework is very light, consisting of spruce longerons and struts, with here and there a multi-ply former (reduced to a mere skeleton by sawing away most of the material except diagonals) where local stresses call for extra rigidity. Over this light framework is placed a covering of three-ply mahogany, approximately 3/32 in. thick.
   In section the fuselage varies considerably from point to point. At the cockpit the section is approximately rectangular, while forward and aft of this point the sides are of the "tumble-home" variety. The front two-thirds of the body is surmounted by a triangular section, which towards the stern merges into the inward-sloping sides of the main structure. Immediately in front of, and also behind, the cockpit the triangular section has its sides curved inwards, so as to improve the pilot's view. Along the ridge of the triangular "roof" runs a nearly straight longitudinal member, which is extended over the pilot's cockpit. Thus a weakening of the structure at this point is avoided.
   The wings are characterised by a pronounced dihedral and back-sweep. The former has doubtless been necessitated by the large side area of the fuselage, and the latter by a desire to place the pilot behind the trailing edge and yet get the centre of gravity sufficiently far forward to make the front plane more heavily loaded than the rear, thus obtaining longitudinal stability by placing the front wing at a larger angle of incidence than the rear.
   Constructionally the wings, front and rear of which are of equal span and area, consist of light ribs, placed somewhat far apart, carried on tubular spars of Duralumin. Short nose ribs extending from leading edge to front spar are placed half-way between main ribs. The wing section used is fairly thin, although of considerable camber, and the wings are braced by a single pair of "N" struts (Duralumin tubes enclosed in wood fairings) on each side. These struts work in compression as well as in tension, there being no top bracing. Attachment of spars to the fuselage is by short “T"-shaped bolts passing through the ends of the tubular spars and through short roots, made of wood, built into the fuselage just below the "ridge pole."
   The undercarriage is of somewhat unusual design, although being of the simple two-wheel type. The axle passes across underneath the floor of the fuselage, but another member, also a tube, shaped somewhat like a very flat inverted "U," passes through slots in the sides and carries the rubber-cord shoe absorbers. Radius rods in the form of tubes run from the axle forward to points underneath the floor of the body, a short distance behind the nose. The undercarriage is divided in the centre so as to allow of removing the inverted "U," the two halves fitting into a central sleeve, where they are held by bolts.
   As the greatest merit of the Peyret monoplane lies in its very effective controls, these will be dealt with at some length, and in order further to facilitate understanding of their working we would refer readers to the accompanying diagram. The essential feature of the controls themselves, apart from the system of working the four wing flaps simultaneously, is the use of a differential, formed by three bevel gears. One of these is mounted on the control column, and is placed in a transverse plane. This wheel engages with two others of the same size, but placed in a longitudinal plane. The action is similar to that of the differential of a motor-car. When the control column is moved in a fore-and-aft direction, the two side wheels move with it, without any movement relatively to one another. When, however, the control column is moved from side to side, the two side wheels move in opposite directions. To the two side wheels are attached short shafts, carrying on their outer ends cranks from which cables run to the wing flaps. The manner of connecting up the control cranks and flap king-posts will best be understood from a reference to the diagram. From this it will be seen that when the "stick" is pushed forward the flaps of the front wing are raised, those of the rear wing lowered. When the control column is pulled back, the reverse is the case. When the column is pushed to the left the starboard flaps of both front and rear wings are depressed, those on the port side being elevated at the same time. Pushing the "stick" to the right has, of course, the reverse action, while any combination of lateral and longitudinal movement is possible.
   The same movement could, of course, be obtained by the use of crank levers, but arrangement would have to be made for the ends of one lever sliding in slots in the other, and the use of bevel gears results in a much more positive, and mechanically better, action.
   Directional control is by rudder worked from a foot bar in the ordinary way. We are not quite certain as to how great effect the rudder has, placed as it is so close behind the rear plane, but it appears probable that, even assuming the rudder to be not particularly effective, the machine can be easily turned by the use of the wing flaps. In other words, the machine can probably be turned easily with the flaps, even with the rudder central, whereas we are somewhat doubtful regarding directional control with the wing flaps locked in the neutral position. Nor does it appear to matter very much, as the machine can undoubtedly be turned in a very short radius by the combined use of rudder and flaps.
   Apart from its extraordinary controllability, the Peyret monoplane would appear to possess certain other advantages. Thus the view obtained from the pilot's cockpit is exceptionally good, owing to the fact that the front wing is placed relatively high so that the pilot's eyes are approximately in line with the wing chord, while he is situated behind the trailing edge and therefore has an unrestricted view downwards. Also, in a crash, the machine should offer a maximum of protection to the pilot, as there is a good deal of fuselage both in front and behind him, while laterally the two pairs of wings project a considerable distance, reinforced by the "N" struts.
   Altogether, the Peyret monoplane is a machine of more than ordinary interest, and there can be little doubt that it will, as the French say, faire ecole. The tandem arrangement offers so many advantages that it is not to be doubted that machines of similar design will appear, probably incorporating detail improvements, but following the Peyret (and incidentally S. P. Langley, whose "aerodromes" were of the tandem type, and whose ideas have been vindicated to no small extent by the performance of this machine) in the disposition of their lifting surfaces.
   The weight of the Peyret glider is given by M. Peyret himself as 67 kgs. (147.4 lbs.). The machine looks as if it might be heavier than that, but the wings are certainly very light, and the fuselage is probably lighter than it appears to be. The undercarriage, however, is probably fairly heavy. Assuming the weight to be 150 lbs., and the same figure for the pilot, the total weight is 300 lbs., which, with an area of 153 sq. ft., gives an average loading of 2 lbs./sq. ft. Actually the loading of the front wing is greater and that of the rear wing smaller than this figure.
The Winner: Bringing the Peyret monoplane up to the top of Firle Beacon.
The Peyret Tandem, escorted by spectators, is trundled toward the take-off point at Itford Hill. The tail dolly used as an aid in ground handling has been re-invented more recently.
Before the beginning of the Light 'Plane Movement, a glider meeting was held at Itford Hill in Sussex. This was won by a Frenchman, M. Maneyrol, who is seen here during his flight of more than three hours.
THE START OF A FAMOUS FLIGHT: M. Maneyrol's Peyret monoplane gets away on October 21 for its record flight.
The Peyret Tandem immediately after its launch from Itford Hill in 1922. The rubber bungee rope had just fallen away, the heads of the launch crew being visible down the slope.
SOARING AT FIRLE BEACON HILL: General view, showing a small section of the crowds who watched; M. Maneyrol's splendid performance. Note the altitude above starting point.
NEAR THE FINISH: Our photograph shows the Peyret monoplane and Sqdn.-Ldr. Gray's "Brokker" in the air together. Inset, another view of the Peyret. As the machines approached one another the two pilots would wave a cheery greeting and then drift apart once more. In spite of the darkness the machines did not appear to be in any danger of colliding.
View of the tandem winged Peyret glider at Itford in October 1922. The record flight of 3hr 21min ended with a perfect landing in total darkness.
The Winner: M. Maneyrol, in the cockpit of his machine, photographed at Selfridges, where the Peyret monoplane is on view this week. Behind the machine may be seen Lieut.-Commander Larrouy, manager and interpreter to M. Maneyrol. Inset, M. Louis Peyret, who designed and built the winning machine.
THE PEYRET MONOPLANE: Diagrammatic representation of the control system, by which the wing flaps are used as combined ailerons and elevators.
THE PEYRET MONOPLANE: Some constructional details. 1, View into the cockpit, showing controls and position of air speed indicator. 2, The differential control by which the flaps are operated as combined ailerons and elevators 3 and 4, Details of the wing bracing strut attachments. 5, One side of the undercarriage. The wheel has been omitted for the sake of clearness. 6, Front wing roots on fuselage. 7, Details of spar attachment to fuselage. Note metal-faced ply-wood wing roots, and quick-release bolts.
Peyret Tandem Monoplane
Peyret Tandem