Miles M.3 Falcon

Прототип первого настоящего кабинного моноплана M.3 Falcon, спроектированного Ф. Г. Майлзом, выполнил первый полет 12 октября 1934 года. Прототип был трехместным, но в более широкой кабине первой серийной машины помещалось четыре человека. Всего построили 36 самолетов нескольких вариантов, включая M.3A Falcon Major и M.3B Falcon Six. Шесть машин накануне Второй мировой войны поступили в британские ВВС.

M.6 Hawcon

Самолет M.6 Hawcon спроектирован на основе M.2 Hawk и M.3 Falcon с использованием мотора от M.4 Merlin, машина предназначалась для исследований крыла с толстым профилем в Фарнборо.

Flight, August 1934

NEW CABIN MONOPLANE
The "Falcon" Designed by F. G. Miles, to Carry Three or Four Persons

   REAL comfort for three or four persons, high cruising speed, easy flying characteristics, and unusual robustness of construction, are the chief features of the new Miles ''Falcon.''
   One of these machines has been entered for the England-Australia air race by Mr. H. L. Brook, so the performance of the first model, which will be flying very shortly, is awaited with particular interest. The "Falcon" is a logical development of the "Hawk Major," in which particular attention has been paid to providing really comfortable seating for the passengers and to flying qualities of the kind which will make it possible for relatively inexperienced pilots to fly in and out of confined spaces. The "Falcon" will not have a landing speed appreciably greater than the 40 m.p.h. of the standard "Hawk," which is particularly easy to land.
   Mr. Miles, as in his other machines, has, despite the cleanliness of the whole machine with its consequent high cruising speed, managed to retain steep and slow gliding characteristics, so that it will be possible to bring the "Falcon" down over high objects without necessitating side slipping or any other aerobatic means of losing height just before landing. Furthermore, this machine will later be available with a new form of wing flap, which Mr. Miles has developed, and this will have the effect of decreasing the gliding speed by some 15 m.p.h., so that when landing with the flaps down, and by using the wheel brakes, the landing run need not exceed 70 yards.
   Generally, the construction of the "Falcon" is similar to both the standard "Hawk," and the "Hawk Major." The wing is extremely rigid, and has a plywood covering enclosing box-section, spruce and plywood, spars. The ribs are normal girder construction, of spruce with plywood "biscuits" at the joints. The plywood wing covering is glued to these ribs, and obviates the use of any other bracing between the spars. It will be remembered that when the "Hawk" first came out, Phillips and Powis, in their factory at Reading aerodrome, made good use of factory methods calculated to assist economical production. For instance, the way they achieved this glueing-on of the plywood was with a simple form of office stapling machine, which clamps the plywood to the ribs, and, for that matter, to the longerons and struts in the case of the fuselage, until the glue is dry. After this the staples are removed so that a perfectly clear, dean surface is left, helping considerably with the production of that particularly high-class finish of all Miles' "Hawks."
   The fuselage is also of the box type of construction, using spruce and plywood. There is a welded steel tube structure over the spacious cabin, covered with transparent celluloid with unbreakable glass in the front. One side of this structure hinges forward, forming a door of ample size for getting in and out of the cabin.
   The normal seating accommodation, when a "Gipsy Major" engine is fitted, is for three persons, the pilot sitting in front, slightly to the left-hand side, and his two passengers behind him on a well-padded seat, very similar to that found in most modern motor cars. The seat itself and its back rest is right across the fuselage, and has a collapsible arm in the middle.
   Where it is wished to operate the "Falcon" as a regular taxi machine, or on feeder lines, or from large aerodromes only, it is quite possible to carry another passenger beside the pilot, while still being able to carry a reasonable amount of luggage without exceeding the C. of A. weight. In this case, of course, the operator will not be justified in expecting quite such a good take-off, but in other ways the machine will be no different from the three-seater.
   When fitted with the "Gipsy Six" engine, a considerably better speed is expected. At the time of writing, the "Falcon" has not flown, and the performance figures are not, therefore, included in our table. While not wishing to dogmatise on the matter, the designer confidently expects a top speed and cruising speed of 136 m.p.h. and 120 m.p.h. respectively for the "Gipsy Major" engine, and 160 m.p.h. and 140 m.p.h. for the "Gipsy Six."
   The undercarriage is the same cantilever type as is used in the "Hawk Major," except that medium-pressure tyres will be fitted. Our sketch fully explains how this neat form of landing gear is attached to the centre-section spar. By means of carefully planned fairings over each half of the undercarriage, the drag has been reduced to a very low figure, so low that Mr. Miles is convinced that the cost and weight of fitting a retractable undercarriage is not justified in a machine of this type.
   As we have said already, one of the chief aims which has been kept in mind in designing the ''Falcon" is to produce a machine which above all things shall be easy to fly, and by a slight increase of the dihedral angle over that of the "Hawk," that is, from 3 1/2 deg. to 5 deg., the “Falcon” has been made sufficiently stable to fly "hands and feet off” for long periods, while at the same time retaining ample manoeuvrability for handling while landing, or during emergencies, with great ease.
   In the matter of upkeep, the "Falcon" should be just as good as any other "Hawk." The absence of bracing wires and outside fittings are points in its favour, which, taken together with the robustness of its general construction, make it a machine which will stand up to a good deal of hard work, and which will only cost a very small sum when the annual renewal of C. and A. is made.
   Phillips and Powis have now had considerable experience in operating "Hawks" for school work, and their figures show that the type is very economical. The owner of a "Falcon" need not, therefore, expect that because he is getting a larger machine his maintenance costs will go up to any great extent.

Flight, January 1935

IMPROVEMENTS in the "FALCON"
Some Interesting Alterations in a well-known Miles Product: An Unusual Windscreen Design, Enlarged Accommodation, and Neat Control Layout

   AT Mildenhall, on the morning of the England-Australia Race, the public saw the first four-seater to be produced by Phillips and Powis, Ltd., of Reading. This was the Miles "Falcon," which had been previously described in Flight for August 23, 1934. Since that time considerable alterations and improvements have been made to this model, and first details are published below.
   A point which will first be noticed when this latest "Falcon" comes out of the factory - as it will do very shortly - is the new windscreen. Instead of the sloping screen characteristic of British design for many years past, Mr. Miles now employs one which actually slopes forward. He has already tried out this design in "mock-up" form, with gratifying results and an increase of speed of approximately 4 m.p.h. The small front panes are at a sharp angle, and fine rain or snow should not collect upon them. The top part of the screen, over these panes, is of "Rhodoid," moulded to the correct shape. The general theory of this screen, as evolved in the United States on certain of the larger high-speed commercial air liners, is that the air in front of the screen is pushed forward and forms a cushion which tends to streamline all that part of the machine, so that the flow comes from the nose of the machine over the windscreen and flows aft, unbroken, behind it. With the sloping form of screen the air is shot steeply upwards over the screen, creating eddies above and behind it, thereby creating more drag than in the former case.
   The internal arrangement of the "Falcon" has also been somewhat redesigned. It is now slightly wider and will provide extremely comfortable seating for four people. Dual control has been arranged in a neat manner which obviates the necessity for having two control columns or a changeover wheel type of control. This has been achieved by jointing the stick well above the bottom pivot, as is done in some military aircraft; reference to our sketches will show the details. An arm-rest will be arranged between the seats, thus allowing the pilot in the left-hand seat to fly with his right elbow on the rest, in which position the stick comes comfortably to his hand.
   Very considerable interest has been aroused by this machine, and although at the time of writing it has not yet flown, several orders have been placed. It is hoped that the cruising speed will be in the neighbourhood of 125-130 m.p.h. with the "Gipsy Major" 130 h.p. engine. With the "Gipsy Six" which can be fitted if a smaller payload can be accepted, the performance will be substantially higher. The balanced flaps, which have already achieved such success in the “Hawk Major,” will be used, and for the present, at any rate, their operation will be very much the same, though the question of hydraulic operation is under consideration.
   All the "Hawk" series are substantially the same as regards their construction, that is to say, the spars are boxed up with spruce booms and plywood webs, and both the wings and fuselage are completely covered with plywood, which is secured to the appropriate members by glue. It will be remembered that in a description of the "Hawk" when it first came out, Flight commented very favourably upon the method by which Mr. Powis ensured perfect glueing while at the same time doing away with all pins or screws. This was by the use of a form of office "stapling" machine with the turn-over mechanism removed, so that the small wire staples, of the kind normally used for clamping sheets of paper together, were forced straight into the plywood and through to the member underneath. This can be done exceedingly quickly, and when the glue is dry the staples are removed.
   Mr. Miles believes in an adequate margin of strength, and his aircraft are, therefore, considerably stronger than the Air Ministry regulations require, so that for special circumstances a great deal more load can be carried. It is understood that this feature is being made use of in a subsequent type which will carry five people, and for which orders have already been accepted.

Flight, February 1935

FLYING COMFORT
The Miles "Falcon" in Production: Features to Appeal to the Private Owner: Impressions During a Test

   THERE should be a large demand for the Miles "Falcon," which has just gone into production, because it seems to have nearly every desirable feature which private owners will require in an aeroplane of this type: Strength - as with all Mr. Miles' designs, the factors are more than the legal minimum; comfort - plenty of room for four people and ample space for luggage; speed - we found the A.S.I. showing 122-125 m.p.h. at normal r.p.m.; slow landing - with flaps down we touched down “off the clock” and ran only a few yards; stability - hands or feet off, the "Falcon" flew safely.
   Taking the flying characteristics in more detail, because Flight has already dealt with the structural features (August 23, 1934, and January 10 of this year), a prolonged trial showed that we were justified in thinking that the "Falcon," in its production form, would be even more pleasant to fly than was the "Hawk Major," although when we tried the latter machine it did not seem possible to ask for more. A slight increase in the dihedral of the wings has resulted in more lateral stability, so that the "Falcon" almost flies itself, but it has not, as is so often the case with a machine having this characteristic to a marked extent, lost any of its manoeuvrability. In addition, the "Falcon" is both directionally stable and has its fin surface so nicely proportioned that turns can be made, and the machine flown for all normal purposes, without touching the rudder bar.

A Good Outlook

   The unusual shape of the windscreen enables the pilot to sit well forward, so that he has an excellent outlook when flying, landing or taxi-ing. The outlook when landing is also helped by the nose-down attitude in which the "Falcon" can be glided when the flaps are lowered. Probably there is no machine in which an approach is so easy as in this. The hydraulically operated flaps can be used in exactly the same way as the brakes on a car, and this ability to lengthen or steepen the glide at will proved of inestimable benefit when the engine cuts, as it did last Sunday, and we had to land “from where we were" so to speak. Actually, the possession of these flaps robbed such a proceeding of any excitement, and the incident, which was due to a stuck fuel gauge showing a supply which was non-existent, served only to prove their great value.
   In the air it is delightful to throttle back, lower the flaps with a few strokes of the hydraulic pump handle, and then, with a “waffle” of engine, cruise along at less than 50 m.p.h.
   Of the other products from Reading, the five-seater with “Gipsy Six” engine, to which we referred last January, is now well ahead, and a “Falcon" also with the larger engine, has been designed.

Flight, April 1936

MODERN LIGHT AIRCRAFT REVIEWED

MILES

   SINCE 1933, when-the original Miles Hawk appeared, Phillips and Powis Aircraft have gone from strength to strength, and their range of machines, from the M.5, or Sparrow Hawk, to the twin-engmed Peregrine, numbers about eight, if the special Air Ministry machine, known as the Hawcon is included. The chief designer, Mr. F. G. Miles, can be said to have done as much as anyone to develop the cantilever low-wing tradition in this country. Furthermore, the Hawk Major, first introduced in 1934, was the first British aeroplane to appear with split flaps, and since that time all new Miles machines have been fitted with these aids to slower flying and steeper approaches.
   The Miles Falcon, a four-seater cabin version of the Major, was first produced with a Gipsy Major engine, in which form it cruised at 125 m.p.h. Later, the fitting of the Gipsy Six as an alternative power unit raised this speed to 155 m.p.h. or more, and a, three-seater version of this machine won last year's King's Cup and broke both the out and home Cape records in the hands of Flt. Lt. Rose. The Falcon has a number of interesting control features, including the hydraulically operated flaps and a central control column between the two front seats (when these are so arranged), and a special five-seater charter version, known as the Merlin, has put in good work both here and in India. The Night Hawk is a special trainer for night and blind flying, based on the Falcon.
   The specification of the standard Falcon is as follows: Weight empty, 1,300 lb.; disposable load, 900 lb.; span folded, 15ft. 10in.; length, 25ft.; maximum speed, 145 m.p.h.; cruising speed, 125 m.p.h.; landing speed, 44 m.p.h.; range, 615 miles.
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