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airplane photo

Страна : Великобритания

Год : 1923

Единственный экземпляр

Flight, August 1923

THE HANDASYDE LIGHT 'PLANE
750 c.c. Douglas Engine

   LAST week we published the first photograph of Raynham's light 'plane, designed by Mr. Handasyde and built by the Air Navigation and Engineering Company, Ltd., of Addlestone. This machine, designed for the competitions for the Sutherland, Daily Mail, and other prizes, is a straightforward miniature monoplane, with the wing resting on top of the fuselage and the pilot placed in a cut-out portion of the trailing edge. Thus the machine is not of the "glider" type, in which both pilot and engine are placed ahead of the wing, as in the "Wren," designed by Mr. Manning and built by the English Electric Company of Preston.
   Although the outline design differs from that of the glider used by Raynham at Itford last year, the construction is in the main the same, with a few modifications here and there. The fuselage is of rectangular section, terminating at the stern in a horizontal knife-edge. It is entirely ply-wood covered, whereas the wing and tail are covered with fabric.
   The 750 c.c. Douglas flat-twin air-cooled engine is mounted on a very simple engine plate in the nose of the machine, and the petrol and oil tank is supported aft of the engine on two transverse beams running across the fuselage. As the engine is mounted fairly high, and the tank is but little above it, there is not sufficient head to enable direct gravity feed to be used. However, for the small sizes and capacities involved there is probably no objection to a pressure petrol feed. The engine can be very quickly removed from the fuselage, and is very accessible, mounted as it is on the top of the forward end of the longerons. The drive is direct, and no flywheel is fitted, the propeller being of sufficient weight to take its place.
   The wing is built in one piece, and is attached to the top longerons by simple steel fittings of the type indicated in a sketch. The wing construction is similar to that of last year's Handasyde glider, the large spar being a ply-wood covered box, which gives very great rigidity and is especially good in resisting torsion. The wing is not, however, a pure cantilever, but is externally braced by a tube to the front spar and a wire to the rear spar. As the wing section used is one of the Gottingen series, in which the centre of pressure is very far back, this form of bracing is probably quite satisfactory. Another advantage of this section is that with the c.p. well back the pilot's cockpit need not be very far forward in the section to trim the machine. Thus in the Handasyde light 'plane the machine trims with the cockpit placed just aft of the spar, so that only the trailing edge need be cut away. A narrow fairing runs from just aft of the engine to the pilot's cockpit, and contains in its forward portion the fuel tank. This fairing is only about a foot wide, and thus enables the pilot to look past it.
   From the cockpit a very good view is obtained when flying, and especially when coming in to land, with the tail well up, but for climbing it would seem that the wing must obstruct the view considerably, although in this respect the machine is probably no worse than the pre-War monoplanes in which the pilots sat between the wing spars. The dials of the various instruments are fitted flush with the deck of the fuselage, where they can be easily seen and are in full daylight. The controls are of usual type, and call for no comment.
   There is neither fixed tail plane nor vertical fin on the Handasyde light 'plane, the rudder as well as the elevator being cantilevers, and of fairly thick section. The rudder is balanced by a fairly large area being ahead of the pivot, and the elevator also is balanced by the leading edge being ahead of the hinge line. The elevator is tapered in chord and thickness from centre to tip, but it is of interest to note that in the case of the main plane the taper does not begin until a considerable distance out from the centre. This results in deep spars over the whole of the inner portion of the wing, and gives greater torsional strength than would a wing which began to taper immediately from the fuselage.
   The undercarriage is of the simplest possible type, as shown in one of our sketches. The axle rests in slots in two short wood struts, which, in view of their short length, are strong enough to take the loads without having to be braced either fore and aft or laterally. In other words, they are short cantilevers, and are joined together by a transverse member in the form of a half-tube in which the axle rests. Raynham has had the machine painted in his racing colours, i.e., the wings and tail are bright yellow and the fuselage dark grey, making quite a distinctive combination.

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  • Flight, August 1923
    THE HANDASYDE LIGHT 'PLANE
  • Фотографии