Huff-Daland HB-1 Cyclops

Flight, March 1927

THE HUFF DALAND "CYCLOPS”
A New American Single-Engined Bomber

   IN our issue for February 3 last, when describing the Huff Daland "Pegasus" Bomber, we made brief reference to a larger machine - the "Cyclops" - being constructed by the same firm, Huff Daland Airplanes, Inc., of Bristol, Pen., U.S.A., for the U.S. Army Air Corps. The "Cyclops," which is claimed to be the largest single-engined bomber in the world, has just recently been completed, and we are able, this week, through the courtesy of our American contemporary, Aviation, to give some brief particulars and illustrations of this machine.
   The "Cyclops" is some 60 per cent, larger than the "Pegasus" referred to above, although it is constructed along somewhat similar lines. It is designed to be powered with a new 24-cylinder, 1,200 h.p. air-cooled engine, now being constructed at McCook Field, by the Air Corps Engineering Division. For the present, however, until this engine is finished, a Packard 800 h.p. 2A-2.500 engine is installed.
   When in service, the "Cyclops" will weigh 17,000 lbs., and be able to carry a useful load of 9,000 lbs. This will include a crew of six, mountings for 10 machine guns, and racks for either one 4,000-lb. bomb, two 2,000-lb. bombs, or four 1,000-lb. bombs. The high speed will be round about 135 m.p.h., and fuel for 24-hours' flying will be carried, this performance and weight-carrying capacity rendering the machine a powerful weapon. Thus, loaded with petrol, this giant machine should easily be capable of making a Transatlantic flight. The span of the "Cyclops" is 85 ft., and the overall length 65 ft.
   The structure of the " Cyclops " is all-metal, being made up of welded seamless chrome-molybdenum steel tubing. This construction is a new development by C. T. Porter, the designer of the "Cyclops." Under proper heat treatment this material has a tensile strength of 200,000 lb. per square inch. The wing spars are built up in a very simple fashion: two long tubes, running the whole length of the wing from the upper and lower "flanges" of the spars. The spar web is built up of short tubes of the same material, whilst the ribs are formed in a somewhat similar fashion of duralumin tubing. A rib of some 15 ft. in length can be built to carry hundreds of pounds in load and still weigh only 20 oz.!
   One of the advantages of this metal construction - in fact metal construction generally - is that these wings can be stored for long periods of time without depreciation. The upper wing is carried on a steel tube cabane with two adjustable flying struts of steel tubing, and the lower wing panels are attached to two wing roots on the fuselage. Ailerons are fitted to both top and bottom planes.
   The landing gear is of the Huff Daland double-tripod type, which eliminates the axle between the wheels - a type which possesses several advantages. The shock absorbers are at the Oleo type, in which the use of rubber shock-absorbing cord is avoided. This absorber is made up of two cylinders, one fitting closely within the other. In the smaller cylinder is placed a heavy steel spring, which is kept immersed in oil. The shock-absorbing unit can be taken down by removing a single bolt, and the whole under-carriage can be removed by unscrewing four bolts. The tail skid is steerable.
   The fuselage is of welded seamless steel-tube construction throughout, without bracing wires. While alignment problems during manufacture presented unusual difficulties, they were more than compensated for by the rigid structure obtained which does away with the necessity of realignment due to hard usage or to climatic changes.
   Considerable interest is attached to this machine, owing to the possibility of one of its type being used in an attempted flight from New York to Paris during the summer. While there is no concrete information available regarding this, it has been suggested that a modified "Cyclops" re-designed as a three-engined machine would be most suitable for the attempt.