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Страна: Великобритания

Год: 1910

S.Ransom, R.Fairclough English Electric Aircraft and their Predecessors (Putnam)

Scottish Aeroplane Syndicate Avis

   The Avis Monoplanes were designed by W.O. Manning and built by Howard T. Wright for the Scottish Aeroplane Syndicate of 166 Piccadilly, London, W. Known, as the Golden Plover, the prototype, which was fitted with a 3O hp Anzani engine, was completed at Battersea in December 1909, and delivered to Brooklands for testing. In January 1910, the Hon Alan R. Boyle, who had founded the Syndicate made the initial trials. These did not prove entirely satisfactory and the aircraft was brought back to Battersea to be re-engined with a 35 hp Anzani. A tail unit of decreased area was also fitted. The aircraft, renamed Avis, returned to Brooklands, where Boyle achieved his first straight flights with it in March and April, and his first circular flight in the following month. A little later, he flew the Avis at the 1910 Wolverhampton aviation meeting to win first prize for endurance in the monoplane class with a time in the air of 7 min 53 sec. Early in June, Boyle took delivery of a second aircraft of the type to which he allotted his personal coding, No. 3 being painted on the rudder. Apparently, Boyle regarded his previous machine as having two separate identities. The official nomenclature of Boyle's 'third' aircraft was Avis I and it was fitted with a 40 hp ENV engine. At Brooklands on 14 June, he used his new machine to gain Royal Aero Club Aviator's Certificate No. 13. Almost one month later, at the Bournemouth aviation meeting, Boyle was severely concussed when he crashed in Avis I. In the meantime the prototype Avis had been sold to Maconie. (Unfortunately nothing has been found to identify Mr Maconie or even confirmation of the spelling of his name. There was a statement in The Aero dated 10 August, 1910, which read 'Mr Maconie has put in several days practice on his Avis monoplane, and is rapidly gaining control of the machine.')
   Meanwhile, the 40 hp JAP-engined Avis II had been exhibited at the 1910 Olympia Aero Show on the stand of the Aeroplane Supply Co, which acted as selling agents for the Syndicate. After the show it was bought by R.F. Wickham, who had the misfortune, whilst flying it, to experience an engine failure over the sewage farm at Brooklands. Wickham managed to land the aircraft but in doing so struck a raised cement canal crossing the farm. Damage to the machine was extensive. Avis III, also fitted with a 40 hp JAP engine, was purchased by J. Herbert Spottiswode, a well-known racing driver at Brooklands. On 5 October, 1910, Spottiswode piloted Avis III to fifth place in a competition sponsored by the Brooklands Automobile Racing Club, which offered monetary prizes for the greatest aggregate times in the air. N.C. Neill, offered a gold cup, also, to the pilot who flew the longest distance. The event was won outright by Graham Gilmour flying Big Bat with a total time of 2 hr 59 min 16 sec, Spottiswode's aggregate was less than five minutes. Avis III was later purchased by Campbell-Gray, a photographer of 88 Edgware Road, London, who used it for humorous publicity. On recovering from his accident, Boyle returned to flying at Brooklands with the purchase of Avis IV. With the collapse of the Syndicate, however, this aircraft became the subject of the country's first recorded aeronautical auction, held in December 1910, when it was sold, complete with JAP engine, to Eustace Gray, Brooklands' press steward, for ?50.
   In appearance the Avis closely resembled many other single-seat monoplanes of the period but the type could be distinguished by its universally-mounted Demoiselle-style tail unit. The fuselage, made of ash, was of conventional wire-braced box-girder construction. The aircraft was controlled by warping the parallel-chord wings from foot pedals, and by the cruciform tail from a control column pivoted at its lower end, the elevator being operated by fore and aft movement of the column and the rudder by turning the wheel attached at the column's upper end. The twin-skid undercarriage was of sturdy construction and each item of it could be replaced without it being totally dismantled. Two pairs of wheels were attached across the skids by rubber cord shock-absorbers and the support for the small tailwheel incorporated a helical spring. The prototype aircraft was fitted with a Chauviere propeller but one made by Howard Wright from a single piece of Kauri pine was fitted together with the more powerful Anzani. All subsequent versions of the Avis had Wright-built propellers.
   In flight the Avis was easily controlled and because it had been designed with its centre of gravity well forward, so that there was little or no load on the tail, the take-off was lively, the slipstream from the propeller immediately lifting the tail on starting the engine.
   The design was developed further as the 1910 Monoplane.

Avis (as general arrangement)
   Span 27 ft; length 27 ft; height 9 ft 2 in; wing chord 6 ft 4 in; wing dihedral 5°; wing incidence 9°; propeller diameter 6 ft 3 in; main undercarriage track 4 ft 6 m; wing area 170.4 sq ft; elevator area 22 sq ft; rudder area 14 sq ft.
   Weight without engine 280 lb; weight empty 430 lb; weight loaded 630 lb.
   Cruising speed 35 mph; maximum speed 40 mph.
   Price ?370-?490.

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Описание:

  • S.Ransom, R.Fairclough English Electric Aircraft and their Predecessors (Putnam)
  • M.Goodall, A.Tagg British Aircraft before the Great War (Schiffer)
  • P.Lewis British Aircraft 1809-1914 (Putnam)
  • Журнал Flight