M.Goodall, A.Tagg British Aircraft before the Great War (Schiffer)

Журнал Flight

Flight, July 2, 1910

THE ACCIDENT TO MR. CODY.

   THE sympathy of all interested in British aviation has been extended to Mr. S. F. Cody, in consequence of the untimely accident which befel him on Thursday of last week while testing his new biplane. The machine had been completed on the previous evening, and was noteworthy for the fact that Mr. Cody had abandoned the system of twin propellers previously employed, while he had fitted duplicate engines, so that in the event of one giving trouble its place could be taken by the other. Early on Thursday morning Mr. Cody started up, and as the machine attained a greater speed than anticipated, when running over the ground, he determined on a flight. The machine gracefully rose to a height of 100 ft., and easily circled round the Plain twice. It then traversed the length of Laffan's Plain, but just when gliding down an unexpected gust of wind caught the machine and caused it to fall about 40 ft. to the ground.
   Mr. Cody was pinned beneath the wreckage, and was unconscious when released. He was immediately taken to his home, where he was found to be suffering from concussion of the brain and severe bruises. He made rapid progress, and on Monday was able to leave his bed, when he expressed a hope that he would be fit again in time for the Bournemouth meeting. Except that it is smaller, the new Cody machine has a very similar appearance to the biplane with which Mr. Cody was so successful last year. The engines are two of the 5o-h.p. 4-cyl. Green type.


Flight, July 16, 1910

Mr. Cody Flying Again.

   RAIDED no doubt by his robust constitution and plucky nature Mr. S. F. Cody made a very rapid recovery from his recent severe accident, so much so that on Friday of last week he was able to once more mount his machine and make a satisfactory trial trip, about three miles in length; before packing up the machine for transport to Bournemouth, where he was flying on Wednesday.


Flight, September 10, 1910

Mr. S. F. Cody in the Air Again.

   AT the latter end of last week, Mr. S. F. Cody made a successful flight at Aldershot with his new biplane.


Flight, September 17, 1910

Mr. Cody Again Flying.

   SEVERAL times during last week Mr. S. F. Cody was practicing on his new biplane. On Tuesday he made a fine flight at Aldershot, passing over South Camp, the Long Valley, Bourley Woods, Pyestock, Laffan's Plain and Farnborough, being in the air about 25 mins. in all. On Friday again he was up for about half an hour, flying round the district, and altogether his very substantial machine is shaping well.


Flight, October 1, 1910

A Good Flight by Cody.

   IN the course of a forty minute flight on Tuesday evening, at Farnborough, Mr. S. F. Cody was mostly flying across country. In the afternoon he made a shorter trip with Mr. Mervyn O'Gorman, Superintendent of the Balloon Factory, as a passenger.


Flight, November 12, 1910

THE CODY BIPLANE.

   AMONG pioneers in aviation S. F. Cody deserves much credit. He has fought an up-hill fight against great odds, and he has forced success to come to him as a reward not only for perseverance but for real original work. Alone among the designers of aeroplanes has he succeeded in building a really large machine, and if there are some who have been wont, facetiously, to call it the "flying cathedral," nevertheless, their humour is born of admiration, for the machine does fly, and in the hands of its designer oftentimes performs remarkably well. This particular department of design - the large-sized aeroplane - S. F. Cody has made particularly his own, and he intends to devote the greater part of his private time to its further development, although now that he has decided to place his machine on the market commercially, the standard models will be built on smaller lines. Two sizes have so far been decided upon, the smaller of which, fitted with a 30-35-h.p. engine, will be sold for L1,000, and the larger, fitted with a 50-60-h.p. engine, for L1,200. In both cases flights will be guaranteed, and the purchasers will be trained as pilots free of charge, or they can have a professional pilot trained for them if they do not wish to control the machine themselves. So far, however, we have yet to meet the sportsman aviator and his paid chauffeur - he is a type unborn - but he will put in an appearance later on, sure enough.
   From a practical point of view, the Cody biplane is remarkable mainly for its strength. It is subjected to very severe strains on Laffan's Plain, over which Mr. Cody has secured flying rights, and the starting ground itself is uneven enough to give a great machine like this a very severe jolting. It is, therefore, to the undercarriage that the eyes of the engineer are almost inevitably directed after he has taken in at a glance the general proportions of the structure that it has got to carry. The chassis in question is an interesting and ingenious piece of work; it supports the machine on the ground by the aid of two pneumatic-shod wheels and a trailing skid arranged "kangaroo-tail" fashion. Between the wheels and joining the trailing-skid is a single central skid that normally remains about 8 ins. clear of the ground. The trailing-skid is reinforced by a top batten, so that it is to all intents and purposes a laminated structure, for all the time that the machine is running over the ground it is constantly pressing on the surface, and acts as a very useful brake after a descent. The main central skid only comes into action if the landing has been so forced as to result in a severe shock, in which case the wheels rise against the pressure of their long helical springs, and allow the full weight of the machine to be directly borne upon the skid. On one occasion quite recently a forced descent was made, and the machine charged a fallen tree trunk. The upturned end of the skid, which is provided with a pair of small wheels, cleared the trunk, and the entire machine glissaded bodily over the obstacle without doing any damage to the chassis, and not very much to the tree itself. Supported above the under chassis are two horizontal bearers to which the spars of the lower main planes are attached, and immediately above these again come two other bearers of less span, which carry the engine. The engine thus rests centrally upon the lower main plane, and it drives the large single propeller by means of a chain.
   Directly in front of the engine, and about on a level with the cylinders, is the passenger's seat, for the Cody biplane is essentially a passenger-carrying machine, while in front and a little below the passenger's seat is the pilot's seat. Both are of the pressed-steel kind commonly employed on agricultural machines, and it has often been rather a surprise to us that Mr. Cody has not provided something a little more luxurious for his own comfort; the passenger can, at any rate, hold on to the framework until the machine is safely in the air.
(To be continued.)


Flight, November 19, 1910

THE CODY BIPLANE.
(Concluded from page 925.)

   CENTRALLY in front of the pilot's seat is a steering-wheel on an inclined column, arranged in exactly the same way as a steering-wheel on a motor car. As far as turning the wheel for steering is concerned, the operations are likewise analogous. The wheel is connected with the rudder, which is carried on an outrigger at the rear of the machine.
   In addition to the rotary motion of the steering-wheel, the steering-column itself is mounted on a universal trunnion about one-third of its length from the bottom, and it is thus capable of acting as a powerful lever for the manipulation of the elevator and balancing planes. The elevator on the Cody biplane differs constructionally from that on any other machine in being divided into two parts, which are placed side by side; each half is connected to the control-lever by means of a bamboo rod, and the connections are such that the two planes can be made to operate in unison or in opposite directions. When they operate in unison the device is an elevator pure and simple, but when one half is tilted and the other dipped the action is supplementary to that of the balancing planes mounted in the gap of the main planes under the trailing edge. This double elevator, and its use as a balancer, is quite a special feature of the Cody machine, and is one of the several original ideas of its designer. The balancing action is obtained by a sideways motion of the steering-column, which so thrusts on the bamboo connections of the elevators as to move these two members in opposite directions. Simultaneously a supplementary mechanism, consisting of a rock-shaft and a lever, pulls down the trailing edge of one of the balancers against the action of a spring. The arrangement of the balancing-planes on the Cody biplane is such that they are normally held in a horizontal position by springs, and only one of them can therefore be pulled into a position of positive lift by the control; the other balancer, although it may be dipped by the action of the spring, cannot exert a downward thrust, by virtue of this attitude, of a greater magnitude than the springs themselves can support. Interconnected with the balancer mechanism is the rudder - which, as already explained, is capable of independent operation by turning the steering-wheel - and this member is likewise put over in synchronism with the balancing movements. It will be observed, as an outstanding feature of the Cody control, that the balancing forces are brought to bear upon the machine at several points, and it can be readily appreciated that in large aeroplanes of this kind such a feature may be very desirable in order to guard against failure through undue local stress. With the exception of the rather small horizontal tail plane, which is quite flat - and can really almost be regarded more as a member for trussing the rudder, to which it is permanently fixed, than as a factor of great importance in the stability of the machine - all the planes on the Cody biplane are cambered to carry load. And, in connection with the camber of the main planes, there is another original feature which it is only fait to designate as the "Cody curve."
   The section of the main planes is very peculiar, and it is rather curious that the peculiarity in question would scarcely ever be observed even by the expert eye, for it is scarcely visible on the finished machine, although very pronounced in an individual rib. One of the accompanying sectional sketches shows a main plane rib, and it will be noticed that the underside is cambered more abruptly than the top side, so that the two laths of which the rib is built up touch one another at a point about one-third of the chord from the leading edge. The attitude of the main planes in respect to the normal axis of flight is such that the upper surface is practically tangential to the line of flight in the vicinity of the leading edge, consequently the lower surface has a dipping front edge and the upper surface has not. Mr. Cody claims for this particular system of construction that it produces the most efficient plane that he has ever tried.
   The main planes are built up in sections of 8 ft. span each, and they are divisible into these sections when the machine is dismantled or transport. The joint between sections is completed by a rectangular steel sleeve, and the spigoting ends of the spars are fitted with steel ferrules.
   Steel traps are also employed to brace the spars to the main ribs, which occur at these joints. The upright struts separating the upper and lower main planes coincide with the main ribs, and a very ingenious fastening has been employed for their attachment. The struts themselves are of stream line section, and their tapered extremities are spliced into hollow steel ferrules. The ferrule rests upon the cylindrical collar of a specially shaped bolt that passes through the steel strap binding the main spar to the main rib, and has, above the collar, a spherical head that is enclosed by the ferrule. A bolt fastens the ferrule to the spherical head of the bolt, but the joint is essentially a loose connection, and in principle belongs to the ball-socket type. The remainder of the bracing is, of course, effected by steel wires arranged diagonally, and it is also important to remark that the end thrust on the main spars is taken by diagonal wires that tie the spars to the axle of the undercarriage.
   When the machine rises off the ground the pressure of the springs used for the suspension of the wheels thrusts down upon these diagonal tie wires, and puts 2 cwt. of tension on to them.
   Silver spruce is mainly used in the construction, but the outriggers carrying the elevator and tail are of bamboo. The tail outrigger is hinged, so that the tail can be folded against the main planes in order to save room in accommodation. The undercarriage is made entirely of hickory.
   The power plant on the Cody biplane, as illustrated, consists of a 65-h.p. E.N.V. engine, which drives by a single chain a propeller of 10 ft. 2 ins. diameter and to ft. 8 ins. pitch. The speed of the propeller is 600 r.p.m. when the engine is running at 1,200 r.p.m. One very interesting point in connection with the machinery on the Cody biplane is the presence of a radiator immediately in front of the pilot, and Mr. Cody asserts that he has found great benefit from this in cold weather through the air being slightly warmed before it strikes his body. The degree to which aeroplane pilots suffer from the cold while flying is sufficiently well-known to make an idea of this sort well worthy of consideration.
   The following summary of some of the principal dimensions and minor details of construction will supplement the data given on the full-page drawing. The span of the main plains is 46 ft., and the main spars have an inverted dihedral of 9 ins. The chord is 6 ft. 6 ins., and the camber 4 ins. in height one third from the leading edge. The gap is 8 ft. 6 ins. The whole of the centre portion of the machine is designed to be accommodated in a railway truck without dismantling. The centre of gravity is located approximately on the front spar. With the exception of a few fittings in the centre of the machine, aluminium is not used in the construction. In every case where bamboo is employed the cane is bound with cord in the middle of each section. The upper bamboo strut carrying the elevator is 3 ins. in diameter, and those beneath are 2 ins. in diameter each. The bamboo poles used for operating the elevator are about 1 1/2 ins. in diameter. The vertical struts in the gap of the main planes have a 4 3/4 by 1 1/8 in. section. They weigh 5 1/2 lbs. each, including the nuts and bolts at their extremities. Between the upper and lower surfaces of the main planes the ribs are trussed by diagonal wires. The planes are surfaced with Pegamoid.


Flight, December 31, 1910

THE BRITISH MICHELIN CUP.

Mr. S. F. Cody Scores 115 Miles.

   A VERY fine effort was made by Mr. Cody on the 22nd inst. at Aldershot to win the British Michelin Cup for this year. For 2 hrs. and 50 mins. he steered his large biplane round a marked course over Laffan's Plain, being officially observed on behalf of the Royal Aero Club by Lieut. Fox, R.E. Although Mr. Cody did not beat Mr. Sopwith's duration record of 3 hrs. 12 mins., it is claimed that he covered a greater distance, about 115 miles. A 20-mile wind was blowing, and at the end of the Plain, opposite to that on which the hangar is erected, the wind was particularly gusty and uncertain, with a result that the turn there had to be made very carefully. On one side lay a clump of trees and on the other a flag-post, whilst between these were some iron railings. Time after time the machine escaped the trees by about eight feet, and frequently it was hurled to within six feet from the ground from a height of 30 to 35 ft. This really splendid flight was brought to an equally sensational climax. After being 2 hrs. 50 mins. In the air, the machine was hurled down to the ground with a crash, from a height of well over 35 ft. In spite of this the machine was found to be quite undamaged, and Mr. Cody none the worse for what was probably the finest bit of airmanship he has ever displayed. The biplane was fitted with a Green engine, which ran perfectly throughout the trip.


Flight, January 28, 1911

FROM THE BRITISH FLYING GROUNDS.

Laffan's Plain.

   ON Thursday of last week Mr. de Havilland had his biplane out, and was flying for two hours around Laffan's Plain. Although a stiffish northerly breeze was blowing, it was noticeable that the machine was flying much more steadily than on his previous trip. On Monday Mr. Cody was out, and made several trips with passengers, including Major Sir Alexander Bannerman and Lieut. Cammell. In one of these trips he chased after the "Beta," and succeeded in getting past her.


Flight, March 4, 1911

MODELS.

Model Cody Biplane.

I have pleasure in enclosing a photo of a model of Mr. S. F. Cody's aeroplane. It is built to scale 1/2 in. to 1 ft., from drawings published in your journal November 12th, 1910. The framework is made of white pine, and braced with strong thread.
Wandsworth. F. FISHER.


Flight, April 1, 1911.

Third International Aero Exgibition at Olympia - 1911.

THE EXHIBITS ANALYSED.

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   The Cody biplane is similarly a balanced machine, but it differs from the present Wright type in having an elevator. The elevator on the Cody machine is a cambered plane, and normally carries some of the load for convenience in control, although it is not essential from constructional considerations that it should do so. The engine on the Cody biplane is carried on the lower plane, and, within reason, both it and the pilot can have their positions altered in order to effect any degree of balance that may be required. In practice, as has been mentioned, Mr. Cody prefers that the elevator should be loaded a little, as he considers that it facilitates control.
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Flight, April 8, 1911.

Model Cody.

   I have pleasure in sending you a photo of a model of Mr. Cody's biplane which I have made and flown. I have to thank your paper for some of the chief dimensions. The machine is built of split cane joined with thread and braced with wire. I am experiencing some trouble with the motor. I cannot get the elastic to hold for any length of time. Perhaps one of your readers would be good enough to give some advice.
Westcliff-on-Sea. RIVERS SHERMAN.