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

P.Lewis British Aircraft 1809-1914 (Putnam)

Martin Handasyde No. 2

   The second Martin-Handasyde monoplane was a larger version of the No. 1 and was constructed during 1909. A 35 h.p. J.A.P. engine was fitted and the machine occupied the first hangar to be built at Brooklands, where it was flown subsequently by H. P. Martin.
  


Martin-Handasyde No. 3

   During May, 1910, Martin and Handasyde completed their No. 3 Monoplane at Brooklands. In appearance there was a very strong resemblance to the successful French Antoinette design, and the newcomer was as equally refined and elegant a product. The machine was a single-seater and was fitted with the 65 h.p. Antoinette engine. Weight and head resistance were kept to the minimum by the provision of a very slim fuselage, whose strength was maintained by the use of wood covering. A triangular section was used, the pilot's position being very exposed owing to the slenderness of the fuselage. His view, however, from his seat at the rear of the trailing-edge was comparatively good. Protection from the slipstream was provided by the rather clumsy expedient of fitting a vertical shield at the top of the control column, thus destroying at the same time some of the streamline properties of the machine which the designers had striven to achieve.
   The undercarriage was a very strong unit carried mainly on a stout central support through the fuselage. Warping lateral control was fitted, and the tail unit consisted of the normal rudder and split elevators attached to fixed fin and tailplane.
   H. P. Martin accomplished several good straight flights at Brooklands on the machine during November, 1910, and the No. 3 Monoplane became a very successful flyer in D. Graham Gilmour's hands. The Antoinette engine was succeeded by a 40 h.p. J.A.P. in 1911, and a 35 h.p. Green was also installed temporarily, but was removed in favour of the J.A.P. The No. 3 finally took Gilmour to his death on 17th February, 1912, when it broke up in the air and crashed while flying over Richmond Park at 400 ft. in bumpy weather.

SPECIFICATION

   Description: Single-seat tractor monoplane. Wooden structure, fabric covered.
   Manufacturers: Martin and Handasyde Ltd., Trinity Works, Camberwell.
   Power Plant: 65 h.p. Antoinette, 40 h.p. J.A.P., 35 h.p. Green.
   Dimensions: Span, 32 ft. Length, 28 ft. Wing area, 175 sq. ft.
   Weights: Empty, 560 lb.
   Performance: Maximum speed, 60 m.p.h.


Martin-Handasyde No. 4B

   The 4B tractor monoplane was a two-seat version of the No. 3 and was built to the order of T. O. M. Sopwith, being displayed at the 1911 Olympia Show. Named Dragonfly, it was powered by the 50 h.p. Gnome engine, which was mounted in a triangular fuselage covered with three-ply wooden panels. Other engines fitted were the 40 h.p. J.A.P., the 40 h.p. Clerget and the 65 h.p. Antoinette. The machine was flown successfully at Brooklands by Sopwith and also by D. Graham Gilmour and C. Gordon Bell. Span, 37 ft. Length, 33 ft. Wing area, 240 sq. ft. Weight empty, 800 lb. Maximum speed, 60 m.p.h. Price, ?1,100.

Журнал Flight

Flight, March 25, 1911

THE MARTIN.HANDASYDE MONOPLANE.

   ANYONE first glancing at the Martin-Handasyde monoplane No. 3, or at the accompanying illustrations thereof, might be pardoned for supposing it to be an Antoinette; no intelligent observer familiar with the details of the Antoinette machine, however, could possibly fail to regard the Martin-Handasyde as anything but an original design after a few moments' thought. Where, to take only the popular aspect of the case, are those hand-wheels outside the body that pilots of the Antoinette monoplane manipulate so dexterously in windy weather? Then again, this is a much smaller machine and it is supported on an under-carriage quite like the Antoinette at a distance, but totally dissimilar in detail when examined at close quarters. Moreover, not only is the machine supported on this under-carriage, but it balances about the axle when the pilot is not on board. The engine is situated rather far forward and the propeller is, as a matter of fact, 3 ft. 8 ins. from the front edge of the planes. The weight of the engine has therefore sufficient leverage to balance the weight of the tail. Taken on its broad lines, however, it is presumably correct to say of the Martin-Handasyde monoplane that it belongs to the Antoinette type.
   It has a boat-like body covered with wood, and in the bows thereof is mounted the 40-h.p. Jap engine with which the machine is at present equipped. Direct-coupled to the crank-shaft is a 7 ft. two-bladed propeller, which is protected against damage in rough landing by a skid jutting out from beneath the body and provided with a spoon-like foot. This skid, although strong, is flexible and bends noticeably when it comes in contact with the ground. Its spoon-shaped foot is formed by a sheet of steel hammered into shape and fastened to the end of the skid as shown in an accompanying sketch. The under-carriage itself, which this skid adjoins where it springs from the body, is of particular interest on account of the use of a divided tubular steel axle, reinforced and suspended by a laminated leaf-spring of lancewood. The constructional details of this interesting feature are well illustrated by an accompanying sketch, where it will be observed that each wheel is mounted on a half-axle hinged at its inner end to the lower extremity of the central mast that forms the principal upright of the machine. Bridging this joint is the laminated construction of lancewood that forms the principal member of the suspension. At the centre it rests in a channel bracket and its extremities engage with shackles that are hinged to the axle. Thus mounted, each wheel is free to rise and fall independently, for it will be observed that the diagonal strut, which forms a subsidiary member in the bracing, is telescopic; incidentally it is fitted with a rubber cushion inside the tube, which comes into action in emergency. Equally ingenious is the bracing of the axle fore and aft by wires that are linked together with a tension spring so arranged as to automatically keep them taut. This detail is likewise illustrated in the same sketch.
   Above the body of the machine at this point, the mast carries the guy wires to the front and rear spars of the wings, and as the rear spars are hinged to the frame to facilitate warping, their guy wires are supported on a pulley so as to automatically adjust themselves to the warping movement. The operation of wing warping is effected by turning a steering-wheel mounted on an axis at right angles to that of an inclined column situated immediately in front of the pilot's seat. On the wheel-spindle is a small drum, round which is the warping wire leading to a pivoted cross-beam mounted on the central mast below the body. In order to increase the leverage, a block and tackle gear has been ingeniously introduced into the cable, as shown in an accompanying sketch. Fixed to the pivoted cross-bar is a chain-wheel engaging with which is a chain that has its extremities fastened to the wires leading to the rear spars of the wings. There is, of course, a very considerable tension on these wing-warping wires arid consequently no tendency for the chain to fall off the wheel, but a light guard, not shown in the sketch, is fitted in practice.
   Moving the steering-wheel and the column on which it is mounted bodily to and fro operates the elevator, which is formed by two triangular flap extensions of the fixed horizontal tail-plane. The triangular shape of these planes gives room for the free movement of a rudder-plane mounted vertically between them, and, like the elevator, forming an extension of a fixed tail-plane. The rudder is operated by foot through the agency of a pivoted bar.
   Of the wings themselves, it is interesting to remark that they each weigh 70 lbs. complete and are very strongly constructed, in spite of the fact that the spars by which they are attached to the body have the appearance of being very light. Inside the wings themselves, however, these spars are of T-section, 2 1/2 ins. in width and 7 ins. in depth. In addition to their top and bottom guy wires, the wings are also stayed by wires leading forwards to the projecting skid. The camber of the wings varies from the shoulder to the tip, the chord having a positive angle of incidence of about 5° adjacent to the body and being horizontal at the outer extremities. The thickness of the plane at the shoulder is 8 ins., but diminishes 2 1/2 ins. at the extremities and the chord itself also diminishes from 6 ft. to 5 ft., although this latter change is brought about more or less abruptly by obliquely cutting away the trailing edge from a point about 5 ft. from the extremities.