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Страна: Великобритания

Год: 1912

C.Barnes Short Aircraft since 1900 (Putnam)

Early Short Monoplanes (1912)

   In the summer of 1911 E. V. Sassoon’s Universal Aviation Co Ltd of Brooklands produced their one and only monoplane, a close copy of the Bleriot Type XI, from which it differed in appearance only in its semicircular elevators and the overhung mounting of its 50 hp Gnome rotary engine. It was flown in the Daily Mail Circuit of Britain race by H. J. D. Astley, who started well but dropped out at Harrogate. Later in the year it was entered for the 1911 British Michelin Cup competition, for which purpose it was fitted with a 40 hp water-cooled A.B.C. engine; it made only a brief appearance at Brooklands during October, again flown by Astley, and soon afterwards the firm went bankrupt and its assets were sold; the monoplane, by then nicknamed the Birdling, was bought by Frank McClean and taken to Eastchurch, where it became No. 9 in his private list. He had it overhauled and partly rebuilt by Short Brothers, and with a new airscrew it was found to perform quite well. McClean lent it to the Naval Flying School, and Samson and Longmore began flying it regularly in November 1911. Samson was very keen on it, in spite of several shortcomings, but on 20 July, 1912, Spenser Grey taxied it across a rough patch and several longerons broke; its remains were deposited by Frank McClean on loan to the Science Museum, where a permanent aviation exhibition opened in January 1913.
   Horace Short took note of Samson’s early enthusiasm for the Birdling, and in January 1912 built a completely new 50 hp Gnome-engined monoplane of similar but more robust design. The Short monoplane had warping wings of the Bleriot pattern and a rectangular cambered tailplane with a rear-hinged elevator. The engine was in line with the leading edge of the wing on an overhung mounting attached to a strong rigid chassis, with truncated skids carrying a pair of wheels on a rubber-sprung cross-axle; the rear fuselage carried a long sprung tail skid and the rudder was square with a small forward balance area. It was first flown by Samson on 24 February, 1912; he remained up for an hour and reported on landing that it needed no adjustments; his speed at 1,400 ft was 65 mph. At first it was flown with the rear fuselage uncovered, in the usual Bleriot style, and was allotted the temporary Naval serial M2, which was painted on the rudder. It was taken to Weymouth for the Naval Review in May 1912, and Samson flew it from the flying field at Lodmoor on 4 and 6 May, but damaged it on landing after the second flight; it had by then had its rear fuselage covered, and this may have altered its handling. It was repaired at Eastchurch and was flying there again on 9 July, with Lieut Gordon at the controls; it was again flown on 14 September, by Wilfred Parke; after then no more is heard of it and it was probably condemned, along with the Birdling, not because of the ‘monoplane ban’, which did not apply to Naval pilots, but rather because of a general mistrust of warping wings as speeds increased. It is believed to have been allotted serial 14 in the November 1912 numbering scheme.
   The second monoplane built by Short Brothers was ordered by the Admiralty as serial 12, and was an extension of the earlier successful experiments with twin engines and with deck launching. Unfortunately no drawings or photographs of it have survived, and available descriptions are sketchy. It had rigidly braced wings with ailerons, and was described as being intended ‘for water work only’, although all its recorded flights were made from land. The two 70 hp Gnome engines drove a tractor airscrew and a propeller, mounted, as in the Tandem-Twin biplane, at each end of a short nacelle containing a central cockpit with two seats side-by-side; both occupants were exposed to a fierce castor-oil-laden slipstream, which soon earned the monoplane the nickname of Double-Dirty. The tail surfaces were mounted on open braced booms of normal pusher type, and the landing gear carried streamlined pneumatic flotation bags, which, however, would not have permitted take-off from the sea; thus the intention must have been to fly it off a runway on board ship, as had been so successfully demonstrated with S.38. Samson flew the Double-Dirty for the first time on 21 October, 1912, and made two more flights on the 23rd, with E. Featherstone Briggs as passenger on the last occasion. On 5 November Samson flew it to Isle of Grain, where he landed and flew back to Eastchurch the same day; he flew it twice more that week, but then it went back into the works for modification and seems not to have reappeared or been accepted for Naval service. No doubt the modifications to suit it for stowage aboard ship included the provision of folding wings (patent No. 16,973 of 1913), and it seems to have been Short Brothers’ counterpart of the Bristol-Burney hydrovane flying-boat, with the same operational requirements in view. Horace Short’s own interest in hydrovanes is shown by patents Nos. 22,407 and 22,408 of 1911, but his proposal to scoop up water into an aft ballast tank while alighting, to counteract the overturning moment of the front hydrovanes, seems to have been more ingenious than practical.

Span 29 ft 3 in (8 9 m); length 25 ft (7-6 m); area 165 ft (15 4 m2); weights not recorded; speed 55 mph (88-6 km/h); no data available for Twin Monoplane.

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Описание:

  • C.Barnes Short Aircraft since 1900 (Putnam)
  • M.Goodall, A.Tagg British Aircraft before the Great War (Schiffer)
  • P.Lewis British Aircraft 1809-1914 (Putnam)
  • Журнал Flight