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Страна: Великобритания

Год: 1915

Fighter

Варианты

C.Andrews Vickers Aircraft since 1908 (Putnam)

Vickers Designs 1914-18

  When war broke out in 1914 there was a serious shortage of British military aircraft compared with those possessed by France and Germany, and various aeronautical experimenters made efforts to remedy this deficiency. Among these private-venture attempts was one by Harold Barnwell, who had been appointed chief test pilot by Vickers after the closing of their flying school at Brooklands. In spare moments from testing production Gunbuses he took upon himself the task of designing and constructing under cover a small high-speed scout, fitted with a Gnome engine spirited out of Vickers' Erith stores.
  Barnwell's creation was a tubby little machine with a circular-section streamlined fuselage and stubby unstaggered wings of small span. It soon acquired the name of the Barnwell Bullet. On its first flight early in 1915, in the hands of its designer, it was found to have insufficient control, particularly on the elevators. On landing, its undercarriage collapsed, and the Bullet stood on its nose. This mishap must have revealed its existence to Vickers' management, for R. K. Pierson, a young graduate apprentice then in the drawing office who had also learned to fly at Vickers' Flying School, was given the task of redesigning the Bullet into an experimental scout with the designation of E.S.1, powered with a Gnome monosoupape engine.
  E.S.1 had larger tail surfaces than those of the original Barnwell Bullet and a stronger undercarriage. No armament was carried. After a period of flight testing it was sent to the Central Flying School at Upavon for official trials. Certain disadvantages were disclosed, particularly in the pilot's view upwards as well as downwards over the side of the fat body. There was no drain hole in the engine cowling to jettison surplus oil and petrol vapour centrifuged by the rotary engine.
  An improved version was then developed with the 110 hp Clerget rotary engine. A small window of celluloid was inserted in the top centre section to improve the pilot's view upwards, and the fairing was removed from the underside of the fuselage. In this form the type was known to Vickers as the E.S.2. (In official documents it appears as E.S.I Mk. II) Two were made, and one was used for trials of the Vickers-Challenger gun synchronising gear which enabled a fixed machine-gun to be fired through a tractor propeller. This gear was used operationally on the Sopwith One-and-a-half Strutter two-seat fighter. In the summer of 1916 one E.S.2, equipped with a forward-firing fixed Vickers gun and the synchronising gear, was sent to France for operational trials by No. 11 Squadron, RFC, then operating Vickers Gunbuses. There it kept company with a small number of Bristol Scouts, but reports on the Vickers Bullet, as the E.S.2 was known, confirmed the CFS opinion of the E.S.1 that it was too blind from the pilot's point of view. The E.S.2 was also flown before H.M. King George V during a visit to Vickers' Crayford works in September 1915 and demonstrated to a visiting Russian Imperial aviation mission.


   E.S.1 - Barnwell Bullet rebuilt - One 100 hp Gnome monosoupape. Span 24 ft 4 1/2 in; length 20 ft 3 in; height 8 ft; wing area 215 sq ft. Empty weight 843 lb; gross weight 1,295 lb. Max speed 114 mph at 5,000 ft; climb to 10,000 ft - 18 min; endurance 3 hr. No armament.
   E.S.2 - Bullet - One 110 hp Clerget. Span 24 ft 5 1/2 in; length 20 ft 3 in; height 8 ft; wing area 215 sq ft. Empty weight 981 lb; gross weight 1,502 lb. Max speed 112.2 mph at ground level; climb to 10,000 ft - 18 min; service ceiling 15,500 ft; initial climb 1,000 ft/min; endurance - 2 hr at 8,000 ft. Armament one Vickers gun (synchronised by Vickers Challenger interrupter gear).

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Описание:

  • C.Andrews Vickers Aircraft since 1908 (Putnam)
  • P.Lewis The British Fighter since 1912 (Putnam)
  • F.Mason The British Fighter since 1912 (Putnam)
  • W.Green, G.Swanborough The Complete Book of Fighters
  • J.Bruce British Aeroplanes 1914-1918 (Putnam)
  • H.King Armament of British Aircraft (Putnam)
  • Журнал Flight