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Страна: Великобритания

Год: 1911

Варианты

A.Jackson Blackburn Aircraft since 1909 (Putnam)

The Second Blackburn Monoplane

   Although Robert Blackburn's second aeroplane bore a marked resemblance to M. Levavasseur's Antoinette monoplane which he had seen in France, so many detailed improvements were incorporated that the resemblance was purely superficial. It was a single-seat, fabric-covered, wooden monoplane with a square-ended, constant-chord mainplane wire-braced to a central kingpost at a considerable dihedral angle, and the fuselage was of triangular cross-section tapering rearwards from the pilot's seat.
   The 'triple steering column' was used again but the little all-moving tail was abandoned in favour of the Antoinette's long dorsal fin and its diminutive triangular rudders above and below the elevator. Blackburn also fitted an untried British engine of advanced design then being developed by R. J. Isaacson, a skilled engineer employed by the Hunslet Engine Co of Leeds. The Isaacson engine was a seven-cylinder air-cooled radial of 40 hp arranged so that valves and other working parts were readily accessible for maintenance, and its many novel features (for those days) included pushrod-operated overhead valves and a 2 to 1 reduction gear within the airscrew hub. Being a stationary unit there were none of the gyroscopic problems with which the rotary engine continually plagued designers and pilots alike.
   The development of such an engine inevitably took a long time, so that although Blackburn and Goodyear took the monoplane to the Blackpool Flying Meeting of 28 July - 20 August 1910, it could not participate because the engine was unfinished even though installed in the airframe. This was perhaps fortunate, for the undercarriage was so weak that the wing tips had to be supported with timber when in the hangar.
   In its original form the undercarriage consisted merely of a downward extension of the wooden kingpost which terminated in a socket carrying a tubular-steel cross-member. Two ash skids, with pneumatic-tyred wire wheels in forks at the rear ends, pivoted about this steel cross member, all landing shocks being taken by a powerful coil spring at the apex of a triangle of struts under the engine. However, after Blackpool, and while he was awaiting the completion of the engine, Blackburn added a stout pair of main undercarriage struts and refitted the wheels on an overlength axle to give a measure of sideways movement under the control of coiled springs. He then took the monoplane to a new stretch of sands on the Yorkshire coast at Filey, but the undercarriage was still unsatisfactory. The front struts with their central coiled spring were removed almost immediately and replaced by four skeins of bungee rubber connecting the ends of each skid via cables to the longerons of the fuselage.
   Not long after reaching Filey, the machine attracted the attention of B. C. Hucks who thereupon joined forces with Blackburn to try out the machine and, on Tuesday, 8 March 1911, taxied it for a distance of three miles along the sands before making the initial take-off. He then headed for Filey Brigg at a height of 30 ft and at an estimated speed of 50 mph, but in attempting a turn, always a hazardous manoeuvre when there is negligible difference between maximum speed and stalling speed, he sideslipped into the ground.
   After repairs the Second Monoplane flew well and saw a great deal of service as an instructional aircraft at Filey and established Robert Blackburn as one of the foremost British designers of the day.

SPECIFICATION AND DATA
   Construction: By R. Blackburn and H. Goodyear at Benson Street, Leeds, Yorks.
   Power Plant: One 40 hp Isaacson
   Dimensions: Span 30 ft 0 in Length 32 ft 0 in
   Weights: All-up weight 1,000 lb
   Performance: Maximum speed 60 mph
   Production: One aircraft only, completed July 1910, first flown at Filey 8 March 1911.


Blackburn Mercury

   The Mercury, Robert Blackburn's next aeroplane, was a larger, two-seat development of his Second Monoplane powered by a new 50 hp version of the Isaacson radial. It was built with the assistance of Harry Goodyear, Mark Swann and George Watson in large premises which Blackburn acquired in Balm Road, Leeds. Whereas the earlier machine (with which the Mercury is still frequently confused) had a two-wheeled undercarriage, the Mercury had four wheels mounted in pairs on short, bungee-sprung axles astride two long ash skids attached to the fuselage by a substantial wire-braced, 12-strut, multiple A frame calculated to resist the efforts of the most inexpert pupil. Steel springs projecting sideways under the axle were intended to counteract the effects of landing with drift.
   To make wire bracing unnecessary, the triangular-section lattice-work fuselage, also of English ash, was precision-built with vertical and diagonal struts butting accurately on the longerons. The forward part accommodated pilot and passenger in tandem and was planked with polished, veneered wood, but the tapering rear fuselage was fabric-covered.
   Constant-chord, shoulder-mounted mainplanes were built up from closely spaced ribs supported on two I-section ash main spars and two subsidiary spars. To reduce the stresses associated with wing warping the mainplane was pivoted about the rear spar and wire-braced to a kingpost built into the fuselage in line with the front spar. The patent 'triple steering column' was used again and the tail surfaces were similar to those of the second Blackburn monoplane, with the long dorsal fin, the 10 ft bird-like tailplane, and the one-piece semi-octagonal elevator moving between two small triangular rudders.
   The first Mercury (which for convenience will be referred to hereinafter as the Mercury I) was exhibited at the Olympia Aero Show during the last two weeks of March 1911 and then went to Filey to join the Blackburn Second Monoplane at the newly established Blackburn Flying School, where a new airscrew with wider blades was fitted. On 17 May B. C. Hucks flew it to Scarborough and back in 19 min, averaging 50 mph and reaching a height of 1,200 ft, the highest flight made in North England up to that time. Next day he flew the handling and height tests for his Aviator's Certificate, but differences of opinion between the Aero Club observers about the validity of doing both tests in the course of one flight led Hucks to make a second takeoff. Minutes later the airscrew sleeve overheated, seized up and broke, allowing the airscrew to fly off. Hucks received slight injuries when he sideslipped into the ground but nevertheless was granted Certificate No. 91, no mean achievement for a pilot who was entirely self-taught.
   In the repaired machine Hucks (by then the Filey School instructor) made several remarkable flights, notably a cross-country to Scarborough and back on 7 July and a 40 mile moonlight trip over the same route on 10 July. Leaving Filey at 10.10 pm he circled Bridlington, reached Scarborough without difficulty, nursed a failing engine which picked up when he was about to make a forced landing in a cornfield, and landed on the beach by the light of bonfires 45 min after take-off.
   Hubert Oxley who succeeded Hucks as the Filey School's instructor, flew Mercury I for the first time on 3 September 1911, and to give new pupils (one of whom was engine designer R. J. Isaacson) an opportunity of watching his control movements, the front passenger seat was turned round to face aft. The aircraft was also used for joyriding, as on 11 October when a local resident, Miss Cook, became the first lady passenger in Yorkshire.
   Robert Blackburn was now calling himself 'The Blackburn Aeroplane Co' and advertised the Mercury at ?825 with 50 hp Isaacson; ?925 with 50 hp Gnome; ?730 with 35 hp Green; and ?1,275 with 100 hp Isaacson. None was in fact ever fitted with the Green or the big Isaacson, the first of a production run of eight aircraft which appeared at intervals during the next couple of years being two single-seaters (referred to in this book as Mercury IIs), built for the Daily Mail ?10,000 Circuit of Britain contest, powered by 50 hp Gnome rotaries. They had reduced span and shorter fuselages, the space normally occupied by the front seat was faired over with fabric, and fuel and oil tanks were lowered partially into the fuselage and covered by a curved metal fairing to reduce drag.
   Both were entered for the contest by Stuart A. Hirst of the Yorkshire Aeroplane Club - racing No. 22 to be flown by F. Conway Jenkins and No. 27 by B. C. Hucks - and each made its maiden flight at Filey early in July 1911. During the first flight of No. 22 on 7 July, Hucks made a return flight to Scarborough, 15 miles in 15.1 minutes, and reached 3,000 ft, but on the 14th, while attempting to win Hirst's ?50 prize for a flight to Leeds in a Yorkshire-built aeroplane, he damaged it extensively in avoiding grazing cattle and carried away the undercarriage on a barbed-wire fence during a forced landing at East Heslerton Grange. By a prodigious effort it was repaired on site by Robert Blackburn's working party in time for it to be on the line at Brooklands on 22 July, but although Hucks reached Hendon successfully, he retired the next morning after a forced landing with engine trouble at Barton-in-the-Clay, near Luton. Conway Jenkins' machine turned over and was wrecked while taxying out at Brooklands, but there are conflicting reports on the cause, one blaming a strong cross-wind, another crossed warping controls.
   Mark Swann and Harry Goodyear once again repaired No. 27 on site and Hucks flew it back to Hendon. It was then converted to two-seater, dismantled and sent by train from Paddington to Taunton where Hucks began a West Country tour in aid of charity, taking with him a portable hangar, Harry Goodyear as mechanic and C. E. Manton Day as manager. After two opening flights before 10,000 people at Taunton Fete on Bank Holiday Monday, 7 August, the aircraft was sent by train to Burnham-on-Sea, but, late on 17 August, because of a railway strike, Hucks flew the next 25 miles across to Minehead in 22 minutes, outflying the telegram which was to have announced his arrival. The next port of call was Locking Road aviation ground, Weston-super-Mare, where considerable publicity attended his 5.10 am take-off on 1 September for a nonstop flight to Cardiff, Whitchurch, Llandaff and back. Attired in a cork life-jacket, he reached 2,250 ft, dropped handbills over Cardiff and landed at Weston 40 minutes later, having made the first double crossing of the Bristol Channel by air. The Weston visit over, Hucks made another early start on 11 September, flew 16 miles to Cardiff in 16 1/2 minutes and landed at Whitchurch polo ground at 6.01 am. Static exhibition for two days at the Westgate Road skating rink was a prelude to daily flying from Cardiff's Ely Racecourse and, while flying at 85 mph at a height of 700 ft on 23 September, Hucks made further history by receiving wireless telegraphy signals transmitted by H. Grindell Matthews.
   The tour continued with a 6.16 am take-off for Newport, Mon., on 27 September and on to Cheltenham on 1 October where the aircraft was put on show at the Drill Hall, North Street. Flying took place from Whaddon Farm, Cemetery Road, from 4 October until his departure for Gloucester on 16 October where, two days later, he caused a sensation by flying higher than the cathedral tower, although an attempt to better his personal record of 3,500 ft failed. Eventually, on 21 October, a gale lifted the travel-stained aircraft and its hangar completely clear of the ground, but quick repairs enabled the last three flights of the tour to be completed the same afternoon.
   In three months, weather had prevented flying on only two of the 30 advertised flying days and an estimated 1,000 miles had been covered in 90 flights, impressive figures for those days particularly when it is remembered that all take-offs and landings were from unprepared surfaces. The wings, originally white but now black with signatures, were replaced while the aircraft was at Cheltenham. Apart from this, the only other major replacement was the result of a forced landing at Cheltenham during which Hucks ploughed up yards of cabbages with his skids until eventually a wheel came off and rolled forward, breaking the airscrew.
   From 7 to 10 January 1912 the aircraft flew at Holroyd's Farm, Moortown Leeds, and was then sent to Shoreham, Sussex, by rail on loan to Lt W. Lawrence of the 7th Essex Regiment pending the delivery of a special steel-framed monoplane he had ordered from Blackburn for service in India. His immediate objective was a cross-Channel flight with society hostess Mrs Leeming as passenger. Taxying practices, begun on 25 January under the watchful eye of Hucks, led to first solos on 29 January and on 26 February to a half hour, 28-mile flight to Eastbourne where he landed down wind on the beach with engine trouble. F. B. Fowler of the Eastbourne Aviation Co gave the Gnome a complete overhaul and fitted a hand pump to overcome fuel starvation in the climb, but test flights on 30 March ended in a bad landing which put the machine on its back with sufficient damage to end Lawrence's cross-Channel aspirations. While under repair in Leeds, the opportunity was taken to modify it for school work and it emerged a month or so later as a single-seater with wing span increased to 36 ft, the wing roots cut away to improve the pilot's downward view, the undercarriage simplified, and the engine cowling extended rearward to form a scuttle over the instrument panel and afford some protection for the pilot. In this form it was historically important as the first Blackburn aircraft to exhibit a designation, each rudder bearing the inscription 'Blackburn Monoplane Type B'. One of the first pupils to fly it at the Filey School in April 1912 was M. G. Christie, DSc, for whom a special Blackburn aircraft was built in the following year.
   With the possibility of military contracts looming ahead, it was considered expedient to bring the Blackburn monoplanes more closely to the notice of the War Office. The School therefore moved to Hendon in September that year under a new instructor, Harold Blackburn (no relation of Robert). There the 'brevet' machine, as it was called, was allotted racing No. 33 for the frequent weekend competitions and also bore the maker's name in large capitals on the fuselage. In this guise it was flown by Harold Blackburn on 28 September at the Hendon Naval and Military Aviation Day and on 22 February 1913 in the Aero Show Trophy Race in which he came third.
   The soundness of the Mercury design, well-proven by the Hucks tour, prompted the construction of a third variant inscribed 'Mercury Passenger Type' with 60 hp Renault vee-8 air-cooled engine, now usually known as the Mercury III. This was a three-seater structurally similar to the earlier marks but with mainspars of wood-filled tubular-steel around which the cottonwood ribs were free to swivel and thus reduce twisting strains during wing warping. Other refinements included a foot accelerator which could override the hand throttle, and aluminium panels covering the engine bay. Although ready for flying at Filey on 29 October 1911, bad weather prevented Hubert Oxley from making the first flight until 9 November when the machine took off in 30 yards with one passenger and fuel for four hours. It proved very manoeuvrable and had a top speed around 70 mph.
   Oxley, who began a series of passenger flights over the sands in bright moonlight at 1 am on 27 November, was the only pilot to fly this machine. On 6 December, with Robert Weiss in the passenger seat, he passed low over Filey bent on his favourite trick of diving steeply over the edge of the 300 ft cliff and then suddenly flattening out to land. This occasion was the last, for on pulling out of a particularly steep dive at a speed estimated at 150 mph, the fabric stripped from the wings which immediately broke up, leaving the wingless fuselage to plummet into the sands with fatal results for both occupants.
   At first this machine had a constant-chord mainplane, but at some point during its brief six-week existence it was fitted with new wings having a root chord of 9 ft and tapering to 7 ft at the tip. Despite statements to the contrary made in the Press at the time, this was the only Blackburn Mercury fitted with a tapered wing.
   A second Mercury III, with 50 hp Isaacson and faired tanks as on Mercury II, was then built for Oxley's successor Jack Brereton who attempted the Filey-Leeds flight on 29 May 1912. This machine further differed from the Isaacson-powered Mercury I in having the top rudder raised above the fin, removable inspection panels behind the engine, and no wing tip skids. After a 6 am take-off, Brereton forced landed 22 miles away at Malton with engine trouble, and the flight ended in a second forced landing at Welham Park later in the day. The machine went back to Filey by rail and after this episode R. J. Isaacson modified the engine and fitted ball bearings to the connecting rods and crankshaft. It was flying again on 9 June and went to Hendon with the Type B in the following September.
   The third Mercury III, built for naval flying pioneer Lt Spenser Grey, RN, had polished aluminium side panels as far aft as the cockpit and for this reason has been continually misrepresented as one of the all-steel monoplanes which Blackburn built in 1912. Redesign of the front fuselage, which began when the tanks on the Mercury IIs and the second Mercury III were lowered and covered, reached finality in Spenser Grey's machine. This had a curved decking over the tanks which continued the line of the circular cowling over the 50 hp Gnome back as far as the cockpit where it formed a 'scuttle-dash' to deflect some of the slipstream from the pilot. This modification was embodied in the Hucks tour machine when it was rebuilt as Type B in 1912. Grey's Mercury III was delivered by rail to Brooklands where Hucks made the first engine runs on 16 December 1911, and the owner flew it for the first time on 25 December. A few days later he made a cross-country flight to Lodmoor, near Weymouth, where he had had a hangar built and on 7 January 1912 crossed Weymouth Bay to Portland and circled over the Home Fleet. Unfortunately, after exhibition flights on 10 January, he returned to find his landing ground full of sightseers and the machine was damaged in the ensuing avoiding action. After repairs at Leeds the redoubtable Harry Goodyear took the machine to Eastchurch by train and re-erected it. Spenser Grey then made the first of many flights there on 21 February. The aircraft was eventually repurchased by Blackburns, fitted with the simplified Type B undercarriage, and put to work as a school machine at Hendon where it took part in the Naval and Military Aviation Day on 28 September 1912.
   The fourth Mercury III, identified by a combination of cut-away wing roots and six-strut undercarriage, was built for the Blackburn School and flew at Filey in March 1912. Yet another is said to have had a 50 hp Anzani radial. For the summer season that year, a special single-seat machine with partially cowled 50 hp Gnome, similar to the Type B and with 'Blackburn' in bold lettering under each wing, was built to enable Jack Brereton to give demonstrations similar to those of B. C. Hucks the year before. Although it had the cut-away wing roots of Mercury III No. 4, its undercarriage differed from those of all other Mercury monoplanes. Basically of the simplified type fitted to the Type B, it had a tubular-steel spreader bar between the front struts and laminated skids with turned-down rear ends. It was first flown at Filey on 7 June 1912, and initial engagements were at Bridlington on 15 July and the Lincolnshire Agricultural Show, Skegness, two days later.
   Despite the oft repeated assertion that nine Mercury Ills were built, careful research has failed to identify more than six, so that in the absence of further information it can only be assumed that the total of nine included the Mercury I and the two Mercury IIs. The company's Flying School activities seem to have been maintained throughout by four aircraft. At Filey they appear to have been Blackburn's second monoplane, the Mercury I and Isaacson- and Gnome-powered Mercury IIIs, but at Hendon the veteran second monoplane and the old Mercury I were replaced by the Type B and the modified ex-Spenser Grey two-seater. They remained in service until the School closed in the spring of 1913 and were flown by a select band of pupil pilots, only three of whom actually gained Royal Aero Club Aviators' Certificates on the Blackburn types on which they had learned, viz:
   No. 91 B.C.Hucks Filey 30 May 1911
   No. 409 H.A.Buss Hendon 4 February 1913
   No. 410 M.F.Glew Hendon 4 February 1913

SPECIFICATION AND DATA
   Constructors: The Blackburn Aeroplane Co (the Aeroplane Dept of Robert Blackburn and Co, Engineers), Balm Road, Leeds, Yorks.
   Power Plants:
   (Mercury I) One 50 hp Isaacson
   (Mercury II) One 50 hp Gnome
   (Mercury III)
   One 60 hp Renault
   One 50 hp Isaacson
   One 50 hp Gnome
   One 50 hp Anzani

Dimensions, Weights and Performances:
   Mercury I Mercury II Mercury III
Span 38 ft 4 in 32 ft 0 in* 32 ft 0 in
Length 33 ft 0 in 31 ft 0 in 31 ft 0 in
Height 6 ft 9 in 8 ft 6 in 8 ft 6 in
Wing area 288 sq ft 200 sq ft* 195 sq ft
All-up weight 1,000 lb** 700 lb 800 lb
Maximum speed 60 mph 70 mph 75 mph***
   * Second aircraft later rebuilt with 36 ft span, 220 sq ft mainplane
** With Isaacson engine
*** With Renault engine

Production:
   (a) Mercury I
   One aircraft only, 50 hp Isaacson, shown at Olympia March 1911 and used by the Blackburn Flying School, Filey, until 1912.
   (b) Mercury II
   Two aircraft only, both with 50 hp Gnome engines:
   1. Racing No. 22, first flown at Filey in July 1911, wrecked at Brooklands 22 July 1911.
   2. Racing No. 27,first flown at Filey 7 July 1911, converted to two-seater August 1911, crashed at Eastbourne 23 March 1912, rebuilt as a single-seat school machine for the Filey School April 1912, to the Hendon School September 1912 as racing No. 33, withdrawn from use when the school closed June 1913.
   (c) Mercury III
   Six aircraft as follows (in approximate production order):
   1. 60 hp Renault First flown 9 November 1911, crashed at Filey 6 December 1911.
   2. 50 hp Isaacson First flown May 1912, identified by raised top rudder, used by the Blackburn Flying School, Hendon, until June 1913.
   3. 50 hp Gnome First flown 25 December 1911, built for Lt Spenser Grey, RN, damaged at Weymouth 10 January 1912, first flown at Eastchurch after repair 21 February 1912, to the Blackburn Flying School, Hendon, by September 1912.
   4. 50 hp Gnome School machine, cut-away wing roots, first flown at Filey March 1912.
   5. 50 hp Anzani No details.
   6. 50 hp Gnome Exhibition machine first flown 7 June 1912.

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Описание:

  • A.Jackson Blackburn Aircraft since 1909 (Putnam)
  • M.Goodall, A.Tagg British Aircraft before the Great War (Schiffer)
  • P.Lewis British Aircraft 1809-1914 (Putnam)
  • Журнал Flight