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

Jane's All The World Aircraft 1913

GRAHAME-WHITE. The Grahame-White Aviation Co., Ltd., 166 Piccadilly, London, W. Works and Flying Ground: Hendon. Founded by C. Grahame-White, the well-known aviator, who in 1909 commenced operations with a school at Pau. Later this was removed to England, and a general agency for the sale of aeroplanes, etc., established. This developed, and early in 1911 the firm was handling a special British agency for the U.S. Burgess type known as "The Baby." The Hendon Aerodrome was acquired, and a factory established, which has grown continually ever since. In April, 1912, a monoplane to special design was completed. By the close of the same year biplanes of advanced design were constructed. Capacity of the works, March, 1913, was equal to 150 machines a year if necessary.

   | 1913. |1913. |1913. |1913 |1913.
   |Military |"Popular" |"Popular" |Tractor |Monoplane.
   |biplane. | biplane |biplane |hydro- |Type IX.
   |Type VI. |Type VII. |Type VII. |biplane | single-
   |2-seater |2-seater. |2-seater. |2-seater.| seat.
-----------------|-----------|-------------|-------------|---------|----------
Length...feet(m.)|33? (10.10)|20-5/6 (6.40)|26-5/6 (8.22)|25 (7.60)|21 (6.40)Span.....feet(m.}|42 (12.80)|29-1/6 (8.85)|38 (11.60)|42? (13) |32 (9.75)
Area..sq.ft.(m?.)|435 (40?) |230 (21) |475 (44) |380 (35) |208 (19)
Weight, total ...| | | | |
.......lbs.(kgs.)|2200 (997) | ... | ... |850 (385)| ... Weight, useful...| | | | |
.......lbs.(kgs.)| 750 (340) | ... | ... |450 (204)| ...
Motor | 120 Aust. | 50 Gnome | 50 Gnome |80 Gnome |50 Gnome
   | Daimler | | | |
Speed, max... | | | | |
...m.p.h (k.p.h.)|70 (110) |60 (95) |50 (80) |65 (105) |65 (105)
Speed, min... | | | | |
...m.p.h (k.p.h.)|55 (90) |50 (80) |40 (65) |50 (80) | ... Endurance....hrs.| 6 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4
Number built | | | | |
   during 1912 | 1 | ... | ... | 1 | ...
-----------------|-----------|-------------|-----------------------|-----------
   |Also built | Also built | |Also built|Also built
   |with a 90 | with a 35 | |with a 60 |with a 35
   |Aust.Daimler.| Anzani. | |Anzani. |Anzani. Two
   |Designed to| | | |main floats
   |carry a gun| | | |with 12?
   |on the bow.| | | |ft. track.
   |Very good | | | |Floats are
   |view. Very | | | |15 ft.long,
   |strong | | | |2 ft. wide,
   |landing | | | |1 ft. 3 in.
   |carriage. | | | |deep.

Журнал Flight

Flight, February 1, 1913.

THE 35-H.P. GRAHAME-WHITE "POPULAR" BIPLANE.

   LISTED at a price of under L400 complete with motor and all the usual accessories, this interesting product of the Grahame-White Co., which only made its appearance during the past week, is essentially the machine for the man of moderate means. It is small, light, inexpensive in first cost and upkeep, simple and cheap to repair, and by no means difficult, we should think, to fly. Thus it makes a strong appeal to the exhibition flyer, the flying school proprietor, and the man who takes up aviation as a sport. Considering the latter type of man, there are very few, and they are very far between, who quite see the point of laying out the more usual price of L1,000 in acquiring a machine with which he can make an occasional cross-country flight. There ought to be many comfortably well off sportsmen who would take up flying as a hobby if it were only brought home to them that flying need not be such an expensive diversion as has been generally thought. For, after all, there is no fascination to compare with the fascination of flying.
   In general outline, as the reader will gather from our photographs, this new Grahame-White machine bears a resemblance to that very well-known French make of biplane - the Henry Farman. To our way of thinking this fact does not make the machine any the less interesting. Rather do we admire the Grahame-White Co.'s policy in basing their machine on a design that, in France, has probably brought its originators a greater commercial success than has been achieved by any other aeroplane manufacturing firm we could mention.
   The main lifting surfaces of the machine are constituted by two planes, 28 ft. and 14 ft. respectively, in span, set at an angle of 5 of incidence, and braced together by heavy-gauge piano wire and separated by eight hollow struts in two ranks. The four centre struts - for they support the body - are of ash, the outer ones are of spruce. The planes are built about two main ash spars, both of I-section, and the ribs occur at every foot, approximately, along their length. At those points at which vertical struts are attached to the spars, the ribs used are of the hollow box variety in other places, they are built up, I-section, with spruce flanges and three-ply distance pieces. To better maintain the shape of the plane, false ribs, extending from the leading edge to the front spar, are arranged midway between each main rib, and a pair of longitudinal stringers are run, at a point midway between front and rear spars, from one end of the plane to the other. The cross-section employed is that of the later 50-h.p. Gnome-Bleriot wing, the one that Eiffel refers to in his work on wing sections as Aile No. 13 bis. Lateral control of the machine is maintained by two balancing flaps, each of 7 ft. span, hinged to the rear spar at either end of the top plane. They work in conjunction, and are connected one to the other by stranded steel cables, which pass over red fibre pulleys clamped to the front spar.
   The landing-gear is of a type which, if it cannot be said of it that it is original, still maintains its own as probably the most serviceable type of undercarriage ever devised. The skids are of ash, and each supports its side of the machine through two vertical ash struts and three steel tubes, which are arranged to give the maximum of rigidity. Throughout, its length between the attachments of the vertical struts, each skid is spindled down to an I-section, and the overhang behind the rear vertical strut is laminated and made flexible in such a way that it may take the weight in landing of the rear part of the machine. Thus we find that the tail skid has been suppressed, as it has been in many machines of late. Of the strength of the chassis there can be little doubt, since the struts have an ample cross-section, and they are only about 18 ins. in length.
   Ash outriggers support the tail, and they arc braced by a steel wire and by vertical hollow wooden struts, and horizontal steel tubes. For lightness' sake the outriggers are hollowed out to I-section between those points where bolts pass through them to anchor the sockets accommodating the vertical and horizontal cross-members. The tail, being cambered and set at a positive angle of 20, does a small share of the total lift. Behind it are the two elevator-flaps by which the attitude of the machine is controlled.
   The body of the machine, in which the pilot sits, where are accommodated the fuel tanks, and to which the motor is mounted, is essentially a box girder some 12 ft. in length, built up of ash longitudinals, cross-members of oval-section steel tubing, and vertical members of spruce and ash. It is enclosed in front by three-ply wood, and along its sides by fabric. At its rear end it is capped by a flanged steel plate, to which the motor, a 35-h.p. Anzani of the very popular Y-type, is bolted. It drives a propeller of 2.100 m. diameter and 1.500 m. pitch. This propeller, by the way, has been designed by Mr. J. D. North, who is also responsible for the general and detail design of the machine under review. In shape it is somewhat reminiscent of, and yet unlike, the Levasseur propeller, for the fact that its blades, scythe-shaped, revolve point first. The cross-section of its blades, however, is different, for, on what may be considered as the under surface of the blade, Mr. North has made use of the return curve. It is interesting to record that a static thrust of 310 lbs. has been obtained from an exactly similar propeller driven by a similar engine.
   Including four hours' supply of petrol and oil, and with the pilot on board, the weight of the machine comes out at slightly over 600 lbs., and thus its surface loading is, approximately speaking, 3 lbs. to the sq. ft. Its average flying speed is estimated at 50 miles an hour.