M.Goodall, A.Tagg British Aircraft before the Great War (Schiffer)
Deleted by request of (c)Schiffer Publishing
WHITE & THOMPSON Ltd. (Dr. John Douglas Campbell White and Norman Arthur Thompson, Aeronautic Works, Middleton-on-Sea, Bognor, Sussex)
Thompson was an established engineer who, in 1907-8, began to be interested in aeronautics through reading the books of EW. Lanchester, the well known writer on aerodynamics and consultant to the Daimler company. In 1909, Thompson made contact with Dr. White, an old college friend, and together the pair approached Lanchester to discuss their plans for developing their aviation interests, and persuaded him to act as their consultant from March of 1909. Dr. White agreed to provide finance for an experimental machine, and to administer the new concern that the pair established at Middleton-on-Sea, near Bognor, in early 1910. Thompson managed the practical aspects of a works and manufacturing facilities, adjacent to the sands, which were to be used for flight testing. A private company, with the two men as directors, was finally established in March 1912.
Meanwhile Lanchester was designing a machine, work on which was commenced at the Daimler works in Coventry pending the availability of the facilities at Middleton. This machine was identified as the Thompson-Lanchester No. 1 biplane, and was probably Lanchester's only design for a complete aircraft.
W&T: THOMPSON-LANCHESTER No.1 biplane 'The Grey Angel'
The machine was intended to satisfy a military role, but the initial design by Lanchester, of a single-seater, single-engined aircraft evolved into a twin engined two-seater pusher, when the official views on military requirements became known. The fuselage was built at the Daimler Motor Co. works and, in the summer of 1910, with the aircraft only partly built, work was transferred to Middleton, where a small works had been set up adjacent to the sands and the machine was completed there. The sands were in poor condition when the time for the trials, carried out by Thompson, arrived, and these were abandoned when the machine overturned. Modifications were made in 1911 before further trials by Capt. Nicholson RN, which were again unsuccessful and the machine was scrapped.
The fuselage was of streamlined shape at the front, and was mounted on a faired in four wheeled undercarriage. This employed a hydraulic, pneumatic design patented by Lanchester No. 18384/1909, which proved unsatisfactory and was replaced with sprung wheels on outriggers. A large sail like rudder and divided elevator were fitted to the nose. The crew were seated side by side in front of the wing, from which point the fuselage flattened out to provide clearance for the two propellers. A fixed biplane boxkite tail, containing four vertical panels, comprising the tail unit was made of wood with 26 swg aluminum skinning. The fuselage was built of ash with sheet steel skinning, in the same manner as contemporary car bodies.
The wings were of unequal span, parallel in chord, and with squarecut tips and were braced, Warren girder style, with three pairs of struts plus diagonals each side. The construction was all metal with 23 swg aluminum alloy skins, which no doubt gave rise to the name 'Grey Angel', by which the machine was known.
To maintain continuous power in the event of a failure, the two engines were coupled by a crossed belt and initially drove four-bladed, adjustable pitch metal propellers, with blades, which tapered to the roots. These were replaced by three-bladed propellers, in which the blades tapered in the reverse direction, the broad blades having pointed tips.
Power: Two 50hp Gnome seven-cylinder air-cooled rotaries, driving 5ft 2in diameter four-bladed propellers by crossed belt. Three-bladed propellers used later.
Data
Span top 25ft
Span bottom 20ft
Chord 2ft 6in
Area 105 sq. ft
Length 14ft
Weight 1,2001b.
Speed 75 mph
P.Lewis British Aircraft 1809-1914 (Putnam)
White and Thompson No. 1
The publication of F. W. Lanchester's Aerodynamics in 1907 aroused considerable interest for the subject in Norman A. Thompson, an electrical engineer by profession, who was, at that time, manager of the Clyde Valley Electrical Power Company. The appearance of Aerodonetics by the same author during the following year was responsible in 1908 for Thompson's decision finally to enter the field of aviation, as he felt that the time had arrived for practical engineering experience to be applied to the theory of flight. Thompson met Lanchester in March, 1909, and enlisted his services as a designer and adviser to White and Thompson, a partnership which he had formed with Dr. Douglas White, a friend of substantial means and with varied interests. Dr. White agreed to finance experiments, not for profit but to help to ensure that Great Britain remained in the forefront of progress.
Lanchester's first design for the partnership was planned originally as a single-seat machine with one engine, but was then revised as a two-seater with two 50 h.p. Gnomes, coupled to each other by a crossed belt in case of failure of one of them. Construction was placed in the hands of the Daimler Motor Company of Coventry, who had started the fuselage and engine installation when, in the summer of 1910, the work was transferred to the White and Thompson premises at Middleton-on-Sea, near Bognor, Sussex. A shed and offices had been set up with a staff of ten under Dr. White and Norman Thompson as joint managers, and the site was chosen because of the fine stretches of sand along the shore between Bognor and Littlehampton which were very suitable for testing. The surface, however, was changed greatly by a heavy storm before the firm completed the Daimler-built chassis. The No. 1 emerged finally as a pusher biplane with Warren-girder braced, all-metal wings which were covered with 23 s.w.g. aluminium, and mounted on a fuselage consisting of an ash frame clad with sheet steel. Dihedral was incorporated in the lower wings only, and biplane tail surfaces were combined with four fixed fins, construction being similar to that of the wings, while movable surfaces comprised a nose-mounted rudder and split elevators. The sturdy four-wheel undercarriage was of the pneumatic type. Conforming with Lanchester's ideas, the machine was designed for high-speed flight by fitting small wings and opposite-rotating narrow, three-bladed propellers of only 5 ft. 2 ins. diameter.
Tests were carried out along the shore by Norman Thompson and by Captain Wilmot Nicholson, R.N., with employees of the firm chasing the Grey Angel, as the aircraft was called, with planks to be placed under the wheels to prevent it sinking into the sand when it stopped rolling. Owing to the meagre wing area provided and insufficient thrust available, the machine could not be persuaded to take off, and many detail modifications were made, including the fitting of new propellers, each with four wide blades, and of larger wheels and tyres. The White and Thompson No. 1 was too complex and advanced in conception for its time to be successful. It finally rose from the sands on one occasion, but development was abandoned ultimately when, during testing by Captain Nicholson, the undercarriage collapsed and the machine overturned after running into the water. Span, 25 ft. Wing area, 100 sq. ft. Weight empty. 1.200 lb.
