Описание
Страна: Япония
Год: 1915
Single-engine single-float tractor biplane
R.Mikesh, A.Shorzoe Japanese Aircraft, 1910-1941 (Putnam)
Umino Seaplane
In May 1914, aviator Ikunosuke Umino took with him from the United States to Japan, a Christofferson flying-boat. While taxi-ing this aeroplane on 1 july, 1914, before a test flight, the engine caught fire and burned the major components of the aeroplane. Umino escaped uninjured. The engine used in this flying-boat was the same 60hp Hall-Scott that had been used in the Curtiss in which Kouha Takeishi crashed and was killed at the Fukakusa Military Grounds in Kyoto on 4 May, 1913. The engine was then repaired for further use in the Christofferson and by Umino for his aircraft.
Using the remaining parts of the Christofferson flying-boat along with its engine, Umino designed a floatplane which he had built by Nippon Hikoki Seisakusho. This Umino Seaplane became the third and last aeroplane to come from this recently formed company. In the new aeroplane, the engine was in the tractor position instead of being a pusher as previously. The radiator was above the fuselage and behind the engine. There was a single main float with two wingtip pontoons. The cockpit was well aft at almost mid-fuselage.
This aeroplane was completed in May 1915 and tested at Nishinomiya Beach west of Osaka. Several attempts were made to get the seaplane airborne but none succeeded. Discouraged, Umino retired from aviation.
Single-engine single-float tractor biplane. Wooden structure with fabric covered wings, fuselage and tail unit. Wooden main float with tubular metal wingtip floats. Pilot in open cockpit.
60hp Hall-Scott eight-cylinder vee water-cooled engine, driving a two-bladed wooden propeller.
Span 10.30m (33ft 9 1/2in); length 7m (22ft 11 1/2in); height 3.60m (11ft 9 1/4in).
Empty weight 510kg (1,124Ib).
One built in May 1915.
Because of a lack of further orders the Nippon Hikoki Seisakusho went out of business and Tachibana, the owner of the company, went into the film industry.
- R.Mikesh, A.Shorzoe Japanese Aircraft, 1910-1941 (Putnam)
Фотографии
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R.Mikesh, A.Shorzoe - Japanese Aircraft, 1910-1941 /Putnam/
Umino Seaplane