Auster Adventurer
The Auster J/5 Adventurer is a British-built three-seat light high-wing monoplane of the late 1940s. The Adventurer three-seat high-wing monoplane was developed from the J/1 Autocrat with extra power provided by the installation of the 130 h.p. Gipsy Major engine, to enable more flexible operations in the hotter climate of Australia and New Zealand, where most examples were sold. Unlike the powered J/1 Aiglet and J/1N Alpha, the Adventurer retained the smaller tail surfaces of the Autocrat, the new engine being set back sufficiently far for the original fin area to remain sufficient; the prototype Adventurer was converted to the new standard from a J/1 Autocrat c/n 2093 and first flew on 15 November 1947. This was followed by a further 58 production examples delivered between 1948 and 1952. Most J/5s were sold to private pilot owners in Australia and New Zealand where they were given the name Adventurer. Eleven Adventurers were still in service in Australia in one in New Zealand. Six Adventurers were sold to the Royal New Zealand Air Force and four to the Royal Rhodesian Air Force.
Five examples were completed for agricultural use as the J/5A Cropduster and served in Africa and Pakistan. J/5 civil version operated by the RNZAF and RRAF J/5A agricultural version with spray bars, spray tank etc. New ZealandRoyal New Zealand Air Force operated six J/5 Aiglets. Southern RhodesiaSouthern Rhodesian Air Force operated four. Data from Green, 1965, p. 138General characteristics Crew: one Capacity: two passengers Length: 23 ft 6 in Wingspan: 36 ft 0 in Height: 6 ft 6 in Wing area: 185 ft2 Empty weight: 1,205 lb Gross weight: 2,000 lb Powerplant: 1 × de Havilland Gipsy Major I, 130 hp Performance Maximum speed: 125 mph Cruise speed: 106 mph Range: 200 miles Rate of climb: 750 ft/min Notes Bibliography
Blackburn Cirrus Minor
The Blackburn Cirrus Minor is a British four-cylinder, inverted, in-line air-cooled aero-engine, designed and built by the Cirrus Engine Section of Blackburn Aircraft Limited in the late 1930s. The Cirrus Minor started life as a development of the original Cirrus series of engines which progressed through a number of variants Cirrus I, II, & III; each with different displacement and power. Cirrus was bought by Hermes Engine Company and they produced the Cirrus Hermes I, II, III and IV. Again each differing in displacement and power. In 1934 Cirrus was bought again by the Blackburn Aircraft company and that year the Cirrus Minor was produced and in 1935 the Blackburn Cirrus Major was produced; the Minor was known for excellent reliability, had a major "win" when it was selected to power the RAF's Taylorcraft Auster observation aircraft. The RAF's version had several modifications, known as the Series I. Although externally identical, the Series II engine was redesigned to operate on 77 octane fuel, as opposed to the original's 70, increasing power to 100 hp.
A preserved Blackburn Cirrus Minor II is on public display at the Royal Air Force Museum Cosford. Data from Lumsden Type: Inline air-cooled inverted 4-cylinder Bore: 3.94 in Stroke: 5.00 in Displacement: 243 cu in Length: 39.9 in Width: 17.9 in Height: 25.6 in Dry weight: 200 lb Valvetrain: 1 inlet and 1 exhaust valve per cylinder Fuel system: 1 Claudel carburettor Fuel type: 70 octane Cooling system: Air-cooled Power output: 90 hp at 2,600 rpm Compression ratio: 5.8:1 Power-to-weight ratio: 0.45 hp/lb Related development Blackburn Cirrus Major Comparable engines Argus As 8 ADC Cirrus Alfa Romeo 110 Hirth HM 504 Menasco C4Related lists List of aircraft engines
Anemoi
In ancient Greek religion and myth, the Anemoi were wind gods who were each ascribed a cardinal direction from which their respective winds came, were each associated with various seasons and weather conditions. The earliest attestation of the word in Greek and of the worship of the Winds by the Greeks, are the Mycenaean Greek word-forms, a-ne-mo-i-je-re-ja, a-ne-mo,i-je-re-ja, i.e. "Priestess of the Winds". These words, written in Linear B, are found on KN Fp 13 tablets; the Anemoi are subject to the god Aeolus. They were sometimes represented as gusts of wind, at other times were personified as winged men, they were sometimes depicted as horses kept in the stables of the storm god Aeolus, who provided Odysseus with the Anemoi in the Odyssey. The Spartans were reported to sacrifice a horse to the winds on Mount Taygetus. Astraeus, the astrological deity, Eos/Aurora, the goddess of the dawn, were the parents of the Anemoi, according to the Greek poet Hesiod. Of the four chief Anemoi, Boreas was the north wind and bringer of cold winter air, Zephyrus was the west wind and bringer of light spring and early-summer breezes, Notus was the south wind and bringer of the storms of late summer and autumn.
The deities equivalent to the Anemoi in Roman mythology were the Venti. These gods had different names, but were otherwise similar to their Greek counterparts, borrowing their attributes and being conflated with them. Boreas was the bringer of winter. Although taken as the north wind, the Roman writers Aulus Gellius and Pliny the Elder both took Boreas as a north-east wind, equivalent to the Roman Aquilo. Boreas is depicted as being strong, with a violent temper to match, he was shown as a winged old man with shaggy hair and beard, holding a conch shell and wearing a billowing cloak. Pausanias wrote that Boreas had snakes instead of feet, though in art he was depicted with winged human feet. Boreas' two sons Calaïs and Zetes, known as Boreads, were in the crew of the Argo as Argonauts. Boreas was associated with horses, he was said to have fathered twelve colts after taking the form of a stallion, to the mares of Erichthonius, king of Dardania. These were said to be able to run across a field of grain without trampling the plants.
Pliny the Elder thought that mares might stand with their hindquarters to the North Wind and bear foals without a stallion. The Greeks believed that his home was in Thrace, Herodotus and Pliny both describe a northern land known as Hyperborea "Beyond the North Wind" where people lived in complete happiness and had extraordinarily long lifespans, he is said to have fathered three giant Hyperborean priests of Apollo by Chione. Boreas was said to have kidnapped Orithyia, an Athenian princess, from the Ilisos. Boreas had taken a fancy to Orithyia and had pleaded for her favours, hoping to persuade her; when this failed, he reverted to his usual temper and abducted her as she danced on the banks of the Ilisos. Boreas wrapped Orithyia up in a cloud, married her, with her, Boreas fathered two sons—the Boreads and Calais—and two daughters—Chione, goddess of snow, Cleopatra.. From on, the Athenians saw Boreas as a relative by marriage; when Athens was threatened by Xerxes, the people prayed to Boreas, said to have caused winds to sink 400 Persian ships.
A similar event had occurred twelve years earlier, Herodotus writes: Now I cannot say if this was why the Persians were caught at anchor by the stormwind, but the Athenians are quite positive that, just as Boreas helped them before, so Boreas was responsible for what happened on this occasion also. And when they went home they built the god a shrine by the River Ilissus; the abduction of Orithyia was popular in Athens before and after the Persian War, was depicted on vase paintings. In these paintings, Boreas was portrayed as a bearded man in a tunic, with shaggy hair, sometimes frosted and spiked; the abduction was dramatized in Aeschylus's lost play Oreithyia. In other accounts, Boreas was the lover of the nymph Pitys. Boreas was claimed to have killed one of Apollo's many male lovers Hyacinthus out of jealousy. Boreas killed Hyacinthus by deflecting a discus that Hyacinthus had thrown straight into his head and killed him. Though his death was said to be an accident on Apollo's part many thought that Boreas was the true culprit.
The Roman equivalent of Boreas was Aquilo. This north wind was associated with winter; the poet Virgil writes: For the wind which came directly from the north the Romans sometimes used the name Septentrio. Zephyrus, sometimes known in English as just Zephyr, in Latin Favonius, is the Greek god of the west wind; the gentlest of the winds, Zephyrus is known as the messenger of spring. It was thought. Zephyrus was reported as having several wives in different stories, he was said to be the husband of goddess of the rainbow. He abducted the goddess Chloris, gave her the domain of flowers. With Chloris, he fathered Karpos, he is said to have vied for Chloris's love with his brother Boreas winning her
Conventional landing gear
Conventional landing gear, or tailwheel-type landing gear, is an aircraft undercarriage consisting of two main wheels forward of the center of gravity and a small wheel or skid to support the tail. The term taildragger is used, although some claim it should apply only to those aircraft with a tailskid rather than a wheel; the term "conventional" persists for historical reasons, but all modern jet aircraft and most modern propeller aircraft use tricycle gear. In early aircraft, a tailskid made of metal or wood was used to support the tail on the ground. In most modern aircraft with conventional landing gear, a small articulated wheel assembly is attached to the rearmost part of the airframe in place of the skid; this wheel may be steered by the pilot through a connection to the rudder pedals, allowing the rudder and tailwheel to move together. Before aircraft used tailwheels, many aircraft were equipped with steerable tailskids, which operate similar to a tailwheel; when the pilot pressed the right rudder pedal — or the right footrest of a "rudder bar" in World War I — the skid pivoted to the right, creating more drag on that side of the plane and causing it to turn to the right.
While less effective than a steerable wheel, it gave the pilot some control of the direction the craft was moving while taxiing or beginning the takeoff run, before there was enough airflow over the rudder for it to become effective. Another form of control, less common now than it once was, is to steer using "differential braking", in which the tailwheel is a simple castering mechanism, the aircraft is steered by applying brakes to one of the mainwheels in order to turn in that direction; this is used on some tricycle gear aircraft, with the nosewheel being the castering wheel instead. Like the steerable tailwheel/skid, it is integrated with the rudder pedals on the craft to allow an easy transition between wheeled and aerodynamic control; the tailwheel configuration offers several advantages over the tricycle landing gear arrangement, which make tailwheel aircraft less expensive to manufacture and maintain. Due to its position much further from the center of gravity, a tailwheel supports a smaller part of the aircraft's weight allowing it to be made much smaller and lighter than a nosewheel.
As a result, the smaller wheel causes less parasitic drag. Because of the way airframe loads are distributed while operating on rough ground, tailwheel aircraft are better able to sustain this type of use over a long period of time, without cumulative airframe damage occurring. If a tailwheel fails on landing, the damage to the aircraft will be minimal; this is not the case in the event of a nosewheel failure, which results in a prop strike. Due to the increased propeller clearance on tailwheel aircraft less stone chip damage will result from operating a conventional geared aircraft on rough or gravel airstrips, making them well suited to bush flying. Tailwheel aircraft are more suitable for operation on skis. Tailwheel aircraft are easier to maneuver inside some hangars; the conventional landing gear arrangement has disadvantages compared to nosewheel aircraft. Tailwheel aircraft are more subject to "nose-over" accidents due to injudicious application of brakes by the pilot. Conventional geared aircraft are much more susceptible to ground looping.
A ground loop occurs when directional control is lost on the ground and the tail of the aircraft passes the nose, swapping ends, in some cases completing a full circle. This event can result in damage to the aircraft's undercarriage, wingtips and engine. Ground-looping occurs because, whereas a nosewheel aircraft is steered from ahead of the center of gravity, a taildragger is steered from behind, so that on the ground a taildragger is inherently unstable, whereas a nosewheel aircraft will self-center if it swerves on landing. In addition, some tailwheel aircraft must transition from using the rudder to steer to using the tailwheel while passing through a speed range when neither is wholly effective due to the nose high angle of the aircraft and lack of airflow over the rudder. Avoiding ground loops requires more pilot skill. Tailwheel aircraft suffer from poorer forward visibility on the ground, compared to nose wheel aircraft; this requires continuous "S" turns on the ground to allow the pilot to see where they are taxiing.
Tailwheel aircraft are more difficult to taxi during high wind conditions, due to the higher angle of attack on the wings which can develop more lift on one side, making control difficult or impossible. They suffer from lower crosswind capability and in some wind conditions may be unable to use crosswind runways or single-runway airports. Due to the nose-high attitude on the ground, propeller-powered taildraggers are more adversely affected by P-factor – asymmetrical thrust caused by the propeller's disk being angled to the direction of travel, which causes the blades to produce more lift when going down than when going up due to the difference in angle the blade experiences when passing through the air; the aircraft will pull to the side of the upward blade. Some aircraft lack sufficient rudder authority in some flight regimes and the pilot must compensate before the aircraft starts to yaw; some aircraft older, higher powered aircraft such as the P-51 Mustang, cannot use full power on takeoff and still safely control their direction of travel.
On landing this is less of a factor, however opening the throttle to abort a landing can induce severe uncontrollable yaw unless the pilot is prepared for it. Jet aircraft gene
De Havilland Gipsy Major
The de Havilland Gipsy Major or Gipsy IIIA is a four-cylinder, air-cooled, inline engine used in a variety of light aircraft produced in the 1930s, including the famous Tiger Moth biplane. Many Gipsy Major engines still power vintage aircraft types worldwide today. Engines were produced both by de Havilland in the UK, by the Australian arm of the company, de Havilland Australia, the latter modifying the design to use imperial measures rather than the original metric measurements; the engine was a modified Gipsy III, a de Havilland Gipsy engine modified to run inverted so that the cylinders pointed downwards below the crankcase. This allowed the propeller shaft to be kept in a high position without having the cylinders blocking the pilot's forward view over the nose of the aircraft. One initial disadvantage of the inverted configuration was the high oil consumption requiring regular refills of the external oil tank, this problem improved over time with the use of modified piston rings; the Major was a bored-out Gipsy III.
First built in 1932, total production of all Gipsy Major versions was 14,615 units. In 1934, when Geoffrey de Havilland needed a more powerful engine for his twin-engined transport aircraft, the four-cylinder Gipsy Major was further developed into the 200 hp six-cylinder Gipsy Six. In 1937 more power was needed for the new D. H.91 Albatross four-engined transatlantic mailplane, so two Gipsy Six cylinder banks were combined to form one 525 hp Gipsy Twelve 12-cylinder inverted Vee. In military service, the Gipsy Twelve became known as the Gipsy King and the Gipsy Six the Gipsy Queen; the advent of World War II cut short all civilian flying and after the war de Havilland was too busy concentrating on jet engines to put much energy into its piston engines. The Gipsy did not go without a fight though. In Canada the Gipsy Major was the engine of choice for the DHC1 Chipmunk trainer, which replaced the Tiger Moth in the RAF. By that time however, the Gipsy Major was eclipsed by the Blackburn Cirrus Major in Britain and the American Lycoming and Continental horizontally opposed engines abroad.
In its final supercharged form, the Gipsy Major used in helicopter applications delivered 220 hp. By 1945 the Gipsy Major had been cleared for a world record 1,500 hours Time between overhaul, surpassing its held world record of 1,260 hours TBO achieved in 1943. 1,000 hours TBO had earlier been achieved in 1938. Gipsy Major I Gipsy Major IC Higher compression ratio and maximum RPM for racing use. Gipsy Major ID Fuel pump added, plus screened ignition priming system. Gipsy Major IF Aluminium cylinder heads, 5.25:1 compression ratio. Gipsy Major II Variable pitch propeller Gipsy Major 7 Military version of Gipsy Major 1D, increased climb RPM. Gipsy Major 8 Sodium cooled exhaust valves, cartridge starter for DHC Chipmunk. Gipsy Major 10 Electric starter option. Gipsy Major 30 Major redesign and stroke increased. 6.5:1 compression ratio. Gipsy Major 50 Supercharged. 197 hp. Gipsy Major 200 Designed as a light helicopter engine. 200 hp. Gipsy Major 215 Turbo-supercharged helicopter engine. 220 hp. Alfa Romeo 110 Alfa Romeo licence production/derivative de Havilland L-375-1 US military designation for the Gipsy Major I IAR 4-G1 IAR licence produced in Romania Application list from Lumsden unless otherwise noted.
Many Gipsy Major engines remain in service today worldwide, in the United Kingdom alone 175 de Havilland Tiger Moths were noted on the Civil Aviation Authority register in September 2011 although not all of these aircraft were airworthy. Examples of the Gipsy Major are on display at the following museums: de Havilland Aircraft Museum Fleet Air Arm Museum Shuttleworth Collection Royal Air Force Museum Cosford Data from Jane's. Type: 4-cylinder air-cooled inverted inline piston aircraft engine Bore: 4.646 in Stroke: 5.512 in Displacement: 373.7 in³ Length: 48.3 in Width: 20.0 in Height: 29.6 in Dry weight: 300 lb Mk 1F to 322 lb Mk 1D Valvetrain: OHV Fuel system: Downdraught Hobson A. I.48 H3M or H1M Oil system: Dry sump, gear-type pump Cooling system: Air-cooled Power output: 122 hp at 2,100 rpm, 145 hp at 2,550 rpm Specific power: 0.39 hp/in³ Compression ratio: 5.25:1 or 6.0:1 Fuel consumption: 6.5 to 6.75 gph at 2,100 rpm Oil consumption: 1.75 pints per hour. Power-to-weight ratio: 0.48 hp/lb de Havilland Aircraft Museum Frank HalfordRelated development de Havilland Gipsy Comparable engines Alfa Romeo 110 Argus As 8 Blackburn Cirrus Major Elizalde Tigre IV Hirth HM 504 Menasco PirateRelated lists List of aircraft engines Wesselink, Theo.
De Nederlandse vliegtuigen. Haarlem: Romem. ISBN 90 228 3792 0. Royal Air Force Museum - Gipsy Major
United Kingdom military aircraft serial numbers
United Kingdom military aircraft serials refers to the serial numbers used to identify individual military aircraft in the United Kingdom. All UK military aircraft are display a unique serial number. A unified serial number system, maintained by the Air Ministry, its successor the Ministry of Defence, is used for aircraft operated by the Royal Air Force, Fleet Air Arm and Army Air Corps. Military aircraft operated by government agencies and civilian contractors are assigned serials from this system; when the Royal Flying Corps was formed in 1912 aircraft were identified by a letter/number system related to the manufacturer. The prefix "A" was allocated to balloons of No.1 Company, Air Battalion, Royal Engineers, the prefix "B" to aeroplanes of No.2 Company, the prefix "F" to aeroplanes of the Central Flying School. The Naval Wing used the prefix "H" for seaplanes, "M" for monoplanes, "T" for aeroplanes with engines mounted in tractor configuration. Before the end of the first year a unified serial number system was introduced for both Army and Naval aircraft.
The serials are allocated when the contract is placed with the supplier. In an RAF or FAA pilot's personal service log book, the serial number of any aircraft flown, along with any other particulars, such as aircraft type, flight time, purpose of flight, etc. is entered by the pilot after every flight, thus giving a complete record of the pilot's flying activities and which individual aircraft have been flown. This first series ran from 1 to 10000 with blocks allocated to each service; the first serial was allocated to a Short S.34 for the Royal Naval Air Service, with the number 10000 going to a Blackburn-built B. E.2c aircraft in 1916. By 1916 the first sequence had reached 10000 and it was decided to start an alpha-numeric system from A1 to A9999 starting again at B1; the letters A, B, C, D, E, F, H, J were allocated to the Royal Flying Corps and N1 to N9999 and S1 to S9999 to the Royal Naval Air Service. When the sequence reached the prefix K it was decided to start at K1000 for all subsequent letters instead of K1.
Although the N and S series had earlier been used by RNAS aircraft, the sequence N1000 to N9999 was again used by the Air Ministry for both RAF and RN aircraft. The'Naval' S sequence had reached only S1865, a Fairey IIIF, but when R9999 was reached in 1939, the next serial allocations did not run on from that point, but instead commenced at T1000. From 1937 not all aircraft serials were allocated, in order to hide the true number of aircraft in production and service. Gaps in the serial number sequence were sometimes referred to as "blackout blocks"; the first example of this practice was an early 1937 order for 200 Avro Manchester bombers which were allotted the serials L7276-7325, L7373-7402, L7415-7434, L7453-7497, L7515-7549 and L7565-7584, covering a range of 309 possible serial numbers, thus making it difficult for an enemy to estimate true British military aircraft strength. By 1940 the serial Z9978 had been allocated to a Bristol Blenheim and it was decided to restart the sequence with a two-letter prefix, starting at AA100.
This sequence is still in use today. Until the 1990s this 2-letter, 3-numeral serial number sequence, had numbers in the range 100 to 999. An exception to this rule was Douglas Skyraider AEW1 which received the UK serial WT097, which incorporated the last 3 digits of its US Navy Bureau Number 124097. Past unassigned serials, including those having numerals 001-099, have been assigned; some letters have not been used to avoid confusion: C confusion with G, I confusion with 1, O and Q confusion with 0, U confusion with V and Y confusion with X. During the Second World War RAF aircraft carrying secret equipment, or that were in themselves secret, such as certain military prototypes, had a "/G" suffix added to the end of the serial, the "G" signifying "Guard", denoting that the aircraft was to have an armed guard at all times while on the ground, for example; as of 2009, serial allocations have reached the ZKnnn range. However, in recent years, serials have been allocated out-of-sequence. For example, the first RAF C-17 Globemaster was given the serial ZZ171 in 2001, a batch of Britten-Norman Defenders for the Army Air Corps were given serials in the ZGnnn range in 2003.
Some recent serials allocations have had a numeric part in the previously-unused 001 to 099 range. Distinct serial numbering systems are used to identify non-flying airframes used for ground training; the RAF have used a numeric sequence with an'M' suffix sometimes referred to as the'Maintenance' series. Known allocations, made between 1921 and 2000, ranged from 540M to 9344M, when this sequence was terminated; the main series of single letter serials did not use'M' to avoid confusion with the suffix'M'. The Fleet Air Arm use an'A'-prefixed sequence and the Army Air Corps issue'TAD' numbers to their instructional airframes; the serial numbers are carried in up to four places on each aircraft, on either side of the aircraft on a vertical surface and on the underside of each wing. The underwing serials specified so that in case of unauthorised low flying civilian personnel could report the offending aircraft to the local police, have not been displayed since the 1960s, as by
Auster J/4
The Auster J/4 was a 1940s British single-engined two-seat high-wing touring monoplane built by Auster Aircraft Limited at Rearsby, Leicestershire. Sales in the United Kingdom of the American-engined Auster J/2 Arrow were limited by import restrictions on the engines, so Auster re-engined the aircraft with a British engine, the 90 hp Blackburn Cirrus Minor I; the first aircraft flew towards the end of 1946. The two-seat aircraft proved less popular than the companies three-seat Auster J/1 Autocrat and only 27 aircraft were built. A number of aircraft were exported to Australia and these were known as the Archer in that country. On 30 August 1955 an Australian aircraft VH-AET managed to take-off from Bankstown Airport Sydney without a pilot, it was shot down. Data from Jane's all the World's Aircraft 1949-50, The Incomplete Guide to Airfoil Usage, British Civil Aircraft since 1919 Volume IGeneral characteristics Crew: 2 Length: 22 ft 6 in Wingspan: 36 ft 1 in Height: 6 ft 6 in tail down, propeller horizontal Wing area: 185 sq ft Aspect ratio: 6.857 Airfoil: NACA 23012 Empty weight: 955 lb Gross weight: 1,600 lb Fuel capacity: Fuel:15 imp gal in fuselage fuel tank, with 13.75 imp gal under-fuselage auxiliary tank.
Powerplant: 1 × Blackburn Cirrus Minor I 4-cylinder inverted air-cooled in-line piston engine, 90 hp maximum at 2,600rpm Propellers: 2-bladed Weybridge wooden fixed pitch propellerPerformance Maximum speed: 108 mph Cruise speed: 92 mph at 2,300 rpm Stall speed: 37 mph Range: 317 mi Service ceiling: 12,500 ft Rate of climb: 746 ft/min Wing loading: 8.65 lb/sq ft Fuel consumption: 0.3234 lb/mi Power/mass: 17.1 lb/hp Take-off run: 150 yd in 5 mph wind Landing run: 80 yd in 5 mph wind Related lists List of civil aircraft
