Granger Archaeopteryx

Does anyone know what stage has been reached in Richard Granger’s restoration to airworthiness of the Archaeopteryx? Online there is a report and photographs dating from 2014, but I can find nothing about the progress made in the subsequent eight years. Maybe it’s a case of it will happen when it happens and we’ll be told when we need to know. It seems that something along these lines was said by Ex Brat back in 2016, but the post in which he did so appears to have performed a disappearing trick!

I remember that during a taxi run at Old Warden a few years ago the commentator said that the Granger oscillated in pitch so it must have been a bit like riding a rollercoaster. I don’t think the oscillations built up and became uncontollable it was more a case of leaving the aeroplane to get on with it and accepting a bumpy ride as any attempt at correcting matters tended to make the oscillations worse and could lead to problems. This would probably tie in with the short moment of the stubby fuselage.
I have never seen it fly so I would love to see it in the air again even if it is only for short hops down the runway at Old Warden.
I saw the attempts to fly the Dagling at the first show this year. I had heard they flew like a brick and but didn’t realise quite how accurate a description that was of their flying characteristics. It still appeared that there was more than one person who was happy to jump in and have a go though.
One of the great things about Old Warden is that they do try to get everything off the ground even if it is only for a brief flight. The sight of the Edwardians, the Hummingbird and the Wren in the air give me more pleasure than a thousand flypasts by a modern jet.

If you scroll down the page there is a (presumably) recent pic of the fuselage and they say it is going to be in flying condition.

http://f4bscale.worldonline.co.uk/nmacgall.htm

Aircraft have tails for good reasons,stability being one!
As a sweeping generalisation all tailless a/c will have at least one handling problem.
A Fauvel glider was extremely sensitive in pitch and would need careful handling near the ground.

cheers baz

I refer you to Aeroplane Monthly of Nov 78. Again there referring to “From Bleriot to Spitfire” Lewis regards the A.
” as a handful to fly from O.W. and, in keeping with most tailless aircraft it has some bad habits. Much of the trouble stems from the u/c and short moment of the fuselage…………..”
As expected it was also very underpowered with a climb rate of 60 fpm.:eek:

I cannot find(still looking)the artical written by Neil Williams about flying the Archaeopteryx, he flew it fairly often.
I do remember reading about how it needed some fine tuning to make it airworthy after restoration, which was in June 1971, think the undercarriage was altered to increase the ground angle. It does suffer from poor pitch control during landing and take off.
Believe the new colour scheme of green is thought to be more accurate than the blue it was painted in.
Looking at it now I suddenly realise its so close in layout to modern flex wing microlights, it was just 80 years ahead of its time. Would be a nice formation pair to see flying with a modern relation.

Richard

Hmmm but does anyone know about the Granger, just to put the thread back on track.:diablo:

Sounds like sitting in the back seat of a T31/Mk 3 and pulling on 1 of the 2 spoiler cables to ‘help’ the front seater fly accurately :diablo:
Not that I ever did that of course !!:rolleyes:

cheers baz

Interesting, I’ve heard it said that the Tipsy Trainer could be turned by resting the apropriate elbow on the cockpit sill …

I can vouch for that!

Actually my old Luton Minor and Pushpak were even better. In the Pushpak, putting one’s arm out of the sliding windows initiated a gentle turn rather better than the ailerons!

Silly I know, but if you’re flying around England at about 65mph, you’ve got to do something to pass the time! 😀

Interesting, I’ve heard it said that the Tipsy Trainer could be turned by resting the apropriate elbow on the cockpit sill so much along the same lines then. I’ve always thought that the Granger looks like a light aircraft answer to the Westland-Hill Pterodactyl series of machines.

There was a chapter on it’s flying abilities in a book on flying the Shuttleworth’s aircraft. John Lewis would be the best experienced pilot to ask. Apparently if he leaned his arms on the cockpit sills, it had a marked effect on performance !

That is a machine which has intrigued me for a long time. I wonder what the handling is like? It looks as though it might actually fly quite well and have handling to match its looks.

Picture in new colours here (need to scroll) http://f4bscale.worldonline.co.uk/nmacgall.htm. Used to be flown regularly by John Lewis Filton test pilot late sixties early seventies at Old Warden. I do have a 1/72 nd scale drawing around .