.
The Condor, and the Fokker would both seem to be rare enough to justfy consideration, the Fokker did feature in a magazine a few years ago, consisting of the steel tube fuselage and wooden wing spars, similarly I understand the Condor had been found to be still surviving as a steel tube frame? both if still existing may be reasonably well preserved? other than lose of parts to the strong winds.
Perhaps the most interesting “wreck” and rarest wreck is Mawson’s REP/Vickers monoplane fuselage, which is in fact the first Vickers aircraft ever built, its wings were left in Melbourne, and its fuselage was shipped down to be used a a powered sled, its rudder survives in his preserved camp, the fuselage was apparantly blown away by strong winds.
Vickers No. 1 monoplane
1 R.E.P. 60 HP five-cylinder air-cooled semi-radial engine The very first airplane to be built by Vickers, this was a license-built French machine, designed by Robert Esnault-Pelterie. The fuselage was built in France while the wings were made in England. After being tested at Vickers’ new airfield at Joyce Green, Dartford, and then at Brooklands, it was crated and shipped to Australia for use by the Australasian Antarctic Expedition. However, the wings were damaged beyond repair on October 5, 1911, during a practice flight at Cheltenham Racecourse, Adelaide, Australia, before the expedition left for the Antarctic. Minus its wings, the machine was converted into an air-tractor, and taken south, but it did not fly in the Antarctic. The first tests of the machine as an air-tractor were made on November 15, 1912. After a short trial trip on November 20, 1912, the vehicle made a successful depot-laying trip with a load of 700 pounds on December 2, 1912. At 3 PM on December 3rd, three men and the air-tractor left the expedition’s base at Commonwealth Bay on a major trip. On December 4, 1912, while towing four sledges loaded with fuel and supplies, several of the pistons seized and the engine broke down. The air-tractor was left at this point, about ten miles from the base. Later another party of men recovered the air-tractor, which was taken back to Commonwealth Bay and abandoned there.
28th August 2007, 22:23
David Burke
Rank 5 Registered User Join Date: Jan 2000
Posts: 3,974There are over a hundred aircraft wrecks in the Antartic – amongst these the remains of a Fokker Universal from the Byrd expedition.
By the way David, your not an author on the subject are you?
Moments of Terror: The Story of Antarctic Aviation, by David Burke
New South Wales University Press, ©1994, ISBN 0 86840 157 9
Pages 9-11, 79, 190, 210-211, 303
regards
Mark Pilkington
bdn12,
Obviously, the power comes from the pistons, but what transfers the pistons motion into rotational motion of the engine block?
In simply terms it is like bolting the crankshaft of a radial so it cant rotate, that causes the crankcase to do so.
I guess strickly speaking, it is after the compression and ignition of the gases within the cylinder, and the expansion of the gases are pushing the piston down, that the angled vector of the con rod at that point pushing on the fixed crankshaft then causes the cylinder to be pushed sideways by the piston on its downward travel thus causing the crankcase to rotate? (as the cylinders are bolted to the crankcase).
More generally the crankshaft, master and con rods of the Rotary work the same as the Radial, and any other internal combustion engine.
There is a bearing at the crankshaft/master rod connection point, and the master rod rotates, around the crankshaft, which in a rotary is stationary, and which in a radial – rotates.
That point of the crankshaft (the crank pin) is off-set from centre to create the up-down movement of the piston as the engine rotates.
Usually one piston is connected to a master connection rod, with the other pistons connected to that master rod, via individual connection rods, the Master clamps a bearing surface (the big end) around the “crank pin” of the crankshaft, the other “con rods” are then connected to the Master.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crankshaft
http://science.howstuffworks.com/radial-engine2.htm
http://www.aviation-history.com/engines/radial.htm
regards
Mark Pilkington
.
Here is an interesting graphic showing how the crankshaft remains stationary, while the pistons, the cylinders, and therefore the crankcase all rotate.
The website has further information on interpreting and understanding the graphic.
http://www.keveney.com/gnome.html
regards
Mark Pilkington
.
The RAAF were an early user of the DH-60 as a basic trainer, and “Dickie” Williams was criticised by a visiting RAF AVM for selecting it over continued use of the Avro 504K.
A total of 118 DH60’s from Cirrus, DH60X, DH60G, DH60M and DH60GIII models flew with the RAAF in the A7- series, the first two being imported and evaluated in early 1926.
(TigerMoths were not included in this series, and instead recorded under the A17- series )
These aircraft were ordered from the UK, directly for the RAAF, and even constructed locally, however a number of civil examples were impressed by the RAAF during WW2, including some that had been previously retired from RAAF service.
The typical scheme in the RAAF was an overall silver dope with pre-war red/white/blue roundels and the A7- serial in black, many, but not all, had a tri-colour rudder, I suspect these were painted in the UK before shippment and adopted the RAF colourscheme.
Below is a restored RAAF example still flying in Australia
regards
Mark Pilkington
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