Wonwings Diary-a blog with a difference.

[wonwinglo]

Wonwings diary-Crime does not pay-Australian aircraft seizure.

http://www.afp.gov.au/media_releases/national/2006/afp_helps_seize_planes,_properties_and_automobile

Examples are being made of companies and organisations throughout Australia of those that manipulate and defraud tax,included are fast cars and equipment plus three large hangars and a large collection of aircraft.

Thanks to the news media,Commonwealth of Australia.

[wonwinglo]

Airspeed Horsa at Shawbury.

And here is that very Airspeed Horsa Nigel,taken by my good friend Dave Peace on a visit to Shawbury,the museum is dedicated to the Airborne Forces museum,they also have a Waco Hadrian American glider,and are building another replica for the American museum involved with the wonderful exchange.

Thats interesting Barry my Brother in law seves at Shawbury??? and i know they have a horsa and dak there

[wonwinglo]

Wonwings diary-The Shuttleworth Trust,Old Warden.

Shuttleworth Trust,Old Warden,Bedfordshire.



Situated just outside Bedfordshire at a place called Biggleswade in the UK is a small grass airfield with a difference,step through the gate and you are immersed in aviation as it was many years ago,,this is not a dusty museum but a place where aeroplanes are maintained and flown just as they were many years ago in the infancy of aviation.

We owe this museum to the forethought of a great man called Richard Ormond Shuttleworth,who loved flying and fast cars which he raced at the Brooklands circuit,he steadily built up a collection of old aeroplanes at the estate airfield at Old Warden where time just stands still and techniques we used from yesteryear still stand,every year the airfield opens its doors to a selection of period flying displays guaranteed to satisfy any vintage aircraft lovers dream,here are a selection of machines that can be found here at the museum for all to enjoy.



Here we see the Castor oil soaked side panels of the collections Bleriot XI,note the rubber bungee suspension on the undercarriage and the wire spoked wheels,the birdlike wing section and the hand carved ash undercarriage beams,how would you have fancied flying the channel in this ? because that is exactly what Louis Bleriot did in 1909,landing on the cliffs of Dover,a spot still marked to this day with a plinth.



Here you can see the odd little seat,the strange control column and the brass fuel tank of the Bleriot,note the internal wire bracing so characteristic of that period,this method of construction was carried over right into the first world war with scores of turnbuckles and metal fittings.



Here is the tail section of the replica Miles built Bristol Boxkite which was recently recovered in the workshops,the scalloped trailing edges are where the dope has pulled in the piano wire with the application of the powerful shrinking dope..



Cockpit of the Deperdussin monoplane,a true pioneer machine where the wings were warped to control her laterally,this was common practise before wings were fitted with ailerons..



The Blackburn Monoplane was a revelation in its day,this particular example has a wonderful history of local use before Richard Shuttleworth purchased her for his collection at Old Warden.,



The period cockpit says it all on the Blackburn Monoplane,sheer class for its day.

[wonwinglo]

Wonwings diary-The Shuttleworth Trust,Old Warden,Part 2.

Lets continue our walkabout tour of the lovely Shuttleworth Collection at Old Warden,Bedfordshire,my thanks to the staff at the collection in allowing me intimate access to the vintage and veteran machines held here,for super detail you cannot beat getting close up pictures for your models of the actual machines.



Just like a big bird with its wings outstretched,the Blackburn Monoplane nestles in within the collection of pioneer aeroplanes,this one was purchased by Richard Shuttleworth from a Mr Fogg who lived in the area of Bedfordshire,the Blackburn Monoplane was a gentlemans machine.

Refined for its time the Blackburn flew well,this one makes the occasional hop on calm evenings at selected flying open days.



The tail section of the Blackburn Monoplane showing the external bracing wires which enable a thin flat non lifting section to be used.



In direct contrast here is the tail section of the collections Bleriot XI Monoplane,note the patina on the fabric,the surface gets covered in castor oil from the engine as it throws over the airframe with its lost oil lubrication system.

Note also that the rudder is all moving,the wings warp alllowing lateral control from the control wheel in the cockpit.The longerons are heavily internally braced..



Even the bicycle type tailwheel has so much character..



The undercarriage of the Bleriot showing the clever dampening and ash undercarriage supports,the deeply undercambered wing section copied from a birds aerofoil in very prominant,and the beautiful hand carved propeller.

[wonwinglo]

Wonwings diary-The legacy that a Pioneer heli designer left behind-Stanley Hiller.

Hiller UH-12E



Helicopter Pioneer Stanley Hiller has passed away 21 April 2006 at the age 81 in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Stanley Hiller developed the famous Hiller Flybar,early helicopters suffered control difficulties and a way of dampening them needed to be found,this is really an over-simplification of what Hiller designed and came up with,his genuis was used on both his own Hiller UH-12E and the Bell companies model 47,if you have often wondered what those small paddles are below and at right angles to the main rotor then here is an explanation-

The flybar serves two purposes:

A/ Turning servo motion into main blade cyclic pitch changes.

B/ Stabilizing the rotor disk against pitching and yawing motions.

When external forces conspire to change the helicopter's orientation against the pilot's wishes, the flybar acts to dampen these forces.

The flybar is also called a "Hiller Servo Rotor". This is because a man named Stanley Hiller invented it. Basically the same swashplate cyclic action controls and causes the paddles or small airfoils to fly high or low in a synchronized manner just like the main rotor disk. The neat thing about the flybar is when it tilts it is also connected to the blade pitch horns through the mixers. This causes an additional cyclic factor to be input to the rotor blades. The flybar tilt through the mixers applies the correct cyclic control to the blades. Think of it like power steering, the swashplate flys the Hiller rotor which in turn flys the main rotor.

Next I will try to explain why the flybar is not locked in place ,when your rotor head is spinning, you create a giant disk of lift, If you tilt the disk In one direction (Via cyclic control) the helicopter moves that way. The flybar is not locked in place because when the rotor head is spinning centrifugal force pulls it to a position that is 90 degrees to the rotating object (In this case the main shaft), when you give a control Input on the cyclic the flybar paddles tilt in the direction of the Input to move the helicopter that way, and the flybar will follow after it once it has settled in (We are talking nano-seconds here) if the flybar was locked in place the helicopter would lose almost all stability that it currently has and would be almost unflyable.

Dieter Schluter invented the modern Bell Hiller control system that has been standard in model helis back in 1972 or thereabouts. The flybar is the outcome of initially using the Hiller only system of rotor control albeit in a very simplified form on a fixed pitch rotor head. I say simplified because the original Hiller rotor utilised flybar paddles that changed pitch as well. The modern Hiller system for models does not use a pitch change system for the flybar paddles. The modern model heli rotor system is basically a Hiller system with Bell direct input superimposed onto the control system. The flybar is essentially a "servo rotor" in that the pilot flies the servo rotor which in turn flies the main rotor. The benefit to this system is the reduced load on the servos. A modified Bell system of control where the swashplate controlled the cyclic pitch changes directly requires servos of relatively high torque to maintain control over the system. A good example of this technology can be found on Varios website. Take a look at their multiblade heads and you will see direct bell input to the main blades. The original Bell system as in the Bell 47 consisted of a stabiliser bar with tip weights fitted to the bar to provide gyroscopic stability and dampen the head response. This gyro stabiliser system was difficult to reproduce on a model as it is quite complex to tune on the fullsize. The flybar also has another benefit in that it insures 90 degree gyroscopic precession of the rotor head. A flybarless system does not necessarily precess at 90 degrees, it is more like 70-90 degrees depending on the system. Gyroscopic precession is where the actual input to the main rotor is put in 90 degrees prior to the action being completed. A simple illustration of this is to spin up a toy top or gyroscope and then give it a push with your finger and you will see that it moves at about 90 degrees to the point that you tried to make the input.

The UH-12 was Hiller Helicopters first production aircraft and first flew in 1948. The design was very successful with both two- and three-seat models that were sold to both civil and military markets.

The U.S. Army acquired the UH-12 and designated it the OH-23 Raven. The U.S. Navy designated this helicopter the HTE.

More than 2,000 were built by the time production ended in 1965. Production was re-launched in 1991.

Hiller Helicopters was formed by Stanley Hiller, Jr. to develop small coaxial helicopters. Hiller found success with a more conventional helicopter--the UH-12. The company built several other prototypes but none matched the success of the UH-12.

History

1942:Hiller Aircraft Company is formed to develop helicopters.

1948: Company reorganized as Hiller Helicopters.

1964: Hiller taken over by Fairchild Hiller.

1966: Company renamed Fairchild Industries.

1973: Heliparts, a company supporting existing Hiller products, renames itself Hiller Aviation.

1984: Hiller Aviation becomes a subsidiary of Rogerson Aircraft passing through several names--Hiller Helicopters, Rogerson Helicopters and Rogerson Hiller.

[Guest]

Barry,

I never realised that the scalloped edges of wings were as a result of the doping shrinking the covering.

I kid you not we learn something new every day on this forum!!

Superb pictures of immensely interesting machines. Can you imagine flying such a thing, into completely unchartered terretory, over the English Channel? That is real pioneering to me.

[wonwinglo]

***We take these things for granted Richard,the ribs had a notch at the trailing edge,into this was inserted the music ( piano ) wire and a small bracket placed over the edge,this finished off the trailing edge without adding un-necessary weight aft of the centre of gravity of the aircraft,the fabric worker then simply had to wrap and dope over the edges,if the trailing edge was struck it simply sprung back again against the tensile strength of the wire,all of these things are long since lost if it were not for working museums like Shuttleworth,now if you think that is clever just take a look at a swagged cable or even a piano wire internal wire with the ends bent over,every time that I see those it makes me wonder how they managed to retain the tension in the wire before cutting it off,a long lost black art.

It is important we remember these techniques for histories sake,one thing is for sure they will not get forgotton here,I will be more than happy to explain any old method of construction or long lost technique.

Barry,I never realised that the scalloped edges of wings were as a result of the doping shrinking the covering.

I kid you not we learn something new every day on this forum!!

Superb pictures of immensely interesting machines. Can you imagine flying such a thing, into completely unchartered terretory, over the English Channel? That is real pioneering to me.

[Guest]

Is Barry the new Improved Fred Dibnah??????

to be honest i think a tv crew following Barry and listening to his stories and maybe revisiting his old haunts would make magical viewing (superstar status ) without doubt Barry ! I cannot convey how enjoyable your posts and your sheer delight in helping others brings a ray of sunshine to my day Seriously though if you look at the honours lists people have been rewarded for fafr far less than Barry has accomplished or given to the community I think therefore if every one is in agreement we will bestow on him the title on here as Sir Wonwing !!! what do you think folks????

[wonwinglo]

I would accept with great pride the title of 'Sir Wonwing' I had better work on another Avatar !

Thank you Nigel,you cannot imagine the pleasure that it gives me to share these stories with you all every day.

[Guest]

Gets my vote...yay for Sir Wonwing!

[Guest]

Barry,

I might just be able to shed a little light in the wire tensioning business.

When I used to work for a company that manufactured ski lifts I was involved with a lot of wire work including splicing and swaging copper ferrules to stainless steel wire. The splicing of a ski lift wire is actually quite interesting as you have to have the minimum increase in diameter of the wire. For instance an 8mm diameter wire will have a splice of 12 meters long!! And woe betide any one who cut the wrong tail out!!!



Anyway the swaging I was involved with used to use a tool very similar to a packing “Band It” tool in so far as the main wire was gripped between two collets, the tail was threaded through the ferrule, thimble, shackle or fitting etc and then returned through the ferrule again to the tensioning device. The tail would then be fed through a second pair of collets, which was jacked away from the first with a large square thread.



When the desired tension was achieved the ferrule was swaged on with a large crimping tool very much like a pair of bolt cutters but with a crimp in the jaws. This could only be operated by pulling the arms against your chest with all the strength you could muster.



When the ferrule was crimped you could release the tensioning device. The whole process really was very much the same principal as a “Band It” packing tool but using wire rather than steel bands.

[wonwinglo]

Richard,that sounds interesting and very similar to the process that was mentioned,there is even a method whereby the ends of the wires are carefully unwrapped to expose the stranded wire,the two ends are drawn together and literally woven around each other so that they lock themselves into one,it is a very skillful process not for the faint hearted.

Then we have the single piano wire strand which is somehow wrapped several times around the single wire cable,this method is used on internal bracing wires that attach to the longeron and upright pieces of the fuselage via three position metal brackets,anyone who has wrestled with piano wire will know how difficult it is to get a neat turn,let alone hundreds on a structure ! so there must be a tool to do this job,probably of WW.1 origins ?

I remember speaking to Jeremy Miles who was behind the building of the replica Bristol Boxkite at Lee On Solent for the 'Magnificent Men and their Flying Machines' film,he told me that they were struggling with the piano wire bracing,until one day an old boy shot off on his bicycle and quickly returned from his home nearby,he had a wooden box strapped to the crossbar of his bike,it contained a war department tool to do the piano wire swagges,they got the job done in record time for the film company,I cannot find out anything about that tool,somehow it must have tensioned,as well as turned the wire around the ends,a work of art in itself.

I would love to own one of these tools and try my hand at these swagges and discover a long lost art.

[Guest]

Another interesting little point, when you unwrap a braided wire the tails that you get are curled like a pig tail. To splice these into the core they have to be straight so you use a clamp device that contains tensioned rollers.

When you draw this along the tail it comes out straight. For 8mm wire you can do this by hand but when you are getting into the more serious stuff like 24mm wire you tie it to the back of the van and drive off to straighten the tails!!

Another interesting point is that all splices, be they in wires for ski lifts or mooring ropes on a ship, are designed to increase their grip as the rope is tensioned.

This will only happen though if the splice has been done neatly. When you lay the tails of a wire splice into the core of a six strand wire you have to remove the greased hemp core first. If you imagine six circles tangentialy touching each other the space in the centre is exactly the diameter of the strands so they cannot actually exert a grip on the tail. Consequently the tail has to be wrapped, nowadays with plastic but traditionally with canvas, to give the outside strands the ability to grip the tails when the wire is tensioned.

[wonwinglo]

Yes those piggy tails,I know what you mean Richard,sounds as if marine splicing is similar in many ways to aero work,if anyone cares to practise what Richard is describing then get hold of some ordinary cycle inner braided wire and see if you can achieve a satisfactory splice,I once broke down on a moped,the throttle cable had snapped,a quick cut through the outer cable with a swiss knife in order to expose the inners,then splice the two ends together got me home,remember when we used to strap a spare cable routed alongside the original ?,so if one broke the other one could be pressed into service,a real bikers dodge which I bet Bunkers knows all about.

Fun days.

[Guest]

Wow Barry, that was a flashback. You are right I used to have a spare cable tied to the original so that I could simply change them over should it fail.

I could also, in those days, put a tyre back on without using tools, which seemed to impress some people for some reason or other. There was far to much risk of nipping the tube with tyre irons so heaving it over with the heel of your hand was always safer.