FLIGHT.
FEBRUARY
17, 10,38.
Picking up moorings after a flight. Mr. Lankester Parker is seen in the cabin of Maia, while Mr. Piper, who has had to scurrydown from his perch in Merewy, is in the bow compartment making fast to one of the rubber buoys which are used exclusively at Rochester, and which were the invention of the late Mr. Eustace Short. range of Mercury will be 3,750 miles when carrying a mail load of 1,000 1b. at a cruising speed of 175-180 m.p.h. If this figure is attained it would mean the ability to cross the North Atlantic against an average headwind of 80 m.p.h. Mercury has a wing span of 73ft. and a wing area of 611 sq. ft., so that at the maximum gross weight the wing loading will be 33.6 lb./sq. ft. The power loading, based on the normal power of 4x315 b.h.p., will be 16.25 lb./h.p. Naturally the accommodation on board Mercury is some what limited. The pilot, occupies a seat in the nose of the fuselage' where he is well ahead of the wing and engines. Behind him is the wireless operator, from whose compart ment a gangway runs aft to the mail compartment and lavatory to ensure separation, they warn one another by the telephones installed that all is ready. The pilot of the lower component then releases his hook ; the pilot of the upper component follows suit, and finally the third hook releases automatically. For reasons explained earlier, the lower component tends to drop and the upper tends to climb. There is a somewhat ticklish period of a few seconds, during which the pilots cannot see one another. Mr. Parker, after the first separation flight, stated that his first sure indication that Mr. Piper had '' left'' him was the cessation of the noise of the Napier engines oi the upper component. For the upper pilot the main worry is that at one instant he has no control over his aircraft at all (his flying controls remaining locked until separation has taken place), and at the next he has full control. If he does not push his stick forward the machine may over-climb, on the other hand, if he pushes it too far forward he may lose a little height and get uncomfortably close to the lower component. On the first separation flight all went well, and the two aircraft separated smoothly and were never in any danger of touching one another. Possibilities Another possible source of trouble is that the airflow over the two machines may change when separation has just taken place, and when the composite becomes two separate monoplanes instead of a single eight-engined biplane. No such trouble was, however, noticed on the first separation Obviously, the separating force required before the automatic hook releases can be made anything desired, depending upon the strength of the spring used. The setting at 3,000 lb. appears to have been a very useful compromise between a too violent and a too sluggish separation. It is worth pointing out that if, for any reason, the pilots should decide, after pulling their hook releases, to postpone the separation, they can lock their hooks again and make another attempt later This is obviously a very necessary safeguard, since otherwise the automatic hook might release during the landing operation, for instance
Unhooking
Interesting details concerning the special equipment installed in connection with the composite feature may now be disclosed. As already mentioned, Maia carries on top of her wing a trestle which supports Mercury. The support occurs at two points, while in the middle of the trestle is the hook-release mechanism. The two points are, oi course, on a fore-and-aft line. The machine is steadied laterally by small supports under the floats. A limited amount of freedom is permitted, so that when a speed has been reached at which Mercury carries more than its own weight, the machine is free to rock through about three degrees of incidence. Electric switches incorporated in the two supporting points light and extinguish small indicator lamps in the pilot's cockpit. When one light is " on " and the other " off " it indicates that the machine is " tail heavy." When the lights reverse, the machine is " nose heavy." This indication enables the pilot of the upper component to set his tail until the trim is correct. In front of the pilot is a third light; this shows that the initial release load of 3,000 lb. has been reached. The release mechanism includes three hooks, of which two are under the control of the pilots, while the third is spring-loaded and opeiatcs automatically when a predetermined pull is reached. When the pilots have satislied themselves, from the lights and the pull indicator, that the excess lift of the upper component is sufficient
