DECEMBER IO,

1936.

FLIGHT.

t2I

The two-stroke liquid-cooled Salmson-Szydlowsky design, which has nine cylinders and eighteen pistons : 600 h.p. is claimed. structure coming back to four points, having a vertical depth of only some I5in., making it clear, therefore, that this engine is not, as might a t first be assumed, meant to be wholly enclosed within a wing (which would have to be thick, indeed, to contain it), but to be attached to the front spar of the machine, and, therefore, to project in front of the wing at least to the extent common in radial air-cooled or in-line installations.

Flying

Tests

Havilland Comet and the winners of the Coupe Deutsch, pointing the way to speed by finesse rather than the expense of brute horse power and proportionately heavy fuel load. No doubt, too, a limitation in overall weight was imposed. But the aeroplane designer's predilection for Power, and, perhaps, a lingering disbelief of the reality of the low drag of the in-line type, are suggested in the fact that for the Hanriot 220 twin fighter two separate performances were quoted: 290 miles an hour with Renaults rated at 450 h.p., 310 miles an hour with the alternative new Gnome Rhone M.14 of some 600 h.p., packed, indeed, most ingeniously within a diameter of only 36 inches. The Mureaux 190 single-seater fighter, however, must stand or fall by the in-line arrangement; its small frontal cooling duct and outlet gills, if proved adequate in practice, should certainly put as good a case as can be made. The Salmson 12 installed makes provision for a canon mounted on the flat top to the crank case, a component which looked hardly robust enough for its ordinary duties. Moreover, the carriage of the exhaust ports through the top of the head and not conventionally to the side, though neat, would seem to There will still remain, however, the quesventure into additional cooling problems. tion whether all-important " v i e w " is best served bv the in-line or radial concept. The Lorraine Company presented a novel variation in air-cooling form in the " f l a t " 12D engine, claiming 470 h.p. for 17 litres and 740 lb. weight. The " f l a t n e s s " is relative only, however, from the fact that the reduction gear is an excrescence in front on the upper side, and the supercharger (in a horizontal plane) another behind on the under side, driven by shafting and gears from the front of the crankshaft. Special care has evidently been taken to provide the cylinder barrels with large fin area to a greater relative extent, indeed, than the heads, but one ventures to doubt the effectiveness of the distribution system through a somewhat crude-looking induction-pipe layout, notwithstandThe Mureax ing that internal guide vanes are pro190 fighter, vided at the several right-angled corners. s a y s Maj. A Bronzavia automatic boost control is Bulrn a n , employed in conjunction with a Zenith puts a good carburetter. The engine is carried on a case for the in-line engine (a 450 h.p. 12 cyl. Salmson, with canon).

I t is to be hoped that a pair of these engines will find themselves in that type of Potez selected to establish the aerodynamic values of the Hispano Suiza A.B.14 and the small Gnome-Rhone. One questions the general success of this layout, but it is gratifying to note that the originality and courage displayed, but not rewarded, in that earlier Potez flat engine shown in 1932, with Turbo exhaust supercharger, liquid-cooled heads, and aircooled barrels, are still operating, serving (altruistically, it may be) as a challenge to other designers to re-examine and satisfy themselves that their own formulae of design are correct and likely so to remain. How far are designers ready to believe that the competently installed in-line air-cooled types are ready to their hand in overall low-drag efficiency, while the radial, with its frontal entry losses, capable in theory of drag reduction though it should be to a similarly low figure of drag, may still be separated in practice from that ideal by a lengthy period of research and development? And, inasmuch as " w e t t e d surface" becomes increasingly the true criterion of drag with higher speeds, will the shorter length of radial form re-establish superiority? Is it safe for the engineer, committing his hand to a design for four or five years' subsequent unlimited effort, to rely on wind-tunnel results on a 100 ft./sec. scale, to establish the relative merits of the different systems when applied to the 400 m.p.h. aeroplane? The Hispano Suiza Company, at any rate, with typical longsightedness and courage, is determined to go some way to get the answers in its own new 100 metres/sec. tunnel well advanced in erection in the street outside the main factory; serving also to mark the vision and forthrightness which must animate all engine constructors if they are to survive any world competition.