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Schneider Trophy Reflections

Schneider Trophy Reflections UNFORTUNATELY, there is an almost complete absence of technical information about any of the machines built for this year's Schneider Trophy Race. The two Governments concerned are unwilling as yet to allow anything but the most meagre details to be published. What data are available of the Supermarine S.6 are given in the table on page 274 of the winners and performances since 1913. The enginepower is not given there because it is not permitted by the Air Ministry to say more than that the supercharged RollsRoyce R installed develops over 1,500 h.p. It has, consequently, been impossible to give the figure for weight per horsepower, but it may, perhaps, be said that this is believed to be, in spite of the increase in gross weight, quite considerably below that of the S.5. Indeed, when the power actually developed by the RollsRoyce is made public it will probably cause something of a sensation. Though, of course, testbench figures are not always achieved in the air, those obtained in this case were most remarkable, and it is only to be regretted that it is not possible to mention them. No more can be said than that with this engine, and the series from which it was developed, Messrs. RollsRoyce have at one bound come back to the foremost position they used to hold in the aeroengine world. The continued improvement in engines is, in fact, perhaps the chief feature of the racing machines of 1929 compared with those of 1927. The 900h.p. Lion of two years ago seemed to have reached almost the limit of development for a single type, but the Napier Company showed this year that that was by no means the end of their resources. They have added probably about another. 500 h.p. and still further reduced the frontal area, the increase of power being largely owing to the addition of a supercharger, which is also a feature of the RollsRoyce. This has been spoken of as an innovation in racing aeroplane engines, but actually the example was set by Mr. Fedden in the Bristol Mercury fitted two years ago to the Short Crusader, an engine which is only just overcoming its teething troubles as a production type but will shortly, it is expected, begin to take its true place as the fine piece of work it is. So jealously guarded are the details of those highefficiency racing engines that no details whatever of either the Lion or the R are available, and in the ease of the latter a photograph giving merely a side view of the exterior of the engine was deemed too confidential for reproduction because it showed the blower casing. Of the Italian engines nothing whatever is known except that the IsottaFraschini in the Macchi M.67 is rated at 1,700 h.p. and the Fiat C.R. 29's Fiat at 1,000 h.p. Whether these are purely nominal ratings or represent actual powers developed on the test bench, or in the air, it is impossible to say. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology Emerald Publishing

Schneider Trophy Reflections

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Publisher
Emerald Publishing
Copyright
Copyright © Emerald Group Publishing Limited
ISSN
0002-2667
DOI
10.1108/eb029189
Publisher site
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Abstract

UNFORTUNATELY, there is an almost complete absence of technical information about any of the machines built for this year's Schneider Trophy Race. The two Governments concerned are unwilling as yet to allow anything but the most meagre details to be published. What data are available of the Supermarine S.6 are given in the table on page 274 of the winners and performances since 1913. The enginepower is not given there because it is not permitted by the Air Ministry to say more than that the supercharged RollsRoyce R installed develops over 1,500 h.p. It has, consequently, been impossible to give the figure for weight per horsepower, but it may, perhaps, be said that this is believed to be, in spite of the increase in gross weight, quite considerably below that of the S.5. Indeed, when the power actually developed by the RollsRoyce is made public it will probably cause something of a sensation. Though, of course, testbench figures are not always achieved in the air, those obtained in this case were most remarkable, and it is only to be regretted that it is not possible to mention them. No more can be said than that with this engine, and the series from which it was developed, Messrs. RollsRoyce have at one bound come back to the foremost position they used to hold in the aeroengine world. The continued improvement in engines is, in fact, perhaps the chief feature of the racing machines of 1929 compared with those of 1927. The 900h.p. Lion of two years ago seemed to have reached almost the limit of development for a single type, but the Napier Company showed this year that that was by no means the end of their resources. They have added probably about another. 500 h.p. and still further reduced the frontal area, the increase of power being largely owing to the addition of a supercharger, which is also a feature of the RollsRoyce. This has been spoken of as an innovation in racing aeroplane engines, but actually the example was set by Mr. Fedden in the Bristol Mercury fitted two years ago to the Short Crusader, an engine which is only just overcoming its teething troubles as a production type but will shortly, it is expected, begin to take its true place as the fine piece of work it is. So jealously guarded are the details of those highefficiency racing engines that no details whatever of either the Lion or the R are available, and in the ease of the latter a photograph giving merely a side view of the exterior of the engine was deemed too confidential for reproduction because it showed the blower casing. Of the Italian engines nothing whatever is known except that the IsottaFraschini in the Macchi M.67 is rated at 1,700 h.p. and the Fiat C.R. 29's Fiat at 1,000 h.p. Whether these are purely nominal ratings or represent actual powers developed on the test bench, or in the air, it is impossible to say.

Journal

Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology – Emerald Publishing

Published: Aug 1, 1929

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