Nieuport research

[brinesharks]

Thanks for the responses - the documnt does do on to say a few more things but they can be summarised as:

1. The tailplane is set to stabilise the aircraft
2. The CoG is concentrated forward with engine, fuel, weapon contributing to good maneuvrability.

Like you say, all stuff I already knew. My concern is that I don't know how to calculate the CoG for a sesquiplane. Plus I don't really trust the factory anyway - they flew them too tail heavy to be safe for today's flying (ie. no enemy fighters trying to blast me from the sky).

[Joe Perkel]

Originally Posted by '14-'18aviationcollector

The steaming apparatus was very simple. We used 2" galvanised water pipe, which of course we covered the longerons with, put rags in the end to prevent too much steam from escaping, and supplied steam at the other end with my Mum's kettle,

We did not allow for any over bending, which with hindsight would have been a very good idea, but the results were excellent. We were all very surprised at how well the replacement longerons worked.

Regards,

David.

David,

A very helpful first hand insight, thank you!

I have zero experience bending timbers, and a long way from yet having to (tail float before longerons perhaps), but it had always been my intention to refer to The Gougeon Brothers on Boat Construction, 5th Edition, and Boat Design Net as references when the time came.

The drunk soldier story, if not for the disastrous nature, is right out of Hollywood central casting!

['14-'18aviationcollector]

You're very welcome Joe!

It was an experimental process for all of us, but it really worked very well, especially given the relatively poor quality of the Spruce we used to construct the new longerons with. It was very hard and dense, with a wavy grain. I am sure that better quality Spruce would have been so much easier to work with, but the results we achieved were fantastic, although the Spruce required a lot of steaming, probably about 3 or 4 hours for each piece.

Yes, the drunk soldier - how he missed the two closely spaced trees and the two steel uprights in the shed none of us will ever know. There is no way he steered his way between them - the trees are just too close together (and they still exist) and there is no way he could have seen the steel supports from the road. He was just blind drunk and lucky not to hit anything. The skid marks from the corner were in more or less a straight line, and it was clear that he had absolutely no control. His number just was not up that night - more probably early morning. When the trees are approached at an angle, the gap is effectively much smaller of course, and hitting either tree or either steel upright member would have stopped him or at least sent him off course instantly. He smashed through at least one work bench, one WW1 German propellor hanging on the wall fell to the ground and was covered with paint as well as damaged in the fall, smashed through one or more filing cabinets containing original lozenge fabric, amongst other items. The damage was bad but it could have been much worse. When we all saw the aeroplane we didn't think it would be easily repaired, but it was not actually too difficult, and did not take too long to repair. Here in Australia, drinking is, or at least can be a significant part of the culture. The Queens' Birthday weekend is one of the worst here for drink driving accidents, and sometimes the road toll is very high during that weekend.

Regards,

David.

[j ferguson]

Did they let him paint a small iron cross on the truck door?

['14-'18aviationcollector]

Ha ha!

Nice one Centurion, like it, like it! .... just quietly I would have been very happy if he hadn't smashed through the shed and into the DH9. Actually it was a Premier sedan, probably an HJ or HZ I would say, from memory. Anyone who knows what that is would know that they are not too dis similar to a small truck - or more specifically a piece of Soviet agricultural machinery! They were built of reasonably heavy gauge steel and were a bit agricultural, but still very nice, solid and reasonably good looking cars. They were built in the days when fuel consumption was not a major consideration, and the engineering was fairly rudimentary. They were not too bad for a product made more or less entirely in Australia, but certainly not in the same ballpark as German or Japanese engineering. I bought my photograph collection home from near Melbourne in a car very similar to that Premier sedan, and on the way home number 6 cylinder completely disintegrated! The particular engine was notorious for that. I was one of the few people who had a mobile phone at that time, but given that it was Australia in the early 18 .... ummmm 1990's .... effectively the same thing really there was no mobile phone coverage, so I might just as well have not had a mobile phone. I was eventually able to get towed to the nearest town - Cann River, but was still in the middle of nowhere and still had no mobile phone coverage!

I have a photo of the car in the middle of the DH9 somewhere ...... I am sure that along with painting a small Iron Cross on his door this particular person would have been very happy that his organisation protected him and moved him interstate almost immediately.