__NOTOC__ The Gnosspelius Gull was a 1920s

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

experimental ultra-light monoplane designed by Major O.T. Gnosspelius and built by

Short Brothers Short Brothers plc, usually referred to as Shorts or Short, is an aerospace company based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Shorts was founded in 1908 in London, and was the first company in the world to make production aeroplanes. It was particu ...

at Rochester for the 1923 Lympne light aircraft trials.Jackson 1974, page 315

Development

Gnosspelius was head of the research department of Short Brothers, for whom he had devised an ingenious mechanism for testing aerofoil sections, the Gnosspelius Aerodynamic Pendulum.Experimental Data Without a Wind Channel

light International Light or visible light is electromagnetic radiation that can be perceived by the human eye. Visible light is usually defined as having wavelengths in the range of 400–700 nanometres (nm), corresponding to frequencies of 750–420 terahe ...

21 December 1921 Tests using this had indicated that incorporating a small step into the upper surface of the wing at the point of its greatest thickness would reduce drag, and Gnosspelius had started work on the design of a small

glider Glider may refer to: Aircraft and transport Aircraft * Glider (aircraft), heavier-than-air aircraft primarily intended for unpowered flight ** Glider (sailplane), a rigid-winged glider aircraft with an undercarriage, used in the sport of glidin ...

using this discovery when, in early 1923, two prizes intended to promote the development of

light aircraft A light aircraft is an aircraft that has a maximum gross takeoff weight of or less.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Terms, third edition'', page 308. Aviation Supplies & Academics, 1997. Light aircraft are used as utility aircraft c ...

were announced. He accordingly revised his design to use a 679 cc

Blackburne Tomtit The Blackburne Tomtit was a 670 cc V-twin aero engine for light aircraft that was designed and produced by Burney and Blackburne Limited. Burney and Blackburne was based at Bookham, Surrey, England and was a former motorcycle manufacture ...

V-twin motorcycle engine, driving a pair of chain-driven diameter pusher propellers running at two-thirds of the engine speed. The resulting aircraft was a single-seat high-wing monoplane with a circular section

monocoque Monocoque ( ), also called structural skin, is a structural system in which loads are supported by an object's external skin, in a manner similar to an egg shell. The word ''monocoque'' is a French term for "single shell". First used for boats, ...

fuselage The fuselage (; from the French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an engine as well, although in some amphibious aircraft t ...

made of

spruce A spruce is a tree of the genus ''Picea'' (), a genus of about 35 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal (taiga) regions of the Earth. ''Picea'' is the sole genus in the subfami ...

planking built up over

elm Elms are deciduous and semi-deciduous trees comprising the flowering plant genus ''Ulmus'' in the plant family Ulmaceae. They are distributed over most of the Northern Hemisphere, inhabiting the temperate and tropical-montane regions of North ...

hoops, with spruce frames for local reinforcement. The wing used the RAF 19

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, modified by the inclusion of a in (10 mm) step in the upper surface. The thin wing section dictated the use of four spars, these being box sections with spruce flanges and 3-ply webs, and was built in three sections, the sections outboard of the propeller shafts being removable for ease of transportation. The wing had a parallel- chord centre section and outer sections with the leading edge swept-back to meet the fourth wing spar at the tip. The engine was mounted on

duralumin Duralumin (also called duraluminum, duraluminium, duralum, dural(l)ium, or dural) is a trade name for one of the earliest types of age-hardenable aluminium alloys. The term is a combination of '' Dürener'' and ''aluminium''. Its use as a tra ...

bearers between the two centre spars. Wide-span ailerons were hinged to the rearmost wing spar, operated by torque-tubes with dog clutches at the junction between the centre section and the removable outer panels. The fixed undercarriage consisted of a pair of wheels on a short axle carried inside the fuselage, the lower part of the wheels projecting through slots. Two aircraft were built by Shorts and the first one, registered G-EBGN, first flew on 26 May 1923 piloted by Short test pilot

John Lankester Parker John Lankester Parker OBE FRAeS Hon. MSLAE (1896 – 22 August 1965) was Chief Test Pilot for Short Brothers from 1918 until his retirement in 1945. He joined Shorts in 1916 as a part-time test pilot and assistant to then Chief Test Pilot Rona ...

. The second aircraft was unregistered and was flown at Lympne as ''No. 19''; it crashed at

Cramlington Cramlington is a town and civil parish in Northumberland, England, 6 miles (9 kilometres) north of Newcastle upon Tyne, and 10 miles (16 kilometres) north of its city centre. The name suggests a probable founding by the Danes or Anglo-Saxons. T ...

on 18 June 1926 killing the pilot.

Specifications

Notes

References

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External links

The Gnosspelius Light 'Plane
{{Short Brothers aircraft 1920s British sport aircraft Short Brothers aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1923 High-wing aircraft Single-engined twin-prop pusher aircraft