The Parnall Pixie was a low powered
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, ...
single-seat
monoplane
A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft configuration with a single mainplane, in contrast to a biplane or other types of multiplanes, which have multiple planes.
A monoplane has inherently the highest efficiency and lowest drag of any wing confi ...
light aircraft originally designed to compete in the
Lympne, UK trials for
motor-glider
A motor glider is a fixed-wing aircraft that can be flown with or without engine power. The FAI Gliding Commission Sporting Code definition is: a fixed-wing Aircraft#Heavier-than-air – aerodynes, aerodyne equipped with a means of propulsion (Mo ...
s in 1923, where it was flown successfully by
Norman Macmillan. It had two sets of wings, one for cross-country flights and the other for speed; it later appeared as a
biplane
A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While ...
which could be converted into a monoplane.
Design and development
Though only three Parnall Pixies were built, they appeared with a remarkable variety of wings; a normal span monoplane (Pixie I); a short span monoplane (Pixie II); a biplane readily convertible to a monoplane (Pixie IIIA); and a non-convertible monoplane version of the latter, with a greater span than the Pixie I.
The first Pixie was designed to compete in the
Lympne Light Aeroplane Trials of 1923, organised by the Royal Aero Club for what they described as single-seat motor-gliders. The intention was to develop economical private aviation, so the engine size was limited to 750 cc with immediate consequences for aircraft size and weight. Various sponsors provided attractive prizes, particularly the total of £1500 jointly from the Duke of Sutherland and the Daily Mail. The event took place from 8–13 October 1923. There were many entrants from the British aviation industry, including the
de Havilland Humming Bird
The de Havilland DH.53 Humming Bird is a British single-seat, single-engine, low-wing monoplane light aircraft first flown in the 1920s.
Design and development
In response to the ''Daily Mail'' Light Aeroplane Competition of 1923 de Havilland ...
,
Gloster Gannet
The Gloster Gannet was a single-seat single-engined light aircraft built by the Gloucestershire Aircraft Company Limited of Cheltenham, United Kingdom, to compete in the 1923 Lympne Trials. Engine development problems prevented it from taking ...
and
Vickers Viget. The Pixie I first flew, at
Filton
Filton is a town and civil parish in South Gloucestershire, England, north of Bristol. Along with nearby Patchway and Bradley Stoke, Filton forms part of the Bristol urban area and has become an overflow settlement for the city. Filton Church d ...
on 13 September 1923, in good time for the competition.
The sole Pixie I & II, registered ''G-EBKM'', was the same aircraft apart from the wings and engine.
["Pixie."](_blank)
''Flight'', 25 October 1923, pp. 653-654. The common fuselage was built around four spruce longerons, stiffened by diagonals or plywood sheet, though most of the fuselage was fabric covered; it had with a rounded decking.
The single cockpit was at mid wing chord. The engine was mounted on steel tubes fixed to the ends of the longerons, with a firewall between engine and pilot.
There was a triangular tailplane bearing a single piece elevator, with hinge just at the end of the fuselage where there was also a small tail skid. The fin was also triangular, though its trailing edge, carrying the rudder hinge, leant slightly forward, helping the large and almost semi-circular rudder to clear the elevator. The main undercarriage was unusual and looked rather vulnerable. Two steel tubes formed an inverted V, joined at the top to the upper fuselage internally and emerging below to meet a cross-axle at points not much further apart than the width of the fuselage. The axle was more than twice this width, giving a wide track arrangement which was sprung only by deflection of the V struts.
Both pairs of wings had similar planforms and the same centre section chord. The leading edges were straight apart from at the tips, as were the centre section trailing edges. Outboard the trailing edges, fully occupied with ailerons swept forward, more sharply on the short span wing.
The ailerons were of the differential kind, a recent invention, with less downward movement than upward. Both wing sets were built up around two spruce spars; the only novelty was that the rear spar was not straight but came in two joined sections, the outer part swept forward to meet the forward spar at the wingtip. The wings were hinged to the lower longerons and braced by a pair of streamlined steel tubes from spars to upper longerons.
The wings of the Pixie I, long span and designed for fuel economy had a span of 28 ft 6 in and an area of , whereas those of the Pixie II, designed for speed had a span of 17 ft 10 in (5.44 m) and an area of 60 sq ft (5.57 m
2).
The engines were chosen to match the same purposes. For economy the Pixie I had a 500 cc Douglas horizontal twin and the Pixie II a more powerful 750 cc (the competition limit) engine of the same make and configuration.
In 1924 it was flying with a 696 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 ...
engine.
These engines were mounted low on the nose, driving a two-bladed propeller on a shaft above it via a chain reduction gear of ratio 2.5:1.
The rules of the 1924 Lympne trials were revised to allow more practical aircraft, rather than motor-gliders. Parnall therefore built a two-seat version, the Pixie IIIA with its fuselage extended by 3 ft 2 in (965 mm) to allow a second cockpit, one now above each wing spar and the wing span extended to 32 ft 5 in. A demountable upper wing, attached by N form interplane struts and several cabane struts and of markedly smaller span and deep central chord allowed the IIIA to be flown either as monoplane or biplane. Its undercarriage legs now had rubber compression shock absorbers. Two were built, one with a 32 hp
Bristol Cherub III engine and the other with a 35 hp
Blackburne Thrush
The Blackburne Thrush was a 1,500 cc three-cylinder radial aero-engine for light aircraft produced by Burney and Blackburne Limited. Burney and Blackburne were based at Bookham, Surrey, England and was a former motorcycle manufacturer.
F ...
. After the trials and in the following year, the Thrush was replaced with a 1,100 cc
Anzani
Anzani was an engine manufacturer founded by the Italian Alessandro Anzani (1877–1956), which produced proprietary engines for aircraft, cars, boats, and motorcycles in factories in Britain, France and Italy.
Overview
From his native Italy, An ...
. In 1926, both IIIAs were converted to permanent monoplane configuration as Pixie IIIs, both now with the Bristol engine.
Operational history
The Pixie did well at Lympne, winning the £500 speed prize at 76.1 mph (122 k/h) as the Pixie II.
The Pixie II also won the Wakefield prize at 81 mph (130 km/h) at Hendon, later that October.
It flew mostly as the Pixie II thereafter, appearing at Lympne races in 1924 and, with an enlarged rudder, in 1925. It also flew in the RAF display of 1924. After a period of inactivity from about 1925 to 1937, it was in the air again until it crashed in April 1939.
Neither Pixie IIIA, competing as biplanes, made as much impact at Lympne 1924, with the Cherub engined machine retiring early,
though it flew later in the week as a monoplane. The other, ''G-EBKK'' flying as no.19 and flown by W. Douglas completed all tasks but the two sets of five laps required by the high speed tests. Only two aircraft, the
Bristol Brownie
The Bristol Type 91 Brownie was a light sports aircraft produced in the United Kingdom by the Bristol Aeroplane Company in 1924. It was a low-wing cantilever monoplane aircraft of conventional configuration with fixed tailskid undercarriage. T ...
and the
Beardmore Wee Bee
The Beardmore Wee Bee was a single-engined monoplane built only once and specifically for the Lympne two-seat light aircraft trials held in the United Kingdom in 1924. This plane won the major prize.
Design and development
The Beardmore W.B.XX ...
, the overall winner, did complete these high speed tests. It was the top-scorer in the low speed test.
"Pixie."
''Flight'', 9 October 1924, p.659. At the end of the Lympne trials, no.19 went on to compete in the Grosvenor Cup
The Grosvenor Challenge Cup, commonly known as the Grosvenor Cup, was a trophy presented by Lord Edward Grosvenor in 1923 to the winner of a light aircraft time trial competition.Dorman 1951, p. 188. Entries were initially restricted to Britis ...
handicap, where it finished fifth. Converted to Pixie III standard they both flew on into the 1930s, one (''G-EBJG'') surviving World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
in store but not flying afterwards. Its remains are in deep store in the Midland Air Museum
The Midland Air Museum (MAM) is situated just outside the village of Baginton in Warwickshire, England, and is adjacent to Coventry Airport. The museum includes the ''Sir Frank Whittle Jet Heritage Centre'' (named after the local aviation pione ...
, Coventry
Coventry ( or ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. It is on the River Sherbourne. Coventry has been a large settlement for centuries, although it was not founded and given its ...
.
Specifications (Pixie II)
References
Notes
Bibliography
*
{{Parnall aircraft
1920s British sport aircraft
Pixie
A pixie (also pisky, pixy, pixi, pizkie, and piskie in Cornwall and Devon, and pigsie or puggsy in the New Forest) is a mythical creature of British folklore. Pixies are considered to be particularly concentrated in the high moorland areas arou ...
Single-engined tractor aircraft
Low-wing aircraft
Biplanes
Aircraft first flown in 1923