The Grahame-White Type VI was an early
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, ...
military aircraft manufactured by the
Grahame-White Aviation Company. Only one was built but after an abortive flight development was abandoned.
Design and development
Designed by
J.D. North, the Grahame-White Type VI was a
pusher configuration unequal-span
biplane.
The tail surfaces were carried on three steel tube booms, with the single upper boom passing through the propeller shaft and the lower pair to the rear of the undercarriage. The propeller was driven by a large-diameter tubular driveshaft and a duplex chain, the propeller being mounted at the top of the rear of the nacelle. There were no centre-section
cabane struts, the upper wing being supported solely by the interplane struts. The engine was mounted at the front of the rectangular section
nacelle
A nacelle ( ) is a "streamlined body, sized according to what it contains", such as an engine, fuel, or equipment on an aircraft. When attached by a pylon entirely outside the airframe, it is sometimes called a pod, in which case it is attached ...
behind a specially made curved radiator, with two crew members seated either side and the pilot seated behind them.
The control wires for the tail surfaces were carried inside the upper boom, an arrangement credited to
Horatio Barber
Captain Horatio Claude Barber (1875–1964) was an early British aviation pioneer and First World War flight instructor. In 1911 he flew the first cargo flight in Britain, transporting electric light bulbs from Shoreham to Hove. He was also t ...
, for whose Aeronautical Syndicate Ltd North had worked. The aircraft was armed with a
Colt .30-calibre machine gun on a flexible mounting at the front of the nacelle.
While it was originally intended to be powered by a
Austro-Daimler 6 cylinder inline, it was shown at the 1913 Olympia Aero Exhibition fitted temporarily with a Austro-Daimler instead.
Only one attempt was made to fly the Type VI. The underpowered aircraft only just managed to clear the hedge at the boundary of the airfield, and made a forced landing in the next field.
[Brew 2002, pp. 5–6.] North went on to design a broadly similar aircraft with a more conventional four-boom mounting for the tail surfaces, the
Grahame-White Type XI.
Specifications (as shown at Olympia)
See also
Notes
References
* Brew, Alec. ''The Turret Fighter''. Ramsbury, Malborough, UK: The Crowood Press, 2002. .
* Mason, Francis K. ''The British Fighter Since 1912''. London: Putnam, 1992.
{{Grahame-White aircraft
1910s British military aircraft
Grahame-White aircraft
Aircraft first flown in 1913