24 http://www.aeroplanemonthly.com AEROPLANE JULY 2018COMPILER: BARRY WHEELER
WRITE TO: Aeroplane, Key Publishing Ltd, PO Box
100, Stamford, Lincolnshire PE9 1XQ, UK
E-MAIL TO: [email protected],
Q&A putting ‘Q&A’ in the headerAre you seeking the answer to a thorny aviation question, or trying to trace an old aviation friend? Our ‘questions and answers’ page might helpTHIS MONTH’S
THIS MONTH’S QUESTIONS ANSWERSScimitar props
Q
This may have been a regular query
over the years, but can anyone say why
some propeller blades were given the curved
scything shape seen in the above
photograph? What advantage or
disadvantage was there in using this design
and who first proposed and experimented
with the shape? Auster J/2 Arrow OO-ABR is
known to have been so fitted; in the
accompanying image it appears to be
pictured at Lydd in the late 1950s.Buddy’s Bonanza
Q
One of the great rock and roll artists,
Buddy Holly, died in an air crash on 3
February 1959 at Clear Lake, Iowa. Also killed
was the pilot, 21-year-old Roger Peterson,
and artists Richie Valens and J. P. ‘The BigBopper’ Richardson. Geoff Dobson wondered
if anyone has a photograph of the V-tailed
Beech 35 Bonanza before the accident. The
internet has a picture of the wreckage with
what appears to be the registration, N3794N.A window on chaff
Q
Can anyone help John Coxclowne with
a query on chaff, in particular Rapid
Blooming Window or RBW? John was an
armourer on Vulcans in the 1960s and
remembers loading RBW into an internal
position under the wing. “I remember it was
a pig to install, especially the plugs”, he
recalls, “and would like to know more than
the passing entry in the Vulcan air
publication, how it worked and what trials
were undertaken to gain service clearance for
its use.”Barnet Instruments
Q
Chris Mawson is trying to discover
which aircraft in World War Two were
fitted with gauges made by Barnet
Instruments. His late mother-in-law worked at
the company during the war and from
advertisements of the period it made
atmospheric pressure, hydraulic and boost
gauges. Chris would also like to obtain an
example of one of the gauges as a memento
for his family. Can anyone help in this quest?‘Bang-seat’ builder
Q
Ksenon Prokop asked in
the March issue about
the aircraft type in which an
ejection seat he purchased
was used.A
Robert Rushton is not
convinced the seat
originates from a Royal
Australian Navy DH Sea
Venom, as suggested by Bob
Barnett in the May edition.
“The seat looks too bulky”,
according to Robert,
“compared with photographs
in the Sea Venom’s pilot’s
notes. Also, the Martin-Baker
Mk4A seat has rounded
corners on the seat base, but
the one in the March 2018
photo appears to have square
corners”. What do other
readers think?Scottish memorial
windowsQ
In the May issue, Steven
Barnes requested details
on two stained glass windows
that can be found in
Skelmorlie and Wemyss Bay
church.A
Peter Cowlan suggests
that the top photograph
appears to represent a
Nieuport VI, 12 of which were
used for training by the RNAS
at Calshot and Windermere.
The lower picture is redolent
of a Wight Converted
Seaplane, manufactured by J.
Samuel White & Co and built
to supplement the large
numbers of Short 184s then in
RNAS service. Why these
types were chosen is probably
only known to the artist and
possibly the family, but Peter
suspects that the two aircraft
were representative of early
and late-war trainers, perhaps
indicative of those flown by
Robert Denholm who died in a
training accident.An unusual propeller on Auster J/2 Arrow
OO-ABR during a visit to Lydd.Convertible monoplane and biplane
Q
When the Clarke Cheetah appeared
in 1929, it was intended to fly as
either a monoplane with a parasol wing, as
seen in the picture of G-AAJK, or as a
biplane with the addition of a lower wing.The idea clearly didn’t catch on and it was
withdrawn from use in July 1934, but — the
Hillson Bi-Mono and ‘slip-wing’ Hurricane
aside — were there other aircraft designed
with this optional arrangement?The Clarke Cheetah
in high-wing ‘parasol’
monoplane form.24-25_AM_Q&A_July18_cc C.indd 24 04/06/2018 13:42