Project Sign Progress Report, 1948

,MARCH 19, 1948 337 THE AEROPLANE
The Biology of the Flying Saucer- III
By A. R. Wcyl, A.F.R.Ac.S.
Previous articles In this series appeared In " The Aeroplane" for February 13 and Morch 5
WI 0 -·1 UN l· L I F-••n S w.:rc made in I unn and at Rnme
of five C:anovo1 project\ {de-.cnbcd m the prcvtom tn\1,11-
"'!Cnl of 1h1, ar1de). It " in1erc,11ng 10 note that 1he Canov.1
d1-.c-wmg lype, d id not mal.e u,e of rellc'Crcws driven by two 100 b.h.p. engines mounted in 1andem
a n arr.rngemcnt. the wing system i, not tha1 of a di-.c. It is m the long fuselage. 1 he pilot's cockpit was located at the
more akin to primitive kites or. belier, to the paper dart of root of lhe fin, and a single·lrack undercarriage w.is adopted.
our school day~ which. a, we may be able to remember wi1h 1 here were. however, far too m.iny untried feature in th"
some mental effort, exhibited quite remarkable nying quali1ie, unusual design 10 make ii a ~rious proposi1ion. Nothing
more has been heard of Payen's cffoA~.and made better use <>four schoolbooh than we ever expt-ctcd.
A rcpresent:11ive of 1his aboriginal 1ype is shown in Fig. 19. l he ll)Odern ph:ll!e of .1he Flying Saucer aeroplane i,
It crashed during the first tests (which would not seem very charactcn1ed by two d1,ttncl development~. One is the
surprising in view of the; arrangement of engine, and air;crew,). hclicop1er-aeroplane, 1he other is the tranb•\onic or buper,on1c
Ano1her Je,s eccentric arrangement was the French Payen aeroplane. Hoth have bccome:-unforiunately--cs<;entially
single-seat racer of 1935. This was a daring experimental military dcvcl_opment~; the proJ_!re~~ is ~cnce bhroudcd in the
type with a 400 b.h.p. radia l engine. A n improved type, this u~ua I pretcnuou~ \ecrccy Iwhich implies that the potential
time more reasonable--a 70 b.h.p. light aeroplane- was enemy knows everything) v. hile the work is gravely hampered
constructed in 1936. To a very small. conventionally tapered by elabora1c securi1y precautions.
wing, a large triangu lar tail was fitted: the wing alone had The helicopter-aeroplane is not a novel idea. Many }Cars
d ihed ral. and the overall aspect ra1io was about 1.76. No ago, for in,iance, Nicola T e~la (famous for his elccirical
flights have bc.:n reported of one of these Payen aeroplanes. experiment~ wi1h high-frequency phenomena) bccured a pa1en1
but take-off attempts with the ~econd type seem to have for a taille,~ aeroplane equipped with a large lifting air~rcw
sugges1cd that with 1he small span the 1orque reaction of the pcrmi11ing a vertical ascent.
air,;crcw cannot be adequa1ely dealt with. In 1921 Claud Dornier ~ecured a pa1ent for a eonvcnlmnal
- - ·-~1/lO C
1110 CL Fig. 20.-Llft and
.__._ GI drag of wings oflL: different aspect
f 120 c• t • 0 ratio. (Left) W ind- \~
. : tunnel resultsI'--- 100 ,_ obtained at
Goettingen , in
~j 1920; Goettingen
- 389 aerofoil withn ...~~ 80 10 per cent. t hick-
~ eo t--t--;illt":!'-~ -+7"lr--+--+..-t---c¥~--+~ 19" ASPECT RATIO ness and square
~
.» 0 1 SQUARE v, ING wing tips. (Right)" ... 2 A reduction of the10
...a:; ~60 + r esults to an
A 3
~ ~( aspect ratio of... h 'w
0 (t f i v e. by t he•
1·
._u ,o 0 5 Prandtl Aerofoil
Theory of t h e
6:::;
t 4l Ind uced d ra g ,
() 7 s h o w s t hat a
~ w s quar e aerofoil
(aspect ratio of
.t one) does not
oQ-"11~t---t--t--:,~o- r-+ ---l- +-~ 20-+--+--I I D follow the theory.
- i--c
I
-I- 0 i€I Its induced drag is
ORAG C0EfFICIENT 100) 10 20 less than pre
I~ I I dicted by t heDRAG COEFFICIENT < 100) "h orse-s h o e'-- 20 vortex " assump-0. :
I t ion.NND 927545