Angus Aquila
| Angus Aquila | |
|---|---|
| Type: | Light aircraft |
| Design country: | |
| Manufacturer: | |
| First flight: |
February 1931 |
| Number of pieces: |
1 |
The Angus Aquila was a light aircraft made by the British designer AL Angus in the early 1930s.
history
The Aquila was designed by AL Angus from Sutton Benger (Chippenham) in South West England, who wanted to offer an inexpensive aircraft for the then rapidly growing number of private owners. When the machine arrived in Hanworth (now in the London Borough of Hounslow ) at the beginning of January 1931 , it was quickly given the name The Angostura in reference to the name of its designer and the unusual appearance with a strongly curved upper body line and a straight underside.
After extensive taxiing tests, the aircraft, which received the aircraft registration G-ABIK, took off for its first flight in early February 1931 . After that, Angus, who himself only had about 50 flying hours, made a few short flights. On April 21, it crashed shortly after an unsuccessful take-off in which the aircraft tilted in a left turn and hit the ground vertically. AL Angus was killed in the process.
construction
The Aquila was a braced low- wing aircraft with a central fuselage made of square steel tubes, to which the radial engine was flanged with a plate. In addition, there was a wooden box spar that formed the "keel" of the hull and carried formers to which the hull paneling made of 20-gauge aluminum (0.8 mm thick) was screwed. However, unlike in the modern half-shell construction , the planking did not absorb any forces. The later Monospar constructions from General Aircraft represent a further development of this construction concept . The Tipsy Junior from EO Tips also used this construction in 1948. The tail unit of the Aquila was designed in a conventional manner in the form of a fabric-covered, welded tubular steel frame.
The wooden, folding wings had an RAF-34 profile and were braced towards the fuselage with aerodynamically clad struts. The two-part chassis (without a continuous axle) with a grinding spur had balloon wheels that were also supposed to take over the suspension.
The drive was provided by an uncovered Salmson AD.9 nine- cylinder radial engine with an output of 40 HP (30 kW). The fact that the engine was mounted far down, with a correspondingly low thrust line, led to the strange appearance of the aircraft, the nose of which sloped sharply down just before the engine. The gravity tank in the fuselage in front of the cockpit allowed flights of up to two hours. The curb weight was 222 kg, fully loaded 318 kg.
See also
literature
- Arthur Ord-Hume: British pre-war ultra-lights No. 1 - Angus Aquila . In: Airplane Monthly April 1976, p. 218 f.
Web links
- Photos copied from Airplane Monthly April 1976 on crimso.msk.ru (accessed November 7, 2013)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Investigation results of the accident on flightglobal.com (accessed on November 7, 2013; PDF; 357 kB)