Burnelli CB-16
| Burnelli CB-16 | |
|---|---|
|
|
| Type: | Passenger plane |
| Design country: | |
| Manufacturer: |
Burnelli |
| First flight: |
December 1928 |
| Number of pieces: |
1 |
The Burnelli CB-16 was a passenger aircraft made by the US American manufacturer Burnelli Corporation in 1928. This was the first monoplane after the biplane RB-1 , which Vincent Burnelli constructed in 1921 on the basis of its unconventional lift fuselage concept ( lifting fuselage ) Concept.
history
The CB-16 was built in 1928 for Paul W. Chapman, a banker and president of Sky Lines Inc. The construction claims to have achieved first achievements in some disciplines. This includes being the first twin-engine aircraft with retractable landing gear, as well as being the first twin-engine aircraft with maximum take-off weight to be able to maintain the flight altitude even if one engine fails.
The CB-16 (approval X-118E) was built at the Aeromarine plant in Keyport (New Jersey), where Burnelli had rented the appropriate hall space and the necessary tools. After completion, the machine was transported by ship to Newark Airport, which is still under construction. In the Christmas week of 1928, Leigh Wade and James Doolittle made the successful 40-minute maiden flight.
Further flight tests were carried out at Curtiss Field (Long Island) and Bolling Field (Washington). The focus here was on the functionality of the retractable undercarriage and the control of single-engine flight. On one of these flights there was an engine failure during take-off and when fully occupied with passengers. However, the machine was able to climb to 1000 ft and make the landing with only one engine running without incident.
During 1929 the owner Paul Chapman made the machine available for experiments with the Cabot Adams system. It was a procedure for receiving letter mail on the open sea, from the then largest American passenger steamer Leviathan . During tests in Keyport (New Jersey) the machine crashed because the cables for the aileron control were obviously connected incorrectly during maintenance. The two pilots survived unharmed - not least thanks to the robust construction.
construction
The CB-16 was designed as a twin-engine high-wing aircraft in all-metal construction. The structure of the wings according to Burnelli's plans consisted of five "shaped ribs", these carried transverse stringers that reached from one wing tip to the other. This structure was covered with "corrugated" duralumin panels ("corrugated iron"). Strong, streamlined struts supported the wings against the fuselage. The top of the fuselage and the wings lay in one plane without offset.
The hull was 11.00 m (36 ft) long and 3.70 m (12 ft) wide. According to rough calculations, the landing speed was reduced by about 12% due to the special Burnelli design of the fuselage. The structural design of the fuselage consisted of a lattice fuselage which, like the wings, was planked with "corrugated iron". What was new was the engine mount made of steel tubes, which could be swiveled outwards and thus made it much easier to remove and install the engine. Both engines were accessible from the inside during the flight.
The 5.50 × 3.46 m (18 ft × 11 ft 4 in) cabin was 1.65 m (5 ft 6 in) high and was luxuriously furnished even by today's standards. The up to 20 passengers sat in swiveling upholstered seats that could also be fully folded back. In the middle of the cabin there was a lounge , in the rear part there was a galley, equipped with a refrigerator and a hotplate. There was also a washroom with running water. The flight comfort should be increased by installing a balsa wood paneling together with noise protection measures on the engine side. The manufacturer claimed that the noise level in the cabin is no higher than in a car. Only the pilots seated in an undisguised cockpit were still exposed to the elements unprotected.
The cost of the machine was $ 230,000, of which $ 80,000 was engineering and development costs.
Technical specifications
| Parameter | Data |
|---|---|
| crew | 2 |
| Passengers | Max. 20th |
| length | 14.00 m (45 ft 11 in) |
| span | 27.40 m (89 ft 11 in) |
| Cruising speed | 185 km / h (115 mph) |
| Range | 1,290 km (800 mi) |
| Tank capacity | 3790 L (1000 gal) |
| Engines | 2 × Curtiss Conqueror with 500 PS (368 kW) each |
See also
literature
- Howard Levy, Richard Riding: Burnelli's Lifting Fuselages (Part 2). In: Airplane Monthly , April 1980
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ AG Christians, JA Christians: Lytle S. Adams, DDS (1883-1970): Nonstop Airmail Pick-up inventor. In: Journal of the history of dentistry. Volume 53, Number 3, November 2005, pp. 89-93, PMID 16396208 .