Uppercu-Burnelli UB-14
| Uppercu-Burnelli UB-14 | |
|---|---|
|
|
| Type: | Passenger plane |
| Design country: | |
| Manufacturer: |
Uppercu-Burnelli |
| First flight: |
December 27, 1934 (UB-14) |
| Number of pieces: |
2 |
The Uppercu-Burnelli UB-14 was a passenger and test aircraft made by the American manufacturer Uppercu-Burnelli. Development began in 1933 at the Uppercu-Burnelli plant in Keyport, New Jersey . The design of the machine followed by the previous Burnelli designed aircraft, which all the concept of buoyancy hull ( lifting fuselage was based). Burnelli used this to describe a wide fuselage with a profile-shaped design in the longitudinal section, which allowed a very generously dimensioned cabin. The fuselage also contributed significantly to the aircraft's overall lift. The engines and landing gear were also housed in the fuselage.
history
UB-14A
The prototype with the registration number X14740 had its first flight in late 1934. As early as January 13, 1935 the plane crashed in a spectacular manner at Newark Airport . There is a film document of this. The test pilot Louis T. Reichers attributed his survival to the special design of the Burnelli aircraft, which had a much higher stability of the passenger cabin compared to conventional designs. The cause of the crash was determined to be a failure of the control due to lack of maintenance.
UB-14B
After the first machine was lost, a second, named UB-14B, was built. Compared to the prototype, it received some improvements in detail. The engine, however, initially remained unchanged; later, however, two more powerful Hornets with 550 kW (750 hp) each were installed, as the permissible weight increased from 6450 kg (14,200 lb) to 7950 kg (17,500 lb). The first flights were operated by Clyde Pangborn .
The good flight performance shown led to negotiations with the Scottish Aircraft & Engineering Company being held in July 1936 to build a version of the UB-14. The Dutch company Aviolanda in Papendrecht also showed interest in a license building. With these positive signs, Burnelli organized a demonstration tour through Europe. Originally, the aviation pioneer Amy Johnson was supposed to transfer the aircraft to Europe as part of an air race in August 1937 from New York to France.
When this plan failed, only ship transport came into question, but this entailed a delay of several months. The machine was only rebuilt in December 1937 and registered as NR15320. At its demonstrations in Hatfield (Great Britain), the UB-14 impressed with its short, steep take-offs and its short landing distances at low speeds.
After returning to the USA, preparations were made for a so-called world flight with Clyde Pangborn. In its last state of construction with rounded tail surfaces and modified engine covers, the UB-14B was painted bright red and registered for the record flight with the registration R15320. Due to the beginning of the war , however, the project had to be abandoned and the machine carried out the TACA freight transport between Miami and Honduras for the next three years . The aircraft was decommissioned a year after the end of the war.
OA- 1
Burnelli's efforts to mass-produce the UB-14 in Europe only resulted in a full-scale wooden mock-up being produced at Scottish Aircraft & Engineering Co.'s Wembley Scotia facility . At the beginning of 1937 this was almost finished when the company went bankrupt and the work was stopped very quickly.
On August 9, 1937, BAO Ltd. was then founded. founded with the company goal of producing and trading aircraft. The boss was Sir Hugh Cunliffe-Owen, the chairman of the British American Tobacco Co. The company changed its name to Cunliffe-Owen Aircraft Ltd. in May 1938. and now planned to build a heavily modified version of the UB-14 called OA-1. Outwardly very similar to the UB-14, it differed greatly in its internal structure and was powered by two Bristol-Perseus engines with 710 hp each.
construction
The UB-14 was an all-metal construction with a load-bearing duralumin outer skin. Similar to the UB-20 , the sheet metal planking was applied to a substructure made of the same material.
The wings connected in the upper cabin area were each braced twice towards the lower fuselage. In contrast to conventional twin-engine aircraft, the wings did not have to absorb any forces from the weight of the engine, its torque and vibrations, as well as the loads caused by landing gear impacts. Only the lift forces had to be absorbed by the two-spar wings. The two supercharged, each 500 kW (680 hp) Hornet engines from Pratt & Whitney were arranged side by side on the leading edge of the fuselage. Fuel and oil tanks were in the wings.
The luxuriously equipped cabin had the generous dimensions of 3.33 m (11 ft) in length, a width of 3.64 m (12 ft) and a height of 1.62 m (5ft 4 in). There was electrical lighting and thermostat-controlled heating with a ventilation device. At the end of the cabin there was a toilet and the cargo or luggage compartment. The latter was supplemented by further accommodation options in the wings.
The two pilots sat side by side in a closed cockpit that was located between the engines in the leading edge of the wing. The pilots could even look to the rear through windows located in the lower part of the wing. The retractable tail wheel landing gear housed in the fuselage was also visible to the pilots and accessible in flight. It took 45 seconds to retract and extended it in 12 seconds. The star wheel could be rotated 360 °.
Technical specifications
| Parameter | Data |
|---|---|
| crew | two |
| Passengers | 14th |
| length | 13.4 m (44 ft) |
| span | 21.6 m (71 ft) |
| height | 3.05 m (10 ft) |
| Wing area | 63.7 m² (686 sqft) |
| Empty mass | 3700 kg (8200 lb) UB-14A 4170 kg (9200 lb) UB-14B |
| Takeoff mass | 6,350 kg (14,000 lb) UB-14A 8,000 kg (17,500 lb) UB-14B |
| Service ceiling | 6,700 m (22,000 ft) |
| Top speed | 360 km / h (225 mph) UB-14A at 10,000 ft 330 km / h (210 mph) UB-14A at altitude 240 km / h (150 mph) UB-14A with one engine at 7000 ft |
| Stall speed | 100 km / h (63 mph) |
| Range (at travel speed) | 960 km (600 ml) |
| Engines | 2 × radial engines Pratt & Whitney Hornet each with 500 kW (680 PS) UB-14A 2 × radial engines Pratt & Whitney Hornet each with 550 kW (750 PS) UB-14B |
See also
literature
- Howard Levy, Richard Riding: Burnelli's Lifting Fuselages - Part 3 . In: Airplane Monthly May 1980, pp. 234ff.
- Richard Riding: Burnelli's Lifting Fuselages - Part 4 . In: Airplane Monthly June 1980, p. 329 ff.
- Alec Lumsden, Terry Heffernan: Probe Probare Part 17 - Cunliffe-Owen OA-1 . In: Airplane Monthly October 1985, p. 512 ff.
Web links
- Virtual model on YouTube (accessed April 25, 2009)
- YouTube film of the crash in Newark, film time 20-38 sec (accessed April 25, 2009)
- Photo of the machine (accessed April 25, 2009)
Individual evidence
- ^ Reprint from Flight Magazine and the Aircraft Engineer, December 1935 on the concept of the lift hull
- ↑ YouTube film of the crash in Newark, film time 20–38 sec
- ↑ Alec Lumsden, Terry Heffernan: Probe Probare Part 17, pp. 512-515