Pander S4
The Pander S4 (also p.4, S IV or s.IV) was an aircraft in The Hague -based Dutch aircraft manufacturer Pander & Zoon The Hague. Originally designed as a mail plane for the Amsterdam - Batavia route , it gained fame by participating in the MacRobertson air race .
history
The Pander S4 was for the transport of air mail from the Netherlands to the former colony Dutch East Indies designed. The Dutch airline KLM used the same aircraft to transport mail and passengers on this route. Aircraft of the type Fokker F.XVIII were used . Airmail transport was slow and expensive. By building a special mail plane, it should be faster and cheaper. Since the number of passengers on this route was limited at the time, the construction of a special aircraft also seemed to make economic sense. The idea of a fast three-engine low-wing aircraft for airmail flights was sketched as early as 1930. However, KLM stuck to the idea of jointly transporting airmail and passengers and, when they were available, also ordered Douglas DC-2 aircraft .
At the beginning of 1933, with the support of the Bataafsche Petroleum Maatschappij and some shipping companies, a study committee for a fast airmail connection Netherlands-India (Snelpost Nederland-India) was founded. Construction of the Pander S4 began in January of this year, and the first mail flight was to take place before the end of 1933. The aim was a flight time of less than 50 hours for the Amsterdam – Batavia route. The aircraft was named Postjager (German: Postjäger). The entry in the Dutch aviation register was made under the registration PH-OST for Snelpost Nederland-Indië. The schedule could be kept. On 9 December 1933, the S4 with the pilots Gerrit Johannes Geijsendorffer, Dirk Lucas Asjes and the radio operator van Straaten raised from the airport Amsterdam- Schiphol from. At the time, Geyssendorffer was KLM's chief test pilot . However , the flight had to be interrupted in Grottaglie ( Italy ) due to an engine failure. The post was taken over there by F.XVIII de Pelikaan , which was scheduled to run on the route, and reached its destination on time. After the repair, the S4 continued the flight and reached Batavia on New Year's Eve after a flight time of 72 hours and 20 minutes, which underscored the efficiency of the design. However, the de Pelikaan had already reached Amsterdam the day before and set a new course record. The study committee was dissatisfied with the course of the flight and returned the aircraft to the manufacturer after returning from India in 1934. This put the machine down for the time being.
MacRobertson Air Race
During the year the S4 was registered for the MacRobertson air race, which was due to start in October 1934. The aircraft was now named Panderjager . The crew consisted of Gerrit Johannes Geijsendorffer (captain), Dirk Lucas Asjes (2nd pilot) and Pieter Pronk (radio operator). In contrast to the DC-2 Uiver , the panderjager had no passengers on board.
Gerrit Johannes Geysendorffer was the first Dutchman to be licensed as a commercial pilot. From 1921 he flew for the KLM. He and Hofstra were the first Dutch KLM pilots. In 1927 he was the first pilot to fly the route to the Dutch East Indies and back. The Fokker F.VIIa with the registration H-NADP, which was rented for this purpose from the American millionaire Van Lear Black, was used. From 1929 to the beginning of 1931 Geysendorffer joined Van Lear Black as a pilot. After his death he flew again for KLM. Geijsendorffer had a fatal accident in 1947 when the DC-3 PH-TCR crashed at Kastrup Airport near Copenhagen .
Dirk Lucas Asjes began his career in military aviation in Soesterberg . As an instructor at the National Luchtvaartschool on Waalhaven , he often flew as a test pilot for new aircraft, especially for the companies Koolhoven and Pander. Asjes also initiated the development of the Postjager . During the war he was drafted as a pilot with the rank of captain. Asjes reached high military ranks and later held important positions in business. In 1971 he finally became Major General in the Dutch Air Force. Asjes died in February 1997 where he lived in Mexico.
Pieter Pronk flew for KLM until 1942. In March 1942, he was killed by Japanese soldiers after an emergency landing in Sumatra .
The panderjager started on October 20, 1934 in London- Mildenhall with the starting number 6 for the air race. After brief stopovers in Leipzig and Athens , Baghdad was reached on the evening of the first day of the race . At this point the panderjager was third in the speed rating of the race. Allahabad was reached on the second day of the race, but the aircraft was damaged on landing because the left main landing gear did not lock. After touchdown, the landing gear leg buckled and the left wing came into contact with the ground. The left and middle propellers and the fairing of the left engine were damaged. Since no spare parts were available in Allahabad, Geysendorffer took the train to Calcutta to get the necessary spare parts from the KLM workshop there. The delay caused by the repair ruined any chance of winning the race. Until the accident, only Scott and Black with the De Havilland DH.88 Comet Grosvenor House and Parmentier with the DC-2 Uiver were in front of the panderjager . Geysendorffer expected to at least catch up with the DC-2 on the next stage due to the higher flight speed. Although he had no chance, he decided to continue the flight. Since the landing gear could not be repaired, he wanted to fly with the landing gear extended.
On October 26, 1934, the aircraft was repaired and ready to take off at 10:40 p.m. local time. Geijsendorffer decided to take off in a south-westerly direction, as a longer take-off route was available here. The headlights, which were used to illuminate the runway in the dark, however, pointed in a northeasterly direction and blinded the crew on take-off. Geijsendorffer had the headlights extinguished and began the start. The operating team for the headlights had misunderstood the instructions, however, and began using an unlit ambulance to pull the extinguished headlights, which were installed on a four-wheel generator car, into a position that was supposedly more favorable for starting the panderjager, but did not notice that the aircraft was already taking off . When the panderjager had reached a speed of 160 km / h, the headlights lit up immediately in front of the aircraft. Geijsendorffer was blinded and could still pull the machine up, but could no longer avoid the headlights that towered on the car. The plane's right wing grazed the headlight. As a result of the impact, the right wing tank tore open and the leaking fuel ignited immediately. After 130 meters the wreck came to rest. Geysendorffer and Asjes were able to free themselves from the wreck with burns, Pronk was uninjured. Two technicians were recovered seriously injured from under the burning generator car. The panderjager was completely destroyed and Geysendorffer had to give up the race for good. After the disaster, the crew traveled back to Genoa on the ship "Johan de Witt" (arrival November 18, 1934) and then took the train back to the Netherlands.
The plane was nicknamed Pechjager because of its unfortunate and short life . The end of the Panderjager was both the end of construction (no further S4 was built) and the company Pander & Zoon as an aircraft manufacturer.
construction
The aircraft was designed as a cantilever low wing. The machine was made entirely of wood. The horizontal stabilizer was harnessed to the vertical stabilizer. Rudder and elevator were trimmable. The main landing gear retracted back into the fairing of the outer engines. To protect against emergency landings, the wheels protruded halfway from the fairing when the landing gear was retracted.
| Parameter | Data |
|---|---|
| crew | 3 |
| Passengers | 0 |
| length | 12.50 m |
| span | 16.60 m |
| height | 3.30 m |
| Wing area | 46.00 m² |
| Glide ratio | ? |
| payload | 500 kg |
| Empty mass | 3200 kg |
| Takeoff mass | 5736 kg |
| Cruising speed | 300 km / h |
| Top speed | 360 km / h |
| Service ceiling | 5400 m |
| Range | 2430 km |
| Engines | 3 × Wright Whirlwind R-975-E-2 each with (420 HP) power |
Web links
Remarks
- ↑ according to other information 6500 m
literature
- Peter Korell: England – Australia - the longest air race in the world. In: Flieger-Revue extra, issue 6, Müller Buch und Zeitschriften Verlag KG, 2004.