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The Houston Westland G-ACAZ

FOR MOUNTAINEERING IN COMFORT: Three views of the"
Houston-Westland." (FLIGHT 2nd Feb 1933)
The Westland P.V.3 was designed to meet the requirements
of Army cooperation and Fleet Air Arm cooperation and Fleet Air Arm work, and is
of the class known as a General Purpose aircraft. This necessarily meant that
the machine was designed for carrying heavy loads. Consequently the wing area is
com paratively large (500 sq.ft.) to avoid too great wing loading, and this in
turn renders the machine suitable when fitted with a fully supercharged engine,
for work at considerable height. For the forthcoming Houston-Mount Everest
flight a high ceiling was the first consideration, and when it came to selecting
an available aircraft type the choice fell on the Westland P.V.3. In its
military form the machine was fitted with the Bristol Jupiter X.FA engine, but
for the flight over Mount Everest, which is scheduled to take place some time in
March, one of th e new Bristol Pegasus" engines, type S.3, has been fitted. This
engine is fully supercharged, has a propeller reduction gear ratio of 0.5 to 1,
and at its rated altitude of 11,000 ft. develops a normal power of 525 b.h.p, at
2,000 r.p.m., and a maximum power of 570 b.h.p. at 2,300 r.p.m. For taking off
at sea level the maximum power permissible for 3 min. at normal r.p.m. is 500
b.h.p.
Fundamentally the Westland P.V.3 is an all metal two-bay tractor biplane, of
orthodox design in the matter of general layout, but characterised by wings of
high aspect ratio to obtain the lowest possible induced drag during climb. The
undercarriage is of very wide track (12 ft. 10 in.), as the machine was
originally designed with a view to being capable of carrying a 1,000 lb.
torpedo. Duralumin is the material used in the construction of the wing
structure, and the wing arrangement includes a top centre lower plane. It should
be noted that the " P.V.3 " differs from most torpedo planes in that there are
no sloping struts running from the inner interplane struts to the fuselage. The
wings are arranged to be folded, the hinges and locking devices occurring at the
points of attachment of undercarriage to lower wing. The inner interplane struts
are of " N " formation and made of streamline steel tube, while the outer
interplane struts are built-up duralumin construction with " Alpax " end
castings. Handley-Page automatic wing tip slots are fitted in the upper wing,
and lower as well as upper wing is fitted with Frise-balance ailerons. The
fuselage of the "P.V.3" is of usual Westland type of construction, in which the
tubular members employed are jointed together by bolting Square-section tube
(with rounded corners) is used almost throughout.
The engine is carried on a steel tube structure incorporating " Silentbloc "
suspension In its military form the " P.V.3 " carries a large equipment in the
form of front and rear guns, bombs or torpedo. Oxygen equipment, camera, gun,
wireless, photographic equipment, gear for picking up messages, all according to
the particular function for which the machine is being used. For the
Houston-Mount Everest flight the " P.V.3 .. was selected on account of its high
ceiling (more than 34,000 ft.) and for the large space in the rear cockpit,
which gives the observer ample room to move about during his work of using the
fixed camera and the hand-held cine camera.

Lord Clydesdale and Lt, Col. Blacker in altitude
kit. (FLIGHT Feb 1933)
Some of the photographs illustrate the modifications which
have been made to the machine to make it suitable for the Everest flight, and
the special equipment which the machine will be called upon to carry. From the
photographs it will be noted that the aft cockpit has been entirely covered in.
The hinged door in the roof of the observer's cockpit is arranged to fold
inwards, so that if the observer should at any time during the flight want to
get his head out in the open, the doors will not 'flap about in the slipstream.
The circular windows in the roof door can be seen in one of the photographs.

SOME OF THE EQUIPMENT: With the fuselage panel
removed the interior can be inspected. Note the Williamson camera in its
electrically-heated jacket.
The crew, which during the actual flight over Mount Everest will consist of the
Marquis of Clydesdale (pilot) and Lt. Col. Blacker (observer and photographer),
wears electrically-heated clothes and gloves, and the cockpits are further
protected against cold by three-ply walls added inside the fuselage structure
proper. Particular care has been taken in the design of the flight controls, to
ensure that uneven rates of contraction shall not render them inoperative at
great heights.

Left - THE CREW READY FOR A TEST FLIGHT: The Marquis
of Clydesdale will pilot the machine, and Lt, Col. Blacker will act as observer
and photographer. Right - THOSE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE FLYING EQUIPMENT: Left
to right, Mr. A. Davenport, Chief Designer ; Mr. H. J. Penrose, Test Pilot, and
Mr. R. A. Bruce, Managing Director of Westlands. (FLIGHT Photo)
As used on the Everest flight, the" P.V.3,"
or, as it has now become, the " Houston-Westland," has a tare weight of 3,580
lb. The load carried will consist of : Crew and heated clothing, etc ., 380 lb ;
oxygen , cameras, etc., 206 lb.fuel and oil, 704 lb. This gives a gross weight
of 4,870 lb.
The "Houston-Westland" has now been shipped to India (Feb 1933), and work is
proceeding on a second machine to act as ,second' string." This is of the
Westland "Wallace" type, as supplied to the British Royal Air Force. Being of
the General Purpose" class of aircraft, the "Wallace " had similar advantages
for the Everest flight as the "P.V.3 ," and it is now being modified for the
work. The Engine of this machine is also a 'Bristol Pegasus
S.3.

TACKLING EVEREST: The dot-dash curve shows flight
test made at Yeovil, while the other two are estimated,
the upper being a normal climb to height curve while the lower is the type of
approach it is intended to use.
The chart illustrated above is of
considerable interest, and merits a close study. It will be seen that on it is
drawn a silhouette of Mount Everest. and three separate curves. I he dot -dash
curve shows the results of a flight test made by Mr. Penrose at Yeovil, but
plotted on the assumption that the machine was flying from its base III the same
direction the whole time. This was not, of course. actually the case. The other
two curves show two methods of getting over the top of Mount Everest. Both
represent estimates made before the test flight was carried out. The upper curve
shows the re suit which would be obtained by a normal climb to height. while the
lower curve represents the actual method which it is proposed to use in order to
get close enough to the mountains to be able to take photographs on the way up.
It will be seen that after reaching an altitude of 11.000 ft. which is the rated
altitude of the Bristol "Pegasus" S.3 engine, the machine will be flown level
towards the mountains, and then when a certain point has been reached the climb
will be resumed until the machine has crossed the summit of Everest. |