Grahame-White Type VI

Grahame-White Type VI
Role Fighter aircraft
National origin United Kingdom
Manufacturer Grahame-White Aviation
Designer J.D. North
Introduction 1913
Number built 1


The Grahame-White Type VI was an early British fighter aircraft manufactured by the Grahame-White Aviation Company. Only one was built and it is not known whether it was ever flown.

Design and development

Designed by J.D. North, the Grahame-White Type VI was a pusher configuration unequal-span biplane with the overhanging top wing braced by diagonal struts leading to the bases of the outer interplane struts. There were no centre-section cabane struts, the upper wing being supported solely by the interplane struts. The engine was mounted at the front of the rectangular section nacelle behind a specially made curved radiator, with two crew members seated either side and the pilot seated behind them. The propeller was driven by a large-diameter tubular driveshaft and a duplex chain, the propeller being mounted at the top of the rear of the nacelle. The tail surfaces were carried on three steel tube booms, with the single upper boom passing through the propeller shaft and the lower pair to the rear of the undercarriage. The control wires for the tail surfaces were carried inside the upper boom, an arrangement credited to Horatio Barber, for whose Aeronautical Syndicate Ltd North had worked. The aircraft was armed with a Colt 30-calibre machine gun on a flexible mounting at the front of the nacelle.

Originally intended to be powered by an Austro-Daimler 120hp (89 kW), it was shown at the 1913 Olympia Aero Exhibition fitted with a temporary Austro-Daimler 90hp (67 kW) instead.[1]

Only one attempt was made to fly the Type VI. The underpowered aircraft only just managed to clear the hedge at the boundary of the airfield, and made a forced landing in the next field.[2] North went on to design a broadly similar aircraft with a more conventional four-boom mounting for the tail surfaces, the Grahame-White Type XI.

Specifications (as shown at Olympia)

Data from The British Fighter since 1912[3]

General characteristics

Performance

Armament

See also

Aircraft of comparable role, configuration and era

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 "The Olympia Aero...", Flight, Vol. V (No. 216): 182, 15 February 1913
  2. ↑ Brew 2002, pp. 5–6.
  3. ↑ Mason 1992, p.16.
  4. ↑ Flight quotes 6 hours

References

  • Brew, Alec. The Turret Fighter. Ramsbury, Malborough, UK: The Crowood Press, 2002. ISBN 1-86126-497-6.
  • Mason, Francis K. The British Fighter Since 1912. London: Putnam, 1992. ISBN 0-85177-852-6


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