The De Havilland "Comet" Long-Range Airplane (British): A Low-Wing Cantilever Monoplane Page: 3 of 11
This report is part of the collection entitled: National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics Collection and was provided to UNT Digital Library by the UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
2 N.A.C.A. Aircraft Circular No. 197
on after the manner of "double-diagonal" planking of many
lifeboats. That is to say, there is an inner and an outer
layer, each composed of spruce strips some 2 inches wide,
the strips of inner and outer layers crossing each other
at approximately right angles (fig. 10). The thickness
of this skin or planking is reinforced where the stresses
are high, such as on the upper surface near the root of
the wing, by a third and even a fourth layer, reaching in
places a thickness of more than half an inch. At other
places, such as at the tips where the loads are small,
the planking is only about one eighth of an inch thick.
FUSELAGE CONSTRUCT ION
For the fuselage a somewhat similar construction has
been adopted (fig. 11). The shape is almost a perfect
streamline, but'not quite. The sides, which are not of
great depth; are flat, and there would be no point in us-
ing the double-diagonal type of planking for them. Conse-
quently, they are covered with plywood in the ordinary
way. The top and bottom of the fuselage, however, have a
double curvature, and are planked with spruce strip in the
same manner as the wing. This is necessitated by the fact
that sheet material cannot be bent to a double curvature.
It can, to put it in a different way, be bent into the
form of a cylinder or cone, but not into the shape of a
barrel. The use of diagonal-strip planking makes it easy
to get a smooth double curvature. The nose and tail fair-
ings of the fuselage are of beaten elektron sheet.
From an aerodynamic point of view the De Havilland
"Comet" is interesting on account of the trouble taken to
reduce drag to a minimum. The fuselage is, as already
mentioned, of nearly perfect streamline form. Its maxi-
mum cross-sectional area has been kept down to the minimum
which would house the crew, and by placing the cockpit
well aft, increasing the fuselage depth slightly behind
the cockpit, and using a flatly sloping windshield, the
break in the air flow caused by this necessary excrescence
has probably been reduced to a minimum. The view obvious-
ly cannot be as good as if the cockpit were in the nose
of'the fuselage, but in a racing airplane something must
always be sacrificed for speed.
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This report can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Report.
The De Havilland "Comet" Long-Range Airplane (British): A Low-Wing Cantilever Monoplane, report, October 1934; (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc279597/m1/3/: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.