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What Cockpit? MK V

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Old 7th Apr 2007, 18:00
  #1061 (permalink)  
 
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Tiger_mate

Not really. I honestly thought either you or Bri evansb would get it straight away. Further clue:- Captain Barnwell
Mel

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Old 7th Apr 2007, 18:27
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Have to check on that clue, but there only ever was 1x Type 36 and it had a flat topped cowling. Somewhat larger than I expected, but photographs can tell lies. Any chance a 36 is it?

AL1

Ref your clue
'Pullman' was actually built as the third 'Braemar'
Braeamar has geographical links to the first Scottish Aviator: Capt Barnwell.
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Old 7th Apr 2007, 18:41
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Mel, I am at a near dead-end, as none of my reference sources contain information regarding an aeroplane that matches your photo. Was Bristol's chief designer, Frank S. Barnwell, developing the "Badger X", (type 23-X) at the same time as the challenge aircraft?

Last edited by evansb; 9th Apr 2007 at 23:14.
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Old 7th Apr 2007, 18:53
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evansb has it.


The aircraft concerned was the Bristol Badger X
In 1917 the Bristol Aeroplane Company were looking at replacements for the Bristol Fighter F.2B, at that time in full production at more than one site. Captain Barnwell submitted a design but after various engine options fell through he declared that at least 300 hp was needed to meet specification. he opted for an available ABC Dragonfly air-cooled radial of some 320 hp but after building two machine it proved as unreliable as the Sunbeam Arab giving around a life span of 17 hours before breaking the crankshaft.
The second machine was to have another new Fedden Butler design, the 400 hp Cosmos Jupiter engine. Six weeks later war ended and all production contracts were terminated. Experimental contracts continued and the second Badger flew with engine on 24th May 1919. The engine proved a winner but the aircraft had aerodynamic problems in lateral control. The company needed confirmation from a wind-tunnel so Barnwell and Frise designed a simple rectangular fuselage of spruce and plywood in which was installed a 240 h.p. Siddeley Puma engine. To this were attached a spare set of Badger Wings, tail surfaces and landing gear and the result was a single-seat laboratory biplane whose flying qualities could be directly compared with wind-tunnel tests on a 1/10th scale model carried out at the N.P.L. wind-tunnel. This aircraft was known as the Badger Experimental , soon shortened to the Badger X. This was the first Bristol aircraft to be entered onto the British Civil register as G-EABU on 30 May 1919. However by that date it had already been written off, for although Cyril Unwins a Bristol Test Pilot made a successful flight on the 13th May, Captain Barnwell himself nosed the aircraft over on the 22nd May. He was uninjured and the aeroplane was not beyond economic repair. Barnwell himself hoped to use the Badger X as a runabout and it was nicknamed as ‘Barnwell’s Weekender’. Whether this referred to its proposed use or the extreme shortness of its design time is not certain.
Three days after Capt Barnwell crashed the Badger X he installed the Puma engine into a Bristol Fighter airframe which became the first Tourer.
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Old 7th Apr 2007, 19:15
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Thank you Mel. That one was truly the most challenging ever, and I only got it through the side-door, so-to-speak. It was the engine difference that threw me off trail. Here is Frank Barnwell. source: http://www.aviationarchive.org.uk


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Old 7th Apr 2007, 19:58
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evansb

That certainly is Captain Barnwell but I am not sure the aircraft is the Badger X, it doesnt match the other photographs of the aircraft I have and the engine I do not think is the Siddeley Puma. The aircraft looks more like a Bristol S.2A fitted with a Clerget 100 h.p. Mono-Gnome. The Puma was an in-line engine that aircraft's engine is I am sure a Rotary engine.
You have control.

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Old 7th Apr 2007, 21:26
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Yes, I doubt the aircraft in my photo is a Badger-X, but the photo from one source had it captioned thus, in fact one caption said he is shown in front of his "weekender". The Badger-X in your photo does seem to lack sufficient vertical stabiliser area, I wonder if this caused some control problems. You are correct, my photo was captioned incorrectly as a Badger X. source: http://www.aviationarchive.org.uk

I'll post a new cockpit photo shortly.

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Old 7th Apr 2007, 21:42
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evansb's challenge


Last edited by evansb; 8th Apr 2007 at 18:07.
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Old 8th Apr 2007, 02:03
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Re: The Badger X

Mel, Well done. That was the most interesting one yet. I now know MUCH more about British manufacturers!

I stumbled on the name Badger X and felt sure I had it until I saw the same photo that evansb found.

However, you left out the most important answer to one of your clues. Was he called Badger Barnwell?

Last edited by India Four Two; 8th Apr 2007 at 07:50.
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Old 8th Apr 2007, 06:49
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Any chance of a larger image, say 800 pixels across, so that we can see it.
..Please..
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Old 8th Apr 2007, 08:20
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Convair 580?

Ooops! Wrong steering wheel! But similar trim wheels and center console?
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Old 8th Apr 2007, 09:53
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So how about Convair 640?
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Old 8th Apr 2007, 10:27
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evansb please forgive the deviation.

India Four Two.
Thanks for your comment. You asked:-
Was he called Badger Barnwell?
I have never heard him called that. As stated at post # 1064, Frank Barnwell designed an aircraft, designation F.2C, which was to replace the Bristol Fighter F.2B. The Official name of this aircraft was the Badger. The Badger X was built to help in understanding some problems being experienced with the lateral control of the Badger. It was the Badger X which had the nickname “Barnwell’s Weekender”.
Captain Frank S. Barnwell 1880-1938
Born in Kent, England, Captain Frank Barnwell was the designer responsible for the outstanding Bristol aircraft from the 1910s to the 1930s. He served six years as an apprentice with a shipbuilder before joining his brother in a small engineering firm near Stirling, Scotland, where they built several gliders and powered airplanes. In 1911, he joined the British & Colonial Aeroplane Co., later called the Bristol Airplane Co., as chief draftsman. From 1913 to 1921, he produced a range of designs including the Scout biplane and the M.1 Bullet monoplane, as well as the outstanding Bristol F.2B.
However, along with most of his generation, Frank joined up for service in the First World War. He became a wartime pilot in the Royal Flying Corp and rose to the rank of Captain. In 1915 he was stationed in France with No. 12 Squadron and saw at first hand the ease with which the newly introduced German Fokker + E-type was disposing of the British BE2. The BE2 was poorly armed and lacked maneuverability. The Flying Corps was losing pilots almost as fast as they could be replaced. Not wishing to lose more pilots, and at the same time not wishing to lose valuable engineering and design capability, the General Staff released Frank Barnwell from duty in 1915. He was sent back to Filton on indefinite unpaid leave to resume his position as Chief Engineer. The result turned out as the famous Bristol Fighter this was one of Capt Frank Barnwells' masterpieces. It was such a solid aircraft and a joy to fly that pilots who were being beaten on the Western Front suddenly found that with this machine they could, and did, turn the tide of battle and win the war over the battle front in 1917.
He continued to design a variety of aircraft that included the Bulldog Fighter, the Blenheim bomber, and the Type 138 high-altitude monoplane.
Barnwell was one of the first designers in Britain to adopt the new technology of the stressed-skin monoplane, starting design of a high-speed six-seater in 1933. This developed into the 'Britain First', predecessor of the Blenheim bomber.
Like his brother before him, Frank Barnwell suffered an untimely death, killed as he was in a flying accident in 1938 whilst testing a machine built for his own use. Frank Barnwell loved to fly but unlike his brother Harold, he was not a great pilot and Bristol finally stopped him flying the company's aircraft. Frank, therefore designed and built a motorcycle engined ultra-light for his own use and on its second flight at Whitchurch, Bristol, he crashed and was killed outright. The world had lost, still with so much to give, one of the most innovative aircraft designers of all time. In World War Two, Frank's three sons joined up for active service, and tragically, they also lost their lives, two of them in Blenheims.
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Old 8th Apr 2007, 14:41
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evansb's challenge

ZH875, sorry not a Convair.
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Old 8th Apr 2007, 14:47
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evansb's challenge

Bri. Please check your PMs.
Mel

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Old 8th Apr 2007, 14:56
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HP Dart Herald?
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Old 8th Apr 2007, 14:59
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pigboat, sorry not a Dart Herald.
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Old 8th Apr 2007, 17:32
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It's French

Nord N-262E Fregate
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Old 8th Apr 2007, 18:04
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India Four Two, Well done Simon It is a Nord 262 Fregate. You have control.
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Old 9th Apr 2007, 04:27
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Thanks, I just got lucky early in the search process. It makes a change from poring over pictures of obscure British biplanes

New cockpit coming up. I just need to make a connection to Photobucket
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