Guess the plane

[spacesailor]

That's too much information: Carden-Baynes Bee twin engined two seater.

 

spacesailor

 

 

[red750]

OK a clue or two - the gent at the rear has opened a hinged section of the fuselage for some reason.The twin pusher plane first flew at Heston on April 3, 1937.

From Wikipedia:

 

The wing was fixed to the fuselage at three points. There was a pivot at the centre of a pair of turntable rings, one on the fuselage, and one on the wing underside and just under 3 ft (890 mm) in diameter, plus two L-shaped locking bolts. Before the wings could be rotated, the flat-topped decking on the rear fuselage had to be swung out on hinges to hang down along the fuselage sides, then with these bolts removed, the wing could be swung through almost 90° so that one trailing edge, with its aileron raised vertically, lay close to the fin. The resulting storage planform was narrower than that of a typical folding aircraft, but longer. The aim of the rotating wing was not so much to save space as to make folding a one-man, rather than a two-man task.

 

 

[pmccarthy]

Well done!

 

 

[Soleair]

+1 on the Viffers. I've had two, both FV's (the last of the carby models). Done over 100k on them - love them to bits. And the red ones go fastest

 

So back on the thread, anyone know this plane? I used to fly this actual one - sponsored by the Daily Express newspaper, exhibited at the Boat Show in Earl's Court, London.

 

 

 

[Birdseye]

Designer's name was Bruce.

 

 

[kasper]

Well the name is on the cowl ... It's an ARV Super 2 - has the Hewland 3cly two stroke engine - friend in Stoke Kent has a couple of them.

 

Quite a few now have been converted to rotax 912 as the two stroke engine parts are less available and pilots are less happy with two strokes

 

 

[planedriver]

You beat me to that one kasper:thumb up:.

 

Just got home from the theatre and fired up the computer and knew it straight away. In fact I think this might be the one I've seen in the UK. If it is, it may have a Jabby motor in it now. The Super 2 was originally the dreamchild of a land speed record holder and built on The Isle of Wight if I remember correctly. The name Noble comes to mind, but I could be wrong as I often am. I know they thought they'd sell heaps of them, but in reality very few were made before the company went down the gurgler, which is a shame.

 

 

[Marty_d]

Nice looking plane - what's that bulge under the fuselage aft of the main gear?

 

 

[Soleair]

The Hewland engine (as Kasper said) was 3 cylinder inline 750cc water cooled, & the bulge aft of the u/c is the cowling over the radiator. The radiator was recessed up into the fuselage. It started off completely buried, but overheated on first flight, so was subsequently hung out in the breeze a bit more.

 

Yes, as Planedriver noted, it was built at Sandown on the Isle of Wight. CEO was Richard Noble, who started ARV after he got the land speed record.

 

Originally, the firewall forward was arranged to accept one of 3 engines, depending on how their development progressed. One was a flat 4 horizontally opposed 4 stroke engine by Lotus, which didn't get beyond a very sexy mockup. The second was a Wankel rotary engine made by Norton (of motorcycle fame). They were unwilling to see it in an aeroplane.

 

Mike Hewland was very enthusiastic, and agreed to add a 3rd cylinder to his prototype 50 hp twin to give 75 hp. It was a great little engine, with gear reduction drive (not surprising as at that time, mid 80's, Hewlands supplied most of the Formula 1 teams' gearboxes.

 

ARV certificated the AE75 engine for full Public Transport use, which was a huge achievement given the CAA's initial response. It was a very high power-to-weight ratio engine, & if the Super2 were to truly break the mould of Cessna 150/Cherokee type planes, it had to start with a new engine. Remember this was 4 years before Rotax released the 912. Although there was a lot of market resistance from 'conventional' pilots to flying behind a 2-stroke (& little has changed since), the Super2 handled so well in the air that 34 were sold before ARV went bust, with about half going to flying schools.

 

Ironicallly, it was a minor development problem with Mike Hewland's engine which led to a collapse in sales, and shortly after the failure of ARV.

 

 

[spacesailor]

Soleair

 

That's very interesting, but what was the problem with the motor?

 

spacesailor

 

 

[Soleair]

The problem was the needle roller bearing bottom end bearings. They developed a slight slew, which resulted in the bottom end cap applying lateral pressure to the phosphor bronze washer between the big end & the main bearings. This eroded tiny bits of phosphor bronze, which transferred through the ports and deposited on the plugs, leading to a misfire.

 

The solution was simply to specify tighter tolerances on the bearing cage, but it took a while to suss this - by which time the damage had been done to confidence in the engine, & hence sales. And since ARV was tooled up to produce high volumes (the company was hoping to go public very soon, & bankers demanded high projected profits from high unit production), the overheads took their toll on limited working capital.

 

With hindsight, perhaps a case of going into full scale production before the plane was fully developed.

 

 

[planedriver]

Still wouldn't mind one in my back yard with a couple of problems to overcome.

 

They look like they could be a very usable asset.

 

I say most problems are presented to us, purely for us to give a little extra thought to sort out!

 

 

[Deskpilot]

What category does it come under: high wing, head wing, shoulder wing? Unusual design but I like it. Might get a bit hot under that canopy though.

 

 

[spacesailor]

My brother had a Perkins outboard motor that always thew the pin bearings out of the exhaust when over revved.( each time it jumped a wave)

 

Cost a lot of pistons.

 

spacesailor

 

 

[Soleair]

Doug, it is a shoulder wing. The wing was put in that position because it offers maximum visibility. The leading edge is about opposite your ear, & you can see over it & under it. The engine was inverted to keep the cowl line low, & the result is superb all round visibility. The wings are swept forward Blanik/Bulkow Junior style, to align the CL with the CG, and you look along the leading edge.

 

Yes, it does get a bit hot on the ground - but remember this is a UK plane, so hot sunny days are a rarity! The canopy is hinged at the top, & opens upwards & rearwards. It made for a bit of excitement when hand propping the donk once - it's a big canopy (blown by the people who did the Hunter Hawk canopies).

 

As an aside, the structure between the main bulkhead & the firewall is made of just 4 parts: cockpit floor; 2 sides; upper coaming. All the details required, such as gutter for the canopy seal; central tunnel on the floor for cooling pipes; panel-breaker styling strakes - are formed directly into the aluminium. The Super2 was the first - and as far as I know, still the only - aircraft to use Superplastic aluminium as primary structure. It is in effect pressure formed aluminium sheets, 'blow moulded' over a cast iron male mould. Saves a hell of a lot of fiddly detail items, especially since the cockpit area is the most complex part of most planes. And it allows for double curvature, so that one can style as for composites, but build in aluminium.

 

In keeping with this, the all-aluminium structure was glued together. Although testing showed they were redundant, CAA insisted on some rivets (gluing aluminium primary structure frightened them). But because there were relatively few rivets, they were all countersunk, giving very clean lines free from domed rivet heads.

 

 

[Litespeed]

Ole at AAK taree makes a similar aircraft and aimed at training, commuting duties. In kit or built form.

 

Wasp full metal nose tricycle aircraft

 

Check it out

 

 

[Methusala]

It looks a little like a Cygnet which is a very efficient design. Flying with an 1835cc VW can cruise at 80kts, 2-up and using 12lph.

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

[ATTACH=full]44183[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]44185[/ATTACH]

 

A CS2 built and flown in 1938. Now standing under a DC3 in the Adelaide Aviation Museum. Located in Port Adelaide, the museum is half a block from the SA Railway Museum which is half a block from the SA Maritime Museum. A really good day out.

I'll be in Adelaide in a couple of weeks. While my wench is engrossed in the Quilting Conference I need something to keep me sane. This is a good start.

 

 

[Methusala]

Old Koreelah, I guess that your esteemed spouse is not a serial peruser of your posts to this lovely forum, huh?

 

 

[Marty_d]

I'll be in Adelaide in a couple of weeks. While my wench is engrossed in the Quilting Conference I need something to keep me sane. This is a good start.

If your wench is really engrossed there's a couple of fun establishments in Hindley Street... (well there used to be, back in my single days!)

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

Old Koreelah, I guess that your esteemed spouse is not a serial peruser of your posts to this lovely forum, huh?

Never, Old fella, but I do occasionally show her some of the funnier bits. Heavily censored, of course!

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

If your wench is really engrossed there's a couple of fun establishments in Hindley Street... (well there used to be, back in my single days!)

I might be too young...

 

 

[Soleair]

Ole at AAK taree makes a similar aircraft and aimed at training, commuting duties. In kit or built form.Wasp full metal nose tricycle aircraft

Check it out

Yes, a similar format. Might be just me, but I have to say I think the Super2 looks much more attractive. No doubt a very capable plane, though.

 

 

[Soleair]

It looks a little like a Cygnet which is a very efficient design.

Thanks for the link. That looks a very interesting plane to build. I'm even a bit tempted . . . I bet it would perform very well on a Jabiru engine. Currently a very good price as a homebuilt powerplant.

 

 

[Methusala]

Mate of mine built a good one about 15 years ago. Built it for about $12,000. Best scrounger eva!