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The RAE Hurricane was a single-seat, single-engined light monoplane designed and built by the Aero Club of the Royal Aircraft Establishment for the 1923 Lympne Motor Glider Competition. It was underpowered with an unreliable engine. Re-engined, it flew in many races, with first place in the 1926 Grosvenor Challenge Cup its greatest success. ==Design and development== Amongst the many aircraft designed and built for the Lympne light aircraft competitions of the mid-1920s, the RAE Hurricane and the Cranwell CLA.2 had one other thing in common. Both were product of amateur groups formed within government funded aeronautical establishments, the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough and the Cranwell RAF College. The Hurricane was built for speed and flew in the 1923 Lympne Motor Glider Competition, the CLA.2 for durability, flying in the two-seater competition the following year.〔(''Flight'' 9 October 1924 p.650 )〕 The Hurricane was a wooden framed, fabric covered shoulder wing monoplane. The wing was a two spar cantilever structure,〔(''Flight'' 11 October 1923 p.625 )〕 made possible by the adoption of one of the novel thick Göttingen airfoil sections.〔 It was tapered, but almost entirely on the trailing edge and with clipped wingtips. Seen in plan, the wing of the Hurricane looked much a late 20th-century light aircraft.〔〔 The competition rules required that aircraft could access suitable fields via a farm gate, and many met this condition with folding wings. The Hurricane's designer, Samuel Childs chose instead to make its wings easily detachable after removing eight bolts per side.〔〔 The fuselage of the Hurricane was in contrast very much of its time, built up on two upper longerons and a strongly curved keel, producing a structure that was narrow and almost parallel in plan and a thin triangle in cross section, deepest between engine and the wing leading edge, tapering rapidly aft.〔〔 The single-seat open cockpit was at mid-chord, between the spars. The main undercarriage was a pair of fabric covered mtorcycle type wire wheels mounted at the ends of a horizontal leaf spring fixed to the keel and braced to the fuselage with a pair of V-struts,〔 with the result that the Hurricane sat very close to the ground. At the rear the empennage was conventional, with a broad chord fin bearing an unbalanced rudder that extended between split elevators to the keel. Initially the tailplane leading edge was curved and merged into the curved elevator tips.〔 Forward of the wing, the fuselage tapered rapidly, mostly through the upward bend of the keel. Because the 600 cc Douglas flat twin engine used in the 1923 aircraft was geared down 2:1 via a front mounted chain drive that put the propeller shaft at the top of the motor, it was mounted low and to the rear of the nose, with cylinders exposed for cooling. The output of this engine was only 21.5 hp (16 kW).〔 Several changes were made during 1924.〔 The Douglas engine was replaced with a 32 hp (24 kW) Bristol Cherub II flat twin. This more powerful motor was also lighter, lacking the reduction gear of the Douglas and therefore mounted in the extreme nose with propeller and exposed cylinders at wing level. At about the same time the empennage was modified with a squarer tailplane,〔This may have been done first, as the g/a diagram in Ord-Hume shows the new tailplane with old fin and the Douglas engine〕 taller, less rounded fin and square tipped rudder. The leaf spring undercarriage was replaced with a lighter split axle unit carrying smaller wheels and braced with conspicuous V-struts to the wing roots.〔〔 There were also modifications to the top of the fuselage,〔 including the installation of a side hinged cockpit cover with an opening just large enough to allow the pilot's head to protrude.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「RAE Hurricane」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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