Top left, French Bernard set 278 mph speed record in 1924. Hispano-Suiza engine of 450 hp had 12 cylinders in three banks of four each. Cowl over right and left banks blended cleanly into roots of midwing. Center and top right, Wittman Buster of late 1940s had flat-four 85-hp engine and used same idea in its cowling, as did others. Bottom drawings show Art Chester's Jeep of mid-1930s. It had a gull wing similar to Stinson Reliant. Spars were deepest and strongest where struts attached. Fairly open angle at junctures of struts with wing undersides minimized drag from "squeezing" air in these angles. Shorter wing chord at roots minimized size of juncture between wings and fuselage. Short wingspans of racers afforded good bracing angles.
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The valley where a low-wing meets a round or oval fuselage, A, is a big drag generator. Effi cient root fillets, B, are complicated and costly to make. Flat-sided fuselages, C, became a "'!!!55=======;]~ common solution to this problem. At D, round cowling on 1,000-hp P&W Twin Wasp on Ros coe Turner's late-1930s racer led to round fuse lage. Use of midwing concept offered simplest, cleanest wing-to-fuselage juncture. Wing and stabilizer are on prop thrust line. Pilot weight aft balances big engine. Visualize this ship on the ground and note how wing blocks forward view. At E, Chester's Goon replaced Jeep. Mid wing design provided a deep fuselage belly into which to install short, sturdy, retractable land ing gear. Would be hard to retract it into the thin cantilever wing.
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VINTAGE AIRPLANE
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