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Wight Quadruplane Fighter

Wight Quadruplane Title

Wight Quadruplane Fighter

First Flying in mid-1916, the Wight Quadruplane was a single seat fighter. The initial design had two cabane struts of long chord length supporting the upper wing. Four similar type interplane struts were used between the upper three wings, all of which had ailerons. Due to the position of the lower wing, the tail skid was unusually long to prevent the rear of the lower wing contacting the ground. The leading and trailing edges of the wings were cambered with a flat centre section. This proved inefficient and the aircraft was difficult to get into the air. It also displayed poor yaw control due to the small vertical stabiliser.

A redesign added a larger tail fin and rudder, conventional interplane struts, the wings had a varying cords and the landing gear was lengthened. This design also proved unsatisfactory and a second modification was made.

The third re-build introduced wings of decreasing width, with the top one being the widest. Ailerons were only fitted to the top two wings. Flight testing in July 1917 demonstrated an unsatisfactory lack of control. In February 1918, the Quadruplane crashed, destroying the aircraft. No more development work was undertaken.

Supermarine Type 224

Supermarine Type 224

Supermarine Type 224

Designed to meet Air Ministry Specification F.7/30, the Supermarine Type 224 was a low wing monoplane fighter aircraft armed with four .303 machine guns. The Air Ministry expressed a preference for the evaporatively cooled Rolls-Royce Goshawk, which was evaporatively cooled. This caused problems, which along with poor performance led to its elimination and the contract being awarded to the Gloster Gladiator.

The chief designer, R.J. Mitchell used lessons learned from this design when designing the Supermarine Spitfire.

Photos of scale models of the Type 224 can be found here.

Westland F7/30

Westland F7/30

Westland F7/30

Designed to Air Ministry Specification F.7/30, for a day and night fighter the Westland F7/30 (Company designation Westland PV.4) first flew in 1934. Powered by the Rolls-Royce Goshawk evaporatively-cooled engine, it was armed with four .303 machine guns.

Flight testing in 1935 revealed a top speed of 146mph. This was significantly below the specifications 195mph requirement and 100mph slower than the eventual winner, the Gloster Gladiator.