MARCH 31,

1938.

FLIGHT.

COOLING the GIPSY TWELVE

: First Details oj the New De Havilland Pressure-Duct System as Used on the Albatross

NE of the most notable advances in air-cooling technique in recent times is the De Havilland pressureduct arrangement as applied to the four Gipsy Twelve engines in the Albatross. A similar system features in the Don advanced military trainer. It is now possible to describe the system in detail. Briefly, the engine is cooled by air supplied at controlled pressure from ducts in the leading edge of the'Wing. The scheme is claimed to be highly efficient, particularly in the reduction of drag. It was, in fact, designed especially to take advantage of the compact form of the Gipsy Twelve engine. This latter is an inverted vee-type unit, geared and supercharged, consisting of two banks of six cylinders set at 60 deg. The ratio of cowling diameter to engine diameter is 0.30, compared with approximately 0.35 in the Gipsy Six. An engine like the Gipsy Twelve, due to its low frontal area, lends itself well to a cowling of circular cross-section terminating at the frcnt, without break of line, in a spinner of efficient form. The clean entry which thus becomes possible would, of course, be spoiled if the airscrew were utilised to cool the engine from the front. Moreover, as the engine diameter is so small, a scoop in the cowling would be too near the airscrew axis to derive benefit from the slipstream velocity at the low speeds of take-off and climbperiods when the engine is developing maximum power. Furthermore, the Gipsy Twelve, requires a proportionately greater flow of cooling air than, for example, the Gipsy Six II with constant-speed airscrew, because of the proportionately greater power output. It must be remembered that, although the Twelve may be considered as a double Six, each bank of six cylinders in a Twelve is developing 260 h.p. for take-off, compared with 205 h.p.

An elevation and plan which make the operation of the Gipsy Twelve cooling system instantly apparent.

Tests
Accordingly, it was decided to locate the entry for the cooling air in the intense part of the slipstream, at about threequarters of the airscrew, radius. . The actual scheme adopted was to incorporate the entry orifices in the leading edge. In the first place tests were made on the ground and in the air with a Leopard Moth equipped with a wing duct system. This determined the best arrangement of the duct entry and showed that satisfactory cooling could be expected. The next stage, in which the De Havilland Company had the. benefit of Air Ministry co-operation, took the form of a series of windtunnel tests on a one-fifth-scale model of the Gipsy Twelve

nacelle installed in an Albatross wing. Apart from confirming that the cooling would be satisfactory, these tests verified that the lift and drag of the wing would not be unfavourably affected by the duct entries in the leading edge. Finally, a full-scale mock-up, with engine and airscrew running, established conclusively the behaviour of the cooling system during taxying and take-off. The wide speed range of the Albatross naturally demanded controlled cooling, for if the cooling were efficient when climbing at, say, 100 m.p.h. it would be excessive when cruising at over 200 m.p.h., resulting in unnecessary drag. Accordingly, exit flaps, or gills, were fitted on the underside of the nacelle, this being the most efficient location for minimum interference and drag. It is claimed that these flaps make a difference in cruising speed of about JO m,p,h. On take-off and climb, when they are fully opened, they induce a suction which assists the slipstream in forcing the cooling air over the engine.

In thxs l

"Flivhvphn to the cylinder banks can be seen. The picture, incidentally, shows how engine is little larger in diameter than the airscrew spinner.