[WWII] Fleet Finch

[Phaelen Bleux]

Biplane of the Month Club: February
OK, so for Christmas I got one of those page-a-day desk calendars from the "Golden Age of Flight." Each day of the month is a photo of a WWI to WWII era plane. I was hoping it would inspire my creative energies in random directions. But, you gotta have rules, right? So the rules are: each month I find the coolest photo of a biplane, and then write it up with the MVDS. The whole thing is horribly useless, but it makes me feel better than watching TV :)

Fleet Finch
In 1928, Consolidated Aircraft Company was producing the PT-3 for the USAAC as a training aircraft. Seeing an opportunity in the civilian market, the aircraft was redesigned along similar lines as the Model 14, or Husky Junior. However, Consolidated ultimately decided not to enter the civilian market with the aircraft. However, Major Reuben H. Fleet (company president) purchased the design from Consolidated and pursued the design as Fleet Aircraft Inc. Model 1 (dropping the Husky Junior moniker). The aircraft was produced in the U.S. and Canada by Fleet, although 2 years later Consolidated elected to buy Fleet's operations in the United States. The Fleet Finch (or Model 16) was used by the Royal Canadian Airforce as a trainer from 1939 to 1941, with over 400 examples being constructed.
The Finch has a crew of two: pilot and instructor. The plane burns 4.7 gallons of fuel per hour at routine usage. Although many were constructed with open cockpits, the cold Canadian climate caused many of them to be fitted with a retractable canopy.
As an interesting side note, the Finch appears in the Jimmy Cagney movie "Captain of the Clouds."

Fleet Model 16B Finch
Subassemblies: Recon Fighter chassis +2; Recon Fighter wings with Biplane option +2; 2 fixed wheels +0.
Powertrain: 93-kW HP gasoline engine with 93-kW prop and 32-gallon fuel tank [Body].
Occ.: 2 XCS Body
Cargo: 6 Body

Armor F RL B T U
Body: 2/2C 2/2C 2/2C 2/2C 2/2C
Wings: 2/2C 2/2C 2/2C 2/2C 2/2C
Wheels: 2/3 2/3 2/3 2/3 2/3

Statistics:
Size: 22'x29'x8' Payload: 0.44 tons Lwt.: 1.00 tons
Volume: 96 Maint.: 125 hours Cost: $2,578

HT: 8. HPs: 30 Body, 50 each Wing, 3 each Wheel.

aSpeed: 104 aAccel: 3 aDecel: 36 aMR: 9 aSR: 1
Stall Speed: 44 mph. Take-Off Run: 242 yards. Landing Run: 194 yards.
gSpeed: 154 gAccel: 8 gDecel: 10 gMR: 0.5 gSR: 2
Ground Pressure: High. 1/6 Off-Road Speed.

Design Notes:
Historical wing area was 194 sf. Design payload was 608 lbs; the historical value has been substituted. The weight, cost, and HPs of the chassis were doubled to increase design weight; it was increased another 12% to the historical. (On the other hand, design empty weight was only 27 lbs. over the historical. Some sources list loaded weight in the 1,800 lb. range.) Design aSpeed was 109 mph. Performance calculations were based on historical values for wing area and loaded weight.

Variants:
The Model 1 (1930) featured a 82-kW engine. The Model 2 was generally similar and featured a 75-kW engine.
Models 3 through 6 experimented with various engines of differing outputs, with only one or two examples of each being constructed.
The Model 7 featured a 93-kW engine. It was used by the Royal Canadian Airforce as the Fawn Mk I. The Fawn Mk II (or Model 7C) increased engine power to 104-kW.
The Model 8 and Model 9 were only produced in the U.S. Both featured an enlarged fuselage, and the Model 8 could carry up to 3 people without baggage. Only a few were built.
The Model 10 (1934) was developed from the Model 7, and was in turn the precursor of the Model 16. 56 were built for China. The Model 10 was also exported to Argentina, the Dominican Republic, Iraq, Mexico, Nicaragua, Portugal, Venezuela, and Yogoslavia.
The Model 21 (1937) featured a 298-kW engine. It was similar to the Model 8 in design. 10 built and exported to Mexico.

From the Aerodrome for GURPS
© 2011 by Jim Antonicic

[Dewey]

Sounds like fun, but I must have missed January.

[Phaelen Bleux]

Well, I'm retroactively making the Halberstadt D.II January's entry. It was in the calendar, I promise!

[Purple Haze]

Your Sopwith Triplane has two guns, historically it only had one.

[Phaelen Bleux]

Originally Posted by Purple Haze

Your Sopwith Triplane has two guns, historically it only had one.

One of my sources lists "one or two." Not that it's correct, mind you.

[Not another shrubbery]

Originally Posted by Purple Haze

Your Sopwith Triplane has two guns, historically it only had one.

Apparently, a small number of the Clayton and Shuttleworth built flyers had twin Vickers, instead of the much more common single gun. Still, that should be properly be just a footnote, and the typical singleton mount should be the main armament listed </agreement>

The Aviation History Online Museum entry for the Sopwith Triplane.

[Purple Haze]

Originally Posted by Not another shrubbery

Apparently, a small number of the Clayton and Shuttleworth built flyers had twin Vickers, instead of the much more common single gun. Still, that should be properly be just a footnote, and the typical singleton mount should be the main armament listed </agreement>

The Aviation History Online Museum entry for the Sopwith Triplane.

Which degrade the performance so much that the experiment was cancelled.