Science Museum maths gallery to offer the perfect pint London's Science Museum will on 8 December cut the ribbon on a mathematics gallery featuring a range of stuff including a three-rotor Engima machine, an Islamic planispheric astrolabe and the Handley Page "Gugnunc" experimental aircraft. The Enigma machine and astrolabe. Images: Science Museum The Enigma machine, crafted by …
And while you're there, try and find your way to the Flight gallery on the top floor where they have the actual Schneider Trophy, one of Frank Whittle's original jet engines, and Alcock and Brown's Vickers Vimy (that made the first non-stop transatlantic flight) among many other things, all seemingly hidden away in an attic.
Four seaplanes and 53 ships were involved in the Curtis 'crossing" which took a total of 23 days and six stops (USA to UK). As Wikipedia succinctly puts it: "The accomplishment of the naval aviators of the NC-4 was somewhat eclipsed in the minds of the public by the first nonstop transatlantic flight, which took 15 hours, 57 minutes, and was made by the Royal Air Force pilots John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown, two weeks later." (Dominion of Newfoundland and Labrador to UK).
I saw the Da Vinci exhibit last week, the man had an amazing imagination.
If you're in that area soon it's also worth wandering a bit further up Exhibition Road to the Royal Geographical Society, they have an exhibition of large aerial photos of the UK, set on stands in the garden. We found it quite by accident, gave us an interesting half hour.
"three-dimensional curved surfaces representing the mathematical equations of airflow around the aircraft" -
That look nothing like the airflow around the aircraft, and seem to make it quite difficult to actually see the aircraft! Admirable as the rest of the exhibits seem to be, this bit looks to me like another expensive exercise in fannying about...
Apparently not the first ever. However, the competition it was built for required STOL performance at low speeds, which H-P achieved using their own system of slots and flaps. While it was one of the few entrants that actually turned up for the Guggenheim competition and one of perishingly few to meet the requirements, it didn't win due to the usual Yank protectionism in aviation.
HP noticed that the Curtiss[1] entrant was using an unlicensed copy of the H-P slot system and complained. Curtiss responded by pointing out to the US government a mouldering WW1 vintage law prohibiting the import of non-US aircraft and had the H-P aircraft kicked out of the country....(!)
Amazing what you can find out using Google and some idle curiosity to follow up leads.
[1] Yes the same Curtiss legendary for being repeatedly sued by other early aviators, including the Wright Brothers[2], for copying their shit. You have to suspect that H-P had a point.
[2] In that particular case, the patent suit led to an advance. The Wrights sued over Curtiss' copying of their wing-warping system. Curtiss got around the Wright patents by inventing the aileron......
Contemporary reporting of the competition. Legal unpleasantness not the sole reason for failure to take prize.
"The Handley Page entry, the " Gugnunc," failed on the slow glide, without engine. The maximum speed for this was set at 38 m.p.h., a figure which was reached during tests at Martlesham Heath, but during the competition a figure of 39.7 was quoted as the best achieved. "
https://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1930/untitled0%20-%200098.html
The Flight/Flight International archive is a wonderful source of info.
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