In contrast to the silly cartridge starter fitted to the RAF’s This ensures that the cooling air flows from left to right across the cylinders. Unlike the Menasco fitted to the Ryan ST-A featured in June’s Pilot, the Gipsy is a ‘left-hand tractor’ (the opposite of the ST-A’s) so the air inlet on the front of the cowling is on the port side of the nose bowl. It is fed from a pair of wing tanks, and it’s good practice to check the oil as regularly as the fuel, because using up to three litres an hour is considered acceptable. In fact, an impressive testimony to Jakimiuk’s genius is that the Chipmunk was designed to use the same engine (a Gipsy Major) as the Tiger Moth, and it outperforms it in every way, while still having very benign stall and landing characteristics.Īccess to the air-cooled inverted four-cylinder engine is good, as the cowling hinges open on both sides. The additional costs that this approach invariably creates are rarely mentioned, as is the degradation in performance!Īnyway, Delta November was built before the Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment (A&AEE) had finished its evaluation at RAF Boscombe Down and consequently has a much lower empty weight than any of the Chipmunks built at Hatfield or Hawarden.
#CHIPMUNK BASIC BREAK MOD#
As anyone who has worked in military procurement (or indeed any government purchasing agency) can cheerfully confirm, the first things that an entity like the MoD does (and in direct contradiction to Kelly Johnson’s famous mantra to “add lightness and simplify”) is to add mass and complexity.
Furthermore and unlike most seventy-year-old aeroplanes?it is almost entirely original.įrom a distance it may look essentially the same as all the other Chipmunks at Old Warden that day, but this test aircraft is most definitely not the Chipmunk that you, your father or even your grandfather flew. It was the 11th pre-production prototype Chipmunk made at DHC’s Downsview factory?and is the oldest still airworthy. With at least 500 still airworthy, the Chipmunk is certainly not a rare machine, but the subject of this air test, G-AKDN, is a bit special. Eventually nearly 1,300 were built?some 1,000 in England, around 200 in Canada and a further sixty being built under licence in Portugal. Test pilot Pat Fillingham flew the prototype, CF-DIO-X, on its maiden flight from DHC’s Downsview, Toronto factory on and, after evaluation by the RAF, production was initiated in both Canada and England. (Whatever happened to our aero industry?) Designed in 1946 by Polish aero engineer Wsiewolod Jakimiuk as a successor to the immortal DH Tiger Moth, it was the first indigenous aircraft designed by de Havilland Canada, which had been given the job by the parent company as its English factories were extremely busy building Doves, Rapides, Vampires, Hornets and Mosquitoes, as well as both jet and piston engines. One of the most-loved post-war light aircraft, the de Havilland Chipmunk is a pure thoroughbred. “Er…” I begin, somewhat apologetically “what’s our call-sign, Dave?” “Look out the side,” laughs owner Dave Gillespie, “it’s painted on the wing.” Do I feel foolish!
#CHIPMUNK BASIC BREAK REGISTRATION#
Even so, just as I’m about to make an initial radio call I realise I’ve forgotten the registration and it’s not to be found on the panel. I’m flying a Chipmunk too, but not just any old Chippie?this is s/n 11, the oldest airworthy DHC-1 in the world and the undoubted star of the show. It is of course the seventieth anniversary of the Chipmunk’s first flight, and the Shuttleworth Collection is hosting a big fly-in to celebrate. Not only is the airfield crowded with aircraft, but they appear to be all the same type and they are! There are dozens and dozens of DHC-1 Chipmunks parked in ranks upon Old Warden’s rich green turf. A pre-production prototype, the world’s oldest airworthy Chipmunk still keeps turning headsĪs we approach Old Warden it occurs to me that someone just flying past might be a bit confused.
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