This report provides a description of the Benz 300 H.P. aircraft engine containing 12 cylinders placed at a 60° angle. It includes a detailed description of the development of the constructional points, particularly the cylinders, pistons, and connecting rods, as well as the engine fitting, lubrication, oil pumps, bearings, oil tank, fuel pump, carburetors, and cooling system. There are seven pages of illustrative figures at the end of the report.

A description is given of a tilting manometer designed to meet the requirements of a manometer for use in the wind tunnel at the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory. This gauge was designed to meet the requirements of a manometer in use in connection with a static pressure plate to indicate the wind speed in the tunnel. The requirements are noted. The sensitivity of the gauge must be made inversely proportional to the pressure to be measured. The gauge must be accurately and quickly set for any desired pressure.

This report deals with the accelerations obtained in flight on various airplanes at Langley Field for the purpose of obtaining the magnitude of the load factors in flight and to procure information on the behavior of an airplane in various maneuvers. The instrument used in these tests was a recording accelerometer of a new type designed by the technical staff of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. The instrument consists of a flat steel spring supported rigidly at one end so that the free end may be deflected by its own weight from its neutral position by any acceleration acting at right angles to the plane of the spring. This deflection is measured by a very light tilting mirror caused to rotate by the deflection of the spring, which reflected the beam of light onto a moving film. The motion of the spring is damped by a thin aluminum vane which rotates with the spring between the poles of an electric magnet. Records were taken on landings and takeoffs, in loops, spins, spirals, and rolls.

In connection with the development of an accelerometer for measuring the loads on airplanes in free flight a study of the theory of such instruments has been made, and the results of this study are summarized in this report. A portion of the analysis deals particularly with the sources of error and with the limitations placed on the location of the instrument in the airplane. The discussion of the dynamics of the accelerometer includes a study of its theoretical motions and of the way in which they are affected by the natural period of vibration and by the damping, together with a report of some experiments on the effect of forced vibrations on the record.

The object of this report is to bring together the investigations of the various aerodynamic laboratories in this country and Europe upon the subject of aerofoils suitable for use as lifting or control surfaces on aircraft. The data have been so arranged as to be of most use to designing engineers and for the purposes of general reference. The absolute system of coefficients has been used, since it is thought by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics that this system is the one most suited for international use, and yet is one for which a desired transformation can be easily made. For this purpose a set of transformation constants is included in this report.

Report discusses airplane wing trusses are generally designed to contain redundant members (stagger wires and external drag wires) which, according to common practice, are not taken into account in calculations, so as to simplify the stress analysis by rendering the structure statically determinate. A more accurate method, in which the redundancies are included, involves a solution by means of Castigliano's method of least work. For the purpose of demonstrating the practical application of the method of least work this report presents examples for stresses of several cases of loading worked out for a structure similar to that of the Curtiss JN-4h.

From Introduction: "The following report was prepared at the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, as it seemed desirable that there should be some study of the attitude assumed by an airplane, and more particularly of its motion with respect to surrounding air when maneuvering, either in ordinary turns, spirals, climbs, and dives, or in those more spectacular feats commonly known as stunts. It is important to secure this information, among other reasons, in order ti have definite knowledge as to the distribution of load on the wings, and so to furnish the basis for improved accuracy in stress analysis."

Report includes the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics letter of submittal to the President, Congressional report, summaries of the committee's activities and research accomplished, expenditures, House of Representatives bill 14061, a copy of the bill introduced to the House of Representatives to regulate air navigation, and a compilation of technical reports produced.

In part one of this report are presented the theoretical performance curves of an airplane engine equipped with a supercharging compressor. In predicting the gross power of a supercharging engine, the writer uses temperature and pressure correction factors based on experiments made at the Bureau of Standards (NACA report nos. 45 and 46).. Part two of this report presents an estimation of the performance curves of an airplane fitted with a supercharging engine.

"This report makes available data which will aid the designer in determining the plywood that is best adapted to various aircraft parts. It gives the results of investigations made by the Forest Products Laboratory of the United States Forest Service at Madison, Wisconsin, for the Army and Navy Departments, and is one of a series of reports on the use of wood in aircraft prepared by the Forest Products Laboratory for publication by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. The object of the study was to determine, through comprehensive tests, the mechanical and physical properties of plywood and how these properties vary with density, number, thickness, arrangement of the plies and direction of grain of the plies" (p. 109).

Report presenting a continuation of a previous study in order to supply further data to the designers of wind tunnels. Particular emphasis was placed on the study of directional variation in the wind stream. The results indicated that placing radial vanes directly before the propeller actually increased the efficiency of the tunnel to a considerable extent.

This report is a continuation of National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics report no. 73. The variations in velocity and direction of the wind stream were studied by means of a recording air speed meter and a recording yawmeter. The work was carried on both in a 1-foot diameter model tunnel and in a 5-foot full-size tunnel, and wherever possible comparison was made between them. It was found that placing radial vanes directly before the propeller in the exit cone increased the efficiency of the tunnel to a considerable extent and also gave a steadier flow.

It is obvious that, in accordance with Newton's second law, the lift on an aerofoil must be equal to the vertical momentum communicated per second to the air mass affected. Consequently a lifting aerofoil in flight is trailed by a wash which has a definite inclination corresponding to the factors producing the lift. It is thought that sufficient data, theoretical and experimental, are now available for a complete determination of this wash with respect to the variation of its angle of inclination to the originating aerofoil and with respect to the law which governs its decay in space.

An attempt was made to determine the effect of spindle interference on the lift of the airfoil by measuring moments about the axis parallel to the direction of air flow. The values obtained are of the same degree as the experimental error, and for the present this effect will be neglected. The results obtained using a U.S.A. 15 wing (plotted here) show that the correction is nearly constant from 0 degrees to 10 degrees incidence and that at greater angles its value becomes erratic. At such angles, however, the wing drag is so high that the spindle correction and its attendant errors become relatively small and unimportant.

In this report a study is made of the effect on longitudinal and lateral oscillations of an airplane of simultaneous variations in two resistance derivatives while the remainder of the derivatives are constant. The results are represented by diagrams in which the two variable resistance derivatives are used as coordinates, and curves are plotted along which the modulus of decay of a long oscillation has a constant value. The same type of analysis is also carried out for the stability of the parachute.

This report discusses the effects of roughness, smoothness, and cleanness of cooling surfaces on the performance of aeronautic radiators, as shown by experimental work, with different conditions of surface, on (1) heat transfer from a single brass tube and from a radiator; (2) pressure drop in an air stream in a single brass tube and in a radiator; (3) head resistance of a radiator; and (4) flow of air through a radiator. It is shown that while smooth surfaces are better than rough, the surfaces usually found in commercial radiators do not differ enough to show marked effect on performance, provided the surfaces are kept clean.

This report states the results of investigations made upon numerous propeller models at the request of the Subcommittee on Aerodynamics, and contains valuable data for those interested in the design of air propellers.

The writer points out briefly the history of the method proposed for the study of steady motion of an airplane, which is different from other methods now used. M. Paul Painleve has shown how convenient the drag-lift curve was for the study of airplane steady motion. The author later added to the drift-lift curve the curve called the "speed curve" which permits a direct checking of the speed of the airplane under all flying conditions. But the speed curve was plotted in the same quadrant as the drag-lift curve.

This report describes a pressure-measuring device especially adapted for use in mapping indicator diagrams of high-speed internal combustion engines. The cards are obtained by a point-to-point method giving the average of a large number of engine cycles. The principle involved is the balancing of the engine cylinder pressure against a measured pressure on the opposite side of the metal a diaphragm of negligible stiffness.

Tests indicated that: 1) C airplanes with two struts are extremely susceptible to aileron maneuvers, slight alterations of the aileron sufficing to compensate great unequalized moments; 2) great unequalized moments can be produced or neutralized by the unequalized alternation of the angle of attack below the outer and inner struts. Adjustment below the outer strut is the more effective of the two. 3) When a load of bombs is suspended beyond the center of the airplane, below the wings, the bombs need not be dropped simultaneously. 4) The propeller wash of a wide open engine has considerable influence on the position and operation of the elevator. The elevator is more susceptible in flight with the engine running than in gliding flight. 5) Adjustable tail planes are not advisable for D airplanes, nor for the C type, but they are, on the other hand, to be recommended for large size and giant airplanes in which the center of gravity changes during flight. 6) The aileron values obtained by wind tunnel measurements are about 10 percent too low, though otherwise applicable. For the elevator, the results of such measurements should be taken as mean values between flight with the engine running and …

This report describes briefly a series of experiments made at the Forest Products Laboratory, Madison, Wisconsin, to determine the comparative moisture resistance of linseed oil, impregnation treatments, condensation varnishes, oil varnishes, enamels, cellulose varnishes, rubber, electroplated and sprayed metal coatings, and metal-leaf coatings when applied to wood. All coatings except rubber and electroplated metal coatings, which were not developed sufficiently to make them practical, admitted moisture in varying degrees. The most effective and most practical coating was found to be that of aluminum leaf.

"The proposed device tends to render the lateral stabilization of airplanes easier and more efficacious. The proposed solution is to mount the ailerons independently, in such a manner that they can turn freely, under the action of the relative wind, about an axis located in front of the extreme position of the center of the lift" (p. 1).

A report presenting the nomenclature and last of symbols to be used in technical reports created by NACA. The purpose of the Committee in the preparation and publication of this report is to secure uniformity in the official documents of the government and, as far as possible, in technical and other commercial publications. This report supersedes all previous publications of the Committee on this subject.

Note presenting a study of the influence exercised on the results of measurements by the dimensions and type of the tunnels used in aerodynamic laboratories, and on the comparison of the results with observations made in motionless and unlimited air.