Crouch-Bolas light transport project

[hesham]

Hi,

the Crouch-Bolas designed a four engined low wing light transport
aircraft project in 1938.


http://www.flightglobal.com/PDFArchive/View/1938/1938%20-%202221.html

 

[Antonio]

Crouch-Bolas

What a name, in Spanish sounds awful

 

[Apophenia]

Hesham: nice find.

Pometablava: Crouch-Bolas doesn't sound great in English either. But their STOL Dragonfly design was impressive. http://www.aerofiles.com/crouchbolas.jpg

Harold Bolas was, of course, better known for his work for Parnall.

Has anyone access to an image of either of the Crouch-Bolas Dragon Type IV engine variants?

 

[Antonio]

Thanks a lot for the info and pic, Apophenia. From it I googled and found more about Harold Bolas work. Very interesting.

regards,
Antonio

 

[lark]

Gentlemen, may I also refer to an excellent 10page article in
Air Enthusiast No.103 of Jan/Feb 2003.
'The Bolas Touch-A British designer and his aspirations' by Ken Wixey

 

[Antonio]

Thanks a lot Lark, I think I have a copy of AE103 at home. I'll take a look later at home.

 

[lark]

Have a safe trip home

 

[burunduk]

Gentlemen, in Aerofiles http://aerofiles.com/_cl.html is written that Dragonfly is two-engine aircraft and has counter-rotating props. But in both photos is seen only one engine and one usual 2-blade prop. Could you explain this disconcordance?

 

[lark]

The Crouch-Bolas Dragonfly was a testbed-aircraft for
ultra slow flying and opererations in the STOL mode.
The plane was several times re-engined and rebuilt.
The airframe was completed in 1933 and the two oppositely rotating Dragon IV-G's
were pre-flight tested.Later Menasco B4 engines were acquired because one of the
Dragon engines broke down after 40h running.
The Dragonfly became airborne during a test in April 1934 after a roll of only 15m.

The slipstream covered almost 70% of the wing surface and the biplane configuration was chosen
with 2 engines for optimal STOL effect.

So far the abrieved text from the article mentioned.

The photo from Aerofiles is a bit misleading beaucause of the angle it was taken.

 

[Apophenia]

Gentlemen, in Aerofiles http://aerofiles.com/_cl.html is written that Dragonfly is two-engine aircraft and has counter-rotating props. But in both photos is seen only one engine and one usual 2-blade prop. Could you explain this disconcordance?

The Dragonfly had twin, wing-mounted engines (the only form it was flown in). Props were contra-rotating only in the sense that the engines were 'handed' with the propellers turning in opposite directions.

Both Aerofile photos ( http://aerofiles.com/crouchbolas.jpg and http://aerofiles.com/crouch.jpg ) show the Dragonfly in the above configuration although only the starboard or port engine/prop are visible in either image.

 

[burunduk]

lark, Apophenia, thank you.

Really there are two engines!

 

[hesham]

Re: Crouch-Bolas light transport projects

Hi,


it was Crouch-Bolas B-40 light transport project,here is the B-37 high
speed transport monoplane project,powered by single engine driven
two propellers.


http://crimso.msk.ru/Site/Crafts/Craft21822.htm

 

[theponja]

Thanks gentlemans to recall this old thread.
The Dragonfly looks incredible and the Bolas B-37 is very interesting.

That surname!!! The title of article on Air Enthusiast sounds funny: "The Bolas Touch"

 

[VictorXL188]

Pair of pictures of the Crouch-Bolas Dragonfly, one from the Wright State University may help to show better the layout of this little beastie.