Sikorsky six-engine airliner project

[hesham]

Hi,


from Les Ailes journal,here is a strange six-engined transatlantic aircraft,but
I don't know if it was a flying boat or not ?.


http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k65552179/f4.image

 

[Arjen]

Any flying boat with under-fuselage bracing will lose important bits of its structure the moment it hits the water. If it hasn't lost said bracing on taking off, that is.

I definitely think it's meant to be a landplane.

 

[hesham]

My dear Arjen,


the drawing is very poor,so I can't judge.

 

[Arjen]

I have highlighted the under-fuselage bracing in red. To keep it and the aircraft's propellors from harm on takeoff or landing, some kind of hydrofoil/ski undercarriage would be needed. Apart from a low-wing configuration, this is the worst imaginable setup for a propellor-driven flying boat.

'Les Ailes' editors speculate it's a design for a 'monoplan terrestre' (landplane).

 

[Stargazer]

I don't know if it was a flying boat or not ?

Certainly doesn't look it. No deep hull, no wing floats...

Sikorsky must have studied various possible configurations and a landplane was probably one of them.

Interesting though, I'd never seen this one before! Thanks for sharing.

 

[Avimimus]

Yes, it looks like it a bracing to reduce structural loads on a very large airframe... a last gasp of the old externally braced wing?

It would be pretty wild for someone to design an externally braced airplane where the bracing serves has hydofoils for takeoff... If anyone can find such a design - it'd make a great new thread.

 

[hesham]

Thank you my dears.

 

[Jos Heyman]

I agree, an interesting design. But let's make it clear - this is most likely not the Sikorsky S-45 unless there is there something I missed along the way?

 

[Stargazer]

I agree, an interesting design. But let's make it clear - this is most likely not the Sikorsky S-45 unless there is there something I missed along the way?

Definitely not. I've split the topic.

Here is what the text that went with the image actually said:

Mr. Igor Sikorsky has announced that he has been working on a 75-ton Transatlantic type able to fly at a speed of 375 km/h and to cover a distance of 6,400 kms non-stop. This aircraft will be ready in three years' time. We do not have any other detail but this brief information. Perhaps it could be the six-engine monoplane landplane that was presented to the French delegation of engineers on a visit to the Bridgeport workshops. It is to be noted that the Sikorsky engineers have not yet decided if the aircraft (depicted here) would be fitted with bracing wiring or not.

So: 1°) the image doesn't necessarily depict the Transatlantic project described, and 2°) the wires were on the model but may not have been on the built aircraft if produced.

This kind of puts in perspective what has been said previously!