Fairey Long-range Monoplane

The Fairey Long-range Monoplane was a British experimental aircraft first flown in 1928. It was single-engine, high-wing aircraft with fixed tail skid landing gear. Two examples were built (Monoplane I and Monoplane II).

Design and development
The aircraft was designed to meet Air Ministry Specification 33/27, issued by the Directorate of Technical Development (DTD) in December 1927 after the failure of three attempts by the RAF to break the absolute distance world record flying Hawker Horsley bombers. According to a Ministry spokesman in the House of Commons, this aircraft was to be constructed not just "for a specific record," but as a serious study into methods of increasing the range of aircraft. In order to soothe the anxieties of the Treasury, the aircraft started life as the Postal Aircraft. The pointed nose and sleek lines of the design gave rise to the nickname "Eversharp," after the American company producing mechanical pencils.

Although other configurations were studied, after wind tunnel testing a single high wing was chosen, allowing a gravity feed from the fuel tanks. The wing's spars were of wood with a steel pyramid system of internal bracing intended to add torsional rigidity and ensure that flight loads were evenly distributed between the spars irrespective of the position of the centre of pressure, and were fabric covered. The fuel capacity was 1,043 Imp gals (4,742 L). Fuel flowed by gravity to a small collector tank, from which it was pressure-fed to the engine by a mechanical fuel pump (if the mechanical pump failed, a wind-driven back-up pump could be extended into the windstream). To support long-range flight, there were two pilot-accessible parallel oil filter circuits, allowing one filter to be removed and cleaned with the other in operation. A bed aft of the wing allowed one pilot to sleep. After extensive testing using a Fairey IIIF and a DH.9A, the engine selected for the Monoplane was the Napier Lion XIA of 570 hp; this decision was not finalized until Monoplane I was nearly complete.

Operational history
Monoplane I, J9479, first flew on 14 November 1928 from RAF Northolt, with an RAF pilot. After correcting a few findings, Fairey transferred the aircraft to RAF operations on 7 December, and testing continued in preparation for the record attempt, including a 24-hour trial on 22–23 March 1929. It was decided to attempt a flight to Bangalore in India, a great-circle distance of about 5000 mi, comfortably over the existing record of 4466 mi set by a Savoia-Marchetti S.64 in July 1928. Squadron Leader A. G. Jones-Williams and Flight Lieutenant N. H. Jenkins set off from RAF Cranwell, Lincolnshire on 24 April 1929. Slowed by headwinds, they turned from their destination to land at Karachi after 50:48 hours flight time. Although the flight was the first non-stop flight between Britain and India, the great circle distance of 4130 mi was short of the record. It was decided to make another record attempt later that year, although the record had been raised to 4912 mi by the French Breguet 19 Point d'Interrogation. This time it was planned to fly from England to South Africa. This second attempt, with the same crew, departed on 16 December 1929, but crashed south of Tunis at 18:45, destroying the aircraft and killing the crew. The navigation log recovered from the crash site gave the aircraft's altitude at 18:00 as 5000 ft, however, the aircraft's barographs had recorded an altitude of less than 3000 ft at that time. The impact point was 2300 ft above sea level. Either the barometric pressure had dropped significantly between Tunisia and Cranwell, leading them to believe that their altitude was greater than it was, or the altimeter had malfunctioned.

Despite the setback, the Air Ministry ordered a second Long-range Monoplane (K1991) in July 1930, which flew on 30 June 1931. While similar to the first aircraft, it had a number of differences, including an enlarged and redesigned fin and rudder, greater redundancy in flight and navigational instrumentation, an autopilot (pneumatically powered, from an airstream-driven compressor), and lower-drag landing gear including wheel spats.

On 27–28 October 1931 Squadron Leader O. R. Gayford (the officer in charge of the RAF Long Range Development Unit) with Flight Lieutenant D. Betts as navigator flew K1991 from RAF Cranwell to Abu Seir in Egypt. The 2557 mi flight was completed in 31½ hours.

From 6–8 February 1933, Gayford and his navigator Flight Lieutenant G. E. Nicholetts (FLt Betts had died in 1932, after complications from a medical procedure) flew non-stop in the second aircraft, K1991, from Cranwell to Walvis Bay, South West Africa. This was a world long-distance record of 5410 mi (the autopilot gave up partway, with the remainder of the flight under full manual control). They then continued on to Cape Town. On their return to RAE Farnborough they were met by Air Minister (Lord Londonderry), Under Secretary for Air (Sir Philip Sassoon) and Sir John Salmond, Marshal of the Royal Air Force.

The distance record only stood for three months; it fell on 7 August 1933, reclaimed by the French with a Blériot 110. Gayford and the Long Range Development Unit would later make long-distance flights with the Vickers Wellesley.

After K1991 flew back to the United Kingdom a number of suggestions to re-engine the aircraft were made and the Air Ministry issued Specification 27/33 for it to be re-engined with a Junkers Jumo diesel engine. Updating work was started, but when it was decided to design a new aircraft instead, Monoplane II was scrapped after a few months in storage.

Operators

 * Royal Air Force
 * Royal Air Force