| Terrence I. Murphy, e-mail, 08.02.2012 22:52 Picture is the first of the two Tramps at Filton in January 1922, ready for ground running. They were to be powered at first with four petrol engines designed as a unit which could be replaced later by a steam turbine power plant of equivalent power. It was found to be very difficult to scale down the steam turbines to a maximum output of 750 h.p. each, which was all the Tramp could safely accommodate, and the condenser and boiler posed still more severe problems; in the end the difficulties of making a reliable lightweight high-pressure closed-circuit system proved insuperable.
The two Tramps, Nos. 5871 and 5872 (J6912 and J6913), were not completed until the end of 1921, and even then neither of them ever flew, because the transmission system, particularly the clutches, gave continual trouble. Work on them at Filton was stopped in February 1922 reply |
