F.Manson British Bomber Since 1914 (Putnam)
Grahame-White Type 18
Notwithstanding the work already in progress on the big Handley Page O/100 heavy bomber, the Admiralty issued a requirement in mid-1915 for a rather smaller, single-engine, land-based bomber, possessing a range of about 700 miles, capable o f lifting 800 lb of bombs with a crew of two and a speed of 80 mph. Shorts had been quickest to produce a contender to this requirement, and accordingly received production orders. However, both Grahame-White and J Samuel White also produced prototypes, although none of the three aircraft tendered fully satisfied the performance demands.
Design of the big Grahame-White Type 18 occupied much of the summer and autumn of 1915 and centred on the choice of a single 285hp Sunbeam 12-cylinder water-cooled engine, the bearers being extensions of the upper fuselage longerons. The wooden box girder, which constituted the fuselage primary structure, carried formers to fair the fuselage to oval section. The three-bay wings were built up on twin spruce spars with closely-spaced ribs and four pairs of interplane struts, the inboard pairs (which replaced conventional centresection struts) providing the rigidity required for the wing-folding attachments.
The wings, of parallel chord and equal span, featured ailerons on upper and lower surfaces, and the twin mainwheel undercarriage with V-struts and spreader bar was augmented by a small balancing nosewheel. Bomb racks, capable of supporting two 230 lb or four 112 lb bombs were attached under the lower wings immediately outboard of the fold axis. A large fuel tank was located forward of the pilot's cockpit, and the gunner/observer was evidently provided with a Lewis gun on what appears to be a ring mounting.
The Type 18 was probably completed in the spring or summer of 1916, by which time the Handley Page O/100 was confounding its critics by demonstrating the practicality of large bombing aeroplanes and, of the three bomber designs tendered, only the Short Bomber entered production, while the Wight Bomber was developed further by conversion into a floatplane, for which production orders were placed. By contrast, work was evidently halted on the Grahame-White Type 18 soon after completion, and no record of flight performance has been traced.
Type: Single-engine, two-seat, four-bay biplane naval bomber.
Manufacturer: The Grahame-White Aviation Co Ltd, Hendon, London NW 9 .
Powerplant: One 285hp Sunbeam Maori twelve-cylinder water-cooled in-line engine driving four-blade propeller.
Structure: All-wood, fabric-covered; two-spar folding wings.
Dimensions, Weights and Performance: Not known.
Armament: Single Lewis gun on observer's cockpit; details of bomb load speculative.
Prototype: Believed, one; details of first flight (probably in 1916) not known. No production.
P.Lewis British Bomber since 1914 (Putnam)
Contemporary with the Short Bomber were two other two-seat tractor biplanes designed as bombers for the Admiralty - the Grahame-White Type 18 and the Wight Bomber. Designed at Hendon during 1915, the Grahame-White machine embodied a similar fabric-covered wooden framework type of construction but was given a greater degree of refinement than others of the period. The single prototype Type 18 also was fairly large, with four-bay equal-span wings attached to a basic rectangular-section fuselage which was faired to an oval section. Power was provided by the twelve-cylinder vee 285 h.p. Sunbeam Maori, designed by Mons. Louis Herve Coatalen - the Sunbeam Motor Car Company’s talented chief engineer - which was cooled by a deep frontal radiator and drove a two-blade airscrew. Folding was incorporated in the mainplanes, which lacked the support of normal centresection struts, their place being taken by the inner pair of interplane struts on each side. The Type 18’s normal two-wheel undercarriage, attached to the fuselage by strong struts, was augmented by a small nosewheel. Underwing racks accommodated the machine’s bomb load, and the observer was armed with a machine-gun carried on a ring-mounting.
J.Bruce British Aeroplanes 1914-1918 (Putnam)
Grahame-White Type 18
THE design of the Grahame-White Type 18 was begun in 1915, and it appears that it was designed for the Admiralty as a single-engined bomber. It was a massive biplane with equal-span wings, powered by a 285 h.p. Sunbeam Maori engine, and appeared to be in the same general category as the Short and Wight bombers.
There were four sets of interplane struts on each side, but the innermost pair served instead of the more conventional centre-section struts. The mainplanes could be folded. The fuselage was basically the usual cross-braced wooden box girder, but was carefully faired throughout its length to a more or less elliptical cross-section; and the undercarriage was a substantial vee structure with the addition of a nose-wheel. The tailplane was rectangular; and the low aspect-ratio fin and rudder were made of steel tube. The engine had a flat frontal radiator, and a large single exhaust stack was fitted.
Fuel was carried in a large tank in front of the pilot, and its size is sufficient indication that the machine was designed to have a long range. The pilot’s control column was surmounted by a wheel of appropriate proportions for the control of the ailerons.
The large wing area and reasonably clean design hinted at good weight-lifting ability, but no doubt the advent of the Handley Page O/100 was one reason for the non-adoption of the Grahame-White Type 18.
SPECIFICATION
Manufacturers: The Grahame-White Aviation Co., Ltd., Hendon, London.
Power: 285 h.p. Sunbeam Maori.
Armament: The observer had a ring-mounting on his cockpit, presumably for a free Lewis machine-gun.
H.King Armament of British Aircraft (Putnam)
Type 18. For the RNAS this very large single-engined four-bay folding biplane was produced as a bomber in 1916. The observer had a ring-mounted Lewis gun and the intended bomb load probably corresponded to that of the comparable Short and Wight single-engined bombers.
