From Humble Beginnings
Dmitry Pavlovich Grigorovich was a Russian pioneer in flying boat design. His designs were used sucessfully during World War One and both sides during the Russian Civil War. His designs served into the 1920's.
The Grigorovich M-1 was a single-engine flying boat, designed by Dmitry Pavlovich Grigorovich and manufactured in Russia in 1913.
After repairing a crashed Donnet-Lévêque flying boat, D.P.Grigorovich built his first original flying boat . It differed from the prototype by shorter fuselage of modified shape and wing airfoil similar to one used on Farman-16.
The Grigorovich M-1 is a copy of the French Donnet-Lévêque. The two-seater aircraft was configured so the pilots sat side by side. The M-1 was powered by a Gnome engine and a wooden pusher propeller. There were pontoons mounted at the end of the lower wing to stabilize the aircraft in the water. The M-1 could take off and land in the water. There were lashing points on the fuselage for a dolly allowing land based take-offs..
General performance was satisfactory, but it was obvious that the design needed improvement.
References
- From Wikipedia Grigorovich M-1, "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grigorovich_M-1"
- Gunston, Bill. "The Osprey Encyclopedia of Russian Aircraft 1875-1995
". London:Osprey, 1995. ISBN 1 85532 405 9.
- Shavrov, V.B. "History of aircraft construction in the USSR
(Istoriya Konstruktsij Samoletov v SSSR.)" Vol 1-2. Moskva, Mashinostroenie, 1994. ISBN 5-217-02528-X
3 comments:
So would the dolly of been released after the aircraft was airborne?
The dolly was not physically attached to the aircraft and jettisoned while in flight. The weight of the flying boat allowed it to roll as a single object until lift offset the weight and the dolly was left behind on the ground.
So it is similar to the dolly on the Me163 in WWII.
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