Standardization of Details.
Whatever may be said for the standardization of aeroplane types, a scheme which should effect a considerable saving in labour and material, and which offers chances of success, would consist in the standardization of metal fittings and wood components generally, for in this direction there is certainly great need for improvement. Taking as a hypothesis the various makes of scouting machines, we find hardly any two details the same. This means that if in this country there are six firms producing machines of their own design (these figures, of course, being purely suppositionary), there will be six sets of detail drawings, six sets of jigs, templates, and press tools, and sundry special machine tools. There seems no valid reason why many of the fittings for all machines within certain dimensions should not be of standard design, and a brief review of the various details which could be standardized without detracting in the least from aerodynamical efficiency will indicate the extent to which the conserving of labour could be carried. In the construction of the fuselage, the clips fastening the longerons and cross struts could easily be of one design, whatever the make of the machine. At present we find some clips are bent up from a stamping and attached to the longeron without the drilling of the latter; some built up from various parts, such as washer-plates, duralumin pressings, and bolted through the longeron; while some combine advantages and others the disadvantages of both. In some cases the longerons of spruce are spindled out for lightening; in others no spindling occurs; while in a few instances hickory or ash, with or without channelling, is used. There are the interplane strut attachments, stern-post fittings, control-surface hinges, and undercarriage attachments, all showing great variations, and in all of which the design could be brought within reasonable limits. As indicating how unnecessary a good deal of the variation is, one may instance the fact that for the swaged streamline, or R.A.F. wires, there are at least three different terminals in use. Although more difficult of achievement, there is scope for improvement in the different arrangements for the fixed gun mounting, while a standard instrument board would benefit the pilot.