Author | Victor Appleton |
---|---|
Original title | Tom Swift and His Sky Racer, or, The Speediest Flight on Record |
Language | English |
Series | Tom Swift |
Genre | Young adult novel Adventure novel |
Publisher | Grosset & Dunlap |
Publication date | 1911 |
Publication place | United States |
Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
Pages | 200+ pp |
Preceded by | Tom Swift in the Caves of Ice |
Followed by | Tom Swift and His Electric Rifle |
Text | Tom Swift and His Sky Racer at Wikisource |
Tom Swift and His Sky Racer, or, The Speediest Flight on Record, is Volume 9 in the original Tom Swift novel series published by Grosset & Dunlap.
A $10,000 prize lures Tom into competing at a local aviation meet at Eagle Park. Tom is determined to build the fastest plane around, but his plans mysteriously disappear, which means Tom must redesign his new airplane from the beginning. A side-plot through the story is Mr. Swift's failing health.
Tom's Sky Racer, known as the Humming-Bird, is a two-seater monoplane, like his previous monoplane the Butterfly. However, the Sky Racer, is smaller and faster — making it ideal for air racing. It uses a single gasoline, air-cooled engine, which can attain air speeds of well over 100 mph with a minimum thrust of 1000 lbs at 2000rpm. Tom also invented an automated stabilizing unit which allowed the Sky Racer to handle adverse weather conditions without loss of control. The Sky Racer's design was compared to that of the Blériot XI and the Antoinette VII, however its wings were patterned after that of the hummingbird, rather than standard rectangular wings.
A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While a biplane wing structure has a structural advantage over a monoplane, it produces more drag than a monoplane wing. Improved structural techniques, better materials and higher speeds made the biplane configuration obsolete for most purposes by the late 1930s.
A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft configuration with a single mainplane, in contrast to a biplane or other types of multiplanes, which have multiple planes.
Tom Swift Jr. is the central character in a series of 33 science fiction adventure novels for male adolescents, following in the tradition of the earlier Tom Swift ("Senior") novels. The series was titled The New Tom Swift Jr. Adventures. Unlike the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys titles that were also products of the prolific Stratemeyer Syndicate, the original Tom Swift stories were not rewritten in the 1950s to modernize them. It was decided that the protagonist of the new series would be the son of the earlier Tom Swift and his wife, Mary Nestor Swift; the original hero continued as a series regular, as did his pal Ned Newton. The covers were created by illustrator J. Graham Kaye. Covers in the later half of the series were mostly by Charles Brey. A total of 33 volumes were eventually published.
Nieuport, later Nieuport-Delage, was a French aeroplane company that primarily built racing aircraft before World War I and fighter aircraft during World War I and between the wars.
The Hughes H-1 Racer is a racing aircraft built by Hughes Aircraft in 1935. Utilizing different wings, it set both a world airspeed record and a transcontinental speed record across the United States. The H-1 Racer was the last aircraft built by a private individual to set the world speed record; most aircraft to hold the record since have been military designs.
Early flying machines include all forms of aircraft studied or constructed before the development of the modern aeroplane by 1910. The story of modern flight begins more than a century before the first successful manned aeroplane, and the earliest aircraft thousands of years before.
A tandem wing is a wing configuration in which a flying craft or animal has two or more sets of wings set one behind another. All the wings contribute to lift.
Racer, The Racer or Racers may refer to:
Frank Reade was the protagonist of a series of dime novels published primarily for boys. The first novel, Frank Reade and His Steam Man of the Plains, an imitation of Edward Ellis's The Steam Man of the Prairies (1868), was written by Harry Enton and serialized in the Frank Tousey juvenile magazine Boys of New York, February 28 through April 24, 1876. The four Frank Reade stories concerned adventures with the character's inventions, various robot-like mechanisms powered by steam.
The Comper C.L.A.7 Swift is a British single-seat sporting aircraft designed and produced by the Comper Aircraft Company. It was the company’s first aircraft.
Tom Swift and His Airship, or, The Stirring Cruise of the Red Cloud, is Volume 3 in the original Tom Swift novel series published by Grosset & Dunlap.
Tom Swift and His Air Glider, or, Seeking the Platinum Treasure, is Volume 12 in the original Tom Swift novel series published by Grosset & Dunlap.
Tom Swift in Captivity, or, A Daring Escape by Airship, is Volume 13 in the original Tom Swift novel series published by Grosset & Dunlap. The work was also published under the title Tom Swift in Giant Land or, A Daring Escape From Captivity.
Tom Swift and His Air Scout, Or, Uncle Sam's Mastery of the Sky, is Volume 22 in the original Tom Swift novel series published by Grosset & Dunlap.
The Bristol Type 72 Racer was a British racing monoplane designed by Wilfrid Thomas Reid and built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company at Filton, England.
The Vickers Type 253 was a single-engined two-seat biplane general-purpose military machine built to a 1930 government specification. It won a production contract, but this was transferred to the same company's monoplane equivalent, the Wellesley. Only one Type 253 was built.
Heston Aircraft Company was a British aircraft manufacturer based at Heston Aerodrome, Middlesex, England.
The Brown Aircraft Co was an American aircraft manufacturer of the 1930s and 1940s.
The Granville Gee Bee R-6 International Super Sportster, named "Q.E.D.", and later named "Conquistador del Cielo", was the last in a series of racing and touring monoplane aircraft from the Granville Brothers. The R-6H was dogged with bad luck throughout its career and never finished any race it entered.
In aeronautics, bracing comprises additional structural members which stiffen the functional airframe to give it rigidity and strength under load. Bracing may be applied both internally and externally, and may take the form of struts, which act in compression or tension as the need arises, and/or wires, which act only in tension.