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| GAL 38 |
The General Aircraft Ltd GAL 38 was designed to meet Air Ministry specification S.23/27
which, in turn, was drawn up to meet a specific Admiralty requirements for a carrier-based
aeroplane suitable for shadowing, or maintaining contact with, enemy fleets at night. This
called for an exceptionally low cruising speed and a long duration. This requirement to
maintain contact of an enemy fleet at night and the requirement to operate from an
aircraft carrier flight deck imposed severe restrictions on this design & the AS 39.
The S.23/37 specification called for an aircraft that would operate at low altitudes at
slow speed, the specification called for 38 knots at 1500 ft for not less than 6 hours.
With deck operations to be possible in wind speeds of up to 35knots.
The GAL 38 was a high-wing monoplane and was of mainly wooden construction with the wings
of an all-wood structure, with spars of compressed wood and plywood, spruce and plywood
ribs and an overall covering of plywood. The fuselage was of rectangular cross-section
with rounded corners, it had an all wood structure comprising spruce and plywood frames,
spruce longerons and stringers arid a plywood covering. The tail unit was of cantilever
monoplane type. Single tail and rudder, of Spruce and plywood spar and ribs, pl ywood
covering. The landing gear was of a fixed tricycle type. The GAL 38 was powered by four
130 h.p. Pobjoy Niagara V seven-cylinder radial air-cooled geared engines driving
two-blade fixed-pitch wooden airscrews. The crew consisted of 3, pilot, observer &
radio operator.
Two GAL.38 prototypes, P1758 and P1759, were ordered, but only one was completed, which first flew on 13/5/40 with Niagara III engines, pending delivery of Niagara V's. In February 1941, the Admiralty decided to cease development of the S.23/37 aircraft, mainly because of the unavailability of suitable engines other than the Niagara V, only a small number of which were ever built. A proposal by GAL to produce a modified design powered by two Cheetah IX engines was not taken up.
For more information try looking at the AS 39 entry.
| Dimensions | |
| Span | 55 ft. 10 in. (17.02 m.) |
| Length | 36 ft. 1 in. (11 m.) |
| Height | 12 ft. 8 in. (3.86 in.) |
| Width folded | 17 ft. 11 in. (5.46 m.) |
| Weights | |
| Empty | 6,153 lbs. (2,791 kg.) |
| Loaded | 8,501 lbs. (3,897 kg.) |
| Performance | |
| Maximum speed | 115 m.p.h. (185 km.h.) |
| Cruising speed | 94 m.p.h. (151.3 km.h.) |
| Stalling speed | 39 mph. (62.7 km.h.) |
| Rate of climb | 390 ft./min. (118.8 m./min.) |
| Service ceiling | 6,000 ft. (1,830 m.) |
| Endurance | 11 hours |
| Range | 990 miles (1,593 km) |
Sources
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This page was last edited on 04/01/99