Cooper-Travers
Maj. A.Q. Cooper and J.L. Travers
Contents
History
Arthur Quilton Cooper (elsewhere erroneously referred to as Arthur Quix Cooper) was born on 18 April 1885 in Forest Hill, Kent, the son of George Quilton Cooper and Mary Jane Cooper (née Thwaites). Initially Arthur followed his father's footsteps, becoming a letterpress printer. However, after the outbreak of war, he joined the RNAS on the 14 November 1914 as a Sub-Lt. He gained Royal Aero Club Aviators Certificate No.1019 on 23 December 1914 flying a Bristol Biplane at the Royal Naval Aviation School, Hendon. He remained at Hendon as a Flt. Lt. before transferring to Felixtowe at the end of December 1916 as Assistant Superintendent of Construction, with the rank of Flight Commander, becoming a Squadron Commander at the beginning of 1918. Although his flying there consisted mainly of testing aircraft, he did see action, notably the sinking of a 'U'-boat on July 24 1917, flying Felixtowe F.2c N65 with Wg. Cdr. J.C. Porte.
On the formation of the RAF, Cooper became a Captain, and transferred to the Marine Experimental Aircraft Depot in October 1918. Promoted to Major, he was put on the unemployed list on 18 January 1919.
After leaving the RAF, Cooper remained in Essex, living first in Hutton then later in Ingatestone, and returned to printing and publishing. He gained a second Royal Aero Club Aviators Certificate, No.12734A, on 4 May 1935, flying a Cierva C.30A at the Autogiro School, Hanworth.
Arthur Quilton Cooper DSC, AFC died in October 1979 in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk.
James Lindsay Travers Jr was born on 8 November 1883, in Kensington, London, the son of James Lindsay Travers and Emma Louisa Travers (née Gardner). Educated at Wellington College and King's College, London, he was apprenticed with the firm of car makers Legros and Knowles, Willesden from 1906, before becoming a draughtsman at the Royal Engineers Balloon Factory, Farnborough, 1909, working chiefly on wind balances for wind tunnel and later that year assistant to Professor A. K. Huntington in aviation experiments at Eastchurch. He was appointed as designer and assistant to Short Brothers, Eastchurch, in 1911, and worked on aeroplanes, floating devices and twin-engined aeroplanes. While there, he gained Royal Aero Club Aviators Certificate #86 on 16 May 1911, flying a Farman Biplane at Hendon, after which he undertook some instruction at Eastchurch.
In 1913 He joined the Royal Flying Corps, Naval Wing, where he flew and tested seaplanes and undertook experiments with flying boats and night flying at Calshot Air Station in 1913-14. As Flight Cdr, Royal Naval Air Service, he was Commanding Officer, Calshot Air Station in 1915 then appointed to Felixstowe to investigate problems connected with handling of seaplanes on ships. In 1917 he was appointed to Air Department, Admiralty, to test new types of flying boats and commanded the Test Flight, Isle of Grain Test Depot. As Wing Commander in the RAF he was in charge of Technical Information under the Controller General of Civil Aviation at the Air Board. In 1920 he accepted an appointment as aviation expert to the Chilean Government. During 1923, he spent much time designing his own advanced flying boat, utilising the knowledge he had gain at Short Brothers earlier.
Some years before he went to Chile, Travers had designed a small monoplane with which to experiment with thick, high lift wing sections. During his absence, Arthur Cooper, an old friend who he had presumably met at Felixtowe, constructed the machine to Travers drawings, using a 75 h.p. Rolls-Royce Hawk powerplant, spending some two years on the project in a workshop at his home in Hutton. At this time, the aircraft was known as the Travers Monoplane, though sometimes the Hawk Monoplane. Unusually, the aircraft was designed as a three-seater, the pilot located in the fuselage and one passenger in each of the thick wing roots. In correspondence from Chile, Travers suggested the aircraft might be taken to the Isle of Grain or the A&AEE at Martlesham Heath for testing, but Cooper managed to have part of an ADC hanger at Croydon put at his disposal. The aircraft was erected there in September 1923 and several short straight line hops were made by Cooper, Capt. Frank Courtney and ADC test pilot Capt. Herbert Howard Perry.
At the same time, James Travers returned from Chile owing to the ill health of his father, arriving in England on 26 January 1924. Sadly, his father passed away the following morning, just hours before his son arrived.
Having visited Oswald Short to discuss his seaplane design, Travis then went on to visit Cooper and examine the Hawk. After a few straight test runs, on 14 February 1924 took the aircraft aloft for its first circuit, but minutes later the aircraft spun into the ground and Travers was thrown out and killed instantly.
Wing Commander James Lindsay Travers Jr, O.B.E., Assoc. M. Inst. C.E., Mechanical Engineer, was buried at St. John the Baptist Churchyard Bredgar, Swale Borough, Kent.
Company References
- Aeroplane Monthly Jul 2001
- Ancestry.com
- http://airsoc.com/blogs/view/id/5624d7009241737e1ebad32c/my-flight-carol-cooper
- https://www.iaopa.eu/mediaServlet/storage/gamag/jun11/p35-44.pdf
- http://www.tondernraid.com/n65sunk.htm
- TNA File ADM 273/6/146
- TNA File AIR 76/103/81
Project Data
| Project No | Type No | Name | Alternative Name(s) | Year | Spec (Requirement) | Status | Qty | Description | References |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hawk | 1923 | Proto | 1 | 3S, 1E monoplane | 1, 2 |
Project References
- British Light Aeroplanes 1920-1940, Arthur W.J.G. Ord-Hume (GMS Enterprises, 2000)
- Aeroplane Monthly Jul 2001
Production Details and Type Description
Three seat monoplane, the fuselage of which was of rectangular cross-section, built around four longerons and covered in plywood. The fuselage and wing centre-section were built in one piece and, because the double curvature of the wing root to fuselage junction could not be ply skinned, it was ‘clinker-built', being planked with thin spruce then fabric-covered. The wings were constructed on four slender spars that were built up from spruce and three-ply webs and covered, except for part of the undersurface, with plywood. Unusually, the upper surface was absolutely straight spanwise from tip to tip, although the lower surface displayed a pronounced dihedral due to the progressive thickening of the section towards the root. The most significant feature of the wing, however, was its sharp leading edge, the Hawk showing a definite demarcation line where the bottom surface met the upper one. The outer sections of the wings tapered evenly in both chord and camber. and, although the wing section did not vary in angle of attack from root to tip, there was a gradual section change from the pronounced under-camber at the root to a flat underside at the tip. Another unconventional feature of the wing were the inversely-tapered ailerons, provided with aerodynamic mass-balances that protruded beyond the wing tips. The unbraced horizontal tailplane was attached to the large, Short-style fin and was of flat section set at a marked angle of incidence and clearly intended to be effective through accepting a portion of lift. The elevators represented little more than one-quarter of the chord.
The Hawk was designed as a three-senter and unusually, the two passengers were to be positioned one in each wing root next to the pilot. Such was the depth of the wing section at the wing root that the passenger could be almost enclosed within the wing, only the head protruding. Each passenger seat comprised a curved ply backrest brought from the top of the spar behind the seat to the bottom the spar ahead of the seat. Neither windscreen nor head-fairing was provided. One 75 h.p. Rolls-Royce Hawk powerplant.
| Specification | |||||||||
| Span | Length | Height | Wing Area | Empty Wt | Max AUW | Cruise Speed | Maximum Speed | Range | Service Ceiling |
| 35 ft | 28 ft 6 in | 270 sq ft | 1300 lb | 1800 lb | 70 mph/ 61 kn | ||||
| 10.67 m | 8.69 m | 25.08 m2 | 590 kg | 816 kg | 113 kph | ||||
Total Cooper-Travers Production1