Determining the Hydrodynamic Characteristics of Flying Boats: A Paper Presented by F. W. S. Locke, Jr., at the VII International Congress of Applied Mechanics, London, September 1948, Describing New Simplified Methods of Obtaining Data during Flight Tests

THE usual methods for obtaining data on the hydrodynamic characteristics of flying boats during flight tests involve motion pictures of an instrument panel and records of oscillograph traces. The analysis of the photographic records is so time consuming that the results are not always available when needed, and in many cases more data are accumulated than is physically possible to analyse. In order to conserve manpower and to obtain directly usable data, new methods have been developed for making quantitative hydrodynamic flight tests. The test techniques were devised to relate, whenever possible, numerical values to sensations experienced by the pilot of a flying boat during take‐off and landing.