AUSTRALIAN PLANES.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 62, Issue 305, 7 October 1942, Page 3

AUSTRALIAN PLANES.

CONFIDENCE IN INDUSTRY. CANBERRA, Oct. 6. Australian aircraft engineers know every construction detail of Japan's Zero fighters. In disclosing that experts have dismantled Zeros; piece by piece, and measured and tested every part, the Minister of Aircraft Production (Senator D. Cameron) declared his confidence that Australia could manufacture a better fighter. Mr Cameron said, the Zero had a maximum speed of about 315 miles an hour under normal flying conditions at 10,000 feet, and a ceiling of 36,000 feet. At 160 miles an hour its range was 1600 miles.

Th 6 Minister said he was confident that the time was approaching when Allied aeroplanes would drive the Zeros; froin the skies, and that Australian aircraft would play an important role in their destruction. - In referring to the Washington suggestion that Australia might be forced from her own resources to fulfil her need for high altitude fighters to meet the Zeros, Mr Cameron expressed the belief that, given the necessary materials, Australian aircraft engineers 'could produce such a machine. Australia’s aircraft industry had achieved near miracles in the two years and a half of its existence.

Austraiian-made Beaufort torpedo bombers were in some respects superior to the original British design. An outstanding example of the resource and adaptability of Australian engineers was the “almost overnight” conversion of these aeroplanes to carry American torpedoes.