AIR ENGINEERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 88, 13 April 1940, Page 17

AIR ENGINEERS.

AUCKLAND TRAINING. COURSE AT UNIVERSITY. FUTURE OPPORTUNITIES. Interest in the Muilv of aeronautical engineering in Auckland is revealed in the enrolment of sixteen young men fir a new poot-graduate course established at the Auckland University College. The course is designed to supplement other aircraft training, and consists of lectures and laboratory work in aircraft material.-, structures. aircraft engines, engineering aerodynamics «inj the economics of air transport.

Professor T. D. .T. Leech, director of Hie School of Engineering. said to-dav that tin- course had attracted attention not only in aviation circles, l>ut also in the engineering profession because of the influence of aeronautical research on modern hydraulic, structural and internal coinbusion engine, problems. It was similar to instruction which has l>con given at the Sydney University in recent vea rs.

[ "Chir aim is to tj-ain engineers for }H*>itions in thn aircraft industry, and to nssist in supplying technical ofTicerf' f"r the Air Force and for opcmtioml work.'' ho added. "In Sydney it h;i.« been found that the Air Forec draws on the university for men with advanced training, and tliere should be similar scope in New Zealand." Also important, >aid Professor Leech, was the position as the terminal for future tr.m*-occan air services. Excellent facilities existed at Ilobsonville and in other pnrts of the Dominion for the training of pilots and ground engineers. There would be no overlapping so far as the work of the university college was concerned. A handicap at the moment was th? lack of equipment, he stated, but this would be overcome as far as possible by designing it and having It made up in tho university workshops or in the Auckland factories.