The Workshop Of The R.N.Z.A.F.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 69, 22 March 1941, Page 1 (Supplement)

The Workshop Of The R.N.Z.A.F.

£VERY New Zealand Air Force station is more or less selfcontained as far as overhauling, repairing and servicing is concerned, but at the No. I repair depot, R.N.Z.A.F., important i*. ,' s going on unceasingly. } 18 here that scores of aircraft Wth the exception of the outPut frcu the factory in Welling°n) have arrived, been as • 'embled, tested and flown away :°kt 1- air force stations m New Zealand. Airspeed Oxfords, the twin-engined ®°noplanes which are more or less "andard equipment in New Zealand Slid t' anCed draining, have arrived Grosf i» n -i * ssem t>led by the scorn. Emn;. n ' ain has not forgotten her tW a l < ? uru 'er Hitler's nose of mil lne ® have come thousands ImwV 11 nentJ y to be air" ,*„ e '. tested and put "in the m the minimum of time. Wane a Day . the minimum of tale ia 6 Or " an 'sation at the assembly day o,:°u mooth that an aeroplane a an^tSin^^ 7 pro " lpt tainin? o^ 6 t ' me hu " R 110X05 c°nloaded at aeroplane are nn°f tinno„i- oase ' *' le various stages Naples nf ls an< .' aßsem bl,v are all ma "nifi«?nt team work by of a ]„ each beings in charge marii boxes which were not so Britain °" 6 famefl dorks of Great *inUt J 11 "* are like arrive It ln them selves. They hands no- ase and experienced 'Si 6 g l v ! n S modern methods, have disked t? n " ate on a trollc - v and °Pened. a Spot wllere it will be Co,:t: aftam en appear as flies on and 21 ft - , cage > w hich is 10ft high n f ' They have opened 10 time at a n n S^ efore ' anfl in a,most #D| l a ni„L'i an 'i end is whole Crane noatl y lif ts the k.l"" out of the case. It ttlt the °. f minut^s > not hours, ®achi n « J 8 ", is opened and the * nd ProDeii d ' m ' n "s its wings ° U % E ri \ Wl ? lch are Packed neatly ueß of the case.

The undercarriage is let down and in another few minutes the aeroplane is being towed on its way to storage, ready for complete assembly. Thorough Checking Then comes the most thorough work of all. It may not seem much to the eye, for it appears that all that has to be done is to "wing" the aircraft and place the propellers on the shafts for it to be ready for flight. Instead a group of riggers and flight mechanics go over everything thoroughly, despite the fact that the aircraft has received a complete check on leaving the factory. Each aircraft arrives with log books, and if the machine has had use the facts have been carefully noted in all detail. Everything is checked for working, checked and rechecked again. After the work is done it is checked by the leading man of the group, then it is gone over again by the N.C.0., anil after that by the officer in charge of each section. The undercarriage is tried out to see that it retracts smoothly. The airframe during this test is suspended in the air. All the instruments which record matters to do with the power unit are read while the motors are run up. As soon as the wings are on and the tail unit in place then the controls are all worked to ensure freedom of movement. The aircraft is now ready for test in actual flight. The test pilot will give it a thorough tryout in the air before it is flown away for service at a training or operational station. This procedure may conjure up the impression that the test pilot lives a life of thrills and adventure. This is not so, particularly with to-day's modern scientific advances, for the pilot knows that his machine has been proved by exact science, governed by well-proved laws and expressed in terms of mathematical formulae. He knows that the machine will behave well and he will fly it through various manoeuvres, just to check the assembly work and to make notes for any minor adjustment which may be needed. The only danger thrill this test pilot ever gets out of testing aircraft is when he shares it with the man in the street, when he sits in the stalls of the theatre to watch the exploits of Clark Gable.

"The work being carried out, the efficiency and organisation, is just 100 per cent," were the words of an aviation expert who recently visited the repair and assembly base of the Royal New Zealand Air Force. The praise is all the more important because it has come from a man who has spent a lifetime in civil aviation and knows only too well just how long it takes to bring an aircraft servicing and repair depot into full working order. Yet most of the buildings and equipment he now praises were only in the embryo stage before the outbreak of war.

By Leo White

For all that, the test pilot revels in his work and be is most thorough. The testing procedure is interesting. \\ ith chocks under the wheels, the engines are run up. Then taxiing follows, with trials of the brakes and turning on the ground. Throttles forward and info the blue sky to 7000 ft, where climbing, turning and then trying the switches of the ignition on and ofT with each motor, thoroughly checks the plane's performance. The test pilot handles the controls smoothly and the aircraft answers to every movement. All is well and the aircraft glides down to a smooth landing. The test pilot makes bis report; perhaps a few minor adjustments are needed, and then another machine is ready for the ever-growing Royal New Zealand Air Force. Perhaps the next aircraft to be flown may be of a type which will be needed for extensive aerobatic work or it may be a machine that has been completely overhauled. Then there is a show put on which in the old days of aero pageants would have caused thousands of pairs of eyes to gaze skyward and gasps to come of sheer astonishment and amazement. But to the test pilot it is all in the day's work, for the aircraft is tried in every possible manoeuvre. Rolling, looping, spinning—then a terrific power dive, to pull up in a veriical climb which appears to take the roaring mass of energy to the very heavens.

Fvery movement made by the test pilot, more than ever demonstrates the wonderful precision with which the controls arc handled. There is no jerking or rough handling in to-day's test piloting. There is nothing spectacular about this business, just honest to goodness flying for a purpose with the splendid products of the hard-working designers and builders of the Kmpire's aircraft standing up splendidly to the hardest tasks. fay after day at this New Zealand station the work goes on with smoothness and dispatch, and when you ask the test pilot just how many machines be has put through the paces since the war started lie will just smile quietly. That must be a secret. It may be dozens, it may be scores, it may be hundreds! Behind all this activity is yet other vital work under way, and here is progress which would stagger Now Zealanders if they could only see it in person. In full operation is an engine workshop which can turn out and overhaul in the same number of hours as

(lie makers and yet be so completely tliornu<_'h that a pilot could take on the I ongest reconnaissance tli'_'ht in the overhauled craft without the least worry about bis machine. 'I here is absolutely nothing left to chance. An overhauled engine is equal to a new engine in modern standards. Skilled trade-men are cmplovcd in the engine section, each man doing the job he does best. There arc even blacksmiths and coppersmiths. Modern Equipment In the actual engine repair section everything is based on the most modern scientific equipment and every component part is placed in a unit bay. An engine is dismantled at one end of the building and each part taken to a separate bay to be cleaned and checked by trained engineers. The parts are again assembled and at the opposite end to where the engine was dismantled it takes shape again to be completed and run in on a test bench. All the varied scientific equipment which is boused in this building would be difficult to enumerate in detail. There is one machine which detects flaws in metal. Liquid with line iron particles mixed ill it is rubbed on a

suspected part and this piece of metal is magnetised. The particles of iron immediately go to the flaw. Dies arc made on the job for making engine parts. Necessary equipment is made on the spot for maintaining machines, as well as aircraft parts. Lifting jacks and special tools for overhaul work are available, while anr conceivable part pertaining to an aircraft can be turned out in this workshop. There are furnaces for the treatment of metals. There is an armourv where experts make small-gun parts and attend to machine-gun repairs. Great propeller blades balance gently in a dranghtproof room, and sometimes just a coat of paint on one blade will be all that is necessary to give perfect balance. In another room there are hundreds of the most delicate instruments, and here are gathered experts who not so long ago were watchmakers and engravers. Compasses, bomb sights, cameras, oxygen apparatus and other scientific marvels are all serviced bv experts, and jobs which previously had to lie sent to Australia and Great Britain are now thoroughlv overhauled here and the instruments turned out as new. Others are trained in this fine precision work by an K.A.F. specialist, and now every air force station has its staff of instrument experts. There is an electrician s shop, where all the mysteries of the magneto are known and where, on a test unit, a "mag" will lire away for suven hours just to show how well it has been overhauled. From all this one may go outside and peer into an aircraft which has just had the cowling over the engine removed, and probably the sides of the tuselage removed, to show all the intricate workings which have to do with a modern bombing and fighting machine. You may look at what seems just one mass of handles, wires, pulleys, bicycle chains and a hundred and one other gadgets and then begin to wonder just liovv so many things could be fitted into such a confined space. Two words raised on the metal easing of the engine tell a story— Rolls Royce. It is then that one knows that the cowling and sides of an aeroplane can hide a multitude of engineering triumphs. It is to the credit of those who man the R.N.Z.A.F. to-day that they know what each part, no matter how small, means and that they can completely overhaul the machine and have it in the air again as perfect as those who originally made it.

Tn charge of this division is Squad-ron-Leader G. B. Bolt, who is the senior base engineer. Squadron-leader Bolt is well known throughout aviation circles as a pilot who has flown over HO types of aircraft. Originally an instructor, lie helped to build aircraft at the New Zealand Flying School when they trained pilots for the Great War from 1!>1."» to 1!»1!>. His association both with engineering and piloting in aero (dub work and commercial aviation pursuits have been continuous since the end of the Great War.

Flight Lieutenant A. Palmer, officer in charge of the aircraft repair shops, lias a splendid record of continuous service with the R.N.Z.A.F. over the last ton years, and he has wide experience of various types of aircraft.

Flight-Lieutenant A. V. Jury, former airline pilot, is the test pilot attached to the base, and, just to add a little more disillusion to the general idea of the life of a test pilot, he is a nonsmoker and non-i.rinkcr. and his interests away from aviation are farm-

Flight-Lieutenant G. Bell Is the adjutant. Flying-Officer H. H. Smith is in charge of the engine repair shop, and living-Officer G. Gorton is in control of the "onoral engineering shops, l.'espoiisible for the instrument sectioa i- an K.A.F. officer, Flying Officer O. H. Baldwin, whose pupils are now fullv qualified mid. besides working at the main ba-c. are attached to other air force stations throughout New Zealand.