AIRCRAFT FROM BRITAIN

Press, Volume LXXV, Issue 22600, 4 January 1939, Page 6

AIRCRAFT FROM BRITAIN

EXHIBITION AT PARIS SALON NEW FIGHTING MACHINES ON DISPLAY (TOOK OUX COKREBPOKDZKI.) LONDON, December 5. Britain was well represented .at the sixteenth Paris international aeronautical salon. Eight manufacturers of aircraft and aero engines exhibited, and 15 firms which make instruments, air-screws, and accessory components were represented. The Air Ministry, for - the first time at the Paris salon illustrated the equipment and work of the Royal Air Force. . Two British multi-gun fighter monoplanes, Hawker Hurricane and Supermarine Spitfler, and the latest version of the world’s fastest bomber were on view. The bomber is the new “long pose” twin-engined Bristol Blenheim, with a more commodious forepart to the fuselage, and powered with engines adapted to burn ‘TOO octane” fuel at take-off and during the initial stages of climb. This fuel does not detonate in the cylinders under high compression. It augments the take-off power of the Mercury VIII radial engines of the Blenheim from 725 horsepower to 920 horse-power each. The load which may be lifted is thereby considerably increased. The new Blenheim carries the same bomb load as the original model over a considerably longer distance nonstop. In still air, its attainable range is 1900 miles. The maximum speed, is also increased to a conservative official figure of 295 miles an hour. Eight Machine-guns -j Each of the two single-seiat is armed with eight mounted in the wings. large production for fighter squ, I'&as of the Metropolitan Air Force. Aircraft such as the Hurricane send the Spitfire will be called upon to destroy the raider. They are endowed with high speed for successful pursuit, heavy armament for maximum effect during the few seconds Of contact that only are feasible at modern air fighting speeds, and ability to climb rapidly to great heights. The official maximum speed of the Hurricane - (which flew from Edinburgh to London by night at a speed subsequently revealed by the pilot as 456 miles an hour), is 335 miles an hour. Its service “ceiling (the level at which the rate of climb has fallen to 100 feet a minute) is 39.000 feet. , ; The Spitfire is even faster. Its maximum speed is stated officially to be more than 350 miles an hour. It is in large production at the Supermarine factory, Southampton, and Lord Nuffield has been given an order to construct 1000 in his new factory at Birmingham. In contrast to the warplanes, the Phillips and Powis Company showed a Miles Monarch light tourer mowj plane, a shapely craft for two. which has attracted many buyers in this 1 country and abroad.