14 ACRES OF SILK

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27091, 14 July 1953, Page 8

14 ACRES OF SILK

SURPLUS ASSETS OF R.N.Z.A.F.

43,400 CARTRIDGES ALSO FOR SALE

Fourteen acres of silk and 43,400 shotgun cartridges, for which the Royal New Zealand Air Force has no further use, are now being offered for sale by the Government Stores Board as surplus assets. The silk is in the form of parachutes—l77o of them—and the cartridges were acquired originally for skeet shooting, which is part of the training of pilots.

There are 1600 parachutes held by the Air Department at Gracefield, Lower Hutt, and 60 at the R.N.Z./i.r'. station at Wigram. The Ministry of Works also holds 110 in its store at Mangere, near Auckland. In the R.N.Z.A.F. parachutes have an allotted span of life. They are inspected regularly. and as soon as they reach their allotted span are declared surplus, although they may not have been used to save an airman’s life or to drop supplies. Each of the parachutes has an area of approximately 40 square yards. Prospective purchasers who think that they may be able to obtain a large quantity of silk for dresses, shirts or underclothing are likely to be disappointed. Normally there are only two good sized panels of silk in a parachute. The material is cut on the bias, and there are a lot of seams in the completed parachute. Several parachutes, however, should provide enough silk for various purposes. Skeet shooting has been part of the R.N.Z.A.F. training schedule for pilots for a considerable time. It develops pilots’ co-ordination and sighting ability. A single-barrel shotgun of .22 calibre is used, and the skeet is half the size of that used by gun clubs. The cartridges are .22 calibre and are filled with very fine lead shot which was known before the war as sparrow shot. Those offered for sale are war-time stock. There are 43,000 at Wigram and 400 at Hobsonville, near Auckland.