SOUND BARRIER BROKEN
AUSTRALIAN BUILT SABRE JET (N.Z. Press Association —Copyright) (Rec. 8 p.m.) MELBOURNE, Aug. 30. Australia’s first locally built Avonpowered Sabre jet fighter for the Air Force screamed through the sound barrier today, and did everything else expected of it at the handing-over ceremony. The Prime Minister (Mr Robert Menzies), in formally passing the plane to the Royal Australian Air Force, said the Government was steering a middle course between two .schools of thought on Australian production of military aircraft. Mr Menzies said one school discouraged production on the ground that the aircraft would be obsolescent before fully in service, and the other that if Australia had no aircraft industry there would be no defence in war time. **This Sabre, built by the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation, is a final answer to doubters who didn’t believe it could be done by Australians,” he said. The Australian Sabre had a greatly improved performance on the American Sabre, and with British cannon replacing machine guns, it could hit harder .than the American aircraft, the Defence Production Minister (Sir Eric Harrison) told the big crowd at Laverton, where the plane went through its paces.
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Bibliographic details
Press, Volume XC, Issue 27442, 31 August 1954, Page 3
Word Count
192SOUND BARRIER BROKEN Press, Volume XC, Issue 27442, 31 August 1954, Page 3
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