N.Z.-DESIGNED JET BOATS

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28984, 27 August 1959, Page 15

N.Z.-DESIGNED JET BOATS

Production In Australia

An Australian aircraft manufacturing firm, de Havilland Aircraft Pty., Ltd., expects to produce about 1000 New Zealanddesigned jet boats annually, mostly for water-ski-ing enthusiasts at Surfers’ Paradise, and in other Australian seaboard areas.

The production superintendent of the company (Mr K. S. Richards) said this yesterday after a week of testing and piloting the jet boats in various parts of New Zealand, including Auckland, the Waikato and the Waimakariri river, and examining methods of manufacture at the Christchurch plant of C. W. F. Hamilton and Company. Ltd. The jet boats, which will be manufactured under licence in Australia, will be made at the company’s factory in Bankstown near Sydney. The factory employs more than 1300 workers and specialises in the production of jet aircraft for the Royal Australian Air Force and the Royal Australian Navy.

The large English manufacturing firm of Rotol, Ltd., a subsidiary of Dowty. Ltd., will soon manufacture the boats in quantity in the United Kingdom. Dowty, Ltd., proposes soon to establish a factory for manufacture of the boats in Canada. Mr Richards, who left for Australia by air yesterday, said his company and the parent factory in Christchurch would keep in close touch to exchange any newly-discovered methods of technical importance in the design and production of the jet boats.