Farm Aircraft Designed And Built In N.Z.

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29193, 2 May 1960, Page 13

Farm Aircraft Designed And Built In N.Z.

New Zealand-designed and htult aerial farming plane—the Airtruck— was successfully test flown at Te Kuiti last week, the 5 flight being the culmination of a development. With a stumpy body the plane looks like a very fat beetle, high -ring* extended and with two tails spaced widely apart He Airtruck is designed for jnarinum load and manoeuvr„hility on small airstrips and will carr y one and a half tons of manure. Trucks can park in between the two tail booms and loMl directly into the hopper. He tests were authorised by the Air Department so that films ennld be taken from the aircraft substantiate calculations relating to the tail plane action. The Airtruck began life modelled around a Cheetah engine but after nine months* work Harvard pn sines became available in New Poland through the Government Stores Board and were obtained. jtr G. C. Bennett, director of the development firm, then saw an aircraft similar to his ideas and called a “flying tanker” in an Australian trade magazine. He w ®t to Australia to see if he could buy one and modify it. Then he met the designer, Mr Luigi Pellarini, an Italian, who designed aircraft for the Italian Air Force during the Second World War, and together they began to talk of a new design. A staff of 10, eight of whom ve re trained "from scratch” by Mr Bennett, worked many hours on the project. In one of the periods when Mr Pellarini was in New Zealand they worked 47 12-hour days without a break. Problem of Finance “finance was a major problem and at times the staff had to go

on ( . r n)r truck and concentrate build nn f th‘ n T dra P Ce repairs to Mr Renn J? again ’” said Mr Bennett, who added that but nf e generous support of one the of the company, nnth ba nk, the aircraft could not have been finished. Mr Benfi™sa S ° said that a number of in Hamilton and Te Kuiti nArmi?r de x? ig contribution by ?^i^ lng the u «e of their specialised equipment. ° ne stage of the constructing about a Pulley held up production for 12 weeks and just when our morale was at its lowest ebb two oil companies made us handsome unsolicited gifts of fuel and we went on with new life,” said Mr Bennett. The new life included tiie manufacture of parts for four more Airtrucks. • T?! 6 'Y° rk has been carried out m the Bennett workshop on the Te Kuiti airfield. The wing tips had to be folded back to fit into the workshop and a hole had to R® cut in the wall to cope with the high canopy. A veteran pilot, A. N. Johnstone, whose aviation career dates back to 1937 and who is known by almost every airman of the war years, tested the aircraft He said he was "delighted” with the performance of the aircraft in the tests he was able to carry out. These related chiefly to steering, braking and undercarriage tests, together with tests of the controls while the aircraft was off the ground. "The controls were most comfortable,” said Mr Johnstone after he had taken the aircraft off the ground about 12 times.

The building of the aircraft was first begun under the Australian Air Department but was later handled by the New Zealand Air Department.