ANTI-SUBMARINE PLANES

Press, Issue 29236, 21 June 1960, Page 23

ANTI-SUBMARINE PLANES

“£500,000 Each” Offer From Britain

An attractive bid for the supply of long-range submarine-hunting planes to New Zealand has been made by a British firm. The price is only about half that of Canadian and American contenders for the Dominion’s order; and the plane offered would also be fitted out to act as a transport and troop carrier. The British machine—a landplane which might replace Sunderland flying-boats on maritime duties—is the Avro Shackleton Mark 111 of the type in service with the Royal Air Force and the South African Air Force. Its price is “just over £500.000,” compared with the £1 million approximately for either of the American Martin Marlin flyingboat or the Canadian Argus (a landplane). A R.A.F. Shackleton made a sales tour of Australia and New Zealand a year ago. Although not a contemporary plane as late model planes in the fast-moving aviation industry go (it is 11 years old), the Shackleton has performance that compares favourably with the most up-to-date planes. Two-thirds the size of the Argus (which is a derivative of the famous Bristol Britannia airliner), the Shackleton has a range of more than 4000 miles and cruises up to 253 miles an hour. Last year a Coastal Command Shackleton stayed in the air for 24 hours 21 minutes, fully operational all the time. One sortie can cover 200,000 square miles of ocean.

The machine weighs about 50 tons, has a crew of 10 and its four motors turn counter-rotating propellers. Its bomb bay capacity is 16,0001 b.

For rescue work the plane can carry seven tons of supplies to a stricken area in its bomb bays, or a lifeboat slung underneath. Without moving any of its submarine hunting and destroying equipment it can carry 29 fullyequipped troops at one time. The Shackleton is made by the firm of A. V. Roe, Ltd., manufacturers of the Vulcan H-bomber.