Long Career In Aviation To End This Month

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31561, 26 December 1967, Page 6

Long Career In Aviation To End This Month

Fifty years in aviation—27 of them in New Zealand—is the record of Mr E. F. Carpenter, who this month will retire as divisional controller of airworthiness in the Department of Civil Aviation. Mr Carpenter began his career in 1917 when he was apprenticed to the Austin Motor Company in Birmingham. He later gained experience as an engine fitter and was granted his ground engineer’s licence in 1927. He served first with Westland Aircraft as an aircraft inspector and then with VickersSupermarine as an aircraft draughtsman. In 1929 Mr Carpenter went to Canada as a flight engineer with Fairchild Aerial Surveys and for three years served as a flight crew mem ber on “bush” operations—mineral exploration and aerial mapping in Labrador and Quebec. He then joined Can adian Airways as chief inspec tor, his duties taking him tc maintenance bases and out stations in the Western Pro vinces and North-West Terri tories.

In 1934 Mr Carpenter joined Imperial Airways as a flight engineer and a year later transferred to the Air Ministry. London, as an aircraft inspector. He came to New Zealand in 1940 on secondment to the Air Department.

During the war, Mr Carpenter served in the Royal New Zealand Air Force, supervising local production, testing and inspection of trainer aircraft, armaments and allied equipment. On leaving the R.N.Z.A.F. he was appointed head of the airworthiness division with the designation of chief aero-

nautical engineer. This post was changed to divisional controller of airworthiness in 1959. The International Civil Aviation Organisation has asked the Department of Civil Aviation for Mr Carpenter’s services on his retirement, and the department has recommended him for any airworthiness mission or technical aid post, particularly in an emerging State where his qualities of leadership would be invaluable.