WONDER AEROPLANE

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 220, 13 June 1933, Page 9

WONDER AEROPLANE

Britain’s Latest Fighter Machine 250 m.p.h. FULLY EQUIPPED Those who have been disheartened by’the relative weakness of the Royal Air Force have been given cause to rejoice by the adoption by the Air Ministry of a wonder fighting plane, capable of an air speed of 250 miles an hour, with full military equipment, v states the London correspondent of the “Sydney Morning Herald.” The machine is the speediest and most reliable of its kind in the world, and will make fresh demands on the skill and daring of British pilots. It definitely restores the waning prestige of the R.A.F., and places Britain in the forefront of the nations now contending for air supremacy. It seems but a little while ago since the performances of the Hawker Fury planes startled the world of aviation, combining as they did a speed of 212 miles per hour with a capacity to climb to an altitude of 20,000 feet in 9mln. 40sec. Tens of thousands of people, seeing them for the first time at Hendon, swooping, diving, and turning at an incredible pace, concluded that these machines must surely represent the “last word” in aeroplane design. But there is apparently no “last word” in aviation, or, if there Is, it will be a long time before it is spoken. The research of engineers and designers is continuous and progressive, and is constantly conducted on the* lines of improving speed, mobility. safety and reliability. i Equipped with the famous RollsRoyce Kestrel engines, the Hawker Furies became a standard "type among the fighting planes of the Royal Air i Force, but the makers have now demonstrated that by improving the machines and ehgines their speed can be increased to 250 miles an hour, and probably more, giving them a diving velocity of more than 400 miles an hour. These results will be attained without appreciable addition to the landing speed, which will remain at something less than 60 miles per hour, which is regarded as being remarkably low.

So far as can be gathered—and the Air Ministry, like the Admiralty, carefully guards its secrets—the improvements are represented by tapering wings, “spats” for the wheels, the employment of “mass ballast,” and certain mechanical adjustments. “The duty of testing the new machines,” states a special correspondent of the London “Dally Telegraph.” “has devolved on.one of the finest test pilots in the country, Flight-lieutenant P. IV, S. Bulman, of the Hawker Company. His work at Brooklands for the makers is being followed by official tests by the R.A.F. at Martlesham Heath. Arrangements have been made for the appearance of the machine at the Royal Air Force display at Hendon on June

24. “The British triumph may be attributed directly to the high-speed work that was developed by the competition for the Cchneider trophy and the subsequent capture by Flight-Lieutenant Stainforth of the world’s speed record.

“There seems little doubt that within a short time this new machine will become of standard type for fighting purposes. The question must arise whether in such circumstances the time is approaching when special types of pilots will not have to be trained to handle machines of this extraordinary speed. “On the other hand, there is no fear in the R.A.F. of the ability of its pilots to do so. The experience gained in the Schneider competitions showed (as the everyday work of flying standard types of “Fury” has done) that pilots of the requiste skil lare available thorugh the exceedingly high standard of efficiency always demanded by the service.” - Coincident with recent experimentation, the Air Ministry has announced its decision to re-establish the high speed flight of the R.A.F. which was abolished after its world speed records in the Schneider trophy contest. Although no attempt Is to be made at present to regain the air speed record captured a. few days ago by Italy, the strictest possible attention will be given to increasing the speed of the interceptor and fighter classes of aeroplane. The high speed flight will accordingly assist in the tests and experiments of the aeroplane experimental establishment at Martlesham, where, at the moment, important research is/developing in the direction of producing more powerful qualities of fuel