LESS REGULATION

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 285, 29 August 1935, Page 9

LESS REGULATION

Light Planes In Britain

LOWER COST AS RESULT (British Official Wireless.) Rugby, August 27. The Air Ministry is permitting the exemption from the official regulations governing the manufacture of aircraft and from the usual certification of airworthiness of tlie ultra-light aeroplane “British Drone,” now under manufacture. The exemption is on conditions similar to those applied recently in the case of the “Flying Flea,” namely, that the machine may not be flown outside Great Britain and Northern Ireland nor over populous areas, nor carry passengers, freight, or mails, nor perform aerobatics, and it must be covered by a minimum third-party insurance of £5OOO.

This concession is regarded as the result of the report early last year of the Gorell Committee on Civil Aviation, and it is anticipated that the ‘xetnption may be extended in t 1 a near future to machines carrying up to five passengers though not to regular air transport craft.

It is expected that the freedom from the regulations will enable manufacturers to reduce the cost of machines by 25 per cent, without sacrifice of efficiency or safety. Legislation is pending to give effect to those recommendations of the Gorell Committee which the Government has accepted, including the constitution of a joint advisory committee of Lloyd’s Register aud the British Corporation Register as a statutory autonomous body to control airworthiness and compulsory third-party insurance of aeroplanes.