SUCCESSFUL TESTS

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 75, 21 December 1935, Page 13

SUCCESSFUL TESTS

Union way’s Miles Falcon Monoplane FAST TRIP TO PALMERSTON Uncased and. towed to Rongotai on Thursday, the Miles Falcon low-winged cabin monoplane for Union Airways was assembled and flew to Palmerston North yesterday afternoon. Squadron Leader M. C. McGregor, service manager of the company, took the machine up at about 2.30 p.m., and after a short flight in a strong southerly wind landed and expressed himself as being very satisfied. He had had the air speed up to 100 m.p.h., he said. Minor adjustments were made, and after another short flight Squadron Leader McGregor took Mr. N. S. Falla, deputy-chairman of the board of directors of the Union Steam Ship Co., Ltd., for a flight over the city. The noise of its 200 h.p. Gipsy Six engine, its obvious speed and its tapered wings drew the attention of some hundreds of residents as it passed over the city. At 5.15 p.m. Squadron Leader McGregor, with Mr. L. Mangham, chief ground engineer, as his passenger, left for Palmerston North, flying time for the journey being 35 minutes. Hie test flights were witnessed by Mr. Falla, Mr. J. W. Matthewson, general manager of the Union Steam Ship Company, Mr. F. Maurice Clarke, technical adviser to Union Airways, and Mr. J. M. Gamble, New Zealand agent for Philips and Fowls Aircraft Ltd., the manufacturers of Miles aeroplanes. The Falcon will return to Wellington on Monday.