MODERN AEROPLANE

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 71, 17 December 1937, Page 6

MODERN AEROPLANE

Training Machine From Canada ARRIVAL AT RONGOTAI One of the most modern training aeroplanes built for club purposes arrived at Rongotai Aerodrome yesterday. The machine, the latest produce of Fleet Aircraft Limited, a million dollar Canadian aviation company, is named Fleet Trainer; 48 of them are in use by the Royal Canadian Air Force. Different types of the plane, private, training, commercial and military, are in use in 22 different countries; they are at present flown by the Chinese in the Sino-Japanefse War. They are also in use for military purposes in Portugal. The plane has a cruising speed of 95 miles an hour, and a top speed of 110 miles an hour. Its landing speed is 50 miles an hour, and gliding speed 05. It is powered by a Kinner Radial B 5 engine, which develops a horse-power of 125 at 1900 revolutions a minute. Its fuel consumption at cruising speed is approximately six gallons an hour. The machine is fully aerobatic, and is equipped with blind-flying instruments in both cockpits. The empty weight of the plane is 10901 b., and its capacity weight 19801 b. A biplane, its wingspread is 28 feet, and its top wing is all in one piece, which gives the machine strength for outside looping. Incidentally, the Fleet was the first plane to make an outside loop. The machine has many features which are new to New Zealand aviation. It can be converted into a seaplane, and in Canada, where the planes operate on the frozen wastes of Hudson Bay, skis are part of the standard equipment. It has a metal tail plane, which is steerable, and a landing gear especially strengthened. A demonstration of its strength is now part of the tests which are performed before the planes are accepted by the Royal Canadian Air Force. In these tests the mo'chine is dropped from 10 to 15 feet on to the ground. The Fleet aircraft are built from raw materials at the factory at Bort Erie. This factory covers many acres of ground and employs more than 150 hands. Af present the sales and service manager of the factory, Mr. Walter Deisher, is in Wellington. He arrived with the machine, and will be in the Dominion long enough to meet every aero club. Mr. Deisher has 1500 flying hours to his credit. He obtained in 1919 the Sederique Aeronantique International licence which was signed by Orville Wright, one of the pioneers of aviation.

He is founder and president of the Ottawa Flying Club and vice-president of Laurentiam Air Services Limited, which operateo machines for charter and commercial flying in Canada. He is also a full member of the Society of Automotive Engineers, of which there are only 25 members in Canada. It is hoped that the machine, which is the first to arrive in New Zealand, will be assembled ready for testing by Saturday.