THE SLOTTED WING

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 30, 4 August 1931, Page 5

THE SLOTTED WING

RECOGNITION OF PATENT

(From' "The Post's" Representative.) i LONDON, 29th May. One of the most important' legal actions in the world of aviation during the past few years—probably, indeed, since Mr. Esnault Polterie's claims for compensation for use of the universally employed "joy-stick" or control lever —is now settled. Mr. S. E. Worley, chairman of Messrs. Handley Page, was able to announce at the ordinary general meeting of the company that the United States firm, the; Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company, against whom proceeding's had been instituted for infringement of the Handley Page slotted wing patents, had agreed to a consent decree, of the United- States District Court admitting the' infringement and acknowledging the validity of the British company's patents. The American firm has also entered into an agreement to pay : royalties on any machines built by them to which slotted wings are fitted. Mr. "Worley further stated that the slotted wing rights in Italy had been sold to a private Italian company for a very substantial cash payment. A long series of trials of slotted wings, in land machines and flying boats, were recently concluded in Italy, and the device is now to be standardised in machines built for the Italian air services. . Following closely after the announcement of arrangements for the use of slotted wings in certain aircraft used by the Swiss Federal Military Department, the Italian concession marks a further stage in the world-wide development of this famous British air safety inyenti-n. In addition to Great Britain, where the mechanism is used in nearly 80 per cent; of all Royal Air Force machines as well as in a large proportion of British commercial and private aircraft,' slotted wings are widely employed in Canada, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, and Germany. Other important flying nations are now negotiating with tho company.