"HOME-MADE" 'PLANES

Evening Post, Issue 42, 19 February 1936, Page 4

"HOME-MADE" 'PLANES

MINISTEE/S .WABNING

APPROVAL OF DESIGNS

Some of the dangers attendant upon the construction of "home-made" light aeroplanes were outlined by the Minister of Defence (the Hon. F. Jones) in a statement issued last evening.

"There is an increasing number of young men in the" Dominion who are inclined to embark on the building of very light aeroplanes of the "flying flea' type from unapproved foreign design or of a kind of their own devising without first acquainting themselves with the requirements of the New Zealand Air Navigation Regulations," said Mr. Jones. "It is to correct some very general misconceptions of these regulations and to save the non-technical enthusiast expense and disappointment that the following information is given.

"At the outset it should be under-1 stood that the Department does not wish to stifle the endeavours of any one trying to improve the design and efficiency of modern aircraft. Anyone having the technical qualifications to fit him for this task would be acquainted with design requirements and the stresses involved. The purpose of the regulations -is to safeguard pilots,: passengers, and also the general public. It is perhaps beyond the responsibility of the State to safeguard the pilot, but it has a, very obvious duty to minimise the risks to the public from aviation by requiring that the pilot shall attain a specified degree of competency and be of a certain standard of health and that the aircraft shall comply with certain minhmim requirements for safety. SUBJECT TO REGULATIONS. "Even though these midget machines may be based upon entirely unorthodox aerodynamic principles, they, come within the legal definition of aircraft and are, therefore, subject to the regulations, including the provisions concerning registration, airworthiness, and pilots' and ground-engineers' licences. "No aircraft is permitted to fly in the Dominion, except for- test or experimental purposes, and then only when it is controlled by an 'A' licence p.ilot, unless it has been certified as airworthy. The specific authority of the-Department is required before a test or experimental flight can be made. To obtain a certificate of airworthiness an aeroplane must comply with certain minimum requirements laid down in the International Convention for Air Navigation, of which convention we are a contracting State. These minimum requirements are set out in various publications issued by the British Air Ministry in the form of specifications covering the structural strength of all parts of the machine, the quality, type, and testing of all materials used in its construction, permissible loading of parts, and the machine's behaviour in taking off, landing, and in flight, all of which must be complied with before it can be accepted as an airworthy type. Before construction is . commenced all design details and stress ■ calculations must be submitted for approval. All material used in the construction of an aircraft must be certified as having been inspected and passed by the British Aeronautical Inspection Department, and a release note to this effect produced. The work of construction can be done only by approved, or licensed engineers., FUNCTION OF A FACTORY. "Thus, the certificate of airworthiness vouches according to official evidence that the aircraft complies with certain published requirements considered to be essential for airworthiness at the time the type was accepted. From the foregoing, it will be seen that the manufacture of aircraft -is the function of a well-equipped factory, and is not a job to be lightly undertaken by the home constructor. The records of the Department show that the majority of home-built aircraft in this country have been failures and, perhaps fortunately for those concerned, have never left the ground. Only two of all the attempts can be called at all satisfactory, and those two machines were constructed by competent ground engineers. The others have simply been an expense and a disappointment to their builders."