ALL-WOOD PLANE BUILT

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 84, 9 April 1938, Page 27

ALL-WOOD PLANE BUILT

Built almost entirely of wood, a new twin-engined transport plane which can be converted overnight into a highly-potent light bomber has made its debut in a secuded valley airport near Los Angeles, writes a correspondent to the "New York Times." The craft has been designed for marketing in the lucative foreign governmental field.

For more than a year a group oi aviator-engineers, headed by Vance Breese, veteran test pilot, Art Mankey, former Northrop chief draughtsman, and Hawley Bowlus, glider manufacturer, has been working on the mystery plane behind locked doors at Van Nuys. Recently it was successfully test-flown.

Fashioned of laminated, 45-degree plywood, the midwing ship weighs slightly more than two tons empty. Its gross weight is less than three and one-half tons, including six passengers and a two-man crew. The transport, which has been named after its financial backer, Frank W. Bennett, Dallas oil man, measures 45 feet across its single wing, placed about midway of the fuselage dejith. Its overall length is 30 feet.

Only its nacelles, housing twin Jacobs 300 horse-power engines, Its fully retractile landing gear and certain interior fittings have been made of

metal. This feature, according to Mr. Breese, allows quick repairs after minor accidents which might occur in remote sections.

A secret test flight established the fact that engineering specifications would be rigidly met. The Bennett transport is designed for a top speed of 206 miles an hour and a cruising rate of 185 miles an hour. Its tanks hold 200 gallons of fuel. To offset the speed lent by the two engines, Mr. Breese's chief engineer, Mr. Mankey, devised an extra large tail structure, which he declares will give the ship high military manoeuvrability. Landing speeds will be cut by the use ot split training flaps.

Mr. Breese said, the notion for the -allwood transport came to him more than three years ago. As he viewed his alu-minium-painted craft, deep-bellied and stubby-hulled, the test pilot told how it can be produced for less than £8000.

Both the craft's midwing construction and interior fittings, which utilise every cubic inch of space, offer ready possibilities for its conversion into a light bomber. The transport's snout has been elongated to allow for a forward machine-gun turret. Builders of the plane look towards the rich South American and Asiatic fields for the sale of the unusual plane. Small market is anticipated in the United States, where duralumin craft are the mode.