EMULATING THE BIRD

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 18, 23 January 1939, Page 8

EMULATING THE BIRD

With all its achievements in speed and range and capacity man's engine of flight, the aeroplane, has not succeeded yet in attaining the flexibility and safety of Nature's engine, the bird. For the aeroplane to leave and regain terra firraa in comparative safety vast landing fields have to be prepared and maintained at great cost. As the aeroplane has increased its size and speed to carry more passengers over a longer distance in a shorter time, so the aerodrome has had to be enlarged to enable the machine to take off and land in safety. Obviously there is ja limit to the process, which may be seen locally in the disabilities of the Rongotai Airport and the difficulties of extending it. If aeroplanes could be so designed as to retain their speed in the air, which is their greatest advantage, and at the same time be able to leave and land at slower and safer speeds in more limited areas, it would mean a tremenddus advance in aviation. The problem has been studied for years avid some progress has been made with wing flaps and constant-speed propellers towards the ideal. Much, however, remains to be done and any further step reported will be followed with much interest. It is this that lends special importance to an announcement in an Official Wireless message last week of a notable British invention of retractable auxiliary wings to combine high cruising speeds with reasonably low take-off and landing speeds. Many inventions have followed this line of obvious development, but so far without success. If the British invention can fulfil all that is claimed for it, it will mark a notable advance in aviation design and the safety of air travel. '