MAKING AIRCRAFT

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 74, 29 March 1939, Page 13

MAKING AIRCRAFT

LOCAL INDUSTRY

FACTORY TO BE BUILT

PRODUCTION SOON

Having secured an area at Rongotai, Wellington, for a factory the De Havilland Aircraft Company proposes to call tenders for the erection of the building in a few days and expects to commence producing light aeroplanes about the end of the present year. If, as the industry develops, more factory room is required the company will remove to the industrial area and will retain the Rongotai factory for assembly purposes. At first light machines suitable for training and private flying are to be built, but if the Defence Department requires machines for the Air Force these will be provided.

The aims of the company were out- J lined to "The Post" by Major A. Murray Jones, a director of the company, when he arrived at Wellington from Sydney by the Awatea yesterday afternoon. The company was already registered in New Zealand as aircraft manufacturers, he said, and an area of land had been acquired between the two large hangars at Rongotai. He had come to New Zealand to see the initial stages of the undertaking started and the manager of the New Zealand factory, Mr. Buckingham, would arrive from England on April 14. Manufacturing operations would be governed by the demand for machines and the company was prepared to expand its plant if the demand Increased. SUPPLY OF MATERIALS. As soon as the factory was built "key men" would be imported and local workmen would be engaged and trained.. At the outset all materials would be imported, but he hoped to make use of New Zealand timbers later. It would not be possible to procure the special mttals required for aeroplane construction in New Zealand, but some of these were to be manufactured in Australia. The engines for the machines would be imported in the completed form, but it would probably be possible to manufacture most of the other parts of the machines in New Zealand. All parts of similar machines were now being manufactured in Australia and, if necessary, Australian production could be utilised to supply the New Zealand demand. The Australian factory was turning out twenty machines every six months. The production of machines in New Zealand was of importance to the country in several ways, Major Jones said. It would not be economical to manufacture all parts of the machines in the Dominion, because the "jigs" were too costly if used for a limited production, but wing "jigs" would probably be iised here and that would mean that damaged machines could be repaired. New Zealand and Australia had to be regarded as one unit in the aviation sense, and if they were cut off from Europe by war the factories in Australia and here would be able to supply the demand for aircraft. TYPE OF MACHINES. The intention of his company was to manufacture Tiger Moths for training purposes and Moth Minors for private ownership, Major Jones said. The manufacture of defence machines had not been considered, but if they were required the company was prepared to make them. "We are prepared to build anything that is wanted," he declared. The New Zealand machines would be put on the market at British parity, he added, and he did not anticipate any difficulty through import restrictions. If aeroplanes were required in New Zealand they would have to be imported or manufactured here, and if they were manufactured the material would have to be imported.