AIR FORCE STATION

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 91, 19 April 1939, Page 10

AIR FORCE STATION

AUSTRALIA'S CAPITAL1

THREE SQUADRONS PLANNED

(From "The Post's" Representative.)

SYDNEY, April 8.

Three squadrons of aircraft and 480 officers and men will be established by June, 1940, at the new £400,000 Royal Australian Air Force station at Canberra. A start has been made with the construction of roads, sewerage and drainage, and levelling of tarmac and hangar sites. Sufficient accommodation is scheduled to be ready by the end of 1939 for occupation by the first squadron and a nucleus headquarters staff.

Comprising three army co-operation, squadrons, the station will be equipped with from 36 to 40 aircraft, which pro- - bably will be the Australian-made Wirraway machines now being produced by Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation at Fishermen's Bend, Melbourne. The station will adjoin the existing civil aerodrome, near the Royal Military College, Duntroon. Building plans provide for three hangars of steel and brick-filled construction, each measuring 200 ft by 125 ft, erection on one hangar of a control unit, for the supervision of flying for civil and service aircraft, administrative building, and numerous other buildings for officers and men of the squadrons. Of attractive design and built of brick, the buildings will be arranged on a model township plan, which will include a parade ground and sports ground. A radio station will be built to provide a communications service, and it is probable that the station will also take over control of the existing civil direction-findina radio equipment.