AIRCRAFT ASSEMBLY

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 95, 24 April 1939, Page 11

AIRCRAFT ASSEMBLY

RONGOTAI FACTORY

NEW LOCATION FIXED

An announcement was made last month of the decision of the De Havilland Aircraft Company to erect an aircraft factory at Rongotai, and the site then determined upon was a comparatively small piece of ground, between the Aero Club's building and the large wooden hangar in which the Territorial Air* Squadron's Baffins. and the Public Works Department machines are stored. Though this site would have been sufficient for the first development .proposed and would have permitted tbe erection of-*a factory of approximately* the floor area of the main hangar, 200 by 100 feet, an enlargement of the factory in the future would have entailed the removal of the Aero Club building, which has already been shifted once.

' Other important factors, including the certainty of enlargement of the aerodrome within the next two or three years, also came under consideration, and a new site has been selected for the De Havilland factory, on the eastern boundary of the landing field and adjoining the property of the Miramar Golf Club, much nearer Moa Point. Here the factory will be clear of flying lines and there will be room for all anticipated future expansion. NO TIME LOST. 1 When announcing the decision of the company to commence operations at Rongotai, Major A. Murray Jones, a director of the De Havilland Aircraft Company, said, on March 28, that no i time would be lost in making a start. That has certainly been so, for tenders are already being called for the erection of the hangar. Major Murray Jones said that the company proposed to manufacture and asemble Tiger Moths for training purposes and Moth Minors for private ownership. The manufacture of defence machines, he said, had not been considered, but if they were wanted the company was prepared to make them, or- any type of machine that was wanted -in New Zealand. Since that statement was made the British Air Mission, which has inquired into the.potential resources of aircraft manufacture in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, has presented its report to the Government. What recommendations the mission has made as to the development of an aircraft industry in this Dominion have not been announced, j but Rongotai will be clearly in the pic- j ture for at least the assembly of -.civil aircraft. MUST1 BE ENLARGED, Rongotai was first recommended by the late Sir Charles Kingsford Smith and the late Mr. C. T. P. Ulm for development as a club aerodrome only. To that first purpose regular air transport flying was added, -in spite of assertions that Rongotai could not and would not become a main airport. Later still, Air Force flying and training were added —though here again the idea thatßongotai could have any place in the Air Force expansion plan had been more or less ridiculed—and coincidentally with the commencement of the operations of the Wellington Territorial Air Squadron, the arrangement whereby entrants to the Air Force and the Reserves are trained by aero club instructors has led to a great increase in flying. Now, in addition to the club flying, passenger service operations, Territorial Squadron training, and first flying training of applicants for the Air Force and Reserves, upon, an aerodrome still not developed beyond mere aero club requirements, there is the beginning of aircraft assembly and manufacture which may expand into a considerable industry. Rongotai has been "made to do" with, improvements and minor extensions from time to time, but a major extension now becomes. essential. No real advance can, however, be made until after the close of the Exhibition and the clearing of the site,, which cannot be effected until well on in 1940.