HUDSON BOMBERS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 119, 22 May 1941, Page 7

HUDSON BOMBERS

FIRST UNDER TEST

IMPRESSIVE WAR MACHINE

WELL SUITED TO NEED

(P.A.)

AUCKLAND, May 21.

The first of the Lockheed Hudson bombers newly delivered from the United States for the Royal New Zealand Air Force, was flown for the first time in the Dominion this week. These are the fastest and most modern warplanes in New Zealand. Their long range, good speed, and heavy offensive power make them eminently suitable craft for use from a remote island country such as New Zealand. They have been in effective use by the Coastal Command of the Royal Air Force in Britain.

With a minimum of fuss and surprisingly little noise, the two twin-row Pratt and Whitney engines, each of 1200 horse-power, lifted the Hudson off the runway, leaving an ample margin. The take-off, always a critical part of the test flight of a newly-assembled .machine, was closely watched by all 'who could spare a moment from their duties. There was nothing spectacular about it, however, merely a big aeroplane getting cleanly off the ground, tucking up her wheels behind the engine nacelles, and disappearing swiftly into low -cloud.

For 45 minutes those who waited on the flying field could hear the monoplane" speeding overhead. They could not see her behind a curtain of cloud till the test pilot "shot up" the aerodrome, diving at 300 miles an hour and then pulling up steeply into a zoom that carried the Hudson a couple of* thousand feet up in seconds.

The landing was an anti-climax. The Hudson approached with all the docil- : ity of a light trainer. Undercarriage and flaps down, she lazed over the boundary fence, sat down on her, big air wheels,.and trundled to a halt. LONG RANGE AND WELL ARMED. Developed from the Lockheed 14 commercial machine the Hudson has proved itself as a reconnaissance bomber. Many New Zealanders serving with the Coastal Command of the Royal Air Force have successfully engaged not only-enemy ships'but enemy warplanes,'' for the; Hudson, apart from turret armament, ■ carries a forwardfiring machine-gun and has a sting in her tail in twin Vickers guns that command a wide arc beneath the machine.

Long range is one of the most desirable features of the type. Hudsbns for Britain regularly fly the Atlantic from Newfoundland bases and, operating from, English aerodromes, fly hundreds of miles on; escort duty *nd in search of enemy ships.

Among the latest developments incorporated in the machines are selfsealing fuel tanks built up of layers .of a special material and capable of preventing leaks in spite of being pierced by bullets. A self-inflating rubber dinghy is also carried, neatly stowed an the main door, and the two engines fitted to the rriodels supplied to New Zealand are newer and even more powerful than those which have already carried many scores of Hudson s to Britain to join the squadrons of the Royal Air Force.