STAINLESS STEEL ’PLANES
A BRITISH ACHIEVEMENT The use of stainless steel in the construction of aircraft has long engaged the attention of British engineers. This material was used in the airship R 101, but its employment in aeroplanes involved many difficult problems, which have been solved by the Hawker Engineering Co., who are now using stainless steel in standard types of aircraft. Two different types have been built entirely of this material, except for the fabric covering of wings and fuselage, and exposure tests under severely practical conditions are in progress.
Stainless steel adds to the cost, but the advantage in avoidance of corrosion on all types, and especially in marine aircraft, far outweigh an increase on first costs. Selection of the right grades of the metal and its working in the various processes of manufacture and erection have been the subject of long and costly experiments. The Hawker system of aeroplane , construction, which have been described as being as “simple as meccano,” and does not employ welding, avoids many of the difficulties. Stainless steel is used in aircraft now being built by Hawkers for the Swedish Government.
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/GEST19330701.2.52
Bibliographic details
Greymouth Evening Star, 1 July 1933, Page 8
Word Count
188STAINLESS STEEL ’PLANES Greymouth Evening Star, 1 July 1933, Page 8
Using This Item
The Greymouth Evening Star Co Ltd is the copyright owner for the Greymouth Evening Star. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of the Greymouth Evening Star Co Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.