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Greymouth Evening Star, 20 March 1940, Page 3

I . . I A sailplane has been successfully > flown in Napier and when its owners, ’ the Napier Aero Club, become proli- • cient in its control, it. is expected to 3 make flights of considerable duration,; ’ states a Napier correspondent The 3 Falcon, as the machine has been ’ named, was built in six months’ by the ’ club members from materials import-. 1 ed from England just prior to the J iwar. Spanning. 44ft, the Falcon is • I graceful in flight and behaved well on ? ! recent trials, Although conditions B were unsuitable for long flights, sev-i 6 era! good efforts were made. On one J occasion an altitude of 200 ft was reached, the sailplane being aloft one r minute 20 seconds. This flight gave- : an indication of the sailplane’s excep- : tional gliding angle and slow sinking T speed. Ab the controls during the cri”|tical test period was Mr. N. Oliver, ■‘.the Napier Aero Club’s flying instruc- : tor. e : : ■