A NEW ERA

Greymouth Evening Star, 31 May 1946, Page 7

A NEW ERA

GAS-TURBINED AIRLINERS BRITISH CIVIL AVIATION DEVELOPMENT FIRST TESTS SUCCESSFUL (Rec. 11.0 a.m.) LONDON, May 30. Gas-turbined airliners would fly Empire routes within four to five years, said the Minister of Supply, Mr. John Wilmot, speaking at a press conference on gas-turbine engines of the future. He added that Britain was on the threshhold of a new era in civil aviation. Only in the past few days the Mond Nickel Company had produced a new material enabling a big step forward in gas-turbine engines. Britain was now able to furnish jet engines, knowing that they would perform satisfactorily under tropical and under sub-Arctic conditions.

“We plan to put gas turbine engines into all the larger types of civil aircraft, and all those now being designed, as distinct from interim types, will have turbine engines.” Within the next few weeks a Lancastrian would be fitted with two Rolls Royce jet engines and would be used as a “flying test bed.” Later on an Avro Tudor Mark II would be used similarly. A Brabazon II A would make the first flight in 1947 and would be the first new civil aircraft in the world to operate a gas turbine engine. The Brabazon 111 would become an Em-pire-route plane, using gas turbine driven air screws, or, more probably, jet propulsion. The Brabazon 111 must have a- cruising speed on Empire routes of at least 400 miles an hour, but if fitted with jets experts expected between 450 and 470 miles an hour, compared with the Tudor H’s cruising speed of 245 miles an hour. The Brabazon IV would be a very high speed trans-Atlantic aircraft .of which the Swallow moth-shaped aircraft was a scale model. It would be four to five years before Brabazons 111 and IV would be operating.

This is the first mention of Brabazons 111 and IV. The Brabazon Ill’s will weigh 90,0001 b. They will be developed by Avro, but may also be built by other firms. The Brabazon IV is a de Havilland type planned for a speed of -550 miles an hour. It will weigh 5000 to 80,000 lb. Mr. Wilmot also announced that all future R.A.F. fighter-bombers will be jet-engined.