TWO AIRCRAFT FOR TOP DRESSING EXPERIMENTS

Greymouth Evening Star, 16 October 1948, Page 4

TWO AIRCRAFT FOR TOP DRESSING EXPERIMENTS

■(P.A.) WELLINGTON, This Day. The Government has purchased two Miles Aerovan aircraft to supplement the experimental work now being carried out by the R.N.Z.A.F. on aerial top-dressing. This was announced by the Minister of Defence, Mr Jones.

The Aerovan is a light twin-engine freight aircraft of wooden construction, and the relative economy of this aircraft in flying makes it the most suitable civil aircraft available for experimental purposes. Mr Jones emphasised, however, that these aircraft would probably not be suitable for other than experimental work. Certain valuable data had already been obtained by the use of an R.N.Z.A.F. Avenger carrying a twoton load in limited trials at Ohakea and Raglan, but much more research was required before the technical details and general economics of this work could reasonably be assessed. The Government considered the research was fully justified in the long-term national interest to restore productivity to hill country and reduce erosion. The Government has arranged for. the R.N.Z.A.F. to conduct certain experiments, which will be co-ordinated by the Soil Conservation and Rivers Control Council and will involve several other departments..