AIR EXPANSION

Grey River Argus, 13 May 1938, Page 4

AIR EXPANSION

AUSTRALIAN FORCES. _<JCAL types obsolete. SYDNEY, May 29. Despite a statement by the Minister of Defence (Mr Thorby), that Australia’s programme of air expansion is proceeding according to schedule, it is no secret that the Royal. Australian Air Force is having great difficulty in obtaining aircraft on order from Britain. The British Government is itself finding it hard to secure all the production it desires and the Dominion orders are being delayed in consequence. In addition to new complete aircraft, the Australian Government’s orders for equipment for machines already in service by the Royal Australian Air Force is behind the prepared schedule. To keep the existing units in being the R.A.A.F. had had to use reserve equipment. This, it is recognised, is dangerous, but with the failure of Britain to supply requirements, the a.A.A.F. had to face the position as best it could. Mr Thorby stated that Australia had no need at the moment to import American aircraft for the Australian Air Force. The Commonwealth was not associated with the visit to the United States of a British mission to buy American war planes. Deliveries of aircraft for the Air Force expansion programme were being maintained, and the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation factory in. Melbourne was working at full pressure to supply defence orders for locally-made aeroplanes. “The whole programme of our air expansion- is proceeding according to schedule,” said Mr Tnorby, “and supplies of aircraft and the development of ground organisation and the increase in personnel are wcil up to plan.” While no official announcement is obtainable about, the progress being made by the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation at Fisherman’s Bend in the manufacture of planes for the R.A.A.F., it is known that the first fuselage of a Wirraway (NA33) plane was completed last week. Production at the Melbourne works is well up to programme, and there does not seem any doubt that the first Aus-

tralian-bvilt Wirraway will be ready in July, rs o; ig inally announced. The Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation is under contract to the Commonwealth to produce 40 of these machines, according to the sample Wirraway imported some weeks ago. There will be slight modifications in the manufacture of these planes because in the original NA33’s provision was made for American machineguns, American wireless equipment, and American bombs. The machines to be produced in Melbourne will be modified to take the equivalent British equipment. This slight alteration in design will not delay production.

Because all Australian defence aircraft are obsolete the discussions in Great Britain about military types of aeroplanes is of vital interest to Australia. Impressed as Australians might have been by the display by the Air Force personnel at Richmond on Saturday, the fact remains that none of the planes taking part could compare favourably in range, speed and rate of gunfire with the latest types abroad. In speed alone, all existing Australian Air Force aeroplanes are inferior to the latest commercial types acquired for the main inter-State air routes.

The speed and performance of the NA33 —the latest type added to the R.A.A.F.—have not been officialy revealed, but experts insist that its under normal conditions does not exceed 200 miles an hour. It is considered to be in the same speed class as the late Sir Charles Kingsford Smith’s Lockheed Altair, which was several years old when he bought it about three years ago. There are passenger aircraft in daily service between Sydney and Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne, and Sydney and Perth, which could lose the Avro Anson, described as “the most modern medium bomber in Australia.”