GREAT BRITISH AIRPLANE.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 28 October 1924, Page 2

GREAT BRITISH AIRPLANE.

SOARS LIKE FLEET BIRD. INITIAL TRIAL A GREAT SUCCESS LONDON, Oct. 11. The first official flight of an airplane of 1000 horse-power, the largest singleengined machine yet devised, took place recently at Brough. The machine and its flight are thus described in The Times by the aeronautical correspondent of “the Thunderer”:. “The Blackburn-Napier Cubaroo, the largest single-engined' airplane in the world, built specially to utilise the full power of the 1000-horse-power N apier Cub engine, in itself the highest powered aero engine in existence, is designed to be either a torpedo or bomb carrier of exceptionally long range in point of duration, and may fairly be said to represent a notable achievement in British aviation. “It is the result of the aircraft skill of the Blackburn aeroplane Company, whose works are situated here on the edge of the Humber, and the long experience of internal combustion engines possessed by Messrs D. Napier and Son, and its. flight has been awaited with considerable interest, not only in British air circles, but in many foreign countries. As the machine has been built to the order of the Air Ministry for service purposes, it is not permissible to refer in detail either to the performance of the machine, which in itself is noteworthy, or to all the interesting features of all the internal arrangements, but it may be stated that The gross weight the Napier Cub has to take through the air is over nine tons, and that the carrying capacity is approximately three tons. “The span of the machine, which positively towers above one when standing on the ground, is 88 feet, and despite its size the wings are so arranged that they can he folded back for storage. The length is 54 feet and the overall height is slightly mor© than 19 feet. “The machine is the product of Major Bumpus, the chief designer of the Blackburn Aeroplane Company, who has already an exceedingly useful landing torpedo plane (now in ex-terisive use in the service) to his credit, and it utilises the special triangular form of steel fuselage construction which is a feature of Blackburn productions “If the machine were impressive, its actual flight was even more so, and despite its size it obviously was handled as easily as a scout. Its pilot, FlightLieutenant W. S. Bulman, certainly did many of the things one associates with a small machine, such as throttling down close to the ground, flying directly towards a group of cinema operators i on a mound, and then opening out bn a climbing turn over their heads. “At one time it looked as if low clouds and heavy rain would prevent the flight, but at 4 o’clock a watery sun broke through the clouds and the internal self-starter was at once set to work to charge up th© big engine. Once the Cub got going it genially grumbled itself into a deep-throated rumble during the preliminary warm-ing-up process, and then the pilot, a tiny figure i.t seemed, perched high up in the fuselage, ‘taxied’ over to the far side of the airdrome, turned and a t once opened up the. engine. With a powerful roar the Napier Cub lifted the machine into the air ™ r /’„ run of less thau 200 yards, i- h ?xr f ? l n . ed over twenty minutes delightrul flying, and though one never lost the impression of the size of the machine, or the spread of its silvercoloured wings, the ease with which it turned, hanked, and climbed over and around the sheds of th© airdrome, and the smallness of the circle in which it manoeuvred, suggested more the con. trol of a_ single-seater scout than that or a, machine weighing tons. The lauding was the most perfect it has been one’s pleasure to see for a long time ; the huge machine glided slowly to the earth, and without any perceptible movement of contact with the ground sank on to th© oleo gear of its double undercarriage and came to rest m a very short run.”