AUSTRALIAN AIR FORCE

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 6 May 1926, Page 8

AUSTRALIAN AIR FORCE

SIX NEW FLYING BOATS. The importance Australia places on air defence was illustrated at Southampton on February 6 when Lady Cook, the wife of the High Commissioner for Australia. formally christened Australian Seaguil No. I. the first amphibian fiyingboat of the Royal Australian AilForce. A party of nearly 100 guests went from London to the Super-marine Aviation Works at Woo Is ton. oil the Itchen, for the ceremony The new machine ' is a type of three-seat-er’ reconnaissance boat which lias already done good ser. vice in the British Naval Co-opera-tion Arm. Not only is it eminently seaworthy, ■ but it .is the. only type of fiyiug boat- which at present can be landed on the deck of an aircraftcarrier. The pilot is accommodated in the nose, a Napier Lion engine of 450 h.p. is set between the biplane wings, and there is a roomy cockpit behind the main planes for two persons. The machine has a cruising range Of hours at eightyfive m.h.p., and a top speed of -95 m.h.p. Mr. G. L. Wood, the chairman of f.he Super-marine Aviation Works, and Squadron-Commander J. Bird, the managing director, together with Sir Harry Brittain, a director of D Napier and Son, and Mr. 11. T. Vane, the managing director, received the guests. * After Lady Cook had christened the machine. Captain 11. C". Biard took it, with Sir Joseph Cook and Squadron-Leader R. S. Brown, the liaison officer of.the Royal Australian Air Force, as passenger, down on its land wheels into the river-. The amphibian gear was then wound up under the wings, and a few minutes later Captain Biard took the boat cleanly off the water for a short flight over the docks. Australian Seagull No. 1 is the first of-a flight of six ‘boats ordered for Australia, and the first use to which they will he put in Australia will be to photograph the Great Barrier Reef, which extends for some 1,200 miles and has a total area of over 100,000 square miles. Already 200,000 photographic plates have been sent out for the work, and a sum of £250,000 has been voted for its completion. At a luncheon held, at the Southwestern Hotel, presided over by Air. G. L. Wood. Sir Harry Brittain paid a tribute to the good work the Australian Air Force did in the war, and said the present force of 100 officers and 500 men was backed up a really good Citizen Air Force. His recent visit to’ Australia had shown him that the force wa.s second to none in keenness and skill, and the only complaint was that much more modern equipment was necessary. That day, however, showed the ■ first move to correct that defect. Sir Joseph Cook said the defence of Australia w*s a matteT of selfrespect in a population of 6,000.000 with a trade of £320,000,000 a year. That order for flying-boats was part of that defence policy, and he ventured to say that Australia, which was spending £'-5, 000.000 a year on defence, was, in proportion to its population, doing its shai-e in the defence of the Empire. What Australia was aiming at was standardisation with the defensive forces of the Empire, man for man. ship for ship, gun for gun. and discipline for discipline, so as to he ready to take its share in the defence of the common heritage. Australia would not he -satisfied until it had linked up the whole 12,000 miles of coats by aircraft, and as an island continent they must develop their marine defence.