GIANT AEROPLANE

Hawera Star, Volume XLIX, 19 August 1929, Page 7

GIANT AEROPLANE

TO BE USED IN NEW GUINEA. A giant 16-passenger Hand ley-Da go i Hampstead biplane, one of the largest 1 and fastest air-liners in the woi'hl, will I shortly be in use in New Guinea, under the terms of a recent agreement between Imperial Airways. Ltd., London, and the Ellyou Goldfields Development Corporation,* Ltd., an Australian firm. Particulars of the machine, which is being assembled at Port Moresby, were | brought do Sydney by the steamer Moriad ;i . from New Guinea. Tihe ’plane, which is larger than any others seen in Australia or New Zealand, except, .perhaps. the Southern Gross, weighs tons, and can carry 16 passengers, or 1-1 tons of freight. It 'has three Bristol.Tupiter engines, aggregating 1300 h.p.. its average cruising speed being 100 miles an hour. Until recently, the machine was one of the fleet of giant airliners with which Imperial Airways, Ltd.,'maintains its London to Paris ser. vice, and holds the record for air-liner trip between those two cities, having accomplished the journey in 80 minutes, at a speed of 170 .miles an hour. The 'plane, which is expected to be in use by the end of August, will ply between the port of Salanvaa and the Bulolo goldfields. The distance between the two points is only about 30 miles. The ’plane was dismantled and shipped to Singapore, and thence to Port Moresby, the only port in New Guinea where it could be landed with safety.

Flight-Lieutenant George I. Thompson, an Imperial Airways pilot, who will have charge of the machine, reached Sydney bv the Morinda on a short visit. He was for three years a flying instructor of the Poynl Naval ,Air Force, and since 1027 has been engaged in flying air-liners from England to France. Switzerland, and Germany.