MYSTERY SEAPLANE.

Hawera Star, Volume XLIX, 30 August 1929, Page 5

MYSTERY SEAPLANE.

BRITAIN’S BABY MACHINE. 1 , LONDON, Aug. 20. The Gfloster-Napier mystery seaplane SO, was submitted to an expert examination after it had been wheeled from the hangar at Cal shot, where it was assembled. It looked like a silver-wiinged golden beetle on silver skates. Tbe body is painted did gold, while the wings and floats are of silvered duraluminum.. The St> will be the baby of the race for the Schneider Cup, -but as an expert observed, they do not make diamonds tli© size of bricks. The Streamlining leaves little else [ than a winged shell, more exact in detail than the So. The body is more eggshaped, and the cockpit is 30in. across. Tire duralminum fuselage is the smallest possible. The wings iia-ve spruce spans covered with ply. Each float has three water-tight bulkheads, a smooth surface being conferred by flush rivetting, and internally fitted controls. Water radiators within the wings provide the cooling system, and th,e oil-tanks are inside the fuselage. Petrol is stored witlidn the floats, whence it is pumped to the engine. The machine can climb at the rate of a mile a minute, and is expected to create a flutter, even in these days of stupendous speeds. The engine is a Napier-Lion 7D. IF secures increased power from, a snper-dliarger, fitted behind, in order to avoid protrusion.