SPEED OF AEROPLANES.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 5 January 1923, Page 8

SPEED OF AEROPLANES.

USE OF EXTENSIBLE .WINGS. According to a message from Paris, M. Maneyrol, the recent victor in the gliding competition m Sussex, has made some interesting experiments on an aeroplane fitted with extensible wings. One of the most .important factors which make for security ?n flying is the widest possible difference between the extremes of speed by which an aeroplane is maintained in the air. An ideal machine would be one which, while capable of a speed of 200 or 250 miles an hour, could nevertheless maintain itself in the air at a speed of six to ten miles an hour. One of the means by which this end can be attained is the extension at will of the length of the wing. Last year the engineers Levavasseur and Gastambibe constructed an aeroplane fitted with wings, the extremities of which could be made to disappear at will, and this solution of the problem was successfully tested 'at Etamnes. It is a new machine, constructed by Bille on the same principle, but possessing qualities of greater rigidity, which M. Maneyrol has now been testing with the best results. The Bille machine, after flying at 170 kilometres (105.6 miles) an hour, reduced its speed to 60 ' kilometres' (37 miles) an hour, and then to 20 kilometres (12.4 miles) an hour before landing. As the ideal solution, designers liave lonec i looked to some fo^m of wing which can be spread to its full extent for starting and landing, and gradually contracted .as speed in the air increases. A starting and landing speed of 12 miles an hour would make it possible to use small aerodromes even for heavy commercial machines ; a skilled pilot could use a back garden or the deck of a Channel steamer as the aerodrome for a light machine.