NAZI AIR SECRETS

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 51, Issue 3155, 10 August 1942, Page 7

NAZI AIR SECRETS

REVEALED IN BRITAIN AERO ENGINEERS’ TRIUMPH Secret information about German aircraft engineering was secured by the British Government when a South Wales engine overhaul factory rebuilt a complete German aero-engine from a quantity of spares and salvaged parts.

Five, complete engines were eventually assembled), all. of them passing tests, and Mr G. Hummerstone, the superintendent, received a letter from the British Ministry of Aircraft Production thanking him for what they described as “a remarkable achievement.”

'This factory is one of 12 run by the British Overseas Airways Corporation, whoyse wartime work has earned for it the nickname 1 ‘Merchant Air Ser-

vice. ’ ’

Over 40,000 miles of British air routes from Sweden to South Africa and the United) States to India, these unarmed merchant ships of the air maintain vital communications of Empire through all the theatres of war. Last year they flew 5,500,000 miles; in 1942 the figure will be around about 8,000,000 mileiS.

Regardless of weather and risks of enemy interference these planes carry vital messages, important personnel, films and written propaganda. The urgency of the work is giving the Corporation much valuable data for use after the war when engines will do mores for the same weight, and radio and other devices will open up an

era of safety for commercial flying which would have seemed) impossible in peacetime.