SAFETY IN FLYING.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LI, Issue 183, 6 July 1931, Page 2

SAFETY IN FLYING.

NEW ZEALANDER’S INVENTION. NEW PLYMOUTH July 6. An invention which, it is claimed, will do much to make flying safer, and remove the danger resultant from engine stalling, has been created by Messrs J. T. Griffen and T. Robson, of New Plymouth. The device is intended to prevent nose-diving hy mCans of an extra wing fixed to the ordinary wings of an aeroplane and controllable from the pilot’s cockpit by means of compressed air. The additional wing when passive will lie flat upon the top plane of the ordinary wing. It is supported by stays which fold telescopic-fashion. Should the engine stall in mid-air, a compressed air apparatus can be brought into action to lift the extra safety wing from its recumbent position to an angle conducive to horizontal flight by virtue of tho added resistance to bear upon the nose of the machine. The telescopic stays are intended to act like piston levers. The supply of

compressed air would be carried in a chamber on .the machine and connected to the cylinders by an ingenious valve arrangement. The opening of the valve allows the escape of the comprsesed air into four cylinders, raising at the same time the safety wing. Means are being considered of providing air compression on the machine so that the supply necessary to keep the wing in position may bo available on the machine. A bellows arrangement fitted at the back of the wings is also being considered with' the objective of locking and retaining the wing in its emergency position.