AVIATION NOTES

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 176, 25 June 1938, Page 9

AVIATION NOTES

MfDDLE DISTRICTS CLUB. (By “W.E.C.”; - The weather recently lias retarded flying activities to some extent. Last Sunday the club aircraft were at the Feilding aerodrome, but conditions were not good, though some flying was done. A visitor during the week was Mr R. Simons in the Porterfield ZK-AFT from Hastings. Two of the .civil reserve pilots are now readv for their A license. CLOUSTON’S FLIGHT. A request has been made for the records established by Flying-Officer Clouston on his London-New ZealandLondon flight. They are as follow : It was the first air trip to New Zealand and back. He beat Miss Jean Batten’s time of 11 days 1 hour 25 min., between England and ■New Zealand; beat Miss Batten’s 5 days, 13 hours, 15min. homeward trip from Darwin; broke the record of Mr C. W. A. Scott and the late Mr Campbell Black for the return trip from Australia, though not their outward figure (2 days, 4 hours, 33 min. Lon-don-Melbourne); but three days off the Australia-aml-back time of 131 days of Messrs Ken Waller and Catlicart Jones (also in a Comet); broke the records England-Sydney. DarwinSvdney, and Sydney-New Zealand. The actual times were: London-Syd-ney, 80 hours 56 min.; London-Blen-heim, 104 hours, 20min.; BlenheimLondon, 140 hours 27 min.; SydneyLondon 110 hours 22min. THE WELLINGTON.

Interest is centred on the Vickers Wellington machines ordered for the New Zealand Air Force, which, it is expected, will be used by the squadron to be stationed at Ohakea. The Wellington is a twin-engined monoplane with retractable undercart. The construction is on the geodetic principle of light alloy, fabric covered. The power units are Bristol Pegasus • XVIII engines of about 900 h.p. The i span is 86ft. lin., length 61ft., and '.height 18ft. 9in. Performance, loadJ ing, etc., are, of course, not available, though it can be safely said that the speed of such a “clean” machine as the Wellington would be close, if not over 200 m.p.h. mark. This machine has been produced with gun positions in the nose and tail and on the top of the fuselage, though just how those ordered for New Zealand will be- armed has not been announced. The gunner’s position in the tail makes a peculiar bulbous end to the otherwise sleek body of the ’plane. There is no doubt of its being able to carry a very useful load of bombs, and it would prove a “hornets’ nest” to an attacker. DEFENCE. Mention of our new bombers calls to mind the question: Just what are we doing in the matter of defence a.s far as the air is concerned? Are the equipment and personnel sufficient ? To answer that, let us imagine how this Dominion would be attacked. Of course, the attack would come from the sea, but any enemy with serious intentions would not confine their approach to one place; in fact, they could quite easily move on to New Zealand a.t three or four different points. Have wo»a sufficient number of aircraft to cope with such a form of attack ? Next, if an enemy went to the expense of invading our Dominion he would no doubt bring an aircraft-car-rier to assist. A modern, carrier of the type of the British Courageous can carry anything up to fifty aircraft. These are usually of the smaller fighter type, but they would be a big problem for the Air Force we have at present.; even when completely equipped, and with the assistance of our small antiaircraft units, which, in - turn, could not move about fast enough to deal with numbers of fast enemy aircraft. Along with the above, we must take into consideration that any attack would be unexpected, find of fas much of a surprise nature 'as Could be devised. It is not likely that an attacker would .send a postcard informintr us of his intentions. It would seem, by all the talk -we hear, that this Dominion is not by any means in a good state to resist an invasion. Naturally, having a small population, any expenditure on defence falls heavily on the taxpayer. but as Britain ;complets its squadrons with new types of aircraft, the older types that would be quite as good as are required here could be got. Further, and most important, pilots and ground staffs could be trained' very economically by: the flying clubs. It would be a big advantage to have a good number of even partly trained pilots, and this could be done at the cost of a few hundred pounds annually. [The clubs are only too ready to. give the training, and have the machines for the job. so it is to be. hoped that this will be taken advantage of . more thap it has in the past.