FAST AIRCRAFT.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 229, 26 August 1938, Page 7

FAST AIRCRAFT.

PRODUCTION AT HOME

(British Official Wireless.) Received August 26, 11.5 a.m

RUGBY, Aug. 25. Captain H. H. Balfour (Under-Sec-retary for Air) visited Duxford Aerodrome to-day and went up in one of the single-seater Vickers Supermarine Spitfires, which Mr Chamberlain (Prime Minister) recently described as the “fastest aircraft in. service in any air force.” Captain Balfour, according to the newspapers, flew the Spitfire at over 300 miles an hour.

By next year the Spitfires will he in large-scale production at the new factory which Lord Nuffield is opening by his arrangement with the Air Ministry.

TWO ENVOYS PURCHASED

FOR MARQUESS OF LINLITHGOW

(British Official Wireless.) Received August 26, 11 a.m. RUGBY, Aug. 25. Two Airspeed Envoy ’planes have been purchased by the Indian Government for the personal use of tlie Marquess of Linlithgow (Viceroy of India) and for official communication duties. They are similar to the Air Council’s aeroplane in which the King and other members of the Royal Family sometimes travel. The Envoy is a monoplane fitted with two Armstrong Siddeley “Cheetah” engines with accommodation for eight passengers, and a erusing speed of 170 miles an hour at 10,000 feet.

The machines will be flown to India in September, one of them fby AirMarshal Sir Philip Joubert de Jg Ferte (Air Officer Commanding in India).