Fastest Paris-To-London Flight

Northern Advocate, 18 February 1939, Page 5 (Supplement)

Fastest Paris-To-London Flight

LONDON, January 19,

Fresh evidence of the quality of Britain’s warplanes is the flight by a Vickers-Supermarine Spitfire eightgun fighter from Paris to London at an average speed, including take-off and landing, of 300 miles an hour. No help was received from the wind, which blew directly across the course followed. The engine was run at cruising revolutions. The maximum level speed of the Spitfire, with full military load, is officially stated to be more than 350 m.p.h. Mr J. K. Quill, a Vickers test pilot, took off from Le Bourget airport at 2.27 p.m. The aeroplane was a standard machine, as constructed in great numbers for the Royal Air Force, and was on view at the Paris Aeronautical Salon.

Mr Quill climbed to 18,000 feet and flew in a clear sky till he was approaching Croydon, where he descended through a thick bank of cloud, put down the landing wheels, made the prescribed circle of the aerodrome and landed at 3.8 p.m.—4l minutes from starting the take-off run; distance 205 miles.

This is by nine minutes the fastest journey ever made between the two capitals. The same Spitfire holds the record of 50 minutes for the trip in the opposite direction, from London to Paris, achieved in a “leisurely” flight on the way to the Salon. The Spitfire is a low-wing, beautifully streamlined monoplane of allmetal “stressed-skin” construction, powered witn a Rolls-Royce Merlin 090/1050 h.p. liquid-cooled engine. It carries a battery -of eight machineguns, four in each wing, mounted to direct converging fire on the enemy at destructive range. In addition to largescale manufacture by the “parent” company, the Spitfire is the subject of an initial order for one thousand fighters placed with Lord Nuffield, whose immense new aircraft, factory at Birmingham is nearly completed. Improving Performance.

At present the standard Spitfires, including the record breaker, have fixed pitch airscrews. The Air Ministry has decided that performance, especially at take-off, shall be improved by fitting three-bladed variable-pitch airscrews. Roughly analogous in action to the gearbox of an automobile, the variable-pitch airscrew ensures greater power-plant efficiency for take-off, climb and cruising flight. All Spitfires now in service will be modified by substitution of variable-pitch for fixed-pitch airscrews; all new' machines. including those built at the Nuffield factory, will have variablepitch airscrews.