Whangarei Airman In The Spotlight

Northern Advocate, 27 May 1939, Page 9

Whangarei Airman In The Spotlight

Whangarei picture-goers will probably soon have the pleasure of seeing j one of their townsmen figuring in a j Pathe Gazette which shows the Ru- | manian Minister of Foreign Affairs in- \ specting a flight of the Royal Air j Force. The Whangarei man is Mr j Derek Ward, who is now the pilot of j a Hurricane, which, with the Spitfire, j is the crack fighting plane of Britain, j M. Gafencu, as will be remembered by the readers of the “Advocate’s” cable news during April, paid an official visit to Britain, the occasion having important diplomatic significance. When there, he expressed a , wish to see Britain’s latest war planes j in action. The British War Office | naturally decided that there should be no doubt left in the visitor’s mind as to the efficiency of the Royal Air Force, the commander of which chose a display by four crack heavy bombers and two crack fighters as the most satisfying demonstration it could give.®

Pilot-Officer Ward was selected to give the demonstration with the Hurricane. This demonstration was of a most comprehensive nature, including hair-raising evolutions, . which were watched with rapt attention not only by the Rumanian Foreign Minister, but by the members of the R.A.F. and thousands of civilians. The climbing powers of the Hurricane were proved by the manner in which it quickly reached an altitude of 5000 feet. Then it came back to earth like a bullet, travelling at over 400 miles an hojir, until, when some 50 feet from the ground, it flattened out and sped away from the fascinated watchers.

This was only part of evolutions which convinced the Rumanian visitor that Britain’s latest light fighting plane is a remarkable machine. M. Gafencu was eulogistic in his praise of plane and pilot, and It was as ho was shaking hands with Pilot-Officer Ward that Pathc Gazette got a picture which has especially interested Now Zealanders who have seen it shown in London.