AIR DEFENCE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 24 February 1931, Page 5

AIR DEFENCE

NEW BRITISH AEROPLANE

ADDITIONAL GUNS (United Press Association— By Electric Telegraph—Copyright) LONDON, 22nd February. Additional machine guns fitted on the leading edges of wings to increase the fighting power of aeroplanes employed to intercept enemy raids is the newest idea. The ’plane 5.5.19, successfully tested by the Gloster Aircraft Company at Martlesham, lias six machine-guns capable of a converging fire on the target. Four are mounted on the wings and one on each side of the fuselage. The ’plane is equipped with a 480 horse-power Bristol Jupiter engine supercharged for altitudes. A speed of 194 miles an hour has been achieved with a full military load, and the machine climbed fifteen thousand feet in nine minutes. The greatest efficiency was attained at ten thousand, but 176 miles an hour was reached at twenty thousand, and the machine can be operated at 26,100. being equipped with oxygen breathing apparatus. It dives without vibration at 320 miles an hour. The pilot can operate the whole six guns simultaneously. LONDON-PARIS AIR RECORD PARIS. 22ml February. Flying a commercial aeroplane, a pilot, landed at Le Bourget in eighty minutes from Croydon. This is believed to be a record, the speed averaging 175 miles an hour.