FLYING-BOATS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXX, 18 June 1936, Page 10

FLYING-BOATS

FOR ROYAL NAVY NEW AMPHIBIAN TYPE 24 FOR AUSTRALIA The British Government is replacing obsolete type of aircraft now in use on catapult-equipped warships by a powerful amphibious flying-boat. Twenty-four of this type have beer, ordered by the Commonwealth Government under the new defence scheme. According to information supplied by the Society of British Aircraft Con-

structors, the British Navy has been trying out this new type of flying-boac on the battleship Nelson for more than a year, and is so satisfied with the results that a number of the new type of aircraft is under construction for the Fleet Air Arm. This amphibious machine is fitted with landing wheels which can be wound up or let down on either side of the hull of the battleship. These will be the first boat-hulled marine aircraft since the war to go into service with the Navy. Hitherto the practice has been to adopt float seaplanes and landplanes. It is claimed for the new aircraft, which is known as the Supermarine Walrus, that it is better suited for alighting on or taking off from rough water than the floatplane, and that the amphibious gear permits of easier communication between sen and land. The new type of amphibian will be fitted with a Bristol Pegasus radial motor mounted to drive a “pusher” airscrew behind the main planes. Extremely severe official tests have been imposed on the Walrus. It was used in the recent strenuous Mediterranean cruise, where it was thoroughly tested in every kind of service operation between land and water. It was the first flying-boat in the world to be launched by catapult, and passed successfully through the official catapult trials at the Royal Aircraft establishment at Farnborough. Several times the Com-mander-in-Chief of the Home Fleet w as able to fly in one of these amphibians from the Nelson in the English Channel, and to land near London at Hendon aerodrome.