HOME-MADE AEROPLANE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20482, 6 February 1930, Page 13

HOME-MADE AEROPLANE

CONSTRUCTION AT WAIUKU.

YOUNG ENGINEER'S PROGRESS.

COMPLETION EXPECTED SOON.

[BY TELEGRAPH. —OWN CORRESPONDENT.] "WAIUKU, Wednesday.

The arrival in Auckland from America in the past few days of the propeller for the single-seater monoplane which Mr. Gunnar Erikson, a young engineer of Waiuku, is buikiing for himself, brings the completion of the machine in sight. The engine for the aeroplane has been obtained, and is now in Waiuku. It is a four-cylinder motor-cycle engine, capable of developing up to 25 horse-power, and weighing about 901b. Some adjustments to its wearing parts are being effected before it is installed. Meanwhile the matter of clearing the propeller through the customs and having it delivered in Waiuku is receiving attention. Mr. Erikson has been engaged for 12 months in building the aeroplane, working on it in his spare time, and he anticipates having it ready for trial within the next few weeks. The construction is practically completed and now awaits the power plant.

Strength and Lightness. Neatly resting on small pneumatic-tyred wheels fitted to the understructure, and which were specially imported from America, the monoplane has every appearance of strength and lightness. The wing surfaces, tail fins and rudder fin have been coated with a special water-proof preparation, which imparts to them the colour and sheen of aluminium. The fuselage framework has been covered with its canvas surfacing, which is as yet untreated with a water-proofing preparation.

The controls are installed, while in the cockpit has been fixed the aluminium seat fur the pilot, which is another part that was obtained from America. Hollow iron stays support the wings, and the use of light iron in brackets and strengthening in the bodywork is general. Screws have been used in fixing the brackets by which the framework is fitted together. Engine Mountings Fitted.

Strong stay-wire, tightened with turnbuckles, gives a tautness to the fuselage structure that is a further factor in inspiring confidence. The mountings for the engine are fitted, and here again light hollow iron is used as supports from the understructure. The controls to the rudder, tail fins, and ailerons are of light wire cord, led over small pulleys, and centre in the cockpit, where the "joystick," the main iever for manipulating the machine, is in position, together with the foodpedals for turning the machine to right or left when in motion. ■The aeroplane is housed in a shed at. the rear of the business area of Waiuku, and will need to be dismantled to some extent for transport to the ground from which it is proposed to take off, and there reassembled. With a fuel-tank capacity of six gallons of petrol, the machine is not expected to remain aloft longer than two hours at a time, nor to have a cruising range much in excess of 100 miles.

That enterprise in New Zealand in the amateur construction of aeroplanes is spreading is evidenced by the fact that Mr. Erikson's assistance to make fittings has been enlisted by a Te Awamutu enthusiast, who has set out to build himself a two-seater aeroplane. Like Mr. Erikson, he is working to a standardised plan, and has lodged an order with Mr. Erikson for two "joysticks" and two rudder bars.