MILITARY AIRCRAFT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22108, 14 May 1935, Page 8

MILITARY AIRCRAFT

MANUFACTURERS BUSY ENGLISH EXPERT'S VISIT assembly of new machines [by telegraph—own correspondent] WELLINGTON. Monday The arming of the nations in Europe and America has caused a great boom in aircraft manufacture, said Mr. .S. Kilner Walker, of the Bristol Aeroplane Company, who arrived at Wellington from London to-day by the Remuera *n connection with the supply of aeroplane engines to New Zealand. He will be with the Royal New Zealand Air Force for several months. Mr. Walker's special mission in New Zealand is to supervise the assembly of the Vickers Viklebeeste bomber machines, which have been ordered by the New Zealand Government, and to give general instruction on the engines. Mr. Walker expects to return to England via Australia, where ho has only recently completed a sojourn of four years on aircraft business. He has also spent six months in New Guinea with New Guinea Airways, Limited. He is an expert on engines, and has been with the Bristol Aeroplane Company for eight years. Prior to that he was with the Rolls-Royce Company for ten years. For 22 years Mr. Walker has been connected with aviation, and apart from his work as an engineer he has done, a considerable amount of flying. His company was working night and day at the present time supplying military and commercial orders for England and various other countries, he said, and it had just filled a large order for Poland. Other companies were also working at full capacity, and the same conditions applied in the United States. In Britain the object of all manufacturers was to develop light engines containing the greatest possible power. The New Zealand Government has placed an order for 12 bomber aircraft for the Royal New Zealand Air Force. Some of the machines have already been landed at Auckland for fitting up at the Hobsonville air base under Mr Walker's guidance.