TESTING AIR CURRENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22139, 19 June 1935, Page 13

TESTING AIR CURRENTS

RONGOTAI- IN MINIATURE LARGE MODEL BEING BUILT Aviators who have used the Rongotai aerodrome, Wellington, during the last five years have not much to learn about the air conditions which prevail there, states the Dominion. Still, for the benefit of the embryo airmen and visiting aviators it is desirable, if not a necessity, to have exact information about the aerodrome and the air currents above it. , To gain that exact information, officers of the city engineer's department have constructed -with meticulous care, a model of the locality. The full extent of this model, which is an accurate contour of the aerodrome and its precincts, comprises panels which, when assembled, will cover an area about 18ft. square. This takes in practically the whole of the isthmus, from the waters of Zvans Bay on the north to Lvall Bay and tbe broken country on the south-east of the aerodrome The slightest rise or fall of the land has been faithfully indicated by a topographical engineer. All elevations have been first built up and correctly shaped out of soft grey mill-board, afterward covered with plaster-of-paris, smoothed and cut in accord with the original. ' The whole of the model is expected to be completed by about the end of next week. Then it is to be moved into the laboratory building, part of which is being converted into a wind tunnel in which the model will be placed for the purpose of seeing air current reactions from all points of the compass. The wind will be provided by three electrically-driven propellers, made of aluminium, so nicely adjusted that they will be able to produce anything from a breeze to a full-bodied gale. It is hoped that the information so obtained will be of advantage to aviators by giving them an idea ol' the air conditions likely to be encountered in negotiating Wellington's airport. As a contour map of the whole of Wellington City is to he made in due course, the information embodied in the model will form a section of it.