AIR RESEARCH

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22391, 11 April 1936, Page 8

AIR RESEARCH

PROVISION IN BRITAIN IMPORTANT EXPERIMENTS i £2,000,000 TO BE SPENT [from our own correspondent] LONDON, March 14 According to the Air Estimates for 1936-37, the sum of £2,000,000 is to be spent on research and technical development. Of this amount £902,000 is set aside under the heading "aeroplanes and spares," and includes £97,000 for experimental civil aircraft. Lord Swinton, in his explanatory notes, states that during the past year the experimental programme has been accelerated, and he refers especially to an aircraft designed for "high altitude." This aeroplane, designed and built by the Bristol Company, is in an advanced stage of construction and 6hould soon be flying. Lord Swinton also reveals that the wind-channel equipment at the Government research establishments is being modernised, and that more channels will be built. The recent rapid advances in British civil aviation are reflected in a substantial rise in the appropriate vote, which, /at £908,000, is 28 per cent higher than in 1935. The increase is attributed to "a series of far-reaching developments in British air transport throughout the world, which are already in progress or in prospect." A sum of £204,000 is included for the improvement of ground facilities along the existing Empire air routes, to permit the speeding-up of the services and the organisations of the modified routes, which the new flying-boat fleet will use. Reference is made to the experimental transatlantic flights, which Imperial Airways will undertake in the summer. A sum of £20,000 is included for payments to Imperial Airways in respect of these flights, and £75,000 is provided to meet contributions that may be necessary in 1936 toward the cost of constructing the requisite flyingboat and aeroplane bases.