ROYAL AIR FORCE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23127, 27 August 1938, Page 13

ROYAL AIR FORCE

SPITFIRE MACHINES UNDER-SECRETARY'S FLIGHT HIGH RATE OF SPEED British Wireless RUGBY, August 2ft The Under-Secretary for Air, Captain H. H. Balfour, to-day visited Duxford aerodrome and went up in one of tho single-seater Vickers Supermarine Spitfire aeroplanes, which the Prime Minister, Mr. Chamberlain, recently described as tho "fastest aircraft in tho service of any air force."

Captain Balfour, according to the newspapers, flew a Spitfire at a speed of more than 300 miles an hour. By next year Spitfires will be manufactured in large scale production at the new factory which Viscount Nuffield is to open by arrangement with the Air Ministry.

SERVICE IN INDIA AEROPLANES BOUGHT TWO AIRSPEED ENVOYS British Wireless RUGBY, August 25 Two Airspeed Envoys have been purchased by the Indian Government for the personal use of the Viceroy, the Marquess of Linlithgow, and for official communication duties. They are similar to the Air Council's aeroplane in which the King and other Royal personages sometimes travel. The Envoy is a monoplane fitted with two Armstrong-Siddeley Cheetah engines, with accommodation for eight passengers and'having a cruising speed of 170 miles an hour at 10,000 ft. The machines will be flown to India in September, one of them by Air Marshal Sir Philip Joubert de la Ferte, Air Officer Commanding in India.