AIRCRAFT FACTORY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23418, 7 August 1939, Page 11

AIRCRAFT FACTORY

INGE EASE IN AKEA RONGOTAI BUILDING PLANS ORDER FOR 100 MACHINES [ilY TELEGRAPH OWN CORRESPONDENT] WE LUNG TON, Saturday In consequence of the decision of the Government, upon the advice of the British Air Mission upon aircraft manufacture in the Dominions, to place an order for 100 training aeroplanes with the firm of De Ilavilland (N.Z.), Limited, the factory at Hongotai is to bo much larger in floor area and output capacity, and although this inevitably means that there will be a delay of some weeks at least in the erection of the building, consequent upon change in plans and working methods, this delay will be overhauled by the greater capacity in output. With the addition of a bay at the southern end the De Havilland factory will now have a floor area 100 ft. by 250 ft., much larger than that of the main hangar at Bongotai. The contract between the De Havilland Company and the Government provides for the delivery of the one hundred aeroplanes in 18 months, that is, at the rate of about six a month Actually the machines will be built in batches of 12 at intervals of two months. The first batch of aeroplanes will arrive largely ready for assembly, but as the factory gets into stride more and more of the work will commence with the raw material, until, by about the fourtlr or fifth batch, the machines will be wholly of New Zealand manufacture (although most of * the material must be imported) apart from engines, castings, and certain metal parts in special tensile steels.