AIRBORNE LIFEBOAT

New Zealand Herald, Volume 82, Issue 25179, 17 April 1945, Page 3

AIRBORNE LIFEBOAT

ANOTHER BRITISH TRIUMPH AID IN PACIFIC OFFENSIVE LONDON, April 15 Constructional details of a new British airborne lifeboat—expected to play a great part in the filial stages of tile Pacific war—show that it is a new triumph for British plastics technique. The secret of the boat's success lies in its extreme lightness—the "skin" of the vessel although 30ft long weighs less than two and a-lia'J hundredweight and can be comfortably carried by two men, says the journal British Plastics. At the same time the skin is a fiveply laminated structure of great toughness and strength. The idea of ail airborne, genuinely seaworthy, well-provisioned and fullyequipped lifeboat that could be dropped to aid airmen in difficulties, was conceived in Britain as early as 1941, and the boat was designed by the British naval designer Lieutenant-Commander A. C. Robb. The plywood skin was moulded by Merron Limited, a British pioneer firm in this technique. The materials used nre birch, spruce, mahogany and synthetic resin, "eatacel," produced by the English firm of Catalin. One notable feature in construction is the skill with which the complex curvatures of the boat have been formed. For example, the thickness of the skin varies from three-eighths to as . much as three-quarters of an inch. The boat is powered by two five horsepower Britannia middy engines so mounted that the craft, under power, can be virtually pulled through water for JOO miles. In spite of its lightness each boat carries all the necessities needed by seven shipwrecked men for one week, including "exposure suits," verey lights and a radio.

INVESTIGATION ON SLEEP After interviewing 500 young women during an investigation on sleep, Captain E. Lipman Cohen, of the Royal Army Medical Corps, states in an article in the Lancet that heavy sleepers do not waken so refreshed as light sleepers. Eight, hours is the average mghtjs sleep, but at the age of seventeen, eight and a-half hours is more usual.