AVIATION NOTES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20786, 3 August 1929, Page 29

AVIATION NOTES.

NEW PLANES FOR AUXILIARY FORCE. ‘ : LARGEST AIR EXPRESS. (From Odr Own Correspondent.) . ■ . LONDON, June 28. ■ A remarkable exhibit is promised-for the Aero Exhibition at Olympia, ;which opens on July .16. This is a Handley Page ; cabin of the largest air ■ express ever designed for regular use on a commercial airway. , • The. saloon is- as big as the largest railway Pullman car. There will be ample room for as many as 40 passengers, and meals and light refreshments will be served from a buffet while the machine is in, flight. This liner is to be the first .of a new fleet of Empiretype aircraftL which Imperial Airways will use .on their trunk . routes across Europe tp.-Egypt, India, South Africa, arid Australia. . Four engines, developing a total of 2000 h.p., instead of the usual three, will be used. AUXILIARY AIR FORCE. The Auxiliary Air Force, whiell up till' now has been trained, upon machines of wartime, design, will this year, at tlfe conclusion of the annual summer training,, be completely re-equipped with the most up-to-date General Purpose aircraft of the Royal Air Force (says the aeronautical .. correspondent of The Times)-. ,

* This menus . that a total of more than -9® .aircraft will be provided in the curr rent financial year,., and these will .bq the Wapiti two-seater, fitted with. a. Bristol Jupiter' radial' air-cooled engine. ~ The Wapiti and the Fairey lIIF, fitted with a Napier Lion engine, ai - e now the two General Purpose aircraft of, the Royal Air Force, and both at home and in the Empire units are being equipped with these types, while the Australian Air Force' have ordered thc_ Westland- Wapiti in numbers for their, own re-equipment. The Auxiliary Air Force hitherto, with one exception, has been flying with D'.H. : 9a machines and Liberty engines, and though these have to some extent been irioderriised, being fitted recently with Handley Page automatic slots, the enthusiasm of the officers and personnel of the ■ Auxiliary Air Force will be ;very much stimulated by re-equipment with ’modern • aircraft. ■ It is not considered , desirable to effect the-change: immediately before the training. period..’;; The : territorial airmerimeohanics -.Lave to gain experience- in the maintenance: of an entirely different type of engine, therefore as each of the five units finishes its annual training at a regular , station the old equipment will be withdrawn, and the new issued. This, will probably mean that No. 602 (City of * Glasgow), now using Faitey Fawns, will ;be the first to'benefit,- No 603 (City of Edinburgh) will come next, and the two London squadrons and one,. Birmingham squadron will follow some time in August. The Westland Wapiti is an all-metal machine with roomy compartments for extra, fuel, . drinking water, emergency rations; and ,medical supplies, when used of this' type-which is specially reserved and fitted, for the use of the Prince-of Wales.