AVIATION NOTES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21198, 2 December 1930, Page 12

AVIATION NOTES.

NEW FLYING BOATS. WEST AFRICAN FLIGHT. (Feoh Oue Own Coehespondent;) LONDON, October 23. Before dawn last Sunday, three .day bombers of the Royal Air Force began from Khartoum, a demonstration longdistance formation cruise of 7000 miles through the Sudan and West Africa. Next moming they ascended on the second stage of the journey from El Fasher, in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, and flew towards the west.

The route planned for this, the most ambitious of the West African flights yet made by the RA.F,, takes the formation over the vast Chad Territory, the Northern Provinces, Upper Volta, and the French Sudan to-Gambia, the westernmost point reached by the formation being the town of Bathurst, located almost at the extreme west of the African continent. (hi the outward journey, the flight will be by way of Maidiigari, Kano (where it is scheduled to halt for a few days), Sokoto (Nigeria), _ Ougadougou, Bamako (where, too, it will sojourn for- a few days), and Tambacounda to Bathurst, where the aviators are tabled to descend on November 3. The return flight is to begin on November 7; the outward flight will be retraced, with : a further stay of a few days in Kano, and Khartoum should be reached on November 21. This will be the first time that -Royal Air . Force planes have visited Gambia. NEW PASSENGER FLYING BOAT. Nearing completion in a factory, beside the River Medway at Rochester, Kent, are new four-engined flying boats built to the order of Imperial Airways for. the operation of the Mideterraneau and, possibly, Persian Gulf sections of the air Hjau and passenger line to India and the Bast. The boat, is, a. larger, form of the three-engined ,f Calcutta . biplanes used by Imperial Airways and the Royal Air Force. The design of these “ Calcutta ” craft greatly, impressed foreign technical experts,* and the result this year was an order for two “Calcutta” boats from the French Government. French experts frankly admitted that the boat was superior in every way to the craft made in their own country, and it is likely that the manufacturers may grant one of, the leading French firms a license to 'construct them.

The new vessel has space for a crew of three and sixteen passengers, who are seated. in four rows of wide, luxurious seats in the saloon cabin. Between the chart room” compartment provided for the wireless operator and the saloon is a bold intended for the carriage of 35301 b ' T-l 31 ' 8 - Further aft are luggage space and lavatories. The pilots’ cockpit is completely enclosed. ' STAINLESS STEEL.

Technical novelties embodied in the structure are the stainless steel bottom to the hull, and the unusual arrangement of the four air-cooled 500 h.p. Jupiter motors. The bottom is extended well above the waterline, and is fastened with stainless steel rivets; corrosion is thus eliminated and there is no need for frequent laying-up and inspection. The engines are arranged in ' a row of four nacelles between the biplane wings. Each motor is moderately super-charged up to a height of 5000 ft, enabling the craft to give best performance at that height —132 miles an hour top speed, and cruising at 100 miles an hour. Fully loaded, each of these new boats will weigh between 13 and 14 tons. OPEN-SEA RECONNAISSANCE.

Unusual arrangement of the engines is a feature of the new military flying boat, called the “Iris IV,” which is being \ at ,p£ ou g h > Yorkshire. The three 000 n.p. Jaguar” air-cooled radial engines are located in between the wings, the central unit driving a “pusher” airscrew, and the two outer engines driving tractors.” The boat, which is developed from earlier types used for long-distance reconnaissance work along the coast and in the open sea, has a wing space of nearly one hundred feet, and overall length of more than 25 feet. Like most modern British flying boats, the super-structure is built entirely of metal. There is accommodation for a crew of five, and the internal equipment is planned to provide “hoard and lodgiHß for them. There are sleeping berths and bunks, canteen crockery, aud a cooking stove. Big British flying boats have demonstrated in several long cruises, including a voyage of 28,000 miles from England to the East and Australia, that they are habitable even in the extreme heat of the tropics, and frequently preferable to accommodation that could be found -on shore.

FIGHTING FIVE MILES HIGH, Oxygen breathing apparatus and full equipment for night flying are features of the Gloster Gnatanapper 11, an allmetal. single-seater fighter designed for flying at great heights. The aeroplane ia fitted with the Jaguar” air-cooled radial motor and. though outstripped in ¥ T de - r , n B . ri , fciall single-seaters driven by liquid-cooled motors, has the impressive performance expected in the product of a firm responsible for the conA t l UC i t i°^n° f f ma . ny , famoU9 , raain g aircraft. At 14,500 feet above the ground, the Enatsnapper moves at a velocity of 181 “| f 9 an hour; at 20.000 feet the speed is J? our ‘. Time needed to c l lm n V f^k/ u , l oad on hoard to a height of 20,000 feet is 19] minutes, and the service ceiling ia 27,000 feet. The machine is equipped for fighting with two v ic'.ers guns at the side of the fuselage, arranged with synchronising gear to fire through the disc swept by the airscrew. Bomb racks, provide space for four bombs each weighing 201 b. ’

The official Vatican directory, just published, describes the Pope, in addition to his spiritual titles, as “ Sovereign of the State of Vatican City,” instead of “ Sovereign of the Temporal Domains of tbs Holy Roman Ohurdh."- as formerly