THIRTY-THREE-TON FLYING BOAT.

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

THIRTY-THREE-TON FLYING BOAT.

AIR MINISTRY'S ORDER. FIVE LUXURIOUS CABINS. (Fbom Oub Own Coebespondent.) ■ LONDON, October 8. It’is reported that the Air Ministry has placed an order with a British aircraft firm for a machine which will weigh when fully loaded 33 tons. It is to be equipped with six motors developing a total horse-power of 4950, and fly 160 milea an hour. . -^ e immense flying boat hull, measuring 20ft in height and carrying within it five ■ luxurious. saloon cabins each I4ft wide, providing accommodation for 40 passengers, will be air-borne by a single pair of wings located above it. Prom wing tip to wing tip the plane will stretch 140 ft, and near the centre the wings will be more than 6ft in depth. From nose to tail the craft is shown on the drawing board to be slightly more than 100 feet. Pilots and enginoperating in a kind of bridge in the deck above the passenger quarters, are depicted 12ft above the water line. The entire upper deck is left for the working routine of the crew; access is designed from it to the wing and the six engines, which are mounted tandem in three pairs above it.

The roomy space inside the wings is intended for stowing luggage and stores. In the lower deck, which should be unusually quiet because of the distance separating it from the engines, will be the passenger saloons, baggage and mail compartments, a kitchen and lavatories. LONG-RANGE LUXURY CRUISING. The Air Ministry requires her. to be suitable- for long-distance cruising, and her probable range will he rather more than 1000 miles.

Nothing but metal, a large proportion of it stainless steel, will be used in the structure. The wings may be built according to a new system of tubular construction similar to methods employed in modern British airships; if so, much weight will be saved by comparison with the weight of material needed iu the normal girder construction, British technicians have delayed the building of marine aircraft of this size till the state of aerodynamical and en gine knowledge justified the experiment. In performance, trustworthiness, and sea-going qualities British flying boats are second to none—-a fact acknowledged by experts in all countries—and the new boat confidently be expected to sustain this reputation. Once built and tried, the aircraft, with at least one other boat of similar size already planned in Great Britain, should bring the world a long step nearer the, dav of high-speed air transport over the main sea routes so long traversed by surface vessels. Flying boats of this order of size and power, apart from their range and the comfort afforded to the passengcr, will undoubtedly show superior seariding qualities to their predecessors and will be able to operate with ease and safety in seas which would swamp smaller craft.

Like all modern British aircraft, the new flying boat is designed with clean, beautiful streamlines to hull and superstructure, reducing “parasitic” resist ancc to movement through the air to a low figure. Progress of this kind was especially to- be expected m the new boat, which is the largest yet planned by Mr R. J. Mitchell, well known as the designer of the racing seaplanes flown to victory in the last two Schneider Trophy international contests and holders of three world’s speed records. This boat will he built by the Supermarine Works of Vickers (Aviation), Ltd. The engines are Rolls-Royce 825 h.p. “H” units.

The Chuvashes, one of the native nonRussian peoples which live along the Volga, have been celebrating the tenth anniversary of the establishment of their autonomous national republic. They occupy a stretch of territory, mostly on the right back of the Volga, between Nizhni Novgorod and Kazan, with their capital at Cheboksari. Before the revolution these people were almost exclusively agriculturists; now factories are making their appearance along the Chuvash forests and fields.