BRITISH AIR NEWS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21531, 31 December 1931, Page 14

BRITISH AIR NEWS

MILITARY AND COMMERCIAL MACHINES SPEED AND HEIGHT ATTAINED DEFENCE BY INTERCEPTORS. (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, November 24. The late official announcement about re-equipment of certain Royal Air Force squadrons indicates that the air staff are paying attention to the lessons of this year’s air “war,” when nearly 300 war planes took part in exercises designed to test the air defences of London. At the time of the “ war ” only one squadron had received the new fast fighters which, with their top speed of 214 m.p.h, and astonishing powers of climb, are among the fastest and most formidable fighting planes in the world. The next batch is to go to No. 1 Squadron, so that the only two “ Fury ” squadrons will he stationed together in order that operational experiments may be the more effectively made and checked. Evidently the important part of home defence which comes under the heading of “ interception ” is to receive especial studv. The “ inceptor ” fighter was developed by British designers especially to meet the needs of London air defence, but it is equally applicable to use in any part of the world where a vital objective lies within easy raiding distance of foreign territory. Machines of this class must be capable of extreme speed and rocketlike climb to great heights. In official tests the “ Fury ” climbed to a height of 20,000 feet in nine minutes, and even in the rarefied air found nearly four miles high it can still fly at a speed of 207 miles an hour. Performances of this order enables the “ interceptor,” given the necessary efficient network of observation posts on the ground, to reach fighting height in a very few minutes and to bring the enemy to battle with the least possible loss of time. BRITISH AIRLINERS AT WORK. Few people realise the immense amount of work that is done by the efficientlytrained operated airliner, plying day after day to time table on an established route. Commercial efficiency demands that the craft shall spend a great proportion of its “ life ” in actual use on the airways the more it is used and the less it requires long periods off service for overhaul and inspection the more economical and profitable it is to run, given a sufficient volume of traffic. But the figures of hours spent aloft and distances flown arc, nevertheless, sufficiently striking. In June the first of a new fleet of eight' immense Handley Page Type 42 biplanes, the largest passenger-carrying landplanes in the world, made the maiden trip from London to Paris and back. Four similar machines have since been delivered. The latest, styled “ Horsa,” is on the way to displace smaller and older craft on the CairoKarachi section of the Imperial Airways route to the east. The second of the fleet was delivered about a month later. In the period of four months since then four of these new craft have flown between them more than a thousand hours and covered a distance equivalent to well over 100,000 miles. The individual records are still more impressive. “ Hadrian,” second to start work, has spent 340 hours in the air and covered approximately 30,330 miles. “ Hanijo ” is credited with 347 hours and 30,435 miles. “Hannibal,” the first of the fleet, has flown 220 hours and “ Heracles,” fourth in order of delivery, has already spent 101 hours on the Lomlon-Paris airway. MILEAGE IN THE AIR, AND ON THE ROAD. ' Every motorist will appreciate at once the magnitude of these figures. In onethird of a year two of the giant biplanes have each covered a distance that few motorists have ever attained in 12 months. And the comparison is justified. Aeroplanes and motor cars are driven by internal combnsion engines. The motor car power unit may get more shaken about. It may suffer damage from the intake of road dust and other foreign bodies. But the motor car engine is relieved from load with each lifting of the accelerator pedal. The aeroplane engine works under constant load for hours on end with the throttle, probably three-quarters open. NEW TWO-SEATER FIGHTER. The “ Atlas,” ’for several years the standard array co-operation plane of the Royal Air Force and well-known to hundreds of past and present service pilots, has been rejuvenated. New ideas in design, a more powerful motor, and improvements in streamlining have combined to produce a machine which ranks among the fastest two-seater military aircraft yet built. So important is the increase of speed and efficiency that the Armstrong Whitworth Company are putting it forward not only for the" “ general purpose ” flying done by the older “ Atlas ” but also for two-seater lighting, a branch of service work in which high performance is essential. The Mark II “ Atlas ” biplane, constructed entirely of steel and driven by a supercharged 535 h.p. “ Jaguar Major ” radial air-cooled engine, attains a velocity at a height of 10,000 feet of 107 m.p.h. with full load on board and its “ ceiling ” is no less than 24,500 feet. It climbs to 15,000 feet in 154 minutes. The load carried is 95 gallons of fuel, 8 gallons of oil and 8801 b of military load, including bombs and other armament. THE TOWNEND RING. Much of the increased speed is got from the Townend Ring, the British device which markedly reduces the big head resistence of radial aeroplane engines. The ring is placed round the greatest diameter of the engine and preserves an undisturbed air-flow over the engine and the fuselage behind it. In addition, every possible detail has been studied to avoid excrescences and arrangements of external component parts that might set up “ turbulence ” in the surrounding air and increase resistance. Navigation lights are let into the edges of wings and rudder, and every screw is sunk below the surface of the fuselage. The control surfaces have been completely re-designed and the new “ Atlas ” j possesses exceptional powers of manoeuvre and stability in flight. The machine demonstrates in striking fashion the improvement in performance made possible by use of tbe newer aerodynamical theory without any proportionate increase in sheer horse-power.