CENTENARY AIR RACE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22328, 31 July 1934, Page 7

CENTENARY AIR RACE

THE LOCKHEED ALTAIR PLANE

The temporary cheeks which Sir Charles Kingsfo'rd Smith met with on the arrival.of the Mariposa carrying on her tennis deck his high-speed Lockheed Altair low-wing monoplane have been outlined iii the cablegrams. The machine, which arrived in Australia bearing the exclusive name of Anzac, has now been christened Miss Southern Cross, released from the Customs, and has shown a speed of 185 miles an hour in a trial. Later it will be flown to England as a preliminary to Sir Charles's flight in the Centenary Race. In addition to the official difficulties there were some practical obstacles to landing the large machine. Three methods were suggested for getting the machine to Mascot Aerodrome. The first was to take off from Macquarie street, which adjoins the wharf, but this was not permissible. The second was to transport the--machine by road, but the wing span was too great, to permit passage under certain railway bridges'. The Lockheed was unloaded on to a Vacuum Oil-lighter by a giant floating crane, towed to Neutral Bay, and conveyed along the specially constructed run-way to Anderson ,Park. Here again space was at a premium a run-way of 200 yards only being available. However, the machine rose in approximately 120 yards and made an uneventful flight to Mascot.

The Lockheed Altair has a Pratt and Whitney Wasp 550 h.p. 9-cylinder radial engine, "fitted with a Hamilton variablepitch propeller controlled by oil pressure from the cockpit. It has two settings, giving a variation of six degrees. As far as is known this is the first variable-pitch air propeller seen in Australia. It has the advantage of allowing a quicker take-off and yet a higher speed when the setting is altered in the air.

The normal tankage is 125 Imperial gallons of petrol, but the machine has eight petrol tanks, three, in each wing and two in the fuselage, giving a total capacity of 420 gallons. It estimated that the petrol consumption will be 28 gallons- per hour. The oil capacity is 32 gallons. Normally the machine takes off at 60 miles per hour and lands at the same speed when using the special " flaps," which are electrically controlled from the pilot's cockpit. When lightly loaded the machine will take off in still air after a run of approximately 120 yards at sea level. The cruising range is expected to approximate 3000 miles. • The retractable under-carriage is manually controlled from the cockpit and landing lights are standard fittings in the leading edge of both wings. Apart from the usual . instruments for night flying and navigation, including bank and °turn indicator, etc., the machine is equipped with a Sperry gyro compass and cylinder head temperature gauge. The Vacuum Oil Company has made all arrangements to service Sir Charles with petrol and oil.