FAMOUS BRITISH AEROPLANE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22356, 1 September 1934, Page 8

FAMOUS BRITISH AEROPLANE

“ SPIDER’S ” ACHIEVEMENTS I (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, July 20. The “ Spider ” monoplane which lia-s been used by Captain C. D. Barnard for all Ins most important record-breaking flights, has set up what must bo a record in records. The machine Hew from Karachi to London in four days, and made the journey from England to India and back in 1!H days, breaking eight records and Hying for the first time nonstop from England to Africa, and from Bulawayo to Capetown and making the fastest time from Cape to Cairo. A tour

of India of about 20,000 miles has now been com pleted during which 0241 passengers were carried. Captain Barnard gives high praise to the Bristol “Jupiter” engine with which the aeroplane is fitted, and states that nothing whatever was done to it with the exception of routine maintenance work. On several aerodromes Captain Barnard had to contend with severe dust storms and the range of temperatures in which the aeroplanes operated was very wide, extending from freezing point to 114dcg. in the shade. Captain Barnard was holding air pageants at the chief centres of population in India, and he visited a large number of towns and gave in all 92 displays*. The objects of the series of pageants was to demonstrate that the progress of civil aviation will do more to

further India’s prosperity than any other single factor. FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS. Lord Londonderry (secretary of State for Air), is to present to the Science Tiusenm, South Kensington, the original Handley Page “ Gugnunc,” which was expressly designed and built to demonstrate the value of interconnected leading edge wing slots and flaps. At the time it was first flown it had a speed range which was claimed to bo in excess of that possessed by any other fixed wing aeroplane and at the Royal Air Force display and on other occasions it showed its remarkable powers both of slow flying and of fast flying, first with the slots open and the flaps down, and then with the slots closed and the flaps np.

J The selection of the “Gugnunc” to ! stand beside the first power-driven aero- ; plane to make a controlled flight in i this museum, is an indication of the value placed by scientific opinion upon the invention of the wing slot. This device gives increased lift and can be used not only for increasing the speed range of a given aeroplane but also for improving stability and control. The rights in the invention were brought by the British Government for use in the Royal Air Force and the French Government has acquired the rights to use the patent in French, civil and military machines. An important feature of the leading edge slot and trailing edge flap is that the operation can be made entirely automatic, The forces available at the lead-

ing edge was su.f|icient to draw open the slot at the correct moment and to pull down the inter-connected flap. Consequently the pilot needs no additional control and the wings of the aeroplane automatically and instantaneously adjust themselves for slow speed pr for high speed flight. One of the latest private owner types of aeroplane, the Hendy “ Heck,” employs the slotted flap for enabling a high top speed and a low landing speed to be secured. Thie machine is now undergoing test at the Government station at Martlesham Heath.