MIDGET AEROPLANES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22809, 19 February 1936, Page 8

MIDGET AEROPLANES

GROWING POPULARITY APPROVED DESIGN ESSENTIAL (Per United Press Association) WELLINGTON, February 18. " There is an increasing number of young men in the Dominion who are in. clined to embark on the building of very light aeroplanes of the ' flying flea' type from an unapproved foreign design or of a kind of their own devising without, first acquainting themselves with the requirements of the New Zealand air navigation regulations," said the Minister oi Defence, Mr F. Jones, to-day, " Even though these midget machines may, be based upon entirely unorthodox aerodynamic principles, they come within the legal definition of aircraft, and are. therefore, subject to the regulations, including the provisions concerning registration,, airworthiness and pilots' and ground engineers' licences. No aircraft is permitted to fly in the Dominion except for test or experimental purposes, and then- only when it is controlled by an 'A' licence pilot, unless it has been certified as airworthy. The specific authority of the department is required before a test or experimental flight can be made. "To obtain a certificate of airworthiness an aeroplane must comply with certain minimum requirements laid down m the International Convention for Air Navigation, of which convention we are a contracting State. Before construction is commenced all design, details and stress calculations 'must be submitted for approval. All the material used in the construction of aircraft must be certified as having been inspected and passed by the British Aeronautical Inspection Department and a relea.se note to this effect produced. The work of construction can be done only by approved or licensed engineers. " The manufacture of aircraft is the function of a well-equipped factory and is not a job to be lightly undertaken by a home constructor. The records of the department show that the majority of home-built aircraft in this country have been failures, and, perhaps fortunately for those concerned, have never left the ground. Only two of all the attempts can be called at all satisfactory, and those two machines were constructed bv competent ground engineers. The others have simply been an expeusc and a disappointment to their builders."