EMPIRE FLYING BOAT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22964, 20 August 1936, Page 20

EMPIRE FLYING BOAT

SUCCESSFUL TRIALS WORLD'S FASTEST MARINE AIRLINERS (From Ouh Own Correspondent) (By Air Mail) LONDON, July 25. Canopus, first of the fleet of fourengined monoplane flying boats which the Short Company is building for the Empire air routes, has passed successfully through its preliminary handling and flying trials. The result leaves no room for doubt of the airworthiness of the craft. The first machine will be ready to begin ,work immediately the certificate is granted. Piloted bv Mr J. Lankester Parker, chief Short test pilot, Canopus handled admirably in the air and on the water. It was flown with every combination of engines. Even with two engines stopped on one side of the hull—the most difficult "two-engine" case—it was easy to control. Its performance fulfils all expectations. Normal cruising speed will be at least 150 miles an hour, more than sufficient class the hew boats as the world's fastest. (A French expert has calculated, on the basis of the known performance of the Scion-Senior, which is a flying half-scale model of the Empire boats, that cruising speed may be more than 160 m.p.h.) At that rate it will transport 24 passengers by day, or 16 by night, their luggage, and up to three and a-half tons of mails and urgent freight over distances of as much as 800 miles non-stop, while by adjustment of payload the range can be lengthened to 1500 miles.