MAJOR MAYO'S LECTURE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23687, 20 December 1938, Page 13

MAJOR MAYO'S LECTURE

COMPOSITE AIRCRAFT FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS (From Our Own Correspondent) (By Air Mail) LONDON, Nov. 17. Mr R. H. Mayo, inventor of the composite Mercury-Maia aircraft and technical general manager of Imperial Airways, said in an address at Leeds on "The Composite Aircraft ": " When we have conquered the Atlantic we shall be able to link together every part of the British Empire without having to alight or even fly over foreign territory." The distance from Ireland to Newfoundland was 2000 miles, and when he began work on the composite aircraft in 1932 there was no aircraft capable of doing an Atlantic flight at a reasonable speed with a reasonable commercial load. The aircraft needed a load of petrol so heavy that it was taxed to the limit and had difficulty in taking off. WING AREA AND POWER So much additional wing area and power needed for a take-off was not needed after the take-off, and the composite aircraft gave one machine with a surplus wing area and power and another with a heavy load of petrol. The main job was to find means of getting a heavily-loaded aircraft away from a lightly-loaded aircraft. For the Dundee-South Africa flight the Mercury was loaded up to 27,5001 b, nearly 70001 b more than it was designed.to carry. When the machines were joined the pilot of the lower and larger one had entire control without any assistance from the Mercury above, whose controls were completely locked. Explaining an ingenious device for storing petrol on the Mercury, he said that the petrol was housed in a tank 40 feet long, which stretched right through the machine's wings. It was one of the largest, and certainly the longest, aircraft tanks ever made. Adequate precautions were taken to ensure that neither wing would be borne down by an , unequal weight of petrol. The aircraft was designed as a marine unit with floats. Large floats were necessary, whereas with a " land job" they could have a retractable undercarriage, which would be the means of adding 50 m.p.h. to the aircraft's speed. The problem of constructing composite land aircraft would be comparatively easy. Originally it was intended only to make a direct 2000 miles flight across the Atlantic, but the aircraft did, in fact, fly 3000 miles, and right from the start the Mercury had been a first-rate flyer. MILITARY USES Major Mayo spoke of the value of the composite aircraft for military purposes in carrying bombs or petrol. He hoped it would be possible to run in due course daily services to America. With a composite aircraft constructed for land purposes a maximum speed of 300 m.p.h. and a cruising speed of 275 m.p.h. would be attainable. A net load of one to two tons according to the distance flown would also be possible. When that was attained it would be sufficient to link every part of the British Empire, and London to Capetown could be flown in two hops in one day. One could go to Australia in less than tv/o days. The strong winds of the Atlantic presented difficulties, but once the Atlantic was conquered, every part of the British Empire could be linked up without, the necessity of landing on or even flying over, foreign territory. "I shall not rest content until that has been achieved," he concluded.