MODERN AIR TRAVEL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23690, 23 December 1938, Page 10

MODERN AIR TRAVEL

SPEED AND LUXURY APPROPRIATE NAMES FIRST OF THE “F” CLASS (From Our Own Correspondent) (By Air Mail) LONDON, Nov. 24. High-speed luxury air travel reaches yet another phase of progress with the advent of the Imperial Airways express airliner Frobisher. Seated in the saloons of this latest express plane the other afternoon, passengers looked down to see Brighton Pier just below them. Then, only 9 minutes 40 seconds later, they were over the London airport at Croydon. They had flown from Brighton to Croydon at a speed of 235.8 miles an hour. Frobisher and two other express craft of the same F class (Falcon and Fortune) are to be brought into service by Imperial Airways on European routes.

The speed of modern express air travel, as illustrated in airliners of this F class, is indicated by the fact that Frobisher is capable of carrying passengers from London to Paris in 64 minutes, from London to Cologne in 91 minutes, from London to Zurich in 153 minutes, and from London to Budapest in 277 minutes. Like all other Imperial Airways main-line craft. Frobisher employs the multi-engined form of power plant which ensures the highest factors of reliability as well as of speed. The airliner can take off and climb to 14,100 feet on only three of its four engines, while it can maintain a height of 5100 feet with only two of its four engines operating. During the Frobisher flight from Brighton to Croydon at a speed of just on four miles a minute, the airliner's engine-plant was operating at only 65 per cent, of its full power. Appended in a summarised form are details of these new F class Imperial aircraft: — Dimensions —wing span 105 ft; overall length 71ft 6in; height 22ft Sin. Each airliner is equipped with four super-charged “Gipsy Twelve engines of 405-420 rate h.p. at 2400 r.p.m. at 7500 ft. Each of these engines provides a normal maximum power of 410-425 h.p. at 2450 r.p.m. feet, and 505525 h.p. at 2600 r.p.m. for the take-off. Each airliner is manned by a crew of four—Captain, first officer, radio officer, and steward, while accomodation is provided for 22 passengers. Passengers are seated in spacious and luxurious saloons, the minimum standing height being 6ft 3in. In addition, there are toilet rooms, campartment for mail or hand luggage, freight room, and fully-equipped kitchen. The normal cruising speed of each F class airliner is well over 200 miles an hour. The undercarriage is retractable and electrically-operated, while two alternative methods of hand-operation are provided. Electrically-operated flaps are fitted. Radio equipment with loop aerial and direction-finding equipment is installed, together with an ultra-short-wave blind approach receiver. The Sperry automatic pilot is fitted, and there are two landing searchlights, one on each wing.

PICTURESQUE NATIVE WORDS AND DESCRIPTIONS

The romance of long-distance flying, with swift “ships of the air” now winging their way to Africa, India, Malaya, and Australia, is emphasised by the names conferred on some of the big flying boats operating on these services.

Picturesque—and in some cases, singularly appropriate—are names derived from original descriptions as used by natives. For example, the name Coorong, given to one of the Qantas flying boats, means “ cloud searcher a happy name for any craft which rises from the earth and soars high through the air. Then there are the Australian words “Cooee,’ “Coogee.” and “Coolangatta.” Two of the new flying boats which will be used on the trans-Tasman service, connecting Australia with New Zealand, will have the Maori names “ Aotearoa " and “ Awarua.”