RECONNAISANCE PLANE

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 18756, 12 July 1935, Page 9

RECONNAISANCE PLANE

HIGH PERFORMANCE MODERATE POWER USED (From a Special Correspondent) LONDON, May 20. Extremely high performance on moderate expenditure of. power, testifying to the .skill with which British aircraft designers are using the resources ol modern aeronautical science, is attained by a ne\y "coastal reconnaissance” monoplane that, is on the. point of concluding trials in the hands of Royal Air Force ■ test pilots. • .The machine has been developed from the design of a commercial monoplane known as the Avro Type 652 or “Ava,” two of which were bought recently by Imperial Airways for high-speed “special charter” flying and the operation of feeder services. Like its commercial counterpart, it is a beautifully streamlined twin-engined monoplane with the wings, which form a cantilever structure and have no external bracing struts or wires, set low on the fuselage. The engines—two Siddeley Cheetah.22o .h.p. moderately supercharged radial units—are surrounded by resistance-lessening cowls. Structurally the military machine is similar to the commercial model. The commercial model, powered with Cheetah 290 h.p. motors, is very fast, reaching a maximum speed of 195 miles an hour and cruising with economical throttle opening at 165 m.p.h. Its rate of climb in the initial stages in 950 ft per minute and its service “ceiling” is 21,500 ft. Accommodation is provided for a crew of two and up to eight passengers. Here evidently is an efficient aero*plane, able to carry ten occupants on a total maximum engine output of less than 600 h.p. at nearly 200 miles an hour.