AVIATION NOTES

Southland Times, Issue 23444, 26 February 1938, Page 5

AVIATION NOTES

PILOTS AWAIT THEIR LICENCES

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During the past week the weather for flying has been ideal and 60 hours were logged. The instructor, Mr F. J. Adams, has had a busy time giving dual to Civil Reserve, Club trainees and pilots at Myross Bush and Gore. There are about eight trainees nearly ready for their A licences and it is hoped that an examiner will be down within the next week. Trainees awaiting their tests are G. A. Falster, G. Johnston, J. Alington, N. Dixon and D. Howarth while F. Jones and K. McKenzie have still to complete their five hours solo. Congratulations are due to G. Wylie, of the Gore Aero Club, who made his first solo flight last week-end. Mr W. A. Cameron with two passengers has had the Puss Moth away for a week during which time he made a tour of the South Island. Leaving Invercargill he went to Dunedin, Christchurch, Blenheim, Nelson, then down the West Coast via Greymouth, Hokitika, Wiaho and then back to Invercargill. Mr J. Crombie who has just returned from a tour around America and Europe has been here again and last week-end he was successful in going solo in the Puss Moth. Mr F. Finlayson who has not been out flying for a considerable time was seen at, the controls of the Puss Moth and handling it with his usual skill. Cross-country flights were made by Messrs W. McSkimming to Balclutha in ZK-ADM, I. Boyd piloting the machine home, R. Black to Waikawa in ZK-ADB, and F. Adams to Stewart Island in ZK-ADM.

There has been started at the Southland Technical College a course for pilots. There is a Rolls-Royce Eagle Vl2 engine in the workshop for instructional purposes. The theory of aeronautics is also in the course and should be found very interesting and helpful giving pilots a better knowledge of flight. All pilots wishing to attend the classes should enrol at the school office immediately.

BRITISH SAFETY DEVICE ABROAD Rumania is the latest country to acquire, for a considerable cash payment, the Handley Page slotted-wing patents. She is the thirteenth country to purchase the patents or the rights to use them; the other nations concerned are Great Britain, which paid £lOO,OOO for them, Italy, Poland, Canada, France, Germany, Sweden, United States of America, India, New Zealand, Finland and Japan. Adopted originally in the interests of safer flying, the slotted wing is nowadays equally important as a means of augmenting speed range of the modern heavily loaded high-performance aeroplane. In military aeroplanes speed range is overwhelmingly important; in commercial aeroplanes safety is the more vital factor. To some extent the two qualities overlap; an aeroplane capable of a wide range of speeds will, other considerations apart, be safer than an aeroplane with a narrow range.

Wing slots add to the security of flying because they maintain stability and control at the lower end of the speed range, and even when flying speed is lost. Further, they shorten the takeoff and landing runs and steepen the climb—all factors in freeing the aeroplane from dependence on large aerodromes and minimising the danger of surface obstructions near by. Speed range is enhanced because the slots provide extra lift at low speeds, while at high speeds, when they are not in action, they lie snugly within the contours of the main wings and do not add to head resistance. FASTER BOMBERS

Engines which are supplied with fuel mixture through two-speed superchargers are installed in two models of the Armstrong Whitworth Whitley

heavy bomber monoplane, now in large production for the Royal Air Force. Use of these new engines gives considerable increase in performance; compared with the Whitley I, which on the power of two Siddeley Tiger singlespeed supercharger engines has a maximum speed of 192 miles an hour at a height of 7000 feet, the Whitley II and 111 are more than 20 miles an hour faster, can lift a heavier load, climb more rapidly and reach a higher “ceiling.” Their maximum level speed, established at a height of 15,000 feet, is approximately 215 miles an hour. The two-speed supercharger maintains high power output over a wide range of height levels. It gives two heights at which maximum power is available, corresponding to the two speeds in the mechanism. Hence the Tiger VIII engines of the Whitley II and 111 bombers develop 860h.p. at 6750 feet with the moderate supercharger gear in action, and 780h.p. at 14,250 feet when in full supercharge.