AVIATION NOTES

Southland Times, Issue 23695, 19 December 1938, Page 14

AVIATION NOTES

By CONTACT The weather again has been stormy and unsuitable for flying, there being few fine periods. Several pilots have been doing some flying, Mr F. J. Adams being kept busy with instruction work. H. Strang and F. Poole have been successful in obtaining a course in flying as civil reserve pilots and nave both begun flying training. The present civil reservists are now well on witn their course and have completed their theory classes. , The weather was good wnen tne machines flew up to Wendonside for the pageant. There were three machines from Otago and the day was a success, there being heavy bookings for joyrides. It was 8 o’clock before the machines were tied down for the night. Mr F. J. Adams and Mr A. Burbridge gave the big crowd plenty of thrills with aerobatics and stunts. An interesting match was held between a Tiger Moth and a B.A. Swallow in a climbmg contest. The former machine had several horsepower more than the Swallow, which showed its worth in climbing at such a flow speed. The total times for last month showed an increase over the previous month, the hours being logged as follows: Solo 44hr; dual 41hr smin; passenger 47hr 20min. The total is 132 hr 25mm. The number of days in which flying was carried out was 23. AEROPLANE BUILDERS Orders in hand amounting to several millions for the Hampden high-per-formance twin-engined bomber and succeeding types of aircraft were announced by Mr S. R. Worley, the chairman, at the Handley Page company’s annual general meeting. He said that the increased orders —a record, in the company’s history—required increase of factory floor space. At Cricklewood,” he said, “we have arranged to rent additional premises which formed part of our production, unit during the war. As this extra space is unlikely to be used at the end of the expansion programme, we are making arrangements with the Air Ministry that it limit our liability to the rental of the buildings during the period of expansion.” A statement read on behalf of Mr ■ Handley Page (who at the time of the meeting was in Canada as a member of the British air mission) referred to the exceptional rapidity of execution of the big contract for Harrow heavy bomber monoplanes which occupied the factory for the greater part of 1937. Mr Handley Page stated: “The contract was not only completed three months ahead of schedule, but the Harrow itself is giving excellent results in service. Such a good result in production has only been possible by close cooperation between our technical and production departments and by the energetic way in which our foremen, chargehands and work-people have done the work. “SPLIT ASSEMBLY” “Our later types of aircraft, of which the Hampden is next in production, have found considerable favour, • and we have with this and succeeding types a full programme of production for some years ahead. These aircraft are also to be manufactured by other companies. Our success in production has been largely due to the way in which our production department has been able to develop a system of split assembly, under which manufacture proceeds concurrently on a big number of sub-assemblies of the aircraft so that it is possible to concentrate a considerable number of men on different specialized portions of the aircraft in suitably located parts of the factory.” Mr Handley Page added that m the year under review the company had disposed of some of its rights in the slotted wing. He said: “We anticipate that modern technical development will call for a larger use of higher wing loadings so as to obtain greater performance. The need for a sufficiently low landing speed still remains, and for this purpose and for control at slow speeds the slotted wing is without a rival.” His statement ended with a tribute to the men who were chiefly responsible for the fine .worl done by the company—Mr Hamilton, chief of production, Mr Volkert, head of the technical and design department, and Mr Easy, the secretary and expert on The Hampden bomber is in full production. It is an extremely fast monolane, powered with two Bristol Pegasus engines, each giving up to about 1000 h.p. Operation’ from small fields and adequate control at all speeds are ensured by the full installation of slotted wings and slotted trailing edge flaps. Sir Kingsley Wood, Minister for Air, said that though the Hampden was much smaller in dimensions than its immediate predecessor in the service, it could carry a bigger military load a longer distance and at a very much higher speed. ADVANCED TRAINING Airspeed Oxford twin-engined monoplanes, of the type ordered in big numbers for training Royal Air Force pilots, have just completed a year of strenuous duty with the Royal. New Zealand Air'Force. At training schools crashes are to be expected and certainly only thoroughly trustworthy and sturdily-built craft can stand up to the demands of unskilled pupils. In practice the Oxfords have shown themselves highly successful for all “twin-engine” training duties, particularly in landing. No accidents have resulted from bad landings by pupils imposing excessive strains on the undercarriage gear. The only mishaps at all have been of a minor kind such as dropping a wing on landing and dragging it along the ground. These accidents have meant little delay, for the machine can quickly be put in the air again by fitting a new extension plane if the damage is at all serious. The Oxford is planned to accommodate and train pilots and other flying personnel who are to graduate to the high-performance multi-engined aircraft now in the service. Power is provided by two Armstrong Siddeley Cheetah X air-cooled engines, fitted with controllable-pitch airscrews and developing 35(T h.p. each. Inside the Oxford equipment is carried for training in air photography, radio, bombing, gunnery, navigation and “blind” flying duties by night and by day. Loaded to a gross weight of 73001 b the Oxford’s top speed is 185 miles an hour; economical cruising speed is 161 miles an hour. Range tops 800 miles. The normal crew is three, but “stations” on board are available for five separate training duties to be undertaken. “STRESSED SKIN” WINGS The structure of the Oxford is mostly of wood, with metal fitments at certain important points. The fuselage is built in two sections, the forward part consisting of wood, welded tube and light alloy, the aft part being of semimonocoque wooden structure. The wings are built to an ingenious “stressed skin” wooden system which reduces manufacturing times and simplifies maintenance. Hie machine has very clean lowwing monoplane design, with retractile undercarriage. Outlook from the pilot’s cockpit is exceptionally good. The civil version of the Oxford is the Airspeed Envoy, the chief difference being that twin Cheetah IX 310 h.p. engines are fitted instead of Cheetah X. Two Envoys, with maximum top speed of 203 miles an hour and accommodation for pilot and up to eight passengers, have been purchased by the Indian Government for the personal use of the

Viceroy and for official communication duties in India. The machines thus acquired are similar to the Envoy now used by the King for official journeys.