COOK STRAIT AIR SERVICE

Taranaki Daily News, 15 January 1931, Page 6

COOK STRAIT AIR SERVICE

MACHINE AWAITING DELIVERY. FLYING BOAT AT AUCKLAND. (By Wire —'Special to News.) Auckland, Last Night. Five large cases containing the body, wings and engines of a Saro Windhover flying boat which is to be engaged in the Wellington-Nelson air service have been lying in the shed on the Central Wharf for over four weeks. The five cases, one of which is 40ft long, arrived by the Port Huon from England on December 13, consigned to Dominion Airlines, Ltd. a company formed at Wellington in May last with a nominal capital of £200,000. Pending arrangements being made for the assembling of the parts the company’s officials gave instructions for the cases to be placed in bond. The Defence Department has granted the company permission to use the facilities at its air base at Hobsonville to assemble the machine and to convey the cases by barge up the harbour. The machine, which was built at East Cowes, Isle of_Wight, is the first of its type. It cost about £12,000. It is somewhat similar to the four-seater Cutty Sark at the Hobsonville air base except that it is larger and has three.de Havilland Gipsy engines each of'dOo h.'p. placed above the wing instead of two in the earlier model. It has accommodation for five passengers and a pilot. Novel but easy means'of entering the boat are provided. Passengers who are going to travel in the fore compartment will enter through the roof, where . a sliding panel has been placed,, while those travelling in the other cabin will step in through the starboard window, which is a sliding one. The machine's maximum speed is 110 miles an hour and the cruising speed is 97 miles per hour.