NEW AEROPLANE ENGINES

Taranaki Daily News, 14 September 1934, Page 13

NEW AEROPLANE ENGINES

SIX REACH WIGRAM AERODROME. MOST POWERFUL IN DOMINION. The six largest aeroplane engines ever imported to New Zealand are now stored at Wigram aerodrome, waiting to be fitted to the six Vickers Vildebeest tor-pedo-carrying aeroplanes which have been ordered for the Royal New Zealand Air Force. They are Bristol Pegasus engines, of the type used in establishing tire present world’s height record. Each is of 635 horse-power. They are the first supercharged aeroplane engines to be seen in New Zealand, and the most modem in the country. Tliey are, indeed, the most up-to-date engines in regular use in the Royal Air Force, in which they are gradually to replace the Bristol Jupiter, one of the most famous engines in the world. The Pegasus is a nine-cylinder radial air-cooled engine—the type most commonly used in nedium and high-powered commercial and military machines. Each cylinder has a bore of 55 inches and a stroke of 7A inches. This particular type of Pegasus engine has a centrifugal type supercharger with three different gear ratios. An ingenious “boost control automatically adjusts. the degree, of supercharging to variations of height and atmospheric pressure. The weight of each engine is 9801 b, ana it delivers 620 horse-power at 2000 revolutions a minute at sea-level. Its maximum horse-power is 635 at 2300 revolutions at 2500 feet. Air Force officers would not say anything about the engines or when the aeroplanes were expected to arrive. It is believed, however, that the first two aeroplanes will reach the Dominion before long.