MOBILE WORKSHOP

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVIII, Issue 23261, 24 July 1945, Page 5

MOBILE WORKSHOP

Airscrews Refitted hi The Field LONDON. July 6. A new mobile workshop has been developed by an English firm which enables major aircraft, repairs to be carried out on the actual site of the breakdown. It is known as the Rotol Propeller Service Trailer and is staled to be different from anything hitherto produced, reports “Machinery.” This mobile workshop which wa.s specially designed lor Ihe repair and maintenance of airscrew . can be in operaton within half an hour of arriving at a site. The whole unit can be housed if necessary in a tent. It carries all equipment necessary to carry out repairs on any make of propeller. It is also equipped with nine special tools, including a blade angle-setting protractor. electrical lighting equipment a hub pressure testing plant and a gauging table. In addition, it carries a rapidly-erected crane with a 23-foot lift and scwt capacity. One outstanding feature of this new mobile workshop is the portable balance with which new blades can be fitted to airscrews on the site. This work had previously to be done at a factory in a special draught-proof chamber, the plane then being transported by road to an aircraft station. Rotol Service Trailers are expected to play an important part in post-war civil aviation and. in particular, in the servicing of air routes where planes may be forced down in areas far disl 1 "’ from normal fa. tore repair facilit'"c.