FAST NEW AEROPLANES WILL DEFEND ENGLAND

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19236, 25 November 1930, Page 8

FAST NEW AEROPLANES WILL DEFEND ENGLAND

EXTENSIVE ADDITIONS TO ROYAL AIR FORCE. t United Press Assn.—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.) LONDON, November 24. It is expected that 250 Hawker Fury single-seater fighters, and Hawker Hart bombers will be ordered to complete the requirements of Home squadrons, within fifteen months, when six squadrons will be equipped with Furies and four with Harts. A number will also go to the Fleet Air arm in Home waters, replacing some of the slower types. The changes will assure that Britain w r ill be equipped with fighters capable of dealing with any possible attack, while the bombers and scouts will be equal to those of other nations. The Hawker Fury interceptor fighter is the most remarkable aircraft yet put into the service, and is an answer to the Hawker Hart day bomber, which in the recent manoeuvres demonstrated the danger to which London would be exposed in wartime, says a correspondent. The Hawker Hart, at a height of 15,000 feet, has a top speed of 153 miles an hour, barely ten miles an hour less than the fastest fighter. These machines, as raiders, might not be found until they had passed over the coast; they would then be over London in twenty minutes, leaving no time for the defenders to go up and find the invaders. The Hawker Fury, however, has a top speed well exceeding 200 miles an hour at 15,000 feet, to which it can climb in eight minutes It could reach a likely height at which to intercept raiders at least in twenty miles from London, when its speed and powers of manoeuvre would enable it to bring down, or head off, the assailants.