NEW BRITISH PLANE.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20238, 23 February 1934, Page 1

NEW BRITISH PLANE.

Carries 10 Passengers at 170 Miles an Hour. LONDON, February 17. The Air Ministry has successfully tested the De Havilland Express, the world’s fastest four-engined air liner, which is capable of 170 miles an hour. It was with this plane in that Qantas Airways, Ltd., tendered for the Singaporc-Darwin section of the AngloAustralian air route. The machine will carry ten passengers. Highly streamlined, and in form slightly resembling the Dragon Moth, the Express was completed in record time. It was certified airworthy on January 30, the day before the tenders closed, although it had been ordered only on September 25. In addition to ten passengers, the Express will carry a commander and first officer, both pilots. It will cruise at 145 miles an hour (reducing the time to cross the Timor Sea to three hours), although the tender conditions specify a speed of only 90 m.p.h. at present and 110 m.p.h. in three years’ time. The De Havilland Aircraft Co., Ltd., claims that it is the first air liner to combine high speed and multi-engined reliability, and able to maintain height, fully loaded, with any two of its engines. Comfort Studied. Luxuriously fitted, the plane is equipped with cooling devices for the tropics and has special provision for heating when flying high. The crew is enclosed separately in the nose of the plane. Ihe machine will be able to communicate by direct wireless with other stations ancl obtain its bearings. It is powered by four new De Havilland Gipsy six-cylinder engines, mounted on the lower wing. It has a wing span of 64Aft and is 43ft in length. The racing machines which De Ilavillands have built for the Centenary Air Race have been christened the Demon type. Five or six of them will probably be used in the race.