BIG AIRLINER

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 249, 20 October 1937, Page 9

BIG AIRLINER

LOCKHEED VISITS WANGANUI FAST COMMERCIAL ’PLANE INTRICATE CONTROL CABIN Union Airways Lockheed Electra Kereru, one of the three machines used on the Auckland-Wellington mail and passenger service, paid a brief visit to the Wanganui Airport yesterday afternoon. The machine, which brought a full complement of 10 passengers, was flown by Commander B. A. Blythe, the company’s chief pilot, with Commander K. Brownjohn as co-pilot. The machine arrived about 1.30 p.m. and after the co-pilot had made a number of practice landings, the Lockheed returned to Palmerston North at 3 p.m. The Lockheed Electras are the fastest commercial aircraft in use in New Zealand and have a top speed in excess of 200 miles an hour. The cruising speed, depending on the altitude at which the aircraft is flying, varies between 165 and 190 miles an hour. The Lockheeds are powered by two 450 horse-power Pratt and Whitney supercharged radial engines each of which is fitted with a constant speed airscrew. The constant speed airscrew is somewhat intricate, but its operation may be explained in a general way by stating that once the engine revolutions have been set by thu pitch regulators, the airscrew governors automatically change the pitch within certain limits, keeping the revolutions constant, and thus ensuring that the engine operates at its highest efficiency for different flying heights and loads. Complicated Dashboard The pilot and co-pilot of a Lockheed are faced with a disarming array of gauges and controls which would turn grey the hairs of an ordinary pilot. The twin control wheels and columns are the master flying controls, but beyond them, for the constant attention of the pilots, is this properly dazzling lay-out of illuminated dials, indicators and gauges without which operating economy would be mere guess work and safe flying in all weathers impossible.

There are for navigation and blind flying, two compasses, an artificial horizon and gyro, a turn indicator, « sensitive altimeter which reads in tens of feet, a rate of climb indicator, a turn indicator and an air-speed indicator; for checking the motors there are revolution counters, manifold pressure gauges, temperature recorders for engines and carburetters; for general control there are fuel and oil gauges, flap and landing wheel position indicators (reinforced by a loud Klaxon if the engines are throttled back with the undercarriage up, cabin temperature recorders and others.

The pilot, too, has throttle controls, pitch governors, undercarriage and flap controls, an emergency undercarriage winder, fuel valves, ignition controls, directional and fore and aft trimmers and switches to add to the general lay-out of the control cabin. Probably one of the most important instruments is that which gives the engine temperature. The judg-

ment on fuel mixture passes from the pilot to a piece of platinum wire stretched across the exhaust outlets. A steady electrical current is applied to this wire, the resistance of which varies according to the temperature, and condition of the exhaust gases. The current which passes this resistance is read upon a ddial in the control cabin and indicates not merely gas temperature, but the pioportim of carbon monoxide in the exhaust. On this little piece of wire the pilots place much reliance in their daily trips between the chief cities of the North Island.