NAZI AIR SECRETS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 05, Issue 92, 17 August 1942, Page 6

NAZI AIR SECRETS

REVEALED IN BRITAIN AERO ENOINIvI-:'!lS' TKIUMvPH Secret -information about German aircraft AVfis secured ])y the Britisli Government Avlicn a Soutli V/jilcs engine overliiiul factory re-lmili a complete German nero-erginc from a cjuaniity of spares and parts.

Five complete engines were eventually assembled, all of them passing tests, and Mr G. Ilummerstone, the superintendent, received a letter from the British Ministry of Aircraft Production thanking him for what they described as "a remarkablc achievement." This factory is one of 12 run. by the British Overseas Airways Corporation, whose wartime work has earned for it the nickname "Merchant Air Service." Over 10,000 miles of British air routes from Sweden to South Africa and the United States to India, these unarmed merchant ships of the air maintain vital communications of Empire through all the theatres of war. Last year they flew f>,r>oo,ooo miles; in. 1942 the figure will be around about 8,000,000 miles. Regardless of weather and risks of enemy interference these planes carry vital messages, important personnel, films and written propaganda. The urgency of the work is giving the Corporation much valuable data for use after the war when engines will do more for the same weight, and radio and other devices will open up an era oF safety for commercial flying which would have seemed impossible in peacetime.