CASTS ITS WINGS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 8, Issue 24, 14 November 1944, Page 5

CASTS ITS WINGS

REVOLUTIONARY PLANE DESIGN

VALUE TO FUTURE OF FLYING

Aircraft designers have long been considering the idea of slip-wings to enable aeroplanes to take off with heavier loads yet without sacrificJ ing the better performance of monoplanes". The principle of the slip-wing is that the aeroplane takes off as a with twice the lifting surface of th'e monoplane and nearly twice its carrying capacity. When safely in flight the slip-wing is released in order to gain the i'aste* speed of the monoplane. Only recently has a plane built on this principle got any farther than the draw-ing-board. states, an English exchange . In 1940 the firm of F. Hills and Sons constructed a scale-model of an aeroplane fitted with a slip-wing, and tests in the. high-speed wind tunnel! at Farhborough proved there was no danger of the released wing striking the tail unit.. Designed primarily as a monoplane, the uppe* (slip-wing) of this machine was mounted above the fuselage just clear of the cabin. A full-sized aeroplane was built, unci on July 16, 194.1, it took off for the first complete test. At 1500 feet the upper wing Avas relcased j and although the machine dropped a few hundred feet the pilot never lost control. Powered by a 200 h.p. de Havilland Gipsy Six aero and known as the, Hillson Bi-raonoplane the aeroplane, has a weight of 1940 lbs., including its pay-load. Without, the slip-wing—that is ? as a monoplane—the machine could only takeoil' with a little more than half tho pay-load though of course f it can safely carry the full load when in flight. It is hoped that this revolutionary j design, will prove of great value' to i flying in the future.