“FLYING MOTOR CAR”

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 10, Issue 64, 18 December 1946, Page 3

“FLYING MOTOR CAR”

LAST WORD IN SAFETY \. > ■ MACHINE ABSOLUTELY FOOLPROOF Britain’s “flying motor car,” the Chrislea Ace, a four seat air runabout which will cruise for nearly 300 miles at 110 m.p.h. using only one gallon of petrol every 20 miles, is now under flight test at the aerodrome at Heston, in Mddlesex. She comes closer to being a roadster of the sky than anything yet built in Britain. •>-, U ' And she is the last word in safety, simplicity and bargins the cost will be less than £IOOO. This is what Flight Lieut. R. F. Stedmah, test pilot of the Chrislea Aircraft Company, says of the plane:— “She’s absolutely foolproof. If you try, to stall her, you just can’t. She simply floats downwards. “She is quiet, -too. I can’t carry passengers until she gets her certificate of airworthiness—we expect it in a month’s time—so I have had to talk to myself to see if conversation is easy. It is !” When., Mr R. C. Christoforides, managing director of the firm, designed the Act, he set out to make her as much like a family car as possible. He did away with the normal rudder pedals ;and devised a patent three-in-one car-type steering wheel —smartly finished in ivory—which operates all three controls: rudder, elevator, and .ailerons. The steering wheel is attached to a rod sticking out of the car-type dashboard. To turn to the left you carry out a simple double movement with the steering wheel, pulling it to the left to operate the rudder and twisting it in the same direction to apply ailerons. When you waat to climb you just tilt the wheel upward. You pull it down to lower the nose. > The designer has also fitted a foot accelerator in addition to the hand throttle. “Coming in to land you shut off the hand throttle and use the foot accelerator,” he explained.