VAST CROWD THRILLED BY METEOR PLANE

Chronicle (Levin), 15 April 1946, Page 4

VAST CROWD THRILLED BY METEOR PLANE

Aerobatics At Paraparaumu: A crowd estimated at upwards of j 14,0.00 PAQPile was thriiled ye.siierday : "at P-arajparau.mu aerodrome with ' the aerobatic display g'iven by theGiost.er Meteor M'ark III jet air- , eraft, the faatest machine ever toj be s.e.en ijn Niew Zealand. The exhi- j oition was given just .a.bove thej heads of th.e vast crowd and the ! 5000 ears parked on the aerQdrome. From. early afternoon people com- ; meneed to arrive in hundreds and! ohe aircraft, which was on display j m a roped o.h enolosure, was thej oentre of attraetlon. At 3 p.m., piloted by a New Zealander, Sqqad- 1 ron-Leader R, M. McKay, the machine to.ok off and the speed at1 which it did so was soon foxgottenj py the erowd in the startling low- j level dives„ rolls and invert.ed flying ( which fqllowed, Working with a; sound like escaping compressed air,J the Rolls Royce .Herw.ent turoines ieemed to give added stability and' man oeuvr a bility to this sturdy ! ungle seater dghter interoeptor. The Meteor was noted during thej iatter p.art of the war for its goodj vork in combatting the German fly- j ng b.omb, and als.o for its groundj rttacks on, -enemy aerodromes. The controls of the aircraft. are )f the conventional type, althoughj ihe fuselage contains some new iepartures from the better known yar-.planes. The high tail-plain is reminisoent of the Westland Whirlvind." It is necessar-y bo set "it up to xeep it away from the blast of the jets, owing to the terrific force of ,he air 'as it issues from the turlines, ■ The sp.eed of the iet enter:.ng the atmosphere after passing through the . turbines i§ 1600 feet per second. The speed of sound is 1120 feet per second, making it easy to understand why the sound, of the engines arrives after the 'plane has gone. Gro.und stability is added bv tne fact that the aircraft possesses a iricycle underearriage. Besides giving ground •stability, the nose wheel brings the nose of the Meteor down, giving the pilot a greater new of the surrounding aerodrome. The f-uel tank is aft of the cookpit and contains 330 gallons of kerosene, eno.ugh for an hour's ffignt. Cn addition to the ordinary fuel cank, an overload fuel tank ean be dung under the belly of the aircraft containing 180 gallons, but it is understandabie that this would be a great disadvantage in _ combat, cutting down manoeuvrability and speed to. a marked degree. During ihe' war the aircraft was armed with our -20 mdlimetre eannon in the nose, giving the plane great destructive power, b.pth in combat and also in ground attackIn the operation of the ,j.et motors the air is taken in through '.tb.e meshed covering over , the air ntakes. at the front of the engine and forward of the wings, and from Jbgre passes through .a compressor. Kerosene is added and the mixture is ffred. This caus.es the burned gases to expand and move through ,he engine at very high speed. They oass through the turbine which ;evolves on the same shaft as the sompressor. The turbine absprbs some of the energy created by the .peeding gases, eausing it to spin and at the same time to rotate the compressor. The gases pass through :he turbines and are ejected' at sven greater velocity through a specially shaped orifice at the rear of the engine and behind the trailng edge.of the wings, issuing mtc he atmos,phere to develop the necessary propelling thrust. With such a large numb.er of cars *t is easy to imagine the congestion vvhich co.uld have taken place when t-he display was ovcer. How&ver, .as a result of the fine work of a squad of traffic inspectors and Automobile ^ssociation officers, avho supervised - direction and parking of the car.in arrival and departure the exo.dus I'om the aero.drome was an .orderly one, and the large crowd was desoatched with a minimum of delay. Residents of the Horowhenua disfrict had their first glimpse of the \feteor on Saturday afternoon. when it fiew low over- the district. At Levin and Ot.aki it ciroled several times ro.und the town areas, strik- • mg everyone who saw it with its speed and p.ower. These short displays resulted in many being attracted to Paraparaumu yesterday to see more of the aircraft.