MEDIUM BOMBERS FOR NEW ZEALAND

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 157, 29 March 1939, Page 11

MEDIUM BOMBERS FOR NEW ZEALAND

Fairey Gordons From Near East FIRST BATCH EXPECTED WITHIN FEW MONTHS Dominion Special Service. CHRISTCHURCH. March 28. The majority of the additional 250 aircraft which were ordered for the Royal New Zealand Air Force last year are to come from the Near East, principally from Egypt. An official announcement stated yesterday that the first batch of these machines —Fairey Gordons —would be picked up in the Suez Canal within the next, month or so and brought to New Zealand. This purchase of 250 additional fighting aeroplanes follows negotiations which were started between the New Zealand Government and the Imperial authorities late last year. It is believed that the Orari will go from London in ballast through the Suez Canal, picking up the aeroplanes ■eu route from a Royal Air Force depot. The first of these machines will arrive in New Zealand within the next few months. These machines, as the Minister of Defence, Mr. Jones, has already indicated, have seen some service in England but are still capable of much useful work

As the new machines from the Near East arrive they will be taken to Hobsonville air base for assembly. The Fairey Gordon, which is by no means obsolete but which is being replaced in Near Eastern depots by more modern machines, is a two-seater mediumrange bomber.