AIR TECHNICIANS

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 14, 12 October 1943, Page 4

AIR TECHNICIANS

Background To Training 01

A.T.C. Cadets

MOBILE UNIT TO TOUR N.Z.

An inside view of the technical section of the [Royal New Zealand Air Force will be afforded -parents and interested members of the public during the Air Training Corps mobile instructional unit’s -tour of New Zealand. This tour has the dual purpose of -providing a material background -to Air Training Corps cadet training and- of stimulating recruiting interest [by giving the -public a first-hand im-pressiou of the technical side of the Air Force at work.

Consisting of three modern transport vehicles fitted up as mobile workshops and display (booths, the unit is a new departure in air technical training. In the charge of R.-N.ZA.F. officers, technicians and a driving crew, the unit, in its stationary and opened state, is comparable -with the elaborate aeronautical pavilion featured- at the Centennial Exhibition. Included are aircraft motors ranging from four-cylinder, air-cooled motors for Moth aircraft, to multicylinder radial motors for (bomber aircraft.

Almost entirely manufactured and assembled- in the workshops of . the RINJSA.F., the unit travels as a road convoy. The first two vehicles are -large pantechnicons with ample headroom'. Number one is built to allow the whole of one side -to fold down to floor level, the lowered side becoming a platform. This vehicle contains a variety of aircraft motors, all seetionized in a manner which allows the layman to see what “makes them tick.” Highlight of this display is a large seven-cylinder radial motor, thoroughly seetionized, and- slowly “ticking over’-’ to the power of an electric motor through a reduction gear. Other items- in the display are carburettors from modern fighter and bomber aircraft, some of these components alone -being comparable with the size of a large motor-cycle engine. -On the second component of -the convoy is mounted the whole of a Harvard fighter trainer aircraft, less the wings and tail unit. Apart from these modifications. the aircraft is exactly the same as its flying counterparts in service with the R.IN.ZA.F. The Harvard’s hydraulic retractable undercarriage has been retained in the display. Cadets can get into the cockpit and operate the controls, causing the hefty undercarriage to go down and retract. Similarly, the hydraulically-operated fuselage flaps can be worked from -the cock-pit. ■ Vehicle number 3 is -the armament display. The rear of -this vehicle draws out ill telescopic fashion, a fully operational Bolton Paul gun turret from a Lockheed Hudson bomber aircraft being mounted on the end of the telescopic section. Because of its size and its maze of electrical gear, the turret, which mounts two Browning air machineguns, should attract -wide interest. It is so arranged as to work exactly as- it originally did on a bomber, and a moving -model aircraft is incorporated in the unit. This will allow cadets to get inland operate the -turret and line up the modern reflector sights on the -model in the same manner as an air-gunner on active service. Other highlights in this vehicle include a 20 nun. air cannon, seetionized ibomibs, air cameras, and (bomb-sights.