SWIFT NEW PLANE

Evening Star, Issue 19666, 20 September 1927, Page 8

SWIFT NEW PLANE

A FLASHING MIDGET SECRET OF ITS SPEED 300 MILES AX HOUR POSSII LITY. The Tiger Moth, a tiny snper-sports monoplane, which represents technically one of tho most important advances in aviation since Orville Wright first flew nearly twenty-four years ago, made its first public appearance before 20,000 spectators during tho Royal Aero Club’s air. meeting at Hiicktmll Aerodrome, Nottingham, last month. Tho midget black and fawn craft which is being flown on trial by Captain 11. 8. Broad is tho fastest conveyance in proportion to power that has yet been produced by man. Its four-cylinder, air-cooled engine, rated at only thirty-two horse-power, drives tho miniature machine, even in its present form, at a speed of more than three miles per minute, and slight modifications are expected to increase its maximum speed to more than 200 miles an hour. PARIS IX SEVENTY-FIVE MINUTES FOR 10s.

The machine weighs only 5751 b, and measures 19ft from wing-tip to wingtip. At a cruising speed of nearly 180 miles an hour it consumes one gallon of petrol every thirty miles, and uses one gallon of oil in 1,800 miles. A pilot of on© of these, small craft would therefore he able to fly from London to Paris in one hour and a-qnartcr at a cost for petrol of less than 10s.

One flight which it is proposed to take in tho near future on a Tiger Moth is an air tour of 2,000 miles in ono day, alighting at most of the chief European capitals. So confident is Captain dc llavilland, builder of the Tiger Moth, of tho efficacy of the new construction formula which he has discovered, that he says he is prepared to outer tho craft in a speed tost with any other light plane in the country, Tho machine was incomparably the fastest craft in the air: yet it was dwarfed by the small, light aeroplanes taking part in the races. It screamed like an angry gnat past the huge saloon passenger plane carrying joy riders, and flashed at lightning speed past the enclosures, flying only a few feet from tho ground. FIVE MILES A MINUTE. Major I’. B. Holford, the racing motorist, who designed tho engine, of the Tiger Moth, said: “The dekign of stream-lined, aircooled engines has now reached a stage when it is possible to build machines able to carry ono man through the air at speeds of between 300 and 350 miles an hour. “The design of the Tiger Moth lias been based throughout on the need to' reduce to a minimum the head resistance of an aeroplane. The success which has attended the design has opened up a way to speed which does not depend on tho use of engines of enormous power.”