BENEATH THE WINDSOCK

Evening Star, Issue 22145, 27 September 1935, Page 2

BENEATH THE WINDSOCK

s [By Grrsr Moth.] CHAMPION WEIGHT-LIFTER. Marked advance in design and con-< struction of the heavy transport service aeroplane is revealed in the planning and performance of Jhree new British twin-engined monoplanes which are now undergoing official trials The heavy transport plane fulfils important duties with the Royal Air Force in the field, and has proved especially useful in the Near and Middle East, where policing responsibilities of tlie service are heaviest. Most notable achievements are credited to these big machines, including the evacuation from Kabul of 600 refugees who were threatened by the Afghan civil war of 1928-29, and the shifting at short notice of a battalion of infantry from Egypt to Bagdad, where a serious rising was feared among the Assyrian levies attached to the Iraq army. The heavy transport aeroplane is also used to maintain squadrons on active service far from the base. In actual operations a British squadron has been sustained several hundreds of miles from its base by the work of heavy tranport aircraft" which kept up a continuous service between the base and the squadron, carrying fuel, ammunition, spares, provisions, and other essential supplies. Their place in aerial strategy and tactics. is obviously of great importance. The bomber-transport machine is intended primarily for the conveyance of troops or of a heavy bomb load. It' must also be fitted to perform efficiently, many other duties, such-as the carriage of spare engines, fuel, stretcher cas.es. It must be able to work from the restricted a'rea of improvised flying fields, such as are near a war front. The fuselage must be large mid roomy, provided with hatches ana gear for the quick loading and’ unloading of bulky goods. How the British designer manages to combine these service with high performance and robustness is admirably illustrated in the design of th« Handley Page 51 monoplane, which is one of the three craft now under test. This is a high-wing monoplane, powered with two Siddeley Tiger 760-810 h.p. engines. Tlie undercarriage struts and wheels are fixed, but they are carefully streamlined, with faired casings >to diminish head resistance. The fuselage is of good, aerodynamical form, with no unessential excrescences to disturb the airflow, and the engine nacelles merge harmoniously - with the lines of the wings. , The structure is extremely robust, to withstand the arduous service conditions met out East. In the nose of the fuselage is the forward gun-turret and the bomb-aimer’s hatch. Just aft is the enclosed cockpit for pilot and navigator. Aft again is the roomy cabin, and in the tail is a second gun cockpit for defence against hostile aeroplanes. Uses of the cabin are many __ and varied. It may be fitted with quicklydetachable canvas seats for the transport of up to 30 fully-armed infantrymen. Special ventilators provide frequent changes of air, making the machine i more comfortable than earlier troop carriers. For ambulance work the Type 51 can carry 10 stretcher cases. The stretchers. are arranged five on each side, three above and two below. Hoisting gear,, apd floor attachments facilitate the.’> carriage of three spare engines. In loading, each engine is slung up with the hoisting gear and swung into the fuselage, where it. is bolted to stands attached- to the floor. Three removable tanks are provided for the carriage of fuel, each with a capacity of 173ga1. On bombing expeditions the Type 51 carries a normal load of 4,0001 b .of bombs, which are launched by electrical fusing and release gear. The two gun. Vpiplacements enable the machine to go out on bombing raids without an escort, because .it can be defended by the crew against hostile aircraft. Finally, the automatic wing-slots improve the speed range of the aeroplane and help enormously in operations from small aerodromes and from aerodromes located high above sea-level. They are valuable also when the machine is asked to carry an emergency overload, because they increase lift and improve control at the lower end of the speed range and thereby give marked assistance in the take-off. . FLYING “ BLACK MARIA;” Recently for the first time in Britain, an aeroplane was used as a ‘' black Maria.” A “ wanted ” man was arrested at Ramsay, and' the police at Blackpool sent Detective, 'Frank M'Kenna to bring Kim back. The prisoner was arrested on a Saturday morning, and it would have been 8 a.in. on Monday before the -.detective and his prisoner could have arrived in Blackpool—an interval of about 48 hours from the time the telephone message was received from the Isle of Man. As an experiment, the officer decided to travel by air. He left Stanley Park aerodrome, Blackpool, at 10 a.m. on the Saturday, and was back again, with Anderson lodged in the Blackpool cells, at 4.30 the same afternoon ! Thus for tKe first time in Britain an aeroplane was used as a “ black Maria,” and Detective M'Kenna, or “ Air ’Tec,” as he is now known, became a pioneer in a new type of '' flying ” squad. And, as the prisoner has. to foot the bill, it will have cost nothing for trying this swift and up-to-date method of transporting prisoners. AVIATION IN U.S.A. The amazing advances made in commercial aviation in the United State* were commented on by_ Mr M. W. Beaven recently after his return from America, where he spent two months (says tlio Christchurch ‘Press’). Regular and efficient services spanned the country, he said, and during June this year all the commercial aeroplanes operated on the West Coast with 100 per cent, efficiency, arriving and leaving the aerodromes at the scheduled times. An hourly service ran between New York and Chicago for 24 hours a day, and for travel on the transcontinental machines it was necessary ta book tHe seats in advance. • _ . All this activity in the air had its results in the other modes of travel, Tlie railways were forced to speed up, and special streamlined trains; with top speeds of more than 100 miles an hour were designed. The tracks were_ improved, and though luxurious carnages were used,’the fares were brought down. The railways were all owned by privat* companies, and had been hit very hard.