BENEATH THE WINDSOCK

Evening Star, Issue 23384, 29 September 1939, Page 3

BENEATH THE WINDSOCK

by Gypsy moth

MORE AIRSPEED OXFORDS. Sis more Airspeed Oxford aeroplanes, ordered for the Royal New Zealand Air Force, are expected to be delivered from England about November C, according to a statement by the Minister of Defence, Mr Jones. The Royal New Zealand Air Force already has five Oxfords, which are twin-engined trainers, and have been operated for the most part from the flying training school at Wigyam (states ‘ Wings ’). It is expected that the sis machines about to be delivered will also be assembled at Hobsonville. The Airspeed Oxford is a popular training machine for teaching young pilots to handle • twin-engined craft. Pilots trill bq trained in the Oxfords before being transferred to tho much larger Yickers Wellington bombers, of which many are on order for New Zealand. Day and night flying training can be given in the Oxford, which is powered by two Armstrong Siddeley Cheetah X radial air-cooled engines, each developing a maximum output of 375 h.p. The pilot has an excellent outlook, and interior arrangements of the fuselage permit numerous and diverse training duties to be undertaken. Bombing, aerial gunnery, navigation, aerial photography, and radio telegvahy are tho duties normally fulfilled by members of the crew under instruction; the fiilot learns how to manipulate controls _ to synchronise engines, for smooth running as well as practising with one engine cut out. For aerial target practice a drogue may be fitted to the Oxford and towed well astern to give ground gunners realistic anti-aircraft firing practice. Maximum speed in level flight is 184.5 miles an hour at S.UOOft. Its range extends to 875 miles under cruising conditions. The service “ coiling.” tho height at which rate of climb falls

to 100 ft per minute, is reached at 23,500 ft. An adequate safety margin is given by the ability of the Oxford to maintain height at 6,000 ft using only one engine.

NEW TYPE OF AIR LINER,

The Fairey Aviation Company, England is building for the Air Ministry 14 four-engined air liners of a new type, which are to have a top speed of 275 miles an hour with 30 passengers, a crew of six, and a load of mails. Describing this new type—the F.C.I. —the London ‘Times’ says:—“Too often in the past the pilot of an aeroplane has had to do his work in discomfort while his passengers rested in comfort and often in luxury; in liners of the F.C.I. type the pilot will not only work in comfort, but will also bo relieved of much of the work which falls to the lot of many an air pilot of to-day.

“ In the F.C.I. the first pilot sits in a comfortable armchair. On his right aro throttle controls for the four Bristol sleeve-valve engines, and farther to tho right sit? the relief pilot in another armchair. Each pilot has in front of him the usual flying controls' for elevator, ailerons, and rudders, and beyond the controls an instrument panel which is most unusual in that it shows only instruments for flying, such as airspeed indicator, artificial horizon, and turn and bank indicator, and does not show the multiplicity of instruments which record the behaviour of the four engines, their auxiliaries, and accessories. All these instruments, and certain controls such as petrol cocks and mixture controls, over 70 in all, arc grouped on a big panel which faces a flight engineer, who sits behind tho first pilot. “Thus the pilot can concentrate on flying the aeroplane while the flight, engineer relieves him of such duties as the study of flow-meters, exhaust gas analysers, oil-pressure gauges, temperature indicators, and many other engine instruments, and the regulation of the mixture controls to obtain the best and most economical performance from the engines. Nor need the first or second pilot concern themselves with the maintenance of wireless communication, for behind the second pilot sits a full-time wireless operator with all his apparatus duplicated ns a safeguard against any kind of breakdown. The view from the pilots’ armchairs is exceptionally good, partly because the aircraft lias a tricycle under-carriage and partly because the designers have given special attention to this feature and have not hesitated to make a number of changes in the lay-out of tho control room to achieve their end.” BIRTHDAY OF AVIATION. British commercial aviation recently celebrated its twentieth birthday. On the morning of August 25, 1919, three aeroplanes left London for Paris, each with paying passengers. The first aeroplane to leave London was a Handley Page, tho second was an Aireo 4. piloted by Lieutenant E. H. Lawford, and the third an Airco 16. Though the Handley Page was tho first commercial aeroplane to leave London on August 25, 1919, the Handley Page Transport Ltd. did not begin its regular service until a week later. The distinction of inaugurating the service belongs, therefore. to the pilot of the Airco 4. He is now Captain Lawford, aerodrome officer at Lympne.