FLYING SCHOOL

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20039, 11 September 1939, Page 9

FLYING SCHOOL

TARANAKI PROJECT HANGARS AND QUARTERS PROVISION FOR 200 MEN READY IN -SIX WEEKS (Per Tress Association.) NEW PLYMOUTH, this day. Large-scale operations for the immediate and rapid development of the Nc-w Plymouth airport as a training, centre to the order of the Government have been put into effect, and the whole plan is expected to he in full swing this week.

The scheme, a general outline of which has been released by the Government Censor, involves an expenditure of £45,000 to provide large hangars and accommodation for a staff and flying trainees totalling about 200 persons. The work is to be completed in approximately six weeks, and the New Plymouth master builders have agreed to concentrate on the work at the airport under contract at cost price, plus commission to cover administration expenses.

Taranaki pilots have suffered heavily in Royal Air Force operations since the outbreak of the war, three already having been reported missing.

Flying-Officer Laurence Edwards, whose parents live at Patea, was the first casualty, advice ' being received the day after the raid on Wilhelmshaven.

On Saturday advice was received that Pilot-Officer Cedric Whittington, forjnerly of Hawera and Now Plymouth, was missing and was believed to have lost his life."

Yesterday the parents of PilotOfficer Bruce Clifford-Jones, Mr. and Mrs. IT. C. Clifford-Jones, of New Plymouth, received a cablegram stating that their son was missing. Pilot-Officer Clifford-Jones was the Taranaki tennis champion and reached the semi-final of this year's Royal Air Force tournament at Wimbledon