BRITISH AIRCRAFT

Hokitika Guardian, 26 February 1931, Page 3

BRITISH AIRCRAFT

DEAI AND FROM FOREIGN COUNTRIES. HIGH SPEED OF SERVICE MACHINES. LONDON, December 19. The Royal Air Force have acquired a small twin-engined amphibian Hying boat for specialised training of .service pilots in navigation and in the art of navigational instruction. 'This, a Saro “Cutty Sark” monoplane arranged ;\s a three-seater craft with dual piloting control, has an exceptionally full equipment of electrical” Wear and instruments. It is the smallest of a family of flying boats, obtainable also in arnpliibius form to operate from land or water, which are being developed by Saunders-Roe, Ltd. It is powered with two 1.20 h.p. air-cooled motors and normally provides space in an enclosed cabin for a pilot and three passengers. Several of these machines are operated hv private fivers, who employ them as air yachts, and h.v air line companies in parts of the Kmpir’ where larger machines would he uneconomical in the present, state of air transport. The machine acquired by tho R.A.F. is considered peculiarly suited to navigational instruction because it may be flown indifferently over land or water, while costs ol operation are low. Tho largest yet built of the family, called the “Cloud” ranks among the most powerful amphibians in the world. One of the type, fitted for use as an air yacht to the orders'of its Canadian owner. Mr Robert Holt, was piloted recently by the Prince of Wales most of the way from London to Southampton Water and hack. FOR FT GNT R A DE—D UR A! 51LI TV AND STRENGTH. British aircraft form part of the equipment of no fewer than 24 foreign countries, a fact to which attention is drawn by recent large orders received for service aeroplanes from Belgium and Greece. The hundreds of machines comprised in those air services include British aircraft of everv type*, and it is estimated that no other nation in the world has supplied so large a number of service aeroplanes to foreem countries. Much mf 'this success is duo to the durability and strength ol the . flying machines built in Bn'Hi factories. Tn turn, the wid- e.vnorienee gained in supplying aircraft, to every part of the world strio>rrtl> f 'u' i and assists the British designer and constructor in the production of n• feraff still hotter conieped ‘o >ll-e* ticneeds of military and civil operators overseas. ENGINE DEVFLO PMENT. Present day British service aircralt are admitted t>y tcclmi-al experts ol every country to possess qualities which place them above all competitors. -Powerfully helped by extraordinary engine development, the British lighters I ,' bombers.' general purposes plapes and flying boats are swifter and climb faster than any foreign competitors. Speeds which only a few yehrs ago’were attained with difficulty by the world's fastest raebig aircraft •’re a commonplace of evorvd-yv Avionin recently re-equipped squadrons of the Royal Air Force. The British aero engine-builder plays an important nart in his country’s overseas prestige. Om* British engine alone is buib >md°r license in 17 countries and thousands of aircraft built abroad are orMiinp°d with British-built or British designed power plants. AIOTHS FOR DENAIARK. News has been received of a repeat order for Gipsy Moth light aeroplanes from the Danish Government. The aircraft will be employed in the training of pilots Tor the Danish Royal Air Force and Naval Air Service. When tho newly-ordered machines are delivered the Punish, flying services will possess 13 of these British light aeroplanes. 8 ÜBAI All INF PDA X KB. Among the more unusual types ol service aircraft produced by the British industry are small seaplanes. Considerable ingenuity is needed in the design of ail aeroplane which shall he seaworthy and efficient and yet lie small enough for compact storage in the limited space available within a j submarine. A successful craft of this kind is the Pa mail Peto, a small twoseater constructed largely of .stainless steel, which has made long cruises in one of the largest submarines in the Royal Navy. The craft is a bi-plane powered with an air-cooled engine of approximately 150 h.p. and is specially fitted for catapult launching from the submarine deck. Carrying a military load of 5001 b, exclusive ot oil and petrol, tho small craft is abb' to remain aloft for two hours, extending by many hundreds of square miles the area which may tic effectively reconnoitred by a scouting submarine. Once on hoard again, the Peto may be folded into a small space and lowered into a tiny hangar within The. of the machine is 110 m.p.li., and ’ft height of 5.000 feet, from which “St wide expanse of sea may be swept, is submarine hull. The maximum speed reached in 11 minutes’ climbing .