FOKKER FORESTALLED

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLV, Issue 126, 1 May 1925, Page 11

FOKKER FORESTALLED

HANDLEY-PAGE AMAZES THE EXPERTS. THRILLING AERIAL DISPLAYS. «ON, April 15. ker, the famous Dutch aeroplane designer and flyer, was preparing to demonstrate his new safety-flying commercial monoplane before a gathering of international experts, including the Director of Ciyil Aviation, Major-General jSir geftbn Rrgncker, p,t t{je Croydon aefodroipe to-day attention was directed tp an Air Force machine which was hovering, apparently motionless, beneath the clouds.

The experts were astonished to see thp new-comer like a drunken skyrocket perform every evolution calculated to epd in disaster. He flew tail dqwn and repeated stalling pnly resulted in the aeroplane slowly sinking horizontally tp tlip grpun.d. Mr F. Handley-Page disclosed that the machine was fitted with his new patent “slotted wing,” which he proposes shortly to demonstrate in Australia, and which he is also fitting to numerous British commercial and Air Force craft.

Fokker was the first to congratulate the Air Force test pilot Bulman, after which Fokker and Bulman proceeded to tuke part in a thrilling aerial hovering contest. Bulman, in a half gale appeared to drift backwards without losing height.

Fokker, carrying eight passengers, stalled his machine at a height of 200 feet, recovered control and landed safely.

His passengers confess to having been alarmed when they saw Fokker release the controls and 101 l nonchalantly in his seat.

VISION OF FRIGHTFULNESS IN

NEXT AIR WAR.

Mr Fokker gave a vision .of the next ajr war, in which, he declares, unheard-of engines of destruction will he used. Chief among them will be steel armoured “super’ ? war ’planes, the size of battleships, and almost as effectively armed, with holds filled with veritable hornets’ nests of fighting aeroplanes, which it will be possible to launcli and take in in mid-air and l , with tons of bombs and poison gas cylinders. They will have the latest wing designs, tending towards slower landing, and making it practically impossible for the machine to stall. Aircraft, as demonstrated te-day he said, opened a new field for the designer, removing all limits of size and wpight. Fokker graphically described a visitation of such machines from a base 1000 miles distant, defying all defences, and hovering over a city as long as they liked, going home after two or three days aloft. Multiple propellers would be driven from a central bomb-proof engine-room, and crude oil would be used, removing the risk pf fire. Fokker is considering the establishment of an air service between Holland and Batavia, using largo monoplanes.