BUILDING PLANES

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 246, 14 September 1940, Page 8

BUILDING PLANES

NEW ZEALAND’S PART

MACHINES FOR AIR FORCE,

(By Telegraph.—Special to Standard.) WELLINGTON, Sept. 14. New Zealand, which is so rapidly expanding its training facilities for the Royal New Zealand Air Force, is also doing something towards the actual building of aeroplanes. A branch factory ot the well-known English concern, the de Havilland Aircraft Co., was started nearly a year ago at Rongotai, Wellington’s airport, and is now in full production, employing over a hundred New Zealanders who are directed by experts from the English company. The factory is spacious and well planned, and the venture was well based initially by an order from the Government for a hundred Tiger Moth planes for training purposes in the Dominion. The first batches of these machines came from England complete, and had only to he assembled, but with each succeeding consignment more work has been left to he done here, and the organisation at Rongotai has now reached the satisfactory stage of building the complete Gipsy Moth except for the engine and metal fuselage. The wings are fabricated in the factory, the tail unit constructed by. the same staff, and some of the metalwork. including the cowlings, is being manufactured by New Zealand firms. Hundreds of small metal parts are being sent from England in the rough, leaving a good deal of finishing to be done by fitters and other skilled tradesmen at the Rongotai factory. ,

“KEY” EXPERTS FROM ENGLAND

The. aeroplane manufacturing industry in New Zealand makes a sound start with expert directive skill from England. The general manager is Mr H. Buckingham, of the de Havilland Aircraft Co. and his assistant is Mr P. J. de Havilland, who undertakes the responsible duties of test pilot, putting the completed machines through their paces, subjecting them to gruelling tests in his aerobatics which should provide a good guarantee that they will stand up to hard service in New Zealand’s air training schools. Four other specialists have also come from the parent factory, each taking practical charge of a section of factory operations. Concentrating at present on the Tiger Moth, the factory is able on a modest scale to get the advantages of mass production. This single-engined biplane, generally used in connection with the Empire air training scheme in Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom, is the standard “trainer” of the system, for it is strong and rugged, well able to stand the rough usage associated with the earliest efforts of our future pilots. It is a development from the Moth, so familiar in connection with New Zealand club training. Production of tlie Tiger Moth lias boon going on at Hatfield, not far from London, for nine years. It is also being built at Melbourne, and it is expected that the Gipsy Major four-cylinder air-cooled engine for this type will shortly be made in Australia.

SHIPPING SPACE SAVED

■The work now being done in New Zealand means a great saving in shipping space, as the engine and metal fuselage which have to be exported from the main factory take up comparatively little room in a ship’s bold. The l two wings have a total span of nearly 30 feet, and these are made at Rongotai’. as well as the tail units. The beginnings of the wings are seen in tlie wood-working shop. where baulks of Canadian spruce, beautifully even in grain and free from flaws, pass, through the milling machines which hollow out each side of the main frame —there are two to each wing. After this process tlie frame members resemble a well-designed steel girder, light but immensely strong for their weight. In the assembling section two of the spruce girders are spaced the width of the wing, and connected up by many light ribs of wood, having metal tics. Much skill and experience have gone into the design of this light but strong design, which will bo covered with fabric, and takes the whole “lift” of the aeroplane. Building the ribs of the wing goes on in a quiet section of the factory, where some of the delicate fitting together of small pieces of shaped wood with metal fastenings is done by the deft fingers of women. The ribs are made up on jigs, to ensure exact standardisation of design. Alter a thorough inspection—expert examination takes place at every stage of manufacture—the completed wing frame receives a coat of preservative paint and is transferred to another section of the factory to receive its covering of linen. This is made up like au elongated sack, which is slipped over the wing assembly and taken in hand by halba dozen girls who lace the task or stitching many yards of seams. It is a neat job with needle and thread, and the wing now takes its familiar appearance, the fabric so carefully stretched and sewn that not a crease can be seen. Two ground coats of red aeroplane lacquer are well brushed in, and the wing becomes “drum tight.” Two more coats of “dope” .are sprayed on, and the finished wing is complete, resplendent in bright “training yellow.” All these operations arc done in a section of the factory maintained day and night at an even temperature. Wings and tail units emerge from the paint factory into the main assembly hangar where the metal fuselage carrying the engine awaits the final, process. This bare centre of the Tiger Moth is soon provided with its sets of wings, tail unit, and many other fittings, and after much testing and trial is wheeled out into the open for tlie’flying tests. Between six and eight Tiger Moths are completed at Rongotai every month, as every section of tlie establishment is now running smoothly. The heaviest “crash” repairs fail'also be undertaken, and engine overhaul is another important phase of the work. Thus New Zealand is bo- j coming more self-contained in connection with the aviation industry. I