CAPE TO CAIRO

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 263, 30 June 1932, Page 8

CAPE TO CAIRO

new air fleet EIGHT 150 M.P.H. MONOPLANES | FOR TRANS-AFRICAN | SERYICE. | • •IMPERIAL AIRWAYS VENTURE. | i : *i 9LONDON, April 30. | Finishing touches are now being $ made to the first of eight | new fonr-engined passenger mono- | planes, which are being designed j and built specially for Imperial Air- | ways for operation on the 5500 miles ;«i trans-African air-line between Cairo ^ and Cape Town. vtj It is expected that this first machine | will be ready for preliminary trials % within the next few weeks and that | the entire fleet will be in service on | the African airway towards the end | of this year. _ I The new monoplanes will he known | as the "Atalanta" class, and will hear | the f ollowing individual names : — | Atalanta, Andromeda, Arbemis, As- jf traea, Amalthea, Arethusa, Athena, | Aurora. _ | This great new British air fleet is | being constructed by Messrs. Arm- . strong Whitworth Aircraft, Ltd., of | Coventry. Each of the monoplanes | will, when fully-loaded, weight nearly a eight tons, of which rnore than two g| tons will he available for the aceom- i modation of crew, passenger s, mails, | and goods. T)hey will each have a | span from wing tip to wing tip of 90 ^ feet, while from nose toUail they will / measure 71ft 6ins. | 1400 Horse-Power Engines. | Driven hy four Armstrong Siddeley I Douhle Mongoose engines, developing | a total of 1400 horse-power, they will | not only have ample power to a-cend ^ with full loads from the high altitude f aerodromes which exist on the African | airway — which from Nairohi to the | Cape are at altitudes of approximate- | ly 5000 feet, or about a mile above f sea level — but their reserve of power | will he such that, even in tropical $ conditions, they will be ahle to con- | tinue in fiight with only three engines j? in operation at any beight up to 9000 | feet, that is to say as much as 3000 | feet or over half a mile above the % highest aerodrome. This higli per- ^ formance has not been required on | the European or India air routes, and | has not hitherto been provided in any | country in the world. H The maximum speed of these new £1 monoplane air-liners will he between | 140 and 150 miles an hour, while they will ci-uise at a speed of *approximate- | ly 120 miles an hour, which will en- fe ahle considerable acceleration to he p effeeted in the time-tahles of the sec- |s tions between Cairo and Cape Town. r| It is hoped, in this regard, that the | present total time schedule of 11 days pj between London and Cape Town will he reduced in due course to nine days. It being the aim in civil aircraft design to comhine a high cruising speed fc with as low as possible landing speed, fi it may he noted that these new mono- i| planes, although able to attain ,when |i required, a top speed of about 150 i miles a hour, will, at 'ihe same time. p he ahle to alight at less than 50 |; miles an hour. Large Saloon Space. A feature of the new monoplanes and one designed to provide a maxi- p miun of comfort when flying under p tropical conditions, is the larg1 size of the saloons, and the amount of space provided for each passenger || Speeial arm-chair seats will be fitted & of a type enahling the aerial travellers |; to recline at full lcngth whenever they p desire to do so. I A speeial system of ventilation :s || being installed in each machine hy R which air is drawn in through ducts fe in the nose of the monoplane and then fe distributed through the cabin. This l will mean that passengers find it cool, h high up in the air, even when they are | in fiight over the hottest sections of £ the African route. Aerial travel in i these new machines will, in fact, ue | the most comfortahle, as well as hy | far the most rapid, form of travel in 1 Africa, more espeeially as the four p engines will all be mounted out on ir the wings, well away from the body of jjf the machine, thus ensuring n maxi- | muni of quietness in the passenger | saloons, the walls of which will he in- S sulated with sound deadening mate- 1 rials. | These eight new British air-liners, | which are of light-weight strip steel | construction, adopted specially for air- I craft use, represent, together with i Ihe necessary spare parts, a total cost of £150,000, and have oeen de- l signed specially to meet the conditions, i geographical and elimatic, of the :i trans-African route which strctclves \ for 5500 miles from Cairo to Cape % Town. I