POOR PAYMENT

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 285, 27 July 1932, Page 8

POOR PAYMENT

BRITISH INYENTOR'S LIFE-LONG AMBITION ENDS IN f BANKRUPTCY. j WORK NEARLY FINISHED. With the sale at the Heston Aerodrome, Middlesex, a few weeks ago, for £50 of a revolutionary new aeropiane, the curtain came down on one of the most poignant dramas in the history of flying, says the Daily Herald. Nearly twenty years ago Mr. J. G. I Navarro, the designer of Britain's war-time planes, and his wife began work on plans for a fool-proof aeroplane. Four years ago, satisfied that they had accomplished their aim, they started to build a machine that. they claimed would not spin, would not nose-dive, and would not side-slip. Experts saw the plane, and were satisfied. Sir Sefton Brancker, just before he was killed in th'e R101 crash, said he considered it a very big advance in aircraft design. The machine was finished. It flew. Certain minor modifications were needed, however, before it could pass the Air Ministry test. Then came the first warning of the tragedy. There was no more money. Bills mounted up. > The couple who had worked so hard, sinking their personal fortune in the projept, failed after they had praetically realised their dream. Their new plane had to be handed over to the bailiffs before it could be finished. After the machine had been sold, Mr. Navarro walked sadly from thehangar where he had watched his hopes crash'. His wife had not dared to face this last act of the tragedy. "Fm going home to tell her," Mr. Navarro said. "It has hurt me, this, but it is going to hurt her more. . ."