Cosmopolitan

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 456, 11 September 1928, Page 7

Cosmopolitan

THE PLANE ITSELF SOUTHERN CROSS’S MAKE-UP Designed by a Dutchman, built in America, fitted with an American engine designed by an Englishman, and flown by Australians, the Southern Cross can claim to be a really cosmopolitan airplane. Mr. Anthony Fokker, who designed

the machine, is a Dutchman, who nearly Avon the Avar in the air for Germany. The Germans appreciated his genius, and it Avas to liis designs that some of the best of the German fighting planes were built. At one stage of the Avar these machines were superior in speed and manoeuvring ability to anything that the Allies Avere using, and for a while things looked black. Finally, however, British designers produced machines that could beat the Fokkers, and in the last year or so of the Avar Britain held the undoubted supremacy. After the Avar Mr. Fokker turned his genius to more peaceful uses, and now his commercial machines are among

the most successful in Europe and America. They are built both in Holland and in the United States, the trimotor being, after the single-engined ••Universal,” the most popular model. The Wright Whirlwind engine is the most used engine in commercial aviation in America to-day, its reliability having been demonstrated in most of the long-distance American flights. It was designed by Mr. Samuel Heron, formerly of the Royal Aircraft Establishment, at Farnborough. It develops 220 horse-poA\*er and Aveighs 5081 b. dry. GIANT PLANE By far the biggest airplane that has ever been seen in New Zealand, the Southern Cross makes a d\A r arf of the DHSO, the largest airplane at Wigram airdrome, while beside it Avros, Moths, and all the rest of the smaller fry, look like toys. The thick, bulky wing is longer than a cricket pitch, Avhile each of the propellers is about the length of a man. Not until they landed at Richmond airdrome, after their return from Canberra, did Kingsford Smith and TJlm find a hangar which'Would accommodate the big Fokker. In Brisbane, at Mascot and even at Melbourne, all the sheds were too small for the aerial giant, which had to be left outside. The “Trimotor,” as the Fokker firm calls this particular model, is designed to carry a load of about 12 passengers, but, of course, in the Southern Cross most of the usual passenger space is taken up with petrol tanks, Avireless apparatus, and other special gear which is needed only for long-distance flights. Seated in front of the machine, Kingsford Smith and Ulm were strapped in their seats, but the navigator and wireless operator sat in chairs behind them. When the plane passed through bad storms on the second and third stages of its flight across the Pacific, the two Americans were tumbled about continuously. The Southern Cross is not of the allmetal construction Avhich is rapidly becoming very popular for big planes, but is built of metal, Wood and. on the wings and fuselage, fabric. Kingsford Smith has declared that he is confident that, if it Avere forced down, the Southern Cross would float for hours in cairn water. LINK WITH WILKINS PLANE IS A HYBRID BUILT OF TWO CRASHED MACHINES Before Squadron-Leader Kingsford Smith flew the Southern Cross off the ground, even-before he climbed into it, the big monoplane was impregnated with Australian associations. A hybrid of an airplane, it was built of two machines that were crashed by Sir Hubert Wilkins, Australian explorer, in Alaska. When Captain Wilkins, as he then

was, first went to Alaska, he had a good deal of trouble. The Avrecking of tAvo airplanes Avas not the least of this. One of the machines A\ r as a trimotored Fokker ,and the other a transport plane with one Liberty engine. After they had both been so damaged that they could not be flown, they Avere shipped back to America, where the Boeing Company—makers of some of the best known American mail and military planes—undertook the task of combining the two into one good machine, at their Seattle fagtory. The 72-foot wing was taken from the tri-motor, and fitted to the fuselage of the smaller machine. Three Wright Whirlwind engines, which had already run 150 hours, were fitted, and there was the Southern Cross, shoAving much better performance than the standard Fokker with the same engines. This was due, in part, at any rate, to the fact that the fuselage offered less head resistance in the air, and was lighter. ’iyLuil