AIR TARGET

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1001, 18 June 1930, Page 9

AIR TARGET

GUNNERY PRACTICE IN HAURAKI GULF AIRPLANE’S ASSISTANCE For the first time in New Zealand, an airplane towed an aerial target out to provide anti-aircraft practice for warships yesterday. At 1.15 p.m. a Fairy airplane left the Hobsonville air base for the Hauraki Gulf, trail g a di - e target 6 feet long, similar to a large “wind sock.” to provide target practice for H.M.S. Dunedin. The airplane trailed the target at about cloud level over the warship, which Mas lying to the south-west of Flat Rock, near Kawau. About 40 rounds wero fired from the warship, and though no direct hits were recorded, the gunnery was considered quite satisfactory. Later the airplane descended and flew tho target past the warship at a lower altitude for Maxim and machine-gun practice, the ship scoring a number of direct hits. The airplane returned to Hobsonville shortly after four o'clock. Before the airplane set out. the target Mas folded and placed in the cockM’ith a main winch carrying a spool of wire 7,000 feet long, and an auxiliary Minch carrying 000 feet. When tho airplane took off, the target was lowered through the floor of the cockpit, and the 600 feet of wire released. The end of this spool was shen joined to the main Mire, which was unwound by means of a windmill attached to the winch. After tho shooting, the main length of wire Mas drawn in, leaving the target towing at the end of the 600 ft section, and when the machine was directly over the airdrome the wire was cut bv the observer, the target floating clear, and landing on the airdrome, thus ensuring that the wire of the target M'ould not become entangled while the machine was land-