ATLANTIC CONQUEST

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 455, 24 June 1937, Page 6

ATLANTIC CONQUEST

CATAPULT SERVICE Germany’s Latest Air Contribution For some Lime past, quite unheralded and more or less unsung, the Germans- have been engaged in very serious trans-Atlantic flying with the aid of catapult ships. Moye than 120 double crossings have been made successfully, and from advice received at Wellington this.- week the famous German airline, Deutsche Lufthansa, has recently had biult to its specifications in Hamburg, a new all-metal seaplane for operation on the South Atlantic schedule. It is intended ;to launch the seaplane by means.- -of catapult installed on a ship stationed off -Horta, in the Azores, 2485 miles from New York. A second boat will be stationed off New York for servicing and catapulting the aircraft on its return journey.

The ne w self plane has four Junkers Diesel Jumo engines, each of 600 horse-power. It weighs approximately 16 tons,, and its capacity of 1320 gallons of Diesel fuel oil gives it a flying range of 3100 miles at its cruising speed of 155 miles an hour. This range gives it -a 25 per cent, margin over the trip. The design of /the machine is of the cantilever low-wing monoplane type, the wing being built up around a single tubular steel member which serves as a fuel tank. Each engine drives a three-bladed Junkers-Ham-ilton controllable pitch airscrew. The wing span is 88ft 7in., and wing area 1259 square feet. It has a length of 64ft., height of 17ft., and a maximum speed of 186 miles 'an hour.