AUXILIARY WINGS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 January 1939, Page 4

AUXILIARY WINGS

INTERESTING INVENTION IN BRITAIN application to new air LINER. LOW TAKE-OFF & LANDING SPEEDS. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 10.45 a.m.) RUGBY, January 19. Considerable interest has been aroused throughout the world by the announcement of a notable British invention which is the result of three year’s .ntensive research and is now embodied in the form of retractable auxiliary wings in a new 270 miles an hour air liner produced by the Fairey Company. High' cruising speeds and reasonably low take-off and landing speeds are combined in the performance of this aircraft, which is scheduled for series production next year. The device provides an effective means of varying the wing surface and therefore of changing the load carried by each unit of the wing area. For the take-off, the auxiliary wings are let down from recesses in the after portion of the main monoplane wings, converting the machine temporarily into a biplane. In this position they add sufficiently to the lifting area to reduce the load carried by each square foot of wing from thirty-two pounds—appropriate for fast cruising—to twenty-five pounds, a figure suited to relatively low take-off speeds and a quick rate of climb. For landing, the auxiliary wings are further extended to form a kind of wing flap, which serves as an air brake and again increases, the lift. The landing speed thereby, .is reduced by about ten miles an hour. The device has enabled the designers to make the main wings thirty per cent smaller, which means less head resistance,, as well as high wing-loading and performance is again enhanced. The new air liner is designed to carry thirty passengers.