LONG=RANGE FLYING=BOATS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 February 1939, Page 6

LONG=RANGE FLYING=BOATS

NEW RETRACTABLE OBSERVATION DOME. USE ON TASMAN SERVICE. Many improvements are being made, in the light of experience, in the navigation of long-range flying-boats when operating over seas or oceans, and in conditions when it is necessary to make astronomical observations. For example in the Imperial flying-boats to be used this year on the North Atlantic service, and also in the boats operating on the Tasman, service between Australia and New Zealand, the work of the officer making observations will be facilitated by the employment of a transparent retractable dome which has been designed specially for its particular purpose. Located above the part of the- fuselage where the nagivating officer will have his ehart-table and apparatus, this observation dome will be raised through a hatch when required. It will project just far enough above the fuselage to accommodate the head and shoulders of the navigating officer when using his instruments, and it will enable him to make his observations, on all sides, projected from the slip-stream set up by the flying-boat’s rapid movement through the air. When not in use, the dome will be retracted inside the fuselage. Great care has to be taken, of course, not to have projections outside the fuselages of fast-flying craft which will set up any appreciable wind resistance. In - regard to this new dome, wind-tunnel tests have been made, and it is found that, owing to its special design and streamlined construction the resistance it will cause, while temporarily in position, will be quite negligible.