NEW DEVELOPMENTS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 November 1943, Page 3

NEW DEVELOPMENTS

IN BRITISH AIRCRAFT PLANE THAT CARRIES FUEL IN PAPER BAGS. LIGHT BOMBER WITH CREW . OF ONE. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, November 8. Startling technical developments are responsible for a new phase in the bomber assault on Germany, reports the aviation correspondent- of the “Daily Mail.” They are a plane which carries fuel in paper bags, and a light bomber with only one of a crew. The’ introduction of auxiliary paperbag fuel tanks came with the need for doubling the range of U.S.A.A.F. fighters escorting bombers to Germany, the bags being used in Thunderbolts and other fighters. They are made of specially processed paper which is tough enough to carry the most substantial weight of fuel. They must, however, be jettisoned immediately a fighter enters combat. Other auxiliary fuel tanks at present being used are manufactured from steel the thickness of a butterfly’s wing, and also from processed wood.

The light bomber with a crew of one is a twin-engined Lightning fighter (P3B), which is opening up possibilities as a support bomber for the second front. It is powerful enough to lift a bomb-load comparable with that of planes, designed as bombers. The Lightning can carry bombs farther and faster than the orthodox light bomber, when it has unloaded its bombs, the Lightning becomes a hard-hitting combat plane.