NEW MONOPLANES.

Waikato Times, Volume 121, Issue 20254, 24 July 1937, Page 25 (Supplement)

NEW MONOPLANES.

QLOSTER MACHINE. FLYING TRIALS BEGUN. Third single-seat fighter to be announced among the new monoplanes Is a Gloster all-metal machine of •stressed skin" construction which has just begun flying trials. It derives power from an air-cooled radial engine, which may be either a Bristol Mercury poppet-valved highly supercharged, or a perseus sleeve-valved, unit. , , The new Gloster fighter is a lowwing monoplane of beautiful lines. Its undercarriage retracts backwards, and when fully withdrawn leaves part of each wheel exposed below the wings. It has a metal monocoque | fuselage; except for elevators, rudder and ailerons, which are fabrlo-covered, the whole machine has a “stressed”

skin of metal sheet. 'Hydraulically operated split flaps are fitted to the trailing edge of the wings to steepen landing glide and reduce landing speed. The engine drives a variablepitch airscrew. Generally normal in appearance, the ne\? fighter is readily distinguished from the many other types of lowwing monoplane now in construction by the unusual form of the fall, in which the vertical fin and rudder are set farther forward, relative to the tailplane, than in the average machine. Its contilever wings span just over 38 feet from tip to tip. It is 31 feet long, and on the ground measures 10 feet in height. The engine is enclosed in a ring cowling which has adjustable gills to control the flow of cooling air.