Naval Aircraft: The Eyes of the Fleet

New Zealand Listener, Volume 2, Issue 30, 19 January 1940, Page 4

Naval Aircraft: The Eyes of the Fleet

Aircraft carriers are the floating kennels of the Royal Navy’s aircraft. More than 70 ’planes can be crammed into their hangars and huge flight decks take up most ‘of the space. That on the Courageous was 600 ft. long by 108 ft. wide, providing an area of approximately two acres of flat steel on which there were hydraulic lifts for bringing the machines up from their hangars. When the airplanes are due to take off from one of these great carriers, the ship turns into the wind and steams fast enough to produce a wind of about 30 miles an hour.

The ’planes mass at the after end of the deck, with their engines ticking over. Two mechanics lie flat at the side of each machine, holding the wheel restraining chocks. When the Wing Commander who stands inside the bridge drops his flag the first machine " revs." up, the chocks are quickly removed, and the ’plane moves off. She skims over the bows and tilts over on one wing to sweep round and take up her station astern. One by one the other machines follow, until they are all flying in perfect formation. Apart from the aircraft carriers, all the latest battleships and cruisers of the Royal Navy are equipped so that they can catapult ’planes into the air.

fortresses" are so big that they may become more or less useless when attacked, as they offer such an easy target to our swift fighting ‘planes. Their only chance is to escape into cloud, and if they are to succeed in bombing expeditions they would have to drop their bombs indiscriminately on blind targets In fine, clear weather, the big bomber stands little chance of success. The Newest Type Little is known abroad of the newest German ‘plane, the Junkers Ju 86, which is fitted with two 760 hp. Junkers-Diesel motors. The manufacturers claim a speed of 250 miles an hour, but foreign observers say that it is capable of much more than that. The Ju 86 is the only airplane in the world with Diesel motors as its standard power plant, but it has a practically fire-proof fuel tank. It seems, however, that the motor is not yet reliable. The machines referred to above are all bombers. German fighting ’planes are mostly either Heinkels or Messerschmidts, named after the men who design them -Dr. Heinkel and Herr Messerschmidts, These two men have been making machines for a number of years which have won the world’s speed record, first one and then the other winning the honour. They have both produced record-breakers capable of doing 450 miles an hour, but the fighters are not capable of that speed when made in large numbers. British pilots flying Vickers Spitfires and Hawker Hurricanes say that they can easily tackle the fighting Heinkels and Messerschmidts, and the list of British successes in the field seems to prove their words. Machine-Guns and "Cannon" In the fighting ’planes armament is naturally a subject of supreme importance. During the last war our greatest effort was a machine which was armed with two machine-guns capable of firing at about 500 shots a minute for each gun. To-day our machines have guns capable of firing 700 to 800 shots a minute each gun. The size of the gun carried on fighting aircraft has also been increased, and when this war broke out most countries were using "cannon" on swivel mountings. These "cannon" have a bore of almost an inch, and a recent American gun goes up to almost an inch and a-half Smaller machine-guns, however, are preferred by pilots of nearly every country for single-seat high-speed work. On the giant bombers the guns are carried on the wings and fired through the leading edges. Some have four guns in each wing, but most airmen prefer three. As the rate of fire has been increased up to 700 to 800 shots a minute for each gun, the effect of a burst of fire can easily be imagined. Observers say that, if it hits a target, the effect is like that of a circular saw. And not without reason, for about 100 bullets every second rip through the unfortunate enemy machine. According to Mr. Grey, German airmen must be treated with respect. They have courage, as they have shown by their flights over the North Sea to attack Scapa Flow and the Firth of Forth in ridiculously small numbers, It would be dangerous and silly to belittle therm. .