1937-06-19 — Page 2

THE CHINA MAIL, JUNE 19, 1937.

LAND PLANES ON ATLANTIC RUN

At top is Dick Merrill's staunch Lockheed Electra plane as her wheels touched the runway on Floyd Bennett Field, New York, on the completion of his epoch-making round-trip flight to London and back. He took pictures of the Hindenburg disaster to London, and returned to New York with pictures of the Coronation. It was the first round-trip commercial trans-Atlantic .flight. Below Dick Merrill (centre) and his co-pilot, Jack Lambie, are being escorted through the crowd that jammed the airport.

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FIRST TEST

OF NEW MACHINES

NEW AIR COMPANY IN BRITAIN

.

The formation of a new £250,000 aircraft

been an- company has Designed for an Atlantic air mail-nounced by an official of the Bristol carrying experiment, the first Aeroplane Company. D.H.91, aptly named "Albatross," "To cope with the rapidly grow- took the air at Hatfield aerodromeling demand for controllable and for the first time.

Mr. R. J. W. Waight, one of the company's test pilots, was entrusted with the responsibility of flying this beautiful new monoplane. The flights, three of which were made, were carried out merely as elemen- tary tests preliminary to the ex- haustive routine tests now to undergone. Mr. Waight was companied by a junior test pilot, Mr. G. D. Tucker.

be

ac-

Two machines of the type have been ordered by the Air Ministry for Atlantic flight experiments.

variable pitch airscrew," the offi- cial said, two leading manufac- turers of high-powered aero engines in this country, Rolls-Royce and the have Co- Bristol Aeroplane Co., operated in the formation of a new company registered under the style of Rotol Airscrews. Ltd.

"Its objects will include the de- manufacture of velopment and variable pitch airscrews.

"The capital of the new company will amount to £250,000, and will be subscribed jointly and equally by Rolls-Royce and the Bristol Aero- plane Co.": They are low-wing land mono- The results. of the research and planes, fitted with four Gipsy 12 experimental production work of supercharged engines of 500 h.p. the parent companies will be Not only is their undercarriage retractable, but the tail wheel also can be drawn up to reduce air re- sistance.

pooled.

Greater Load and Speed Airscrews of controllable or vari- able pitch are a feature of practic- They are remarkable for their ally all modern types of aeroplanes, graceful lines, for the method by except those of such low speed that which the engines are set in the the screws would have, but little edge of the wing, and for their advantage. built-up wooden shell body, which It is very satisfactory that two gives great strength and lightness. British aero engine firms, each world famous, one Rolls-Royce, in This body will afford exceptional the water-cooled, the other in the

should al-air-cooled,

have accommodation,

joined which though not important for the mail-forces for research and develop-.

ment of carrying machines, will be necessary

controllable-pitch air-

screws. for a later batch of planes which

Great Britain was late to adopt. are intended to carry 22 passengers-propellers of this kind, and most of

Nothing can yet be said with

cabin

22 Passengers.

>

the controllable pitch airscrews

certainty of the new type's per- used on British aircraft to-day are formance, but it is estimated to either of American or French have a maximum speed exceeding origin.

240 miles an hour, and a cruising The need for controllable pitch speed of 200 miles an hour. It is is due to the different work imposed designed to cross the Atlantic upon an aero engine for the take- against a continuous strong head-off and for normal flight. wind.

A fixed-pitch propeller cannot be Outwardly, the "Albatross" is re- most suitable for either of these miniscent of the famous Melbourne functions and must therefore be a race-winning "Comet," produced by compromise. By the use of vari- the same designers. The airscrews able pitch not only can greater load are of the D.H. variable-pitch, con-be taken up, but greater speed can stant-speed type.

be attained in flight.

The launching of the "Albatross” is another step towards the inter- esting Atlantic experiments to be carried out by Imperial Airways. Land aeroplanes are

approved by

Network Of Air Lines

Ireland, eastern hub of the pro-

many experts because they would jected trans-Atlantic air service, not be affected by the frozen water-did not have, a year ago, a single To-day it is ways which in the northern part of regular air service. America and Canada would

planning a network of airlines that make

This is in will cost $45,000,000. regular flying-boat operation im-

addition to a $10,000,000-scheme possible.

for an bases on the Shannon as part Imperial Airways long-range fly-of the proposed British-American ing-boats of the "Empire" class are, airline. nevertheless, about to make experi- mental trans-Atlantic flights.

speed, heavily fuelled seaplane from There is also the Mayo composite the back of a flying-boat already in aircraft, by which increased range flight. This machine is also near- is obtained by launching a high-ling the first flight stage.

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