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Aviation History
1925
1925 - 0309.PDF
MAY 21, 1925 AIR MINISTER VISITS NAPIER WORKS AFTER having flown some 3,500 miles during his Iraq tour most of the time .in machines fitted with Napier aero engines' it was somewhat natural that the Secretary of State for Air' Sir Samuel Hoare, should wish to visit the great works at Acton, at which the famous Napier engines are built, and on Friday of last week the Air Minister, at the invitation of Sir Harry Brittain, had the opportunity of seeing for himself the methods of manufacture employed. On his arrival at the works. Sir Samuel Hoare was met by Sir Harry Brittain, Mr. H. T. Vane, managing director of Napiers, and Mr. George Pate, chief engineer, and conducted through the works, where he took the keenest interest in ^.he work being carried out. " It has been a great source of pride to me when I have travelled about the world by air, whether in Europe, or whether on my recent journey in Iraq, to find that the reputation of the Napier engine stands as high as it does. " During the last few weeks I have had the opportunity of testing the reliability of your work. " The greater part of the tour was made in the big " Vernon " troop carriers, with two 450 h.p. Napier engines in them. When we went to parts of the country where we could not fly with big machines, owing to the absence of large landing grounds, we flew in D.H. 9A'S, again with Napier engines. I spent a good many hours of a good many days looking out of the window of the aeroplane, and what I saw was the THE AIR MINISTER VISITS NAPIER WORKS: A section of the large number of Napier employes giving the Air Minister a rousing cheer; and inset is a photograph of Sir Samuel Hoare, Mr. H. T. Vane (managing director of Napiers) and Sir Harry Brittain, M.P., who is a director of the Napier firm. On the completion of his tour of inspection Sir Samuel Hoare was introduced by Sir Harry Brittain to the work- people whom he had seen at work during the morning, and to whom he delivered the following short address :— " Friends of the Napier Works, when Sir Harry Brittain gave me the invitation to come down here and meet you this morning I was very glad to accept it. I remember two years ago, when I was Secretary of State for Air before, I came down here, and I then found the works a good deal less active than they are today, and it is a great pleasure to me to come back after two years and find the shops more fully employed, and apparently with more men employed than were engaged two years ago, as I can assure you there is no work of more urgent national importance than the work you are now engaged upon. word " NAPIER " written on the engine on each side. That gave me great confidence. I felt there was no risk about it, and there was no risk about it. ' " There were Mr. Amery, myself and certain officers of our two departments travelling very often with two, three, four , or even six machines. Plenty of opportunity for some- thing to go wrong. Nothing did go wrong—we arrived up to time wherever we went ; we were never held up. "It is the British workmanship. It is the tests that go on here. It is by the work you put into the engines you turn out at these works that we were able to make a journey that a few years ago would have been impossible." Mr. H. T. Vane then, in a few words, thanked the Air Minister for his visit and called for three cheers, which were enthusiastically given. 309
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