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Aviation History
1938
1938 - 1309.PDF
MAY 12, 1938. FLIGHT. 457 ,|"HE KING'S ENVOY : A;p^sir^,impression of the Royal Airspeed Envoy (two Armstrong-Siddeley Cheetah IX), in which,.. as related elsewhere in this issue, His Majesty toured between four representative Royal Air Force stations last Monday. FormidableT HIS week it has become possible to describe in detail the latest single-seater fighter to go into service with the R.A.F. The Hawker Hurricane can be definitely claimed to be not only the fastest fighter in service in the K.A.F. but in the world. Official performance figures are not available, but it is estimated that the Hurricane's top speed at its operational height is in the neighbourhood of 330 m.p.h. Nor is performance the only attribute of the machine. It carries a formidable armament in the form of eight Browning 0.303m. belt-fed guns, placed in the wings. -As these guns are essentially similar to the type MG-40 which the Colt company has been exporting to various countries over a .period of years, it may be taken that their rate of lire is in the region of 20 rounds per second, so that even with the short bursts of fire which are all that modern air fighting is likely to afford, something like 150 projectiles converge on the target in every second the trigger is kept depressed. It will take a staunch crew in a bombing air- craft to face such a hail of concentrated fury. So far as can be gathered, comparable fighters now going into service abroad have two or four machine guns. The French Morane has two wing guns and a 20 mm. shell- gun on the Hispano engine, and the older, gull-winged Polish P.Z.L. P.24 as supplied to Turkey has two shell- guns in the wings and a pair of synchronised machine guns in the fuselage. The latter machines are, however, said -to be tricky to land and have caused the Turkish pilots considerable difficulty, whereas the Hurricane, with its flaps and well-harmonised controls, is relatively easy to land. The wing structure of the Hurricane is very sturdy, and should the Air Ministry decide to adopt shell-guns, these could, presumably, be installed. Other End of the Telescope A S we have remarked in Flight before, there seems to /-% be in this country a naive sort of belief in American production capacity, a feeling that it is unlimited. That view we -do not share, and it is interesting to find confirmation in this month's issue of our contemporary, American Aviation. On the subject of the British mission at present visiting the United States, that journal says : Immediate delivery cannot be guaranteed by any manufacturer, and it is only too well known that, in case of wax, exports would likely be shut down by the State Department." ..-*-• " , . ;.. *• -•. Commenting on the- fact that French and Italian mis- sions are also in America at present, our contemporary says that, "while it appeared likely that some orders would result from the visit, ... it was pointed out that nations engaging in large purchases usually do • so with utmost secrecy, and that. the British are not likely to load up with U.S. airplanes with all the attendant diffi- culties of replacement, training, etc." Which is precisely what was pointed out in last week's Flight article by '' Production Engineer.'' "Manufacturing representatives," American Aviation continues, " were in one accord HI welcoming the visitors, but were not inclined to get over-excited. Expansion of plant facilities is costly when replacement orders are not to be forthcoming, and most plants are working at near capacity. [The italics are ours.] Canadian factories could supply many types of U.S. military aircraft through previous purchases of designs and production rights." The answer to the last sentence is that there would be no point in Canadian factories supplying U.S. types. If Canadian factories are to be roped in for production pur- poses, as obviously they should, the logical thing to do is to put them on producing British aeroplanes. DIARY OF FORTHCOMING EVENTS—PAGE 465
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