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Aviation History
1939
1939 - 0267.PDF
FEBRUARY 2, 1939 FLIGHT. 99 Sir Kingsley Wood with Mr. F. G. Miles prior to flying in a Monarch. SIR KINCSLEY WOOD at READING * S the home of the Magister ab initio trainer (already in /\ large-scale use) and the Master high-speed advanced / y trainer now in production for the Royal Air Force, the Phillips and Powis works at Reading are of extreme unpoitance in the scheme of R.A.F. expansion. It was fitting therefore, that an extension to the works should be opened last week by Sir Kiiigsley Wood, Secretary of State for Air. Sir Kingsley Wood said that Phillips and Powis had a high reputation for efficient and fast training machines. They were in considerable production and he congratulated them in being in advance of their delivery programme. Extensions to the factory had been authorised at the cost of a quarter of a million pounds and had been completed in excellent time. Referring to the firm's association with the building of wooden aircraft, Sir Kingsley Wood said that the Air Ministry has taken a number of important steps to broaden the basis of aircraft production, including the further development of wooden construction. Eight firms were now engaged on the production of considerable numbers of wooden or composite aircraft. A production order had also been given for a general service aircraft of composite construction and a large order has been placed with Phillips and Powis for the production of The Secretary of State Opens New Phillips and Powis Factory : Statement on Production of Wooden Aircraft single-engined aircraft, for Service training, of all-wooden con struction. Speaking generally of aircraft production Sir Kingsley said that we had now overcome many of our chief difficulties and that production was gaining considerable momentum. The monthly rate of production had been doubled last year and he had good grounds for believing that this year it would be trebled, and that in the rate of production and in the quality of the machines we should have a record twelve months. Important references were made to the Civil Air Guard Scheme, but these are dealt with elsewhere in this issue. After Sir Kingsley Wood had impressed his signature in a mould containing moist concrete (it being the intention that the block shall later be built into one of the factory walls) he formally declared the works open and started up the machinery by operating a master switch. Subsequently an employee presented him with a silver cigarette casket surmounted by a model of the Miles Master. Sir Kingsley Wood, accompanied by his Parliamentary Secre tary, Sir Edward Campbell, M.P., the directors of Phillips and Powis Aircraft, Ltd. (Mr. A. F. Sidgreaves, Chairman, Mr. F. G. Miles and Lt.-Col. Ormonde Darby), Air Marshal Sir Wilfrid R. Freeman, K.C.B., D.S.O., M.C., Air Member for Development and Production, and Sir Charles Bruce Gardner, Chairman of the Society of British Aircraft Constructors, after wards made a tour of the works. Subsequently the party visited the Experimental Department, where some aircraft of unusual interest are being assembled. After inspecting No. 8 Elementary and Reserve Flying Train ing School, Sir Kingsley Wood flew in a Miles Monarch with Mr. F. G. Miles, and after landing lunched with the directors in the directors' luncheon room. It is regrettable that Sir Kingsley Wood was unable to see a Master perform in the air, but the prototype machine is under going modifications to the tail. The Master may be considered as a development of the Rolls-Royce-Kestrel-engined trainer produced during 1937. This machine, with a Kestrel XVI engine, has a top speed of nearly 300 m.p.h., but the lower- powered Kestrel XXX installed in the Master reduces the speed to a shade under 270 m.p.h. Scottish Aircraft Exhibition Plans G LASGOW is to see (weather permitting) a fly-past by R.A.F. and civil aircraft when the City's Aircraft Ex hibition is formally opened in the McLellan Galleries by the Air Minister on February 13. Sir Kingsley Wood, who will be accompanied by several of the permanent chiefs of the Air Ministry Departments, will fly north on Sunday, February 12, where he will be received by Lord Provost J.J. Dollan and members of the Corporation. On the following day Sir Kingsley Wood will visit the Black burn aircraft factory at Dumbarton and, later, will have a discussion regarding the question of providing additional Air Ministry contracts for local firms. Not the least spectacular feature of the other Scottish Air craft Exhibition—in Edinburgh from February n to 25, will be the A.A. demonstrations staged by the 4/5th (Queen's Edinburgh) Royal Scots (52nd Searchlight) Regiment and the 228th (Edinburgh) Anti-aircraft Battery. The Aircraft Exhibition will be held in the Waverley Market. From the Royal Scottish Museum there will be exhibits recall ing the experiments of such pioneers as the Wright Brothers and Bleriot, and the G.P.O. will stage an air-mail display. The Air Ministry's part in the exhibition will include two complete fighters. It is understood that three firms, Arm strong- Whitworth, Bristol and Rolls-Royce, will exhibit at each show. Admission will be free to the public each afternoon and evening at both exhibitions, the forenoons being reserved for manufacturers and others wishing to study exactly the Ministry's requirements before tendering for work. This, actually, is the primary object of both exhibitions. Air-Mail Souvenirs on Show A IR transport was well represented in both "educational" ** and " commercial " sections of the third London Stamp Exhibition, which was held last week at the Central Hall, Westminster. On the commercial side, one of the largest stands—that of A. Phillips, of Newport, Mon—was devoted entirely to air-mail covers and similar souvenirs, while among educational exhibits the entrance to the exhibition was flanked by two frames con taining portions of London and Manchester daily newspapers flown across the Atlantic last summer. These newspapers bear English postmarks of July 20 and Canadian or American marks of the following day, thus sum marising for posterity the first transatlantic flight of Mercury, upper component of the Short-Mayo composite aircraft. They were lent for the exhibition by Wm. Dawson and Sons, Ltd. Pages from the private air-mail collection of Mr. A. Phillips were described by the self-explanatory phrase, " Great records of great records." Mr. Phillips showed not only flown envelopes, but relevant photographs and documents in his col lection ; a cover carried by Mr. H. L. Brook on his record Australia-London trip is accompanied by a complete cutting of Flight's report on that event. Other exhibits included pages from a collection of stamps illustrating recognisable types of aircraft (marred by one or two surprising errors), and the organisers paid tribute to philatelists' interest in aviation by issuing six souvenir " stamps ' illustiating the Lockheed machines of British Air ways. They were printed by Harrison and Sons, Ltd., the postage-stamp printers.
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