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Aviation History
1939
1939 - 0977.PDF
336 FLIGHT. MARCH 30, 1939 Top left is the Consolidated model 28, generally similar to the PBY series of the American Navy. On the right, reading from top to bottom, are the Dornier Do.24, as supplied to the Govern ments of Germany and the Netherlands ; the Blohm and Voss BV 138, and France's new Latecoere with Gnome-Rhone 14 No engines and retractable outboard floats. Below is another interesting American prototype, the Consolidated XPB2Y-1 with four Pratt and Whitney Twin Wasps. carriage changed, quite rapidly and can soon be replaced in service, effecting, it is claimed, important economies. Bomb loading is something of a problem, owing to the height of the wing of a typical modern monoplane boat. It is pos sible, of course, to stow the bombs in the hull and to slide them outboard either within the wing structure itself or beneath the wing. Present practice in the fitting of guns to large flying-boats includes the provision of nose and tail turrets, midship positions (which are usually of the screened, manually worked variety) and sometimes a lower machine-gun post in the bottom of the hull aft of the rear step. The size of the bow turret in the Consolidated XPB2Y-1 suggests the installation of shell-firing armament. The Short Sunderland, for the time being at least, depends on multiple machine guns in Nash and Thompson turrets. In all probability the flying-boat will remain the largest and most powerful machine of any air force. Accordingly, it is likely that these craft will first demonstrate buried engine installations within their monoplane wings; practical facilities for attention to the engines in flight; free guns mounted out board of the fuselage, and the installation of weapons of 75 mm. bore. Their great size suggests possibilities for large-scale troop- carrying and the rapid reinforcement of isolated posts. AIR MINISTER AT THE CHELSEA COLLEGE EARLY last week Sir Kingsley Wood, Secretary of State for Air, paid his first official visit to the College of Aero nautical Engineering at Chelsea. Originally he was to have made this visit last October, but urgent business of State on that occasion prevented him from attending. Instead, his Parliamentary Private Secretary, Sir Edward T. Campbell, M.P., understudied him. This' time Sir Kingsley Wood saw for himself how the College carries out the curriculum whereby some 300 students are instructed in every phase of aircraft production. In com pany with Lord Wakefield, President of the College, and Mr. C. H. Roberts, the Principal, he was shown the very complete machine and woodwork shops, drawing office, and foundry, where a mould of Sir Kingsley Wood's name was rilled in his honour. In the aero-engine shop he was shown how the students assemble the wide range of engines prior to testing them down at Brooklands (after which, incidentally, they dismantle them once more). Upstairs he saw how students are taught, in the practical sense, the intricacies of aircraft electrical equipment and its maintenance. In fact, the tradition of the College is to ensure that the lecture part of the curriculum is supplementary to the practical work, so that the student shall not only be able to pass his examinations, but shall also be capable 01 actually doing the work about which he is questioned. Before leaving, Sir Kingsley Wood briefly addressed the students, emphasising the importance of the Royal Air Fore in the country's defence. He hoped to be able to devote, in the near future, more of his time to the sphere of civ flying.
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