“Stalled” in the Air.

During the last year or so, the invention of the Handley-Page slotted wing has provided aviators with a safety device which, it is estimated, removes page 36 the cause of 75 per cent. of former aeroplane accidents. The greatest risk in the past was that of getting into a dangerous angle through stalling. Following many experiments with the slotted wing, English inventors evolved what seems to be so simple a device in its action that it can be regarded as one of the epoch-making inventions.

What is evident to the unsophisticated is a metal flap about four feet long, and about nine inches wide, on either side of the top of the upper wing of the biplane. When the plane is moving forward at a rate which enables the pilot to maintain a safe angle, these flaps lie snugly in line with the general curvature of the wing-top, but once the plane loses speed, and the air currents change, up goes the flaps, and any tendency to the assumption of a dangerous angle is at once corrected. We had a splendid demonstration of the efficiency of this device, which is fitted to every Defence plane in use in the Dominion. Climbing to a good height above Sockburn Aerodrome, which could be seen through a thinning out of the cloud-banks, Captain Findlay shut off the engine. The silence was intense. We tried to watch two things at once—the Handley-Page slots, and the ground beneath. It was evident the plane was moving forward, and tilting down, but at a certain moment of combination on angle and lowered speed, the slots stood up straight, and the plane appeared to almost hover over the aerodrome. Having ample room for the experiment, we were able to watch it in a leisurely way, reflecting what an advantage this will be to those thousands of people who in future will take to the air with heightened confidence, knowing that most of the risk has gone. The pilot, having switched on the ignition, the engine, spun by the downward rush, was at work again, and we enjoyed another “spiral” which sent Sockburn spinning wildly around (though we knew better) until a few mild bumps indicated an easy landing.

But for the cloud-bumping and the wing device, one would not venture into print on so everyday a topic as an aeroplane trip, but the experience suggests that this form of transport is going to make rapid headway in practicability and in public confidence. The time is not far distant when we may expect the New Zealand Railways (which is in business to give the most efficient form of transport available) will be running the “Super Limited Slotted Plane Express” for the benefit of those hurried people who wish to reach distant places without the bother of waiting at stations en route, or giving way to other traffic.