Speed and Comfort of New Landplanes: Cruising at More Than 200 Miles Per Hour ili, MOECUEN new landplanes are included in the list of air-liners which are scheduled to enter service with the fleet of Imperial Airways before the end of 1938.
They: comprise fourteen of the largest airline, craft in existence—high-wing monoplanes weighing with full normal load approximately twenty-one tons and accommo dating up to forty passengers—and five low-wing monoplanes capable of cruising at speeds of more than 200 miles an hour. They will supplement the Empire flying-boats on sections of the main imperial routes and replace the biplanes now operating the company's European services.
The first of the larger monoplanes, named "Ensign, has emerged for trial flights from the Armstrong Whitworth factory at Hamble, Southampton Water.
Early in 1936 the site was occupied by an office building, a large barn and green fields, Seven workmen. were en the pay-roll To-day, production of the "Ensign" and her sister aircraft is engaging more than seven hundred workers. The factory is fronted by steel doors wide enough io permit the passage of the wings of the "Ensign," which measure 127 feet from tip to tip, and high enough to provide plenty of headroom over her height of 23% feet from the ground to the tips of the airscrew blades, gued maximum speed of the "Ensign" airliners is approximately 200 miles an hour. They will cruise at 105-170 m.p.h—about the same -speed as the Empire boats. Each is powered with four Siddeley Tiger IX 810-880. h.p. l4-cylinder radial air-cooled engines, driving controllable-pitch sirserews, On European routes they will carry forty passengers; on Empire routes, 27 passengers on day
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