Impressive technical features of the new craft are the monocoque metal fuselage, the perfect streamline form of which is unbroken by excrescences, and the immense. single spar that carries all main loads imposed on the wings. This is a massive built-up structure of corrugated light alloy sheet which looks more like a main structural member of a bridge than part of an aeroplane. The wings are built up around it and are covered with metal sheet forward and fabric aft, The undercarriage is the biggest retractile unit yet built. A single rubber-tyred wheel supports the weight of the aeroplane on each side. Special tyres, measuring 78 inches in diameter und 26 inches in width, were built for the purpose, Each can easily carry a load of more than twenty tons. Hydraulic mechanism retracts the wheels.
Three cabins and a promenade from which the changing scene below may be watched through wide windows, make up the passenger qua ters. Each cabin will be 13 feet long and approximately nine feet in height and width, providing accommodation Gf a spaciousness and comfort not previously available in transport landplanes. Included in the crew of five men will be stewards whose task will be the preparation of meals in the aeroplane's own kitchen and attention to needs of the passengers.
The four-engined power-plant assures en ample margin of security in the unlikely event of engine failure. Designed service "ceiling" of the "Ensign" is 20,000 feet. Any three engines should enable it to maintain level flight, with full load on board, at heights of up to 12,500 feet, and two engines in the worst possible condition—with both engines on one side out of action—at heights of up to 4,000 feet. Normal range in still air will be approximately 800 miles.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.