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156 
Light Weight May Extend Speed Limit.
Page 64
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WE are told that .75 lb. per b.h.p. is the net weight of the latest type of aircraft engine. It is a figure which gives one food for thought, although at present, as must be admitted, the need for extreme measures to achieve weight reduction in commercial-motor vehicles does not exist. Reliability and economy are the chief objectives of our designers, but. the importance of the second factor does not often justify the use of ultra-expensive alloys to achieve weight reduction.
Occasionally, it is true, circumstances arise which make the question of weight a little more innportant than customary. There was, for example, that period, a few years ago, when a few pounds' difference in the weight of a one-ton vehicle sufficed to effecta reduction of several pounds in the annual tax. In actual fact, the • economy thus gained was hardly worth the trouble.
Another reason for weight reduction now arises, however, and it is of greater consequence, in view of the fact that a vehicle weighing, unladen, less than 2i tons, may legally travel at 30 m.p.h. as against the 20 m.p.h. which is all that is allowed to one exceeding that weight. The advantages of the extra speed are so obvious and real that we look to see two developments as the result—a tendency to employ every reasonable method of weight reduction in connection with chassis of about that size, and a considerable growth in the popularity of commercial-motor vehicles coming within the limits specified.