AIR TRAVEL DISABILITIES.

Auckland Star, Volume LII, Issue 71, 29 March 1921, Page 6

AIR TRAVEL DISABILITIES.

The accident to the R 34 airship will make more people pause before lightly embarking on aerial travel. It provokes, too, discussion of the special disabilities under which they labour. Chief among these is that airships are peculiarly susceptible to damage when moored in a ' choppy wind, which tends to beat them i down at one moment and put undue f strains on the rigid framework the next. It is hoped, however, that improvements in rigid mooring masts of greatly 1 increased size and height will overcome ; this problem. Then, too, while the fact i that the aneroid registers how high an airship or aeroplane is flying above sea level, it by no means indicates how high ] it is above the level of the earth's surface. There 13 abroad a popular idea that ■ Mount Everest will be achieved by aero- ; plane. That it could be done as a matter : of height 13 true enough, for a British • aviator has flown over the Andes —right over them. But experts here think their help in achieving all of Mount ■Everest's 20,002 feet height is not likely. It is difficult, except for a very powerful machine, to rise from a great height owing to the rarefied air. The landing and transport difficulties are obvious. The success of the experiment would depend entirely upon the local climatic and geoeraphical conditions, and the leaders of the enterprise will consult on that point the surveyors in India and the aviation experts attached to the Indian Government. ADR DESTROYER TITANIA. The IOOQh.p. engine it appears is really in Wng and practicable, the outcome of Napier enterprise. Named playfully j '•The Crab," th : s powerful 16-cylinder ;en sine is to be fixed in the large airi'. destroyer Titnnia of the R.A.F.. and thus I engined the Titania should have a range of 1 ! 500 miles, could in fact bridge the ocean interval of the Dominion to Australia. Th« designer of the IOOOh.p. Cub, I Mr. J. (Rowledge, said yesterday it had run 20 hours on the henca. An aeronautical expert say.s: "With the coining of I the IOOOh.p. aeronautical engine a tro--1 mendous ,<=pnrt will be given to long disj tance aerial travel. We may expect at no very distant date to be able to look on monster five-engined air liners to New York making the journey in less than 24 houra. Such liners would be able comfortably to carry well over 200 passengers." But are we to get the last word in thU line of business? It "'s alleged that Germany has a design in hand that is to be record breaking, at least in the matter of being a handieT thing to have about the house than aeroplanes are now. The entire maeaine. fuselage, wings and eng'ne casings are of aluminium so constructed that the 'finished article appears to be cast in one piece. IWhen at rest the wings with their engines stand so high above the ground that spectators can stand underneath while the unscrews are in motion. FAMOUS STAMP COLLECTION. Philatelists will take keen interest in the issuing of a famous collection of rare -stamps, which took place in London yesterday. They belong to a Belgian collector, and it included some of the (rreatest rarities. The 10/ Kng Edward issue overprinted "I.R. OflVial," one of the rarest of English stamps, fetched j £300. It w"ll be"recalled that it was issued in 1902 for use in franking corret- . pondence of the Inland Revenue Departi ment. Only two or t:iree copies of the are known, and none lia» ever been offered for sale. The 'highest price was obtained for the 81 paras stamp of the first Moldavia (Rumania) issue, an unused copy fetching £420. Other values lof this sold were the 27 paras. £ 130; 54 paras, £31: and KB paras. £115. A If. stamp of the first French issue, in the scarce shade known as "rouge terne," unused, fetched £00. and another in the i rare oranges-vermilion colour, brought I £130. A flsed strip of four of this ■ >tamp, with one of the stamps inverted in the strip, brought in £95. A VETERAN SKIPPER. I T)eat';i at the age of S4 at his home in ."varborough is announced of Captain John "Wyrill. who in hs time often visited New Zealand, for he had gone round the world C?G times, a record when lie retired, lti years ago. In his many voyages on your si,!e the line he was never shipwrecked, but on Irs last , voyage out he had a thrilling experience, when his ship was overrun l>y a tidal wave off the Cape of flood Hope. The man at the wheel was washed away, as well as the wheel and everything movable on deck. With wonderful determination and seamanship Captain Wyrill managed to get the crppled =siip to port. an;l loaJed for .London again. His nervous sYstem was, however, so badly shaken that he passed the ship over to another master. Captain Wyrill, who was a teetotaller and non-smoker, came of an old Scarborough seafaring family. His eldest son. Captain Arthur Wyrill, was for ten years in command of the London Missionary Society's ship John "Williams in the South £eas and New Guinea.