HALFPENNY A MILE FLYING

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 95, 21 April 1923, Page 17

HALFPENNY A MILE FLYING

MOTOR CYCLE WITH WINGS. "Flying for all!" Not flying for th» few. " Such has been the dream of air enthusiasts for thirteen years, writes Mr. Harry Harper in the "Daily Mail." And now, at last, to-day they see themselves nearing their goal. For little winged machines are being evolved, and will soon be in flight, which are to speed along the aerial highways, carrying their owner-driver in luxurious ease, at a cost in fuel of only about one halfpenny a mile! That is what we are coming to. _ And it presages—those competent to judge declare —a popular buying and using of small, simple, winged machines which will be the first phase of that great "air age" in which flying becomes universal. Little aero engines, which are marvels of lightness, are now being built to instal in the best and most stable types of motorlcss glider, and so convert windsoarings into purposeful aerial journeyings. It is, one should make clear, the wonderfully efficient wings eveloped for engine-less soaring, and the evolution of machines offering extraordinarily small resistance to their own progress through the air, which now brings us to the threshold of this era of cheaper flying. Developing no more power than the engine of a big motor-bicycle, these little "pocket air-motors," as they have been called, are to bear an air-rider in sustained flight. In France, for example, they have iu't produced a special two-cylinder "aircycle" engine which, giving from six to seven horse-power, weighs only about 171b. It is calculated, l.y the wry, th a. once he is well aloft, the dri-er of a. motor-glider will not require mor-' 'h:*n j about five hor.-e-power to keep hbn in I movement, traveling in any direction be ' des,res, and wit no tit losing altitude. The "motor-cycle with wings.*' bail* I for popular arr.ll To-jring, wi'.l, wien 1 ]'•„ can he perfected, standard.'-."!, nnd j produced in tjtiailtiiy, cost, expert- o-ri-malc. little if any n.orc than h:gh- ■ powered motor-cycles for touring on tlie ' road--. j And tho power-cycle ilia* flic 3, judging from experience with aeroplane-, will have a long working life, and will aNo have the unique advantage that, speeding through a medium as resilient as the air, it will ba running up no t\ re bills for its owner. By a use of pivoted wings, and . ;her technical devices, not only will the power-driven air cycle be given a stability whei aloft which i- automatic-, but a-aents from, and landings in. any quite small open space will become possible. We shall he approaching, indeed, that day- yearned for by a famnu- airman — when we can like out a iittic apparatus fro,,, (he garage in which we house a car. unfold its wings, and soar skyward from the confines o: an ordinary'garden!