SCHNEIDER CUP.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 223, 21 September 1927, Page 7

SCHNEIDER CUP.

CONTEST IN VENICE.

Seven British Seaplanes

Ready.

VERT HIGH SPEEDS EXPECTED.

(British Official Wireless.)

(Received 1.30 p.m.)

RUGBY, September 20.

In the international seaplane race for the Schneider Cup, which will be held in Venice on Saturday, the competitors will start at five-minute intervals.

Very high speeds are expected, and although secrecy was observed regarding seven of the latest types of seaplanes sent by Britain as possible entrants, it is known that the machines and engines have been greatly improved in preparation for the race.

De Bernard! won the race last year in the Virginia at a speed of 246 miles per hour.

Seven laps of the Schneider course involving extremely difficult turns total about 280 miles. AIR SECRETARY GOES. TO WITNESS BRITISH EFFORT. (British Official Wireless!) (Received 1.30 p.m.) RUGBY, September 20. Sir Philip Sasson, Under-Secretary for Air, will make a flight of 800 miles tomorrow to Venice in order to see officithe Royal Air Force pilots representing Great Britain take part in the Schneider Cup race. AIR TRAGEDY. In New York To Spokane Race. PILOT AND MECHANIC KILLED. (Received 11 a.m.) NEW YORK, September 20. A message from Roosevelt Field, New York, states that 15 aeroplanes took-off on Tuesday morning for the 2275-mile national air race Spokane to Washington. Shortly after the start one 'plane crashed, the pilot and mechanic being killed. 'PLANE CRASHES. Pilot With Tame Lion As Sole Passenger. ALONE IN ARIZONA. NEW TfORK, September 20. The air pilot, Martin Jensen, who won the second prize in the Dole flight from Oakland, California, to Honolulu, in the aeroplane Aloha, on August 16, crashed on Saturday and narrowly escaped death. The accident occurred in the mountains in Northern Arizona. M#. Jensen had left Los Angeles on j Friday on a non-stop transcontinental flight, with a tame lion belonging to a j moving picture firm as his sole passenger. I The animal was in a special cage built j behind the pilot's seat.. The side of a I mountain suddenly loomed out of the ; fog, and the 'plane struck it and was i demolished. Mr. Jensen was stunned, j When he opened his eyes he saw the lion | sleeping 50ft away from its broken j cage. "I was sent to deliver the lion, and if I could not do it aboard the aeroplane. I j was at liberty to try it walking," said the airman to cowboys who fouud him | on Sunday afternoon leading the lion ■ by its collar and trying to find a waterhole.—(Sydney "Sun.") ANOTHER DISASTER. NAVAL MACHINE FALLS. (Received 11 a.m.) BARCELONA, September 20. A naval aeroplane which got entangled | in telegraph wires crashed, and fejl into a river, the pilot being killed and a passenger seriously injured. GERMAN'S VENTURE. BY 'PLANE TO THE EAST. (Received 11 a.m.) I COLOGNE, September 20. j The German aviator Roelnecke, has [ commenced his fiight eastwards.—(A. and N.Z. and Sydney "Sun.") —— A cable received last week stated that the airman hoped, after flying across Asia, to reach San Francisco after a final flight across the North Pacific.