METEORIC FLYING.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 258, 31 October 1929, Page 5

METEORIC FLYING.

1000 MILES AN HOUR.

PREDICTION OF SPEED 'PLANE DESIGNER.

VALUE OF RECORD BREAKING

Despite pride in the fact that Britain holds both the air and land records for speed, there is a large section of public opinion in this country wanting to know what good it does, writes the London correspondent of a Xew York journal. To the ultra-conservative gentlemen basking behind the windows of the Athenaeum and similar recationary clubs i-here is an answer, however, "right off the bat," even if it happens to be a cricket and not a baseball bat. To use the words of a prominent industrialist, every time Britain sets a speed record on land or sea or in the air, or in all three, it means thousands of pounds of annual business to this country's motor industry. Never for a. moment are the far-seeing automobile manufacturers of this country losingsight of this factor or their ability to produce engines which have enabled Britain to capture the world's air speed record over a straight course of obl.'i miles, by Squadron-Leader A. H. Oiicbar and the world's automobile, speed record of 231 miles an hour by Major Sir Henry Segrave. The latter is even now threatening the speed boat record of. 93.12 of Gar Wood. Record Due to Long Research. That these speed trials are considered worth while by astute motor engineers and engine manufacturers of this country, is well manifested by the backing these enterprises receive at their hands. The reason Flying Officer H. E. D. Waghorn won the Schneider trophy blue ribbon in aviation and his commanding officer captured the world air speed record, was not so much the . ability— though it is great—of these gallant aviators or the- perfect co-operation of meteorologists, as it was the long research, of the automobile engineers of this country who recognised they had a special problem to solve and went ahead and solved it. "I see no reason why the Schneider trophy should not be won twenty years hence at a speed of 1000 miles an hour." This opinion was spoken slowly and deliberately by F. H. ft. Folland, the designer of the 'iloster-Napier Six which, although it has reached only an approximate average speed of 336.3 miles an hour, still is looked on, since it is comparatively, untried; as capable of hitting 400. Flyers Meet All Tests. So far airplane designers and motor engineers have created no machine which flyers cannot handle, for they have demonstrated their ability to withstand all the speed the- engineers are able to give them. Consequently, Folland docs not like Jules Verne, when he predicts 1000 miles an hour within two decades. And he cannot be blamed for his optimism. The engineers of this country are shooting at this mark, and they are quite likely to reach, it before they think they will. In this connection the most notable feature of the, Schneider trophy races is the ease with which these tremendously powerful "fly catchers" are handled. They fly in Weather which would have been considered impossible a year ago, while the engines, which in bygone years would have had to be taken out every five hours and overhauled, now run fifteen hours without being stripped. These are the marks of the progress made in high speed flying in this country. Ocean Flight in View. There is only one thing now preventing a high speed flight from Newfoundland to Ireland, to emulate the first direct trans-Atlantic hop of Sir John Alcock and Sir Arthur Whitten Brown— the design of a high speed plane which will hold enough gasoline for a six-hour flight, for the designers are convinced that JSOO miles can be done in this time. C-Ust as the British have depended on sea power for generations, they are now turning to air power for linking up their scattered dominions, and it is safe to say that the outstanding imperialists of this country are watching with the keenest interest the efforts of motor engineers to put forth a product which will join the far-flung territories with the Mother Country. There always will be some in this country loath to read the signs of the times, reactionaries who are jealous of the encroachments of speed and the consequent encroachment on "vested interests," but at the same time there are visionaries who imagine the time when the British Empire will be measured in minutes, not miles, and they are laying a sure foundation for this ediiice on* the altar of speed with the rapidity the word implies.