AMBITIOUS PLAN.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 183, 4 August 1932, Page 7

AMBITIOUS PLAN.

ROCKETING TASMAN. Australia to New Zealand Via The Stratosphere. DESCENT BY PARACHUTE. (United P.A.—Electric Telegraph—Copyright) SYDNEY, August 3. Mr. Ernest Fraser, whose eyebrows wei'c burned off as a result of the explosion at Koseville of. the rocket in which he and Mr. Kenneth Foreman proposed to fly to New Zealand, explained the ambitious project.

He said the rocket craft was to be propelled 000 miles an hour through the stratosphere at a height of 00,000 feet.

The designer of the rocket and the inventor, of the propelling mixture was the science master at a country High .School, who had been studying the work of Heir Opel of Germany -with rockets and rocket-driven cars.

Mr. Fraser added: "When the rocket leaves for New Zealand the ovci.pant will breathe from special air containers, ind through thick plate-glass windows he will see the entire North Island and part of the South as far as Christehurch from his vantage point as the rocket hurtles toward its goal.

"When within 100 miles of New Zealand the rocket will be deflected downwards, the propelling mixture will be reduced and the pilot will descend with a parachute. The rocket, instead of careering to destruction, will be brought to earth by means of time mechanism ami a parachute automatically operated."

Messrs. Foreman and Fraser arc •egarded as men of substance and inusual inventive ability.

RECORD BUSINESS. BY AIR TO CONTINENT. (Received 0.30 a.m.) LONDON, August 3. Record numbers of passengers are flying to the Continent, averaging 1300 weekly, compared with 30 weekly when the service was inaugurated in 1919. This popularity is due to the comfort and comparative eilence and safety of the new 40-seaters. The South African service has proved so successful that it is to be duplicated immediately.