AIMING HIGH.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 148, 26 June 1933, Page 5

AIMING HIGH.

JEAN PICCARD AGAIN. ANOTHER BALLOON ASCENT. FROM CHICAGO NEXT MONTH. (By a Special Correspondent.) CHICAGO, May 21. Final plans have been drawn for the Piccard-Settle stratosphere flight to be made at Chicago from the grounds of the World's Fair on or about July 1. The ascent, basically in the interest of science for accurate data on cosmic rays, will attack the world's altitude record, and the high command plotting the attempt is headed by the present recordholder, Auguste Piccard, who is supervising all arrangements. He or his twin brother, Jean, will be half the crew of i two that sails up from Soldier's Field to the purple ocean of- space, ten miles. or more above the earth. j Lieutenant-Commander T. W. G. Settle, U.S.N., will accompany which ever Piccard ascends. Commander Settle's experience with free balloons qualifies him for the flight. He piloted a navy balloon in five national races, and com-, peted in the 1929 and 1932 Gordon Bennett balloon races. His victory at Basle, Switzerland, in last year's international contest, clinched permanent possession of the third Gordon Bennett trophy -for the United States. Closely identified with the PiccardSettle flight is Ward T. Van Orman, who won the Gordon Bennett balloon race in 1920, 1929 and 1930. Mr. Van Orman is supervising the building of the gondola in which the stratosphere adventurers will ascend. Hopes of Soaring Miles Higher. The gondola will be manufactured of a magnesium alloy about 75 per cent the weight of duraluminium or other aluminium alloys. Hatchways for entrance into the gondola will be arranged so they can be sealed, that the pressure inside will not decrease as the balloon cjimbs into 'the stratosphere. Instruments for collecting data and rnaViTicr observations an the cosmic ray

and on meteorological conditions will be arranged about the equator of the gondola, inside, where they are within easy reach and easily visible. The instruments have been designed by Professor Arthur H. Compton, University of Chicago, and the taking of data will be under the direction of the University.

The gondola will be carried aloft by a 600,000 cubic feet capacity balloon_ under construction at Aflron, Ohio. This balconstruetion at Akron, Ohio. This balloon which carried Auguste Piccard to a world's altitude record in 1932, is expected to soar miles above the better than ten-mile ceiling established in last year's flight. Inflated, but still at its moorings, the balloon will rise some 15 6toreys above the level of Soldiers' Field. The balloon will carry only 125,000 cubic feet of hydrogen for the take-off, however, as at its peak altitude the gas will expand five times its sea level_ volume. The fabric will be of the single-ply type tised in racing balloons, and will be

n-Inminisp.fi to reflect heat ratlier than absorb it.

The gas valve at the top of the bag and the ballast release will be manually operated from the gondola. With relation to ballast release, Jean Piccard is testing the feasibility of releasing ballast by exposives contained within sandbags that could be discharged electrically. The stratosphere flight will probably start near midnight, and the ascent will be slow, allowing for observations at various levels. The flight will last approximately 20 hours. Auguste Piccard hopes the flight will point the way to faster air travel than the world at the moment can comfortably imagine. If it is found that the diminution of air resistance in the stratosphere Is as rapid as has been calculated, the goal of five to seven-hour trans-Atlantic flights will be brought in from the field of" possibility to the neighbourhood of probability. —(N. A.N. A.)