The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo and The Sun. SATURDAY, JULY 3, 1937. TEN MILES UP.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 156, 3 July 1937, Page 8

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo and The Sun.

SATURDAY, JULY 3, 1937. TEN MILES UP.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the vyrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that ice can do.

"When in September of last year Squadron-Leader Swain, of tlie Royal Air Force, flew to an altitude of 4f1,!)44ft the opinion was expressed authoritatively that a.s the equipment he used worked with perfect efficiency a gTeater height would soon be reached. This week another R.A.F. officer, Flight-Lieutenant J. Adams, liew to a height of f>3,937ft, more than ten miles above tlu: earth. it was probably more than a coincidence that this achievement took place a few weeks after the Italian, Lieutenant I'ezzi, had claimed a new record of 51,(>39ft. The British airman, who was selected in October of last year to make the flight, apparently waited for the Italian's achievement in full confidence that he would be able lo better it. The international rivalry which a tew years ago was so keen in speed llijihts, until Britain won the Schneider (.'up outright, is to be seen now in the continual effort to design and manufacture 'planes, and to find pilots able to fly them, to greater and greater altitudes. Five years ago Professor Piccard and a companion, sealed in an aluminium sphere with a supply of oxygen, ascended in a balloon to a height of 51,455 ft, and to the astonishment of most people, descended in the Italian Alps alive and well. For obvious reasons a comparable altitude in a heavier-than-air machine has been attained only after years of effort. It has been attained mainly through the knowledge and determination of British aero-engine designers. The machines in which Italy gained and held the record for some years were driven by British engines, and the machine in which France gained supremacy reflected the influence of the same British engine design. Then after continual research, a new engine, with two superchargers, and devices for resisting the clogging effects of low temperature, was evolved, and its success was proved last year by SquadronLeader Swain. So efficient for its purpose was this engine that the problem became one of equipping the pilot to endure the rigours of the altitude to which the engine could take him. This problem appears to have been solved by the designing of a "diving" suit which protects its wearer against air-pressure at extreme heights. Before making his flight last year Squadron-Leader Swain had worn the suit in an experimental chamber when the pressure was reduced to that of the atmosphere at a height of 80,000 ft. Theoretically, therefore, if an engine can be built to fly more than fifteen miles high, its pilot will be able to at that height. The engine-designer is again challenged. That he will meet the challenge it is easily possible to believe when it is remembered that within five years the record has been raised by nearly two miles. The pity is that all present indications are that the knowledge gained through the brains and skill of engine-designers and the courage of the test pilots will be used primarily for purposes of destruction.