BROADCAST WIVES TO WRECK FLYERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 139, 15 June 1938, Page 7

BROADCAST WIVES TO WRECK FLYERS.

AIR "DEATH RAY? Apparatus Installed in German Machines. BOMBER EQUIPMENT. United Tress Association.—Copyright. (Received 1 p.m.) LONDON, June 14. The "Daily Telegraph" Rome correspondent says that "death ray" apparatus has been installed 111 German war 'planes, according to the National Radio Agency. It is asserted that Heinkel bombers, equipped with heavy oil engines, are carrying ultra-short wave sets, which can broadcast waves causing the fall of 'planes. Similar sets are being erected on the German frontiers which, combined with captive balloons similarly equipped, would arrest any enemy flights across Germany. SUCKED INTO THE AIR. British GliderV Experience in Clouds. ICE FORMS ON 'PLANE. LONDON", June 8 What it feels like to be sucked into the air by storm clouds in a glider is described by Philip AVills in an article in "The Times." He established a new British height record by rising to 11.000 feet.

Mr. Wills states that he too* off from Dunstable Downs at 3 p.m., with no intention of trying for a record, but at 4.30 he struck a strong upper current. Accompanied by a friend in another machine, he circled up rapidly to 4500 feet, where he saw a large s.torm cloud eight miles to the west. He flew to it and spiralled up rapidly, the rate of climb increasing from 10 to 15 feet per second. He had, he says, a feeling of being silently absorbed by a large and immensely powerful octopus. The hue of the surrounding vapour wr.s also like that of an octopus. The only sound was the comforting buzz of tile little motor of the turn indicator. He suddenly struck a rough area and the machine lurched, causing dizziness and a swimming head. Accordingly, he straightened the 'plane and came out into dazzling sunlight at a height of 7500 feet. He flew around, losing height, and the dizziness disappeared. Wills then went back into the storm cloud and climbed fast. Ice formed on the cockpit cover and the wings. With relief he saw the altimeter needle top 10,000 feet, which he had determined to reach. When_ he emerged from the cloud after 35 minutes he saw it towering another 1500 feet "It was a sight to dazzle the gods," he writes, "but to me it was a pain in the neck. I wanted tea, not ambrosia." He glided down and was repeatedly startled by ice breaking off the glider with pistol-like cracks.