AVIATION.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20040, 23 September 1930, Page 9

AVIATION.

LONDON TO TOKYO.

VICTOR BRUCE'S PROPOSED TRIP.

(bwtish official wikelkss.)

(Beceired September 22nd, 5.5 p.m.)

RUGBY, September 20.

jlrs Victor Brur*\ the well-known British woman motor racer and travel ler, who has recently taken to the gir intends to start on an ambitious

aeroplane trip this week. She reach Tokyo, 11,000 miles distant. Is 15 days, beginning with a nongtop flight to Budapest (920 miles), and continuing via Stamboul, Bagdad, Karachi, Calcutta, and Rangoon , tbenco on to Hong Kong, Amoy, Shanghai, and then across to Japan, gxcept for the last stage, her route lies overland practically all the way. gbe will use a Blackburn Bluebird machine of standard pattern, except for #n extra petrol tank. [Hit Victor Bruce is the foremost British woman motor-car racer and has eeveral records to her credit. Taking op traek racing with her husband, she became noted for exceptional coolness aad combined with unfaltering courage. She first came into prominence in January, 1927, when, as a competitor in a race from the extreme north of Scotland to Monte Carlo, she covered the distance in three days without sleep. In July of that year she and her husband drove through Sweden to the Arctic Circle, going 200 miles further north than any motorist had been before. In December they achieved a feat which for pluck and superb driving akin had never been equalled. In bitterly cold and stormy weather they drove a car for ten days continuously o the Montlhfiry track in France, covering 15,000 miles at an average speed of 68 miles an hour and beating several records. It was not until the flfth day, when an accident delayed them for 16 hours and injured her husbind,that she accepted occasional relief in driving from another motorist. In November, 1928, she drove from Stockholm to Monte Carlo over roads which for about 500 miles were covered with f. deep snow. Returning to the racing tntek next year, she accomplished at Montlhfiry the most remarkable feat , standing to the credit of a woman motorist. Driving a car continuously iqt 24 hours, with only one or two brief breaks for snatches of food, she covered over 2200 miles at 90 miles an hour. ■lUs broke not only the previous 24- ■ hoar speed recor 1 (73 miles an hour) )jnt also that for the finest non-stop run Iff a single driver. In January, 1930, ■" she was again close to the Arctic Circle thence drove once more in bitter winter conditions to Monte Carlo. Intsnpersed with these activities were med trials with motor-boats, of which lie possesses four. In 1927 she crossed tke English Channel from Dover to Glials and back—a distance of 45 miles —b 107 minutes, making a new record, in August, 1929, she beat this and • dw « record of 83 minutes set up by Ksjre Don in the interval, for she covered the distance In 79. minutes.] • ELIMINATION OP NOISE. INVESTIGATION" BEING MADE. tS,' (mutmb omciAi wiaxuss.) tteeived September 22nd, 5.5 p.m.) ft, RUGBY, September 20. A careful investigation of the methods whereby air travel can be Etade less noisy is being undertaken y the Aeronautical Research Com--2 mittee. It is of the opinion that this will have to come largely from the M lessening of the source of noise, namely * by a reduction of the air screw tip , speed, by the silencing of the exhaust, *, Mid by the silencing of engine noises . doe to tappet rods, etc. Home tmi Movement is also possible by construct if-lag the cabins With the inner and Oner shells packed between with a » woolly, fireproof insulator. This type ■vvifcf wall. construction is being used m British civil air liners. St - | ARRANGEMENTS ON NEW \ :'< LINERS. A reduction of engine noise in the Jllgßloons of air liners ta being seriously IBmetnpted in the new 40-seater HandSJey 'Page machines now being built for ®imperial Airways, says "The Times." * Almost the only complaint made by I Mongers on the British air routes Wk concerned the fatigue caused by a journey of 2\ to four hours' Cotton-wool placed in the >8 to exclude the noise, but conversation. The bigger are designed with a view to this complaint, and it is »y the constructing • firm that tne two saloons will be as i railway train, and the other than a tube train ge fuselage of these machines suspended beneath the lower ereas in the average air linei reen the wings of the biplane; i of the four engines will be ) or immediately above the Two of the engines will be the upper wing, and the other he lower wing, but the latter * in the same plane as eithei aloons. The fuselage space 0 the engines will be occupied ■eight compartment and lavaimmodation, a section which irate the forward and aft Hie saloon ahead of the enuld therefore be comparativerom engine noise. is also being sought by anchod. Each cabin will have a tin with a layer of soundmaterial packed between the I. The principle of reducing lining walls with Newfoundreed has already been applied City offices, and though seanot being used in these air is thought that the system re satisfactory. The ioint this and of removing the From close proximity to the 1 expected to increase greatly ort of passengers. Engine at present, while all the cm- > being placed oil reliabilitv, t of the question, and in this matter is being dealt with ifferent angle r advantage offered by these is an uninterrupted downw. which will be welcome to » want to see she country as » persons liable to air sickness ! sight of the swaying strnci aeroplane is definitely stated contributory cause of such M^°pl ane crashes. AT BRISBANE. KygU\„ SIDNEY, September 22. accompanied the pilot an aeroplane from Hargrave ■HNfc intending to fly to Katoomba. machine crashed, the joyarranged for the transHgMK wrecked aeroplane to MasHHMMWptMijted to dismantle the Moth

and secured a lorry and rode as far as St. Peters, a suburb near Mascot, with The bogus pilot then gave the driver a note and told him the Mascot authorities would pay, and left the lorry. Later the man was arrested in Brisbane. '■

HIGH SPEED FLIGHTS. OVER SIX MILES PER MINUTE. LONDON, September 21. A speed in excess of six miles a minute was attained by members of the Royal Air Force high-speed flight in practice flights in a GloucesterNapier S6, built but not used for the Schneider Trophy contest. , Though exceeding Squadron-Leader A. H. Orlebar's official record, made in a super-marine Rolls Royce, the new record will not rank because it was not observed. Th© Air Ministry does not intend officially to attack the existing record until a foreigner beats it. PARACHUTE FAILS TO OPEN. DEMONSTRATOR KILLED AT BRUSSELS. BRUSSELS, September 21. For the purpose of demonstrating tho use of three parachutes, a parachutist jumped from an aeroplane at 8000 feet, at an aviation display. He dropped a few hundred feet and released the first, and a little later released the second. When at 1000 feet he released the third, which did not open, and he fell like a stone, his body being buried in the ground in front of the onlookers. A mail aeroplane trom Amsterdam, landing simultaneously, nearly capsized when it stuck th© body. CAPTAIN MATTHEWS LEAVES BAGDAD. BAGDAD, September 21. Captain F. J. Matthews arrived this morning from Ramndi and left an hour later on the next stage of his flight to Australia in an attempt to beat Hinkler's record.