AVIATION.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 20244, 23 May 1931, Page 15

AVIATION.

FLYING IN THE FUTURE.

SPEED OP 700 MILES AN HOUR.

(UNITED PEES 3 ASSOCIATION—BX ELECTRIC TKLEGSAPH—COPYRIGHT.)

(Received May 22nd, 8.30 p.m.) LONDON, May 22.

"I am certain that within the lifetime of our youngsters we will have an aeroplane fly to Australia in twentyfour hours," said tho, pioneer aircraft designer, Sir A. V. Roe, commenting on reports of a machine being built in America to cross the Atlantic in seven hours. "Junkers are working on a machine to fly 700 miles an hour. Continued flying at enormous speeds miles abovo the earth is not a mere dream, since it involves only technical improvements and the development of special engines to operate at high altitudes. Great Britain should be well ahead in this djrection. _ Our Schneider Cup and activities are all advancing to the time when this high altitude and high speed flying will bo achieved."

AEROPLANE CATAPULT. MAJESTIC INITIAL FLIGHT. (Received May 22nd. 8.30 p.m.) LONDON. May 21. Tho aeroplane catapult shoots :m aeroplane forward like a shell from a gun. The aeroplane is attached to 11 cable which winds round a 'fixture yards away and back to the catapult drum, and tho aeroplane is thus shot forward on a wheeled carriage, its momentum enabling it to rise majestically into the sky. The object of tho machine is to assist giant aeroplanes, which have difficulty in rising with heavy load, but which it can _ nevertheless carry easily. The airborne catapult is "held, down on a concrete bed, but it is mobile, and can »>o taken and used anywhere. There 13 a hundred yards runway.

REMARKABLE EXPERIMENT. (BRITISH OPFICIAL V/IItELESS.) RUGBY, May 21. A remarkable experiment was deniontrated sit the Royal Aircraft estabIfsliment at Farnborough, when a huge nine-ton bombing machine was successfully catapulted into the air by a new mechanism designed and constructed at tho Air Force experimental station. Squadron-Leader W. S. Caster and Flight-Lientenant J. A. T- Ityfo wero in the bomber, a twin-engined Vicker3 Virginia type machine, when, with tho 1000 li.p. engines running, the pilot gave tho signal and tho catapult was started, adding 4000 h.p. to the engines' pull. There was an car-splitting ioar from tho catapult and the aeroplane shot high into the air, having dispensed with all tako-off run. The catapult's motive power is compressed air. Neither pilot received the slightest shock from this method of launching. The device may be shown nt the annual Air Force Pageant at Hendon this summer.

FLYING OYER RUSSIA. PERMISSION GRANTED. ■ (Received May 22nd, 5.5 p.m.) WASHINGTON, May 21. Tho Soviet Information Bureau has received advice from Moscow stating that the Soviet Government has reversed its previous decision and has given permission for Wiley Post and Harold Gatty to fly over Russia on a projected round-the-world flight.