Record Speed in the Air.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 20342, 15 September 1931, Page 8

Record Speed in the Air.

According to a eable message from London to-day, the Air Ministry is dissatisfied with the record gpeeds attained l)y the British Schneider Cup seaplanes, and anothey test is indU cated, i|i which it is hoped to raise the latest record speed of 340.11 miles an jftoiir to wejl over 400. The full distance of the triangular course is 31.07 miles. Flight-Lieutenant Boothman, th§ first recordrbreaker, flew the seven Japs flit an average speed of 340.11 miles an hpur, or about seven times as fast as the fastest New Zealand express train; and his speed was sufficient to win the Trophy, although the record was only about 12 miles an hour better than the record in 192' J. A worjd record, however, wjisj achieved by Flight-Lieutenant SUinforth who, oyer ft' tforee?kilomotre stretch of the course, attained a speed of 404.265 miles an hour. It is interesting to note how the speed affected the triumphant airmen> Flight-Lieutenant Boothrpan not only became confused iri counting seven laps, but landed with one of his arms virtually paralysed; and Flight Stainforth's state suggested his having been in the water rather than the air. The question is raised, whether there is* a limit to man's endurance of tremendous flying speeds. Curiously enough, it is abput a hundred years since George Stephenson, whose crude locomotive "to the aston- " ishment of everyone except ljiptself ■ £ attained the undreamt of rate of 35 " miles an hour," proposed a maximum endurable speed. The pioneer of British engine speed expressed the belief, lis Greville record? in his Diary, that 400 miles an hour would be the utmost speed that human physique could stand. Perhaps Stephenson was not very far out. It is astonishing that he should even have speculated about a speed then so far from being attainable; but the fact that Flight-Lieutenant Stainforth was not distressed by exceeding 404 miles an hour shows that there is still a margin to be crossed before endurance cracks. The Air Ministry evidently desires to explore it.