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Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27226, 18 December 1953, Page 8

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machine moved forward, ana men rose . and flew like a bird. That was the first aeroplane. Unused for 11 years, it nevertheless represented the beginning of aviation. Orville and Wilbur Wright, whose first flight is remembered today, took up the study of aicraft in. 1896. the year in which Langley’s steam - powered model flew. They first tried all sorts of gliders, and Orville Wright once glided against an up-current of wind for about 10 minutes. But they were looking to 'a powered machine, and unlike Langley, they pinned their faith on the internal combustion engine. Twelve-Second Flight On December 17, 1903, Orville Wright flew for 12 seconds at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. The Wright? had flown successfully in the same year as Langley had failed. Later on the same day, Wilbur flew for 59 seconds, and after five years of development, Orville Wright made a record flight of Ihr 15min, covering 77i miles. Wilbur Wright died at the age of 45 in 1912, and his brother died in 1948. As the eyes of aviators turned to long-distance flight, the development of the gas-filled airship began. These aircraft were the logical step from the free balloons which had occupied the time of would-be flyers ever since the brothers Montgolfier sent up the first man-carrying hot air balloon in November. 1783. Credit for changing the weak, almost uncontrollable, balloons into rigid steerable craft must be given to a German, Count Ferdinand Zeppelin. He launched his first dirigible in July, 1900, aand made a 12-hour flight on July 1. 1908. . , . Britain and America, too, tried their hands at building airships. After World War I, the British Air Ministry set out to develop the dirigible balloon, and in 1919 the Royal Air Force sent His Majesty’s Airship R. 34 to make the Baltic and Trans-Atlantic flights. But when in 1920 Government expenditure was reduced, there was a possibility of airship construction in Britain closing down. Negotiations begun in 1921 brought a programme of Government experiments into being, and the R.lOO and R.lOl were built. R.lOO was sold to scrap metal buyers in 1931, and R.lOl crashed in France with serious loss of life. Toll of Airships

Probably the best way to show the history of the airships is by the following dates: August 24. 1921: The ZR-2. British dirigible broke in half on trial; 62 killed. October 5, 1930: -British dirigible R.lOl crashed; 47 killed. September 3. 1925: U.S. dirigible Shenandoah broke in half: 14 killed. April 4, 1933: U.S. dirigible Akron crashed into sea: 73 killed. May 6, 1936: German zeppelin Hindenburg destroyed by fire at moorings; 36 killed. „ ~ The requirements of two World Wars gave tremendous impulse to the development of the aeroplane. During the 1914-18 war, aircraft developed from simple airborne observation platforms to something more belligerent. The synchronised machine-gun and bombs had been developed by the end of World War I, and the speed and efficiency of the aeroplane had risen far above the expectations of designers of only a few years before. Between 1919 and 1939, air transport thrived mightily. In. 1919. a Vickers Vimy twin-engined bomber, not dissimilar in appearance to some of the very early machines, made the first non-stop crossing of the Atlantic on June 14, and on August 25 the first regular commercial air service began between Hounslow and Paris. Imperial Airways was formed in the next year, and the present spanning network of scheduled air routes began to grow. . By 1939, air services were being flown from England to India, Australia, Africa, and across the North Atlantic. Just before the Second World War, the British Overseas Airways Corporation was formed, and British civil air transport gained yet more strength.

Quest for Speed In the meantime, the quest for speed was continuing. On September 26, 1927, a Supermarine-Napier aircraft won the Schneider Trophy for Britain with a speed of 281.7 miles an hour. Next year, Britain retained the trophy and the speed was pushed uo to 328.6 miles an hour with the Supermarine Rolls-Royce 5.6. That was on September 7. Five days later Squadron Leader A. H. Orlebar raised the world air speed record to 357.7 miles an hour in the same machine. Britain won the Schneider Trophy outright in 1930 with a speed of 340 miles an hour, and again the trophywinning machine raised the air speed record —this time to 407.5 miles an hour. Altitude and endurance were also increased as speeds rose. In 1933, Squadron Leader O. R. Gayford and Flight Lieutenant G. R. Nicholetts set a world record of 5341 miles in 57 hours 25 minutes for non-stop flight. A world altitude record was also brought to Britain, in 1936, when Squadron Leader F. R. D. Swain flew to 49,967 ft in a Bristol monoplane. From October 5 to October 16, Miss Jean Batten made the first direct flight from England to New Zealand in 11 days 45- minutes, and the world’s longest air route was open. World War II came, and with it the greatest impetus yet received by aviation. In May. 1941, the jet engine, the dream of Sir Frank Whittle, made its first flights in an aircraft known as the Gloster-Whittle E2B/39. The pilot was P. E. G. Sayer. x The Battle’ of Britain, the coming-of-age of air warfare, was by that time over, with a toll of 1733 enemy aircraft destroyed and 643 damaged between July 10 and October 31, 1940. Two years later, on May 30-31, 1942, the first 1000-bomber‘raid was made from Britain on Cologne. Attention returned again to speed after the war, and on November 7, 1945, Group Captain H. J- Wilson captured the world air speed record at 606 miles an hour in a Gloster Meteor powered by two Rolls-Royce Derwent jet engines. Nine months later, in a similar aircraft, the speed was again raised, to 616 miles an hour.

craft, reached 1327 miles an hour when flown by Mr Scott Crossfield. There for the moment the battle rests, but it will no doubt be continued, and sensibly enough, for tests of speed such as these provide severe demands on aircraft and measure the technical progress of aviation. From stark, bare-essentials fighting machines have been developed the super-luxury jet airliners such as the Comet, operating with previously undreamt-of speed, height and smoothness on a number of British air routes. Britain has a large stake in the future of air transport. The turboprop Bristol Britannia and Vickers Viscount, and the jet Comet are now flying to prove that Britain is years ahead of other aircraft-building nations. Other designs still on the drawing boards, such as the civil versions of the Vickers Valiant fourjet bomber, the Avro Vulcan delta jet bomber, and the Handley Page crescent-winged jet bomber, the Victor, should give an even greater lead in the future.

Recent Records Since then, the Hawker Hunter flown by Squadron Leader Neville Duke and the Supermarine Swift, piloted by Lieutenant-Commander Michael Lithgow, have raised the air speed record to 727.6 and 737.3 miles an hour respectively. The present record. 753.4 miles an hour, was set by Lieutenant-Commander James Verdin, of the United States Navy, in a delta-winged Skyray jet fighter. For the officials, at least, that is the world record: but last month the Skyrocket, a United States research air-