A GREAT PIONEER ATTEMPT

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 5, 7 January 1928, Page 14

A GREAT PIONEER ATTEMPT

MILESTONES IN AVIATION HISTORY START EARLY NEXT WEEK The attempt by the two New Zealand airmen to fly across the Tasman, which has been announced in a cable message as commencing early to-morrow morning, will not be made until early next week. There are many factors for the airmen to consider, the chief of which is weather, and neither the flyers nor their supporters desire that unnecessary risks should be added to the severe test of flying 1400 miles over the ocean. The cable message referred to above also stated that there was a doubt as to the spot at which the airmen would land in New Zaeland, the alternatives being Trentham or Greymouth, upon which point a decision would not be reached until the machine was well on* its way. Up to the time of writing this has not been made clear, but it is considered unlikely that the course will be shaped for any landing place but that at Trentham. That the Sunday flight is cancelled is shown by the following cablegram received by Mr. A. M'Nicol, of Dannevirke, trustee of flight funds, in response to his urgent inquiry regarding the published cablegram this morning:— Definitely not leaving Sunday. Any time after that, weather permitting. —Moncrieff. It is expected, therefore, that the flight will be commenced early next week, given the essential good weather conditions.

Tho flight across tho Tasman has been a dream of aviation enthusiasts in New Zealand, and in Australia also, for a long time past—since before, in fact, English, Continental, and American airmen commenced piling record on record, from 1919 when tho Atlantic was 'crossed first via Newfoundland, the Azores, Lisbon, and England, and a little later in a non-stop flight from Newfoundland to Ireland by tho Briti.h airmen, Sir John Alcock and Sir Arthur Brown, in November of that year. Finance was always tho first difficulty, and there was, moreover, no assurance that there would be found the right machine and the right men to take it across. In tho light of experiences, tragic, sensational, or gloriously successful, of flying men of the older world, it is apparent now that tho earlier proposals for a transTasman flight were impossible of achievement, or only possible by a marvellously fortunate combination of conr ditions and circumstances. Air navigation over great distances and aircraft

reliability have been built up during very recent years. Over and above that, practically nothing was known of the air conditions at flying levels over the Tasman, nor, indeed, was the need of as full knowledge as possible truly appreciated until experiences elsewhere had bitterly emphasised it. There are two types of longdistance flights, those made up of long and short hops, by which the pilot coveis many thousands of miles, and single ixtended flights. Some of the most notable of the multi-stago flights were the airplane journey in 1019 of Sir Boss and Sir Keith Smith from England to Australia, and, in 1926, Sir Alan Cobham's flying boat iourney from England to Australia and back, 26,000 miles; tho round the world flight of the American army 'planes, 27,553 miles; and De Pinedo's marvellous flying boat voyage of 45,000 miles, touching Italy, Africa, South America, North America, and the Azores. In the single extended flight the pilot demands of himself and his motor the last ounce; in this class are the flights of Lindbergh, across tho Atlantic; of Kelly and Macrcady, who took an army monoplane from New York to the Pacific coast, 2520 miles; and a number .of overland flights from Continental centres to Siberia, Mesopotamia, and Persia. Both types test Hie machine and the man to the utmost. UNKNOWN FLYING CONDITIONS. Compared with the vast stretches of airways travelled in non-stop flights in the Nort lcrn Hemisphere, tho trans-Tas-uian distance is not so great in miles, but when tho New Zealand aviators leave the Australian coastline behind they will fly into an unknown region; the paper course will bo clear before them, but as the conditions of the 1430 miles of air ahead there is no guidebook. The Tasman is a storm centre for

most of the winds that blow, but meteorologically it is a No Man's Land, and sea surface conditions are known more by their effects than from their causes. The Tasman's weather apparently moves not so much from Australia to New Zealand, or vice versa, as fron, the south-west, from the Antarctic, and the broad charting of weather is therefore practically an impossibility; localised charting, from steamship reports, has not so far ranked in high importance. Even had there been a | collection of such data over many years, so systematically gathered and compiled as to enable ocean and land forecasts to be made upon a broader basis than at present, the upper air conditions would remain a blank unknown, and the key to the storms within the storm which are the weather puzzles of the Tasman would still be missing. The Atlantic, the scene of tho most spectacular ocean flights, has been weather-charted day after day for years, but nothing definite was known of the flying strata until airmen crossed

it. It was generally known that the prevailing winds were from west to east, and something was known of the kind of storm that might be met when such and such conditions held on the surface; the dangers of snow and ice were realised, but no one knew how to meet them; none knew when conditions would be suitable all the way across; the only important data available wero those regarding surface winds. It was probably insufficien+ knowledge" of what dangers faced them in the icy sea mists of the North Atlantic that was responsible for the loss of such expert airmen as Nungesser and Coli in the early months of 1927. FLYING BLIND. ■ Lindbergh contributed the first definite knowledge of the weather conditions to bo faced on the trans-Atlantic flight. He met fog and tried to climb over it, but failed. He flew as high as his heavily-loaded 'plane would carry him without being able to find the top of the curtain. And when he did get up, ice began to form on his 'plane, and he was forced to dive for warmer air near the water. Chamberlin found that ho could avoid the ice by flying low, but he drifto^l far from his course owing to the failure of his main compass. Byrd met even worse conditions than Lindbergh, and proved again that it is impossible for present-day 'planes to escapo the treacherous fog. His ability as a navigator was useless to him much of the time, for he could see neither sea nor sky, and, like his predecessors, ho had to rely mostly on dead reckoning. Lindbergh was, however, not the first to cross the Atlantic, and the honour |of the first non-stop flight went to England, not to America. Eight times previously the air trip had been made by airplane or dirigible. There were three crossings in 1919. The first was when

a United States navy 'plane crossed from Newfoundland to the Azores and then to Lisbon and England. In June of that year the first non-stop flight was made by the English flyers Captain Alcock and, Lieutenant Brown from Newfoundland to Ireland. A month later the British dirigible K34 flew from Scotland to the States and back to England. In 1924 American army 'planes crossed by way of Greenland in their round the world flight, and in the game year the Zeppelin ZK3, later renamed the Los Angeles, flew from Priedrichshafen. In 1926 the Spanish aviator, Ramon Franco, flow from Spain to the Argentine, making stops at Cape Verde Island and Fernando Noronha. Then came de Pinedo, flying from Italy to Brazil, following much the same route as that taken by Franco. But Lindbergh started almost blind as far as weather conditions were concerned. ATLANTIC AND PACIFIC TRAGEDIES. When it came to attempting the passage from east to west it was found that conditions were not nearly 60 favourable as for the eastward trip. British, French, and German pilots waited weeks for favourable weather. A French pilot who started ran into a blinding fog before he cleared the land. Captain Leslie Hamilton, Lieutenant Minchin, and the Princess Lowe-stein-Wertheim took off from England in what seemed to be fairly good weather, but disappeared in the fog barrier. Pacific, flights began and brief aviation history repeated itself. Those who had prepared thoroughly succeeded; those who did not failed. Maitland and Hegenberger planned their flight and studied air conditions for more than a year. -Yet at one time they seemed to have failed, in spite of the thoroughness with which they made ready. They had not expected cold over the Pacific at the altitude at which they would fly. But when they were part way across one of their three motors began to sputter and they lost altitude steadily until, for no reason apparently, the motor picked up. An intake valve had frozen and then thawed out again as they came down towards the sea. Smith and Bronte made the flight with success, though they crashed in the Honolulu landing, fortunately without either being injured. Then came the disastrous Dole prize race, and in the desire to get into the race pilots prepared with more haste than wisdom. The emotion of long distance flights had gripped them and they were determined to go, rushing their work and leaving insufficient time for the full testing of their machines. Three pilots were killed before the race started, two machines, not tested under the tremendous weight of fuel, failed in the takeoff, another had early engine trouble and returned, but what happened to the Golden Eagle, the Miss Doran, and the Dallas Spirit will probably never bo known. PROVING THE MACHINE. These and the tragedies which have followed them proved the vital importance of careful, painstaking, and detailed preparations for long distance flights, especially when they are rendered more hazardous by the sea. The history of long distance flying has been largely one of courage and skill, backed by luck, and designers and builders have been working with exact scientific attention to detail to eliminate the luck factor. "Luck" lies chiefly in the motor. The Wright Whirlwind motor in the Aotea-Roa, similar to that used by Lindbergh, and by Chamberlin and Byrd, is regarded as the best air-cooled motor of its power in the world, from which the luck element has been reduced to the least possible minimum, but as was tragically shown in the Pacific flights of the Dole Prize race (all the machines starting being equipped with this engine), no motor, no mattei how excellent in design, can be depended upon, hour on hour, unless tuned to perfection; a defective spark plug, faulty valve adjustment, any one of a dozen things may bring its efficiency down with a run. The plane must prove its capacity to lift the tremendous fuel weight; theoretical knowledge of that capacity will not do, for theory cannot be checked after the motor roars and the land is far behind. The millennium in flying, when the aviator may step aboard his 'plane for a non-stop flight assured that his motor will run while there is petrol in the tank, is still far ahead, but the development in reliability during the past few years —the world was really only beginning to fly when the war ended —has been steadily progressive. Lindbergh shot over 3610 miles of the North Atlantic, and that was the first the world at large had heard of him, and immediately recognised in him an intrepid and lucky young fool, the world's greatest stunter. But Lindbergh had been flying for years before he startled the world; he was intrepid, but he had proved his machine and himself in air mail flying for years in all sorts of weather. • Captain Kingsford Smith and Lieutenant Pond, who propose to cros3 the Pacific from San Francisco to Australia, have been a long time over the testing of their motor and plane, their backers making it a condition that an endurance record must be set up before the ocean flightis undertaken. As is stated earlier in this article, the successful Pacific flight to Honolulu by Maitland and Hegenberger was planned and replanned for a year. But between these vast ocean flights and the crossing of the Tasman is the great difference in air miles. The Atlantic non-stop flights have ranged from 2000 to over 4000 miles, for Chauibei--lin and his millionaire backer and passenger, Lcvine, wandered far from the plauned course in fog and rain, and the Hawaiian flight crosses 209S miles of the Pacific if a true line is maintained from point to point. Lindbergh carried 451 gallons of petrol when he took off. Muilland and Hegenberger took off for Honolulu with their triple-eugined 'plane loaded with 18,900 pounds. Captain Kingsforil Smith estimates that 1000 gallons of petrol will be required to cross the Pacific to Australia, but ho will carry three Wright motors ,on his 'plane. The "Aotea-Boa," though in the main similar to the Ryan monoplane flown by Lindbergh, is somewhat smaller and is to start the flight with ltss than half the petrol, 200 gallons, as against 451. The engine is similar

to Lindbergh's,, the best engine of its class and power available. 'PLANE AND EQUIPMENT. The general specifications of these Wright Whirlwinds are as follow: — Model J, sc.—Bore, 4.5 in; stroke, 5.5 in; displacement, 788 cubic inches; compression ratio, 5.2 to 1; guaranteed h.p. at sea level, 200 at 1800 revs, per minute; weight, dry, 5081b (average); length over all, 34in; diameter over all, 45in; fuel consumption at 200 h.p., not more than .61b per h.p. per hour; oil consumption at 200 h.p., not more than .0251b per h.p. per hour. It is a motor developed under the keenest and most scientific competition, with a particular eye to long-distance and commercial flying, air-cooled, and designed for economic as well as high reliable performance. In addition to strains placed upon these engines during the great ocean flights, Wright Whirlwinds have been subjected to exceptionally severe machineroom tests. Three 54-hour endurance tests carried out indicate its extreme durability. Though the 'plane is a land machine and would be unable to rise and continue the flight in the event of a forced descent in mid-sea, it is so designed and constructed as to remain safely on the water for something like twelve hours in average conditions. Air chambers and floats are built into the craft, and a collapsible rubber boat with water and rations is part of the equipment. AN ELECTRICAL COMPASS. The most important of all the equipment is, however, a special form of compass, the earth inductor compass. It is totally different in form and in principle from the ship's compass and the magnetic needle has no part in it. Stated simply and briefly, the earth inductor compass has as its essential feature a small electric generator, and a dial which shows variations in the 'plane's direction. The generator is a miniature dynamo, but there is no field magnet. The purpose of the dynamo's field magnet is to create "lines of force," which induce in the central armature electrical currents which are picked up from the spinning armature by means of "brushes," which in the simplest form of dynamo are two in number, on the opposite side of the armature. There is a definite position in relation to the field magnet from which these brushes will pick up a maximum current, and as they are moved, the current picked up falls. Conversely, if the brushes are held steady, and the field magnet is moved round, the same effect is produced. In the earth inductor compass the artificial field is replaced by the earth's magnetic field, in which the armature spins. As the 'plane changes direction it swings (and the brushes move) in relation to the fixed lines of force of the earth's magnetic field, and the current taken from the armature,varies accordingly. An electrical measuring instrument—a form of voltmeter —reads off tho variations in current, but the dial is marked to register, not volts, but direction changes. WHAT THE FLIGHT MEANS. The venture may be regarded from any one of several aspects: It is the last long jump on the Imperial airways from tho Homeland to her Dominions, and one of the most difficult of all these air connections; the completion of the flights of the Smith brothers and Sir Alan Cobham; it is a means to the further impression on the public mind of the increasing safety and ultimate certainty of general travel by air; a means to awaken New Zealand to tho necessity of a defence system adequate to the conditions that must come with the steady development of aircraft and air navigation;. a pioneer exploration of air routes from which lessons of the greatest importance may be learned and passed on; as a flight to New Zealand across what may be regarded as the home ocean, by New Zealanders determined to be first across. No one of these considerations will stand alone as the force which impelled the aviators to tackle tho double task, first of interesting others sufficiently to make the attempt a financial possibility, then of the long flight over an unknown but much suspected airway itself. The great probability —the certainty, in fact —is that the first task loomed before them as the greater and the less likely of achievement; of the flight achievement they were obviously confident from the first.