AIR GLIDING

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 69, 18 September 1930, Page 9

AIR GLIDING

A WONDERFUL SPORT

KOYALTY LOOKS ON

(From "The Post's" Representative.) LONDON, 17th July.

The Prince of Wales and Prince George, accompanied by Lord . Louis Mountbatten, were spectators on Tuesday at the demonstration of gliding and soaring at Ivinghoe, Bucks. They arrived by air from Hendon.

Their visit had been kept secret, and the Master of Sempill, Ah- Vice-Mar-hal Sir Sefton Brancker, and members u£ tho British Gliding Association were | the only people present. The display I was organised by the London Gliding Association and . the London Gliding Club. Herr Eobert Kronfeld, the German gliding expert, gave a number of demonstrations during the afternoon. The weather was not altogether favourable, as there was very little wind velocity, but tho displays given proved what was possible on a comparatively calm day. The Prince of Wales was first entertained by a demonstration flight by Captain Latinier Needharn, who was the first Englishman to be awarded the C certificate, which he received at Itford after being in the air for an hour and 50 minutes. The Prince's pilot, FlightLieut. Pielden, made two flights in the same machine, and qualified for both the A ana B certificates. Herr Kronfeld then flew in: his machine, the Vienna, and floated backwards and forwards, during which time he carried on a conversation from the air with the Prince of Wales, who was watching on the ground. Herr Kronfeld asked, '' How do you liko this wonderful sport, sir1?" and the Prince answered "Fine." The German glider found it difficult in the first three minutes to gain height, but afterwards he rose to about 1000 ft, and shouted that he was quite happy. He sailed in the air for about 20 minutes, and then landed on Ivinghoe Beacon exactly on the spot from which ho had taken off.

The Prince was particularly interested in an instrument which hung just behind the cockpit in Herr Kronfeld'b machine, the function of which is to register the machine's altitude and to give &■ complete graph of a, flight from start to finish. ..

Herr Kronfeld will leave in a fewdays ' time for Germany, where he is going to test his new machine, the Austria, which has just been completed. This has a wing span of 100 ft, and has been specially built for tie international motorless flight competition which is to be held in Germany in August.