SPEED IN THE AIR

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 133, 2 December 1931, Page 3

SPEED IN THE AIR

BRITAIN SUPREME

STAINFORTH FLIGHTS

AND SCHNEIDER TEOPHY

'■ (From "The Post's" Representative.) LONDON, 18th September. It rained hard and continuously on Saturday, the day appointed for the ' Schneider contest. Tons of thousands of spectators weve disappointed when tho event had to bo postponed. In accordaneo ■with tho conditions of the ; Schneider Trophy, tho flight had to take \ place at the first opportunity after posti pouement. That opportunity came on ■ Sunday, when tho sun shone out and i tho wind subsided considerably. Spectators could see for miles in every direc- • tion. Throughout tho morning while the crowds gathered along tho shore and on the piers rumours chased out another at short intervals. When at last the flight began, it took most of the crowd by surprise.' Before 1 o'clock an announcement was made by means of tho loud speakers that the starting gun was expected in a quarter of an hour. The three racing seaplanes, carrying their full loads of petrol, were put on their pontoons and towed out into the Solent, while Squadron-Leader Orlebar went up in an Atlas seaplane to test the conditions. From Ryde pier the whole course could be seen. This was the starting point and the finishing line. Ships with spectators on board had taken up their stations. To the west, Lady Houston's magnificent white yacht, dressed with flags, rode at anchor. It was through Lady Houston's generosity that it was possible to build the machines and race them. Next to her was tho dark hull of the aircraft carrier Courageous, and just beyond, the two-funnelled Homeric, with j a crowd of spectators on board. Smaller yachts were grouped in their appointed anchorages, and just before 1 o'clock the last pinnace and the last launch crossed the wide lanes of water which formed tho great thirty-one-mile triangle over which tho seaplanes would race. BOOTHMAN SETS OUT. The starting gun boomed on H.M.S. Medea, near the Ryde turning point. Then the S6B seaplane, piloted, by Flight-Lieutenant Boothman, circled round, landed, and after "taxi-ing" the required distance for tho navigability trials, took off again. It swept round and then canio straight for the starting line. Boothman's instructions were to fly full out provided the temperature of the engine cooling water did not rise abovo a certain point. He was also instructed to take the turns wide rather than risk not going round the pylons an 1, being disqualified. He came straight for Bide pier flying with beautiful precision (writes the correspondent of the "Morning Post"), and leaving behind a trail of sepia suolce from the engine exhaust. As he rushed past his head could be seen close behind the wind-screen as he crouched at tho controls and hurled his machine at the St. Helens turning point. He began hia turn, and then came tho first surprise of tho race. Instead of shaving the plyon close he made tho new wido turn. He did the same at West Wittering and Byde, but it was not until after tho event that SquadronLeader Orlebar explained that this method of turning had been found to be the fastest after careful tests with special .'instruments. Along the fourteen-mile stretch of the mainland coast Boothman travelled with a speed that could only be appreciated by noting the places on tho ground over which he was passing or by observing the way in which the low rumbling of his engine, very diferent from the high-pitched scream of tho older types, seemed to chase the machine and to roar like thunder in its wake, always attempting but never able to catch up with it. SHATTERING THE RECORDS. Tho S6B passed the lino again, and the speed was given as 343 miles an hour. All lap records had been shattered, and the fastest lap of 1929 improved upon by eleven miles an hour. But even higher speeds were expected, and it was a surprise to find that the second lap was down at 342.7 miles an hour. Even so, the 100 kilometres world record was broken during theso two laps by a wide margin, tho average being 3-12.9 miles an hour. Thereafter the speeds went down slightly to P40.1, 338.3, 339.6, 339.4, and 337.7, giving an average speed for the entire course of 340.08 miles an hour. Afterwards it was explained that Boothman's engine water temperature had gone up to nearly boiling point. In accordance with his instructions, therefore, he throttled down the engine slightly and kept it throttled down during the rest of the flight until he was within four miles of the finishing line. He then opened out again and tore over the lino at full speed, while the people below cheered and waved 'handkerchiefs and hats and the steamers sounded their syrens. THE PILOT'S LOG. After the test, Flight-Lieutenant Boothman made an entry in the rocords of the high speed flights. He wrote:— "After the first landing I kept the engine ticking over for ono minute fifteen seconds to make sure (this refers to the required duration of the taxiing test). Opened out and took off. Got a bit of a bumping from own previous wash. Turned on to Byde and started on course. Flying m temperaturo (in accordance with instructions) one and a half laps O.K. at full throttle. Water then started to rise, and I ran slightly less throughout until the seventh lap, when I open throttle full bore for a final towards Byde. "On third and fourth lap decided to give Southsea a miss owing to bumps. Turned rather too much left. Engine ran like a clock, machine perfect, but slightly port wing low. Turned all pylons wide for safety." - On-his sixth lap he states he saw the Homeric belching black smoke from her funnels, and he thought it might have been a signal that ho had finished the seven laps, but had "boobed" the lap score. He felt worried about his petrol over the last lap, for if that bad been tho case he was actually doing an extra lap, just as FJight-Lieutenant Waghorn did in 1929. Boothman finished in grand style, and, after a high, wide sweep round the sky, landed perfectly. When he landed he was almost mobbed. Mrs. Boothman stood by his side, and they wero photographed by scores of camoras. "I am glad. I had a comfortable trip. I am thirsty," were tho pilot's first words. STAINFORTH'S SPEED RECORD. Immediately after the Schneider Trophy it was decided to attack the world's three-kilometre speed record. The second Vickers Superrnarine Bolls-Royce S<sß had some of tho fuel taken out of her tanks, and soon after 4 o'clock Flight-Lieutenant G. H. Stainforth took his place in tho cockpt. His course was along the shore between Lee-on-Solent and Hill Head. Aircraft are not allowed by the rules to exceed a certain height, and the stewards sent up another machine to give ■ them a check oa the height of the SOB. Stain forth climbii to just below this other machine, and then swooped fot

tho courso with his engine ruuning at absolutely full throttle. He boro down lower and lower until he seemed from Calshot Castlo to be only about 150 feet above the water. Ho then straightened out and passed through the threekilometre course, tho roar of his engine, as it seemed, chasing him along it. The s"peed figures of Flight-Lieuten-ant Stainforth'a flight as recorded by the photographic device were as follows: — No. 1 8un—373.85 m.p.h., or 601.64 k.p.li. No. 2 8un—388.67 m.p.h., or 625.49 k.p.h. No. 3 Bun —369.87 m.p.h., or 595.23 k.p.h. No. 4 Bun —383.1 m.p.h., or 617.67 k.p.h. The mean of the four runs was 379.05 m.p.h., or (iVO.OI k.pji. The new record is, therefore, slightly more than 21 miles an hour greater than the record of 357.7 m.p.h., established by Squad-ron-Leader A. H. Orlebar in an S6 seaplane in 1929. On Sunday the timekeepers with stop watches recorded that tho speed | in tho second run was 404.265 miles an hour. The error was a big one, and it demonstrates the uncertainty of a method which depends upon the human factor. Three kilometres, when an aeroplane is travelling at a speed of 620 kilometres an hour, is traversed in so short a time that an error in the stop-watch method of only three-fifths of a second becomes serious, and tho most -experienced timekeepers are not proof against an error of three-fifths of a second. Thus the proportion of such an error of three-fifths of a second in one lap amounts to nearly 4 per cent., and it would be easy, therefore, to get an error of 16 miles per hour where the total speed is nearly 400 miles an Ivour. Note.—The record set up on this occasion was completely shattered subsequently by Stainforth using one of the S6B machines, in which a new engine specially prepared by Messrs. RollsRoyce was installed.' A cablegram dated 29 th September announced a speed at Calshot by Stainforth with his machine of 408.8 m.p.h. The fastest laps were 415.2, 405.1, 409.5, and 405.4 m.p.h.