GREATEST AIR RACE

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 25, 29 July 1933, Page 12

GREATEST AIR RACE

ENGLAND-AUSTRALIA

MELBOURNE CENTENARY

INTERNATIONAL EVENT

Though the event is still, over a year ahead, it is taken as already certain that tho MacEobertsou International Air Race, England to Melbourne, will bring together the greatest field of famous airmen and high-performance machines in • the history of aviation. In October of next year Victoria will celebrate the centenary of the founding of the State, and Sir Macpherson Eobertson offered, in order to focus attention upon Australia and Victoria, and Melbourne in particular, £10,000 as prize money for an air race from England to Melbourne. Subsequently the prize money was increased by him to £15,000 so that the first prize might stand at the round figure of £10,000, and that additional prizes could be given for places and also for a handicap race. The prizes proposed are:—Championship, £10,000 and £500 gold cup for first, £1500 for second place, and £500 for third; handicap, £2000 for first and £1000 for second place. The conditions as tentatively drawn up are such that international rivalry is bound to be keen (it is in^no sense an Empire race) and the great aeroplane manufacturers of the world can scarcely afford to stand out of a competition which will bring high fame to the winning pilot and machine. The race will be something bigger than a competition between pilot-owners, and though the prize money is big, probably many times the total amount offered will be swallowed up in the competition for the hall-mark (as well as the £10,000) of long-distance flying under virtually unrestricted conditions. At the same time, if suitable handicap conditions can be drawn up, the pilot-owner flying a very modest Moth should have in the handicap race an equal chance with, the most highly specialised long-distance •; machine, but it is' admitted that the preparation of handicap conditions to bring widely different types of machine down to a common basis is a most difficult matter. The original announcement that this section of the race would be a sealed handicap, and that the prize would go to "the most meritorious flight in relation to power and size of aircraft" will probably be made more definite, for in that vague form the condition is apparently not appealing greatly to airmen. / THE GENERAL CONDITIONS. The general conditions include the following:—Entries will be accepted from any individual or nation; all machines are to fall at six* checking stations, Bagdad, Calcutta, Singapore, Darwin, Charleville, and Melbourne (the route followed by Mollison); no limit to power and type of machine; no limit to number of crew; no additions to crew on the journey; re-fuelling in tho air and night flying permitted. ' The checking points are insisted upon, as certain countries do not allow foreign aircraft to fly over their boundaries, and so a more or less fixed course is set. Apart from that condition the conditions are practically open. Tho original plans were that all machines should start from London and other English aerodromes approximately equivalent from Bagdad, simultaneously on October 20, but it has been suggested that handicaps should be taken into account at the start in order that the finish, at Flemington racecourse, should be spread over hours instead of days. Such a plaa ifould undoubtedly make for a much more spectacular race, with the scratch machines fighting to overhaul limit machines several Jays ahead. THE SOLE RACE FIASCO. As suggested above, the prize money, big as it is, is but part of the inducement for airmen and their backers to enter for the race. Several awards of £10,000 have been made, as by tho "Daily Mail," for great flights, but the largest prize money previously offered was in the tragic Dole race from California to Honolulu, in 1927. In that case, too, the race was instituted to focus attention on Hawaii. Mr. James Dole, "the pineapple king of Hawaii," offered £5000 as first prize and £2000 as second prize for the 2400----mile ocean crossing to Honolulu. The race had no international flavour, though it was not confined to American pilots. There wore nine entrants, but one crashed in the take-off, one failed to leave the ground, and another was disqualified as having insufficient petrol capacity. Two were forced back soon after the start, and. four were left in the race. The winner was A. C. Groebel, and Lieutenant W. V. Davis was second. Tho absence of wireless equipment made it impossible to learn tho progress of the other two machines (one carrying a lady passenger),! and they were never traced. P.raetically the whole of the American Pacific fleet searched the ocean, and naval and civil aircraft took part: rewards amounting to £8000 were offered for the finding of the machines. One of the searching machines, the "Dallas Spirit," sent back a message that added to the tragedy: "In a tail spin," and then no more. The Dole race was a rather dreadful business first and last. ; MACHINES AND KNOWLEDGE TODAY. Since 1927 aircraft are vastly different. The distance of 2400' miles which had to be crossed has been flown by scores of machines of all types; there is now an exact knowledge of fuel requirements, and as great an improvement has been made in instrument and wireless equipment as in major construction. The England-Australia route is today well mapped, and there are many possible landing grounds besides the official control points. In 1927 Groebel won the Dole prize with an average speed of eighty odd miles per hour. Last year C. W. A. Scott reduced his own record England to Australia, to 8 days 20 hours 44 minutes. What the England-Melbourna flying time will be next year depends upon the weather, fortune, skill, and daring, but with the almost certain entry of the world's fastest long-distance machines—several are rated to cruise at 200 miles per hour and over for 2000 miles non-stop—with no restriction as to flying personnel, with night flying and finance for ground organisation to speed up the race for big money and big mana, the present record is likely to bo set far back. It is quite possible that the record machine will- reach Melbourne within four days of leaving England.