AERIAL SURVEY

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 142, 13 December 1933, Page 9

AERIAL SURVEY

WESTERN AUSTRALIA

TWO SPECIAL MACHINES

(From "The Post's" Representative.) LONDON, October 13.

Two twin-engined biplanes acquired for extensive survey operations in Western Australia are ready for shipment. They are named '' Gay Prospector" and "Golden West."

Work will begin in December on the gigantic task of surveying from the air regions aggregating in area approximately 88,000 square miles. The aeroplanes will work in radio contact with the ground base; from minute to minute of the aerial operations the positions of the survey aeroplanes will be charted in the manager's offi.ee, the information reaching headquarters through motor lorries equipped' with directional wireless. These vehicles will take radio bearings on the aeroplanes,, which will emit signals at regular intervals. In this way the manager will exercise constant control over the photographic operations, the pilot will be aided in determining his exact position, and the geologist, as one of tho crew, will be able to communicate reports of his visual observations to headquarters without 'delay.

. Gold and other metals will be sought. Experience of recent years has shown that the aerial photograph is unrivalled in providing the information about geological faults which is essential in the finding of mineral deposits. Actually, much knowledge gained from the air is unobtainable on tho ground, because the view-point provided by an aeroplane reveals important details of ground configuration that cannot possibly be discerned in observations made on the surface.

The cabin of each machine has been modified to meet the requirements of air-survey flying; in addition to radio telegraphic and telephone apparatus it is fitted with unusually eomphehensive navigational equipment and the latest types of electrically actuated and controlled cameras for the taking of oblique and vertical photographs. \