AIR RACE ENTRIES

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 109, 10 May 1934, Page 12

AIR RACE ENTRIES

THE WORLD'S CRACKS

OVER TWENTY SO FAR

MEN AND MACHINES

Entries for the MacEobertson Melbourne Centenary air race do not close until June 1, but already the list of entrants and machines is impressive. Information received by Mr. S. AY. M. Stilling, Australian National Travel representative, by the last mail from Australia is that over twenty pilots, topJiotchers and experienced long-distance •and racing airmen, have forwarded their entries or have stated their definite intention to do so. It is anticipated that the list-will grow to at least thirty by June 1.

British pilots and their machines are: —Captain Neville Stack, flying an Airspeed Courier.. Captain Stack was a war pilot and made the first light aeroplane flight to India in 1926, and in 1931 made one-day return flights to Berlin, Copenhagen, and Constantinople. He has been an active airman ever since the war. Captain C. W. Scott and T. C. Black, flying a de Havilland Comet. Captain Scott held the England-Australia record for some time. He has done much flying in Australia as well as in England. He is 31 years of age. T. C. Black was a war pilot, and has since .taken administrative duties in an English aviation company. His outstanding long-distance flights have been between England and Kenya, Africa; James Mollison, flying a Comet. Molliso<i 's record is well known. He is one of the world's really big airmen. His age is 29. Captain E. Percival, or nominee,1 flying a Pereival New Gull. Captain Percival, like Mollison and Kingsford Smith, is an Australian. He has been in aviation since 1912, when he built and flew gliders, and since then has flown over 100 types of aircraft. He is the designer of the Pereival Gull in which Sir Charles Kiflgsford Smith recently set up the record from England to Australia _ for light machines. He is 38 years of age; whether he will himself pilot the- machine is uncertain. Mr. Bernard Rubin, flying a Comet. No particulars are at the moment available as to Mr. Rubin's record. Captain W. L. Hope (no particulars as to machine). Probably Captain Hope is the best known English racing pilot. He has twice won the King's Cup. He was a war pilot, an air-line pilot, and lately haa governed a commercial service. His age is 37 years. Sir Charles Kingsford Smith is flying a Lockheed Altair. Smithy's record is about as complete as one man can hope I to build in a lifetime. He has been much criticised for deciding upon an American machine, but has stated his reasons. definitely and decisively: D. T. Seville is an Australian pilot who proposed to fly an Australian-built machine, but no particulars are available. OTHER COUNTRIES. Three American pilots who have stated their intention to compete are James Weddell, flying a Weddell Wil-1 liams, Clyde Pangborn, with a Vance Flying Wing, and Frank Kurtz, in a Northrop Gamma. Entries from Holland are Pilots de Mul and Saber, with a Koolhoven machine, a Dutch Air Ministry entry, with Pilot Plander in charge, and a Dutch Airline entry, with a Douglas machine. Italy will be represented by Captain Osvaldo Baldi, no doubt in an Italian machine, and Prance, by M. Germaine Vincente, in a Caudron Phalene, with Hispano engine. ■■■-.. Other probable entries are from Laura Ingalls, U.S.A.; Cousinett, flying a low-wiug monoplane, and Marcelle Detroyant, in a Lockheed Orion France; and the German crack, Udet, in a machine of his own design. MACHINES AND ENGINES. As New Zealand has little direct touch with the manufacturing side of aircraft the controversy over machine types is not very lively here, but it can. well be imagined that a deal of arguing and designing is going on overseas. The de Havilland Comet is the British mystery machine. No one seems to know much about it. Kingsford Smith announced his intention of flying a Comet, but recently decided upon the American Lockheed Altair and said further that he doubted whether the Comet could be ready forthe race. The Comet is designed to have a speed of 200 miles per hour. What its landing speed is has hot been publ--liclj;-'stated, but it has been suggested that" it will be high. l The Airspeed Courier is, in standard rig, a comparatively slow machine, for its cruising speed is .140 m.p.h. It is designed for ' two pilots and up to five passengers. The power plant is a 240 h.p. Armstrong Siddeley engine, but probably higher power will be installed for the race. STRAIGHT-OUT RACER. The Weddell • Williams racing machine is one which may be barred from the race by the conditions imposed. It is a single-seater in a class by itself. It is a very speedy machine- with a long range. James, Weddell has built several straight-out racers and. raised the land aeroplane speed record to 305 m.p.h. That was in a short flight, but the Weddell Williams records over long distances are outstanding. In 1932 J. G. Haizlip flew from the Pacific coast to the Atlantic at1 an average speed of over 200 m.p.h., and in a similar machine Boseoo Turner flew from New York to Los Angeles at an average of 219 m.p.h., and capped that performance a little later by flying from Burbank, California, to New York. at 250 m.p.h. Such speeds over long flights are so far impossible for standard passenger aeroplanes, but the Douglas Airliners, carrying a crew and about fifteen passengers, are consistently doing better than 200 m.p.h. on American air lines. The Vance Flying Wing is apparently a recently-developed fast machine. The Northrop Gamma is typical of the later low-wing cantilever monoplanes. The standard Gamma has a 710 h.p. engine, much more powerful than standard British machines, and cruises at about 190 m.p.h. and reaches 215 m.p.h. if pushed. The Lockheed Orion, chosen by one of the French pilots, is a low-wing monoplane, with 550 h.p. engine and accommodation for pilot and six passengers. It cruises at 200 m.p.h. and can reach 226 m.p.h. The Lockheed Altair, chosen by Kingsford Smith, is very similar to the Orion', but is a two-seater designed for mail and sports purposes; its performance with standard engine is about the same as that of the Orion.

Koolhoven aeroplanes are built in Rotterdam, and apparently most of the types are not very high powered or fast, but the Maeßobertson race may— and probably has—led to new developments. The Dutch are quite modest as to their air records, but in fact the regular performances of Dutch air lino pilots and machines entitle them to a great deal of. respect. Tho Dutch Airline entry machine is described as a "Douglas Curtiss." Just what this term means is not clear; possibly it may bo a two-engined Douglas Airliner referred to above as regularly running passenger lines at over 200 miles per hour.

Udet, the German crack pilot, will fly a mystery machine. TJdet is the solo survivor of Germany's great war pilots and is one of the greatest stunting pilots in the world.